Borough Funding – 2016/17

The purpose of the report is to set out the total funding allocation to 32 boroughs from MOPAC in 2016/17. This composes of:
• London Crime Prevention Fund;
• Safer Neighbourhood Boards; and
• Allocation of funding to Adult and Children’s Safeguarding.

MOPAC has powers under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 to award crime and disorder reduction grants. The purpose of this decision is to agree the funding allocations to each of the 32 boroughs for 2016/17.

In June 2013 the DMPC approved the provisional annual budget for the London Crime Prevention Fund (LCPF) to run from 2013/14 to 2016/17 in line with the Police and Crime Plan (DMPCD 2013/96). In the Police and Crime Plan (2013-16), the Mayor committed to establishing a Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) in every London borough to give Londoners and victims a greater voice and committed to providing a £1m fund for SNB projects.

The purpose of this decision include to agree the LCPF allocations to each of the 32 borough for 2016/17 and the approach to savings, to agree the continuation of a £1m annual SNB fund for 2016/17 and to agree the arrangements for safeguarding funding.

The DMPC is asked to agree:
• The 2016/17 LCPF budget of up to £17.9 million
• The continuation of £1 million annual Safer Neighbourhood Boards funding in 2016/17.
• The £320,000 Safeguarding budget be made available to the 32 London boroughs
The provisional borough allocations for 2016/17 are set out in tha attached decision.

1. Introduction and background

1.1 The purpose of this report is to set out all funding for 2016/17 from MOPAC to 32 London boroughs and the conditions attached. This composes of:
• London Crime Prevention Fund;
• Safer Neighbourhood Boards; and
• Allocation of funding to Adult and Children’s Safeguarding

Please refer to Appendix A which sets out to the maximum funding allocated to each of the London boroughs.

The London Crime Prevention Fund

1.1. The role of MOPAC is broader than policing — it has overarching responsibility for crime reduction, and significant powers to commission services and assign budgets.

1.2. Section 9 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 gives the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime the power to award a crime and disorder reduction grant to any person in order to secure or contribute to securing crime and disorder reduction in the police area. The grant may be subject to any conditions that the Mayor (or Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime) may deem appropriate.

1.3. In 2013/14 the Home Office allocated an unringfenced Community Safety Fund to each Police and Crime Commissioner and MOPAC. For 2013/14 this fund sat alongside the Main Policing Grant. From 2014/15 these two funds were merged into one unringfenced funding pot.

1.4. MOPAC has honoured its four year funding commitment and has not transferred in the first three years reductions in funding, despite MOPAC’s budget being reduced by 20% in the same time period. MOPAC has also reinvested underspend in London boroughs, in 2014/15 5.3% of the total LCPF grant was underspend, all of which has been reallocated to support local crime reduction. As we enter the final year of funding MOPAC is focused on funding drive outcomes, but mindful that it does not create new expectations of services that cannot be sustained. On this basis MOPAC will not be reallocating back to boroughs any underspend from 2015/16.

1.5 Should the DMPC agree to this approach, MOPAC will inform all boroughs of their 2016/17 allocation and then engage with boroughs with regard to projected levels of underspend or changing local need to agree any appropriate amendments to their allocations. It should be noted that this is not likely to apply across all 32 boroughs.

1.6 The LCPF is a four year funding commitment which ends in 2016/17; decisions relating to future borough funding will to be taken by the next administration. In the interim, MOPAC cannot support new initiatives by allowing boroughs to reinvest unspent funding from their allocation as there is no longer a meaningful period of time left for delivery unless funding can to be sustained locally.

Safer Neighbourhood Board

1.10 In the Police and Crime Plan (2013-16), the Mayor committed to establishing a Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) in every London borough to give Londoners and victims a greater voice. He also committed to providing a £1m fund for SNB projects.

1.11 The Fund, including the individual borough allocations, was formally established in January (DMPCD 2014 05). The Fund is allocated in two parts - £166,400 is ring-fenced to support the administration and management of the boards and is shared equally across all 32 boroughs. The remainder of the fund is allocated to boroughs based on the allocation formula.

1.12 The key outcomes for the SNB Fund are:
• contribute to reductions in key neighbourhood crimes; and
• To contribute to increasing community confidence.

1.13 This is achieved by using the SNB Fund to support projects focused on:

• Issues and concerns identified by the local community, and which support delivery against MOPAC’s 7 key neighbourhood crime types (burglary, vandalism/criminal damage, violence with injury, robbery, theft from the person, theft of and from, motor vehicle), but particularly quality of life crimes such as antisocial behaviour; and
• The engagement and inclusion of those local communities that are not involved with the crime and policing agenda and to support them in helping to make their communities safer.

1.14 Bids are accepted from boroughs with an agreed and quality assured SNB proposal and implementation timetable in place.
1.15 The Fund supports the development and maintenance of the SNBs, forming an integral part of MOPAC’s structures for engaging communities in holding the Metropolitan Police Service to account and contributing to the safety of their neighbourhoods.

1.16 SNBs have proved a very effective local accountability mechanism and are delivering almost 200 projects aimed at improving police and community engagement or reducing and preventing crime. The differential borough allocations have been widely accepted since the Fund’s inception and there would be little value in reviewing its efficacy at this stage. The split between the project allocation and the ring-fenced administration funding has been raised as a concern by some SNBs. However, close liaison with SNBs has identified that any concerns about the delivery of the administration function have been effectively mitigated by:

• Boards having secured appropriate Service Level Agreements for the provision of administrative services;
• Boards making full use of the MOPAC support offered during the project bidding process; and
• Boards reflecting any additional administrative costs associated with specific projects within the funding bids for those projects.

1.17 In light of the above, the DMPC is asked to approve that:

• The individual borough allocations be maintained at the current levels (see Appendix 1);
• The split between the project and administration funding remain unchanged; and
• No further funds be carried forward into 2016/17.

Child and Adult Safeguarding

1.18 At Joint Investment Board on 22 October 2013 it was agreed that arrangements for the provision of grants from both MOPAC and the MPS should be streamlined in order to operate more strategically and to maximise the impact of the payments.

1.19 In previous years, the MPS made a an annual grant contribution to London Councils to support the central and local London Safeguarding Children Boards as well as local Adult Safeguarding Boards. This is MOPAC’s and the MPS’s contribution to the multiagency initiative supported by London Councils, all local authorities in the capital, NHS London, the Government Office for London and voluntary sector partners.

1.20 For 2016/17, this allocation will be £160,000 for adult safeguarding and £160,000 for children’s safeguarding, which equates to £10,000 per borough.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1 Links to Police and Crime Plan and MOPAC priorities:
• MOPAC’s approach to commissioning and specifically Safer Neighbourhood Boards and the London Crime Prevention Fund is set out in the Police and Crime Plan (on page 48 and 75).
• The Police and Crime Plan commits that MOPAC will work with partners and the MPS to ensure that (1) they are meeting their duties under relevant legislation to safeguard children and promote their welfare and (2) ensure that support, engagement, or enforcement action for young victims and offenders is undertaken in partnership with safeguarding and child protection.

2.2 Consultation:
• The allocation process for borough funding was developed in full consultation with London Councils in 2013/14.
• MOPAC meets biannually with each London borough to ensure that LCPF allocations continue to support need and that delivery is on track.
• MOPAC also meets regularly with the chairs of each Safer Neighbourhood Board to support local delivery and the continuing development of boards.
• MOPAC has published information on projects and initiatives funded on its website. MOPAC will publish information on the successful projects and initiatives funded on its website in due course.

2.3 Impact assessments / implications:
• An equality impact assessment was undertaken.
• In a recent stakeholder survey commissioned by MOPAC, the majority of boroughs felt the outcome focussed approach taken under the LCPF better supported local commissioning and delivery compared to previous national funding arrangements. Boroughs felt that the four year funding commitment had fostered innovation and helped boroughs tackle ingrained problems. However a lack of confident in local resources to match fund or to commission required services was outlined by boroughs; only 17% of respondents were confident that existing match funding would be maintained over the next two years and 83% said resourcing pressures would impact on their ability to make best use of the LCPF funding in future years.

3. Financial Comments

3.1 The Police and Crime Plan 2013-16 committed £72m LCPF funding for four years; 2016/17 is the final year. The 2016/17 MOPAC budget includes provisions £17.9m to fund the local projects upon delivery of outcomes.

3.2 The SNB total budget for 2016/17 is £1m which is allocated to each of the 32 London boroughs based on an allocation formula (DMPCD 2014/05 refers). Boroughs are required to bid for funding up to the maximum value allocated to their borough. The bidding process will open in February 2016 and will remain open until 30 June 2016 and will not be considered after this time as there will not be time to deliver projects. Funding will be provided to SNBs is two phases; the first payment is quarter one of the financial year and the second in quarter three.

3.3 MOPAC will provide funding of £320,000 as a contribution towards the children’s and adult’s safeguarding boards; provisions have been made in the 2016/17 MOPAC budget.

4. Legal Comments

4.1 MOPAC’s general powers are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). Section 3(6) of the 2011 Act provides that MOPAC must “secure the maintenance of the metropolitan police service and secure that the metropolitan police service is efficient and effective.” Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 MOPAC has wide incidental powers to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office.” Paragraph 7(2) (a) provides that this includes entering into contracts and other agreements.

4.2 The proposals for the 2016/17 SNB Fund support MOPAC’s duties under section 14 of the Police Reform and Social responsibility Act, 2011, to make arrangements for obtaining the views of the community on policing in the area, and are in accordance with MOPAC's powers under section 9 (3) of the Police Reform and Social responsibility Act, 2011, to make grants and to make any provision within those grant agreements as is deemed appropriate.

4.3 Under MOPAC’s Scheme of Delegation, approval of the strategy for the award of individual grants and the award of all individual grants (for crime reduction or other purposes) is a matter generally reserved to the DMPC (paragraph 5.6). The release of funding in accordance with the proposals set out in this decision form is accordingly to be approved by the DMPC. The delegation of responsibility for the finalisation of planning and contractual/grant arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of agreements, to the Chief Operating Officer is in accordance with the general power of delegation in paragraph 1.7.

5. Equality Comments

5.1 MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

5.2 An Equality assessment has been undertaken for the London Crime Prevention Fund.

5.3 The realignment of MOPAC's engagement structures has brought greater public accountability to policing and criminal justice agencies, which is of benefit to all communities. The maximum borough allocations were calculated according to a formula based on multiple domains, including crime and deprivation, and population. This supports the allocation of resources to the areas of greatest demand. The effect of the formula was dampened to ensure that each borough was able to bid for at least the same amount of community engagement funding as was available in that borough in 2013/14.

5.4 SNBs have made real efforts to be inclusive in both their membership and their project work. Over three-quarters of projects have a community engagement outreach element to them, including targeting some of the most vulnerable or under-represented groups in respect of policing and crime, including young people, older people, Eastern European and BAME communities.