PCD 1620 Children and Young Adult Violence & Exploitation support services - Local Authority Alliance Partner Amendment

PCD 1620 Children and Young Adult Violence & Exploitation support services - Local Authority Alliance Partner Amendment

This decision seeks approval to amend the procurement route for £1.8million of the £17.2million committed in PCD 1406.  

PCD 1406 approved £17.2m for support to children and young people impacted by violence and exploitation to be awarded via an open and competitive procurement process. This decision seeks to approve the amendment to the procurement approach for £1.8million of the £17.2million committed via PCD 1406 to enable key outcomes aligned to access and coordination to be delivered by a host local authority, acting on behalf of all 32 London local authorities, via the direct award of a contract. The access and coordination support will be provided in alignment with the delivery of the new Children and Young Adult Violence & Exploitation Support Service. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Agree to the direct award of a contract to a host borough to deliver access and coordination support in alignment with the new Children and Young Adult Violence and Exploitation Support Service and approve a budget of up to £1.8million to implement this across 2024/25 to 2027/28.  

2. Delegate authority to sign the associated contract and agree the specific funding amounts related to the work described to the Director of Commissioning & Partnerships. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. Reducing and preventing violence and protecting people from being exploited or harmed are key priorities in London’s Police and Crime Plan (PCP) 2022-25. Tackling violence is a top priority for the Mayor and the PCP commits to continuing to invest in the provision of support for children and young people impacted by violence – including those seen to be offenders but have also often experienced victimisation – to reduce the risk of violence to both themselves and others.   

2. MOPAC has been commissioning support for children and young people impacted by violence since 2016 through London Gang Exit (LGE) and Empower and since 2018 through Rescue and Response. These services support children and young people aiming to reduce violent victimisation, reduce violent offending and reduce harmful behaviours in relation to violence and exploitation.  

3. The current grant agreements for LGE, Empower and Rescue and Response end in June 2024.  

4. PCD 1406 approved the budget of £17.2million to procure a new service(s) to deliver support to children and young people who have been impacted by violence and exploitation. During the codesign for the new service specific outcomes and deliverables were identified that aligned uniquely with local authorities and required a separate procurement approach.  

5. Procurement of an Alliance to deliver the new service was completed in February 2024, with a contract value up to £16million. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. It is proposed that within the funding envelope already approved through PCD 1406 in addition to the award of a contract through an open and competitive procurement process a separate direct award of a contract is made to a host local authority acting on behalf of all 32 local authorities.  

2. The codesign process for the new London  children and young people (CYP) violence and exploitation support service identified that local authorities had an important role to play both in relation to the direct delivery of outcomes and requirements in the scope of the specification but also through their statutory responsibilities that sat out of scope but important to successful delivery of the service.  The codesign process identified specific outcomes and requirements that local authorities were uniquely positioned to deliver aligned to access and coordination of support. The proposed contract will fund activities seeking to improve awareness of relevant support services and available capacity; improve and simplify pathways to support; and improve information sharing and knowledge exchange to support delivery, learning and service evolution. 

3. MOPAC have continued a process of codesign with local authorities to identify the most suitable approach to achieving the outcomes and deliverables set out and will sign off the final approach. Benchmarking against Rescue and Response which has delivered similar outcomes and deliverables will be used to ensure value for money. 

4. In 2022/23 the current MOPAC funded violence and exploitation services received 684 referrals, 49% of which were from local authorities (including education) demonstrating the significant interface at point of access. In addition to this, local authorities are also commissioners of violence and exploitation services and have a critical role to play in ensuring MOPAC’s investment provides equity of provision across London by increasing awareness of support services and available capacity, as well as improving and simplifying the pathways to support which includes but is not exclusive to the new London CYP violence and exploitation support service.  

5. Local authorities have around 200 statutory duties in relation to children including around child protection, children in need, special educational needs and disabilities, care leavers and so on. The children and young people accessing the new violence and exploitation service will be vulnerable and successful coordination of support with local authorities will be critical to service success. The majority of the children the current MOPAC funded providers work with are known to social care.  

6. It is not just Children’s Social Care where local authorities are uniquely placed to support coordination. Current provision indicates that within Rescue & Response (21%), LGE (26%) and Empower (21%) support for those with disabilities is also important. LGE is the only current programme that provides a specific housing offer to service users and reports that it is an element of the service that is oversubscribed. This offer provides housing advocacy, supports housing moves and supports housing sustainment (housing benefit, council tax, housing funds support) – all of which require local authority support and coordination with the new service.  

7. There are 32 local authorities (plus City of London) across London which the new service will need to coordinate with. These 33 organisations are already mobilised as a collective which has only been possible due to each sharing the same statutory responsibilities for their respective geographical areas. It would not be feasible to bring an alternative organisation into the collective for this reason.  

8. Professional, technical advice has been sought and advised the application of Regulation 12 (7) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (PCR) to enable MOPAC to contract with a local authority (acting on behalf of 31 other local authorities), exempting the application of public procurement law. 

3. Financial Comments 

1. The total budget requirement for this work is £1,800,000. The programme will be funded from within the Commissioning & Partnership Directorate’s core funding across financial years 2024/5 to 2027/28. 

2. Budget allocations are set out below: 

3. The mobilisation of this service will run in parallel with the violence and exploitation service. PCD1406 approves budgets for this service.  

4. Legal Comments 

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 (1) 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. 

2. Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social, Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides for MOPAC to provide or commission services “intended by the local policing body to victims or witnesses of or other persons affected by, offences and anti-social behaviour.”  

3. There are further relevant powers set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 at sections 17(1) (a) to (c) which place MOPAC under a duty to exercise its functions with due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of those functions on, and the need to do all it can to prevent, crime and disorder (including anti-social and other behaviour adversely affecting the local environment), reoffending in its area, and the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances in its area. The proposed arrangements are consistent with MOPAC’s duties in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. 

4. Under MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, the DMPC has delegated authority for the award of contracts with a total value of £500,000 or above.  

5. The delegation of responsibility for the finalisation of planning and of contracts and other arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of agreements, to the Director of Commissioning & Partnerships is in accordance with the general power of delegation in paragraph 1.7 of the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation. 

5. Commercial Issues 

1. Professional, technical advice has been sought from MOPAC’s Procurement Manager and TfL procurement colleagues in relation to the commissioning approach to ensure that the process is fully compliant with the Public Contract Regulations 2015. Consideration has been given to the subject matter – public interest – and issues detailed in section 2.4 to 2.7 of this decision supporting the authorisation of direct engagement with a host borough without a competition for their services as required by Public Contract Regulations 2015 (PCR) on the grounds of Regulation 12(7). 

2. The application of Regulation 12 of the PCR enables MOPAC to contract with a local authority (acting on behalf of 31 other local authorities), exempting the application of public procurement law. This is based on the following conditions which have been met by the proposed contract as outlined in Section 12 (7) of PCR 2015:  

1. the contract establishes or implements a co-operation between the participating contracting authorities with the aim of ensuring that public services they have to perform are provided with a view to achieving objectives they have in common; 

2. the implementation of that co-operation is governed solely by considerations relating to the public interest; and 

3. the participating contracting authorities perform on the open market less than 20% of the activities concerned by the co-operation (see section 2.7).  

A transparency notice will be published in accordance with best practice. 

6. Public Health Approach  

1. City Hall’s public health approach to violence recognises the tiers of intervention/opportunities to act. The Violence Reduction Unit looks at violence as a preventable consequence of a range of factors, such as adverse early-life experiences, or harmful social or community experiences and influences intervening early when issues start to emerge and resolving them prior to escalation. 

2. The service included in this decision will support children and young people who have already been impacted by violence and exploitation or are at high risk of being impacted, intervening to ensure ongoing issues are well managed to avoid further crises and reduce the harmful consequences of the issues already faced.  

7. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any local authorities who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.   

8. Equality Comments  

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. 

2. This decision supports initiatives for young victims, but particularly those victims of more serious crimes, vulnerable and repeat victims, and particular sections of the community who are over-represented amongst victims of crime. 

3. Violence, exploitation and related criminality involving children and young people are areas of continuing concern, both nationally and in London – particularly in the context of groups and gangs.  

4. Whilst well documented rises in violent crime since 2014 appear to be stabilising – especially for the most serious weapon enabled offences – such criminality remains a significant problem in London, and one that disproportionately impacts specific areas and groups, notably young people in areas of high deprivation.  

5. The recent Serious Youth Violence Problem Profile of Violence, Gangs And Young People found disproportionality across violent crime. Half of weapon enabled robbery suspects (50%) and nearly half (46%) of homicide suspects were Black. Victim profiles are more diverse (42% of weapon enabled robbery victims were white) but the majority of youth homicide victims are male (93%) and Black (60%). 

6. Youth homicide has increased with 23% of homicides having teen victims. Those in their late teens are more likely to be the victims of violence with those 18yrs of age most likely to be victimised for both homicides and overall violence.​ Teenage violence is largely a peer on peer offence, with 77% of the accused also being teenagers.  

7. Ethnicity data from MOPAC’s commissioned services also indicate disproportionality within the cohort of children and young people accessing and being referred into these services. The 2022 Rescue & Response Strategic Assessment indicated that referrals for White, Asian and Other ethnicities are under-represented compared to the London population. Referrals for Black or Mixed ethnicities are over-represented compared to the London population.  

8. The London Gang Exit Impact Report reflects this disproportionality, identifying 63% of the cohort accessing interventions through LGE were Black, compared to 13% of the cohort who were White. 

9. The gendered nature of violence and exploitation demands any service that aims to tackle these issues possesses a thorough understanding of how different mechanisms by which young men and boys and young women and girls are exploited, and how this exploitation can manifest. Findings from the Children’s Commissioner in 2019 indicated that girls accounted for approximately 34% of the 6,830 children aged under 17 in England assessed by councils as being involved in gangs (2019). 

10. It is critical, that the service in this decision seeks to provide intersectional interventions to address and respond to the needs and demand of all children and young people, as highlighted by current literature. This extends to the mechanisms by which the service reaches out to the children and young people in need of these interventions, but also as to how the service continues to listen to and adapt to the ever-changing needs of the children and young people who will benefit from this service. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

Appendix 1 – Serious Youth Violence Problem Profile 

Appendix 2 – London Gang Exit Impact Report 

Appendix 3 – Rescue & Response - Strategic Assessment (2022)  

Appendix 4 - Equality Impact Assessment