Community based crisis intervention and trauma support

This is a request to the Chief Executive Officer to authorise spend of up to £50,000 to commission an organisation to develop a package of community based crisis intervention and trauma support for families, friendship groups and professionals following an incident of serious violence. The VRU has plans to improve the availability and quality of support for local people following an incident of serious violence. Through engagement with stakeholders the Unit has identified that sometimes the most appropriate type of support is not easily accessed and does not reach the people most affected. The Unit is particularly focused on developing the availability of support for young people whose friends have been tragically killed. The Unit is keen to see the development of culturally sensitive practice in this area so that the support made available is more reflective of the needs of the local community.

The Interim Chief Executive Officer is asked to approve:

The procurement strategy for spend of up to £50,000 (and subsequently award of contract), to commission an organisation to deliver a pilot programme of community based trauma support for families, friendship groups and for professionals who work with affected communities and who may be vulnerable to direct or secondary trauma as a result of an serious violent incident, e.g. youth practitioners.

The activity should be designed to respond to the immediate needs of the community following an incident of serious violence as well as to make appropriate recommendations to what ongoing support should be made available following an incident of serious violence.

1. Introduction and background

1.1 Keeping Londoners safe is a top Mayoral priority. In addition to funding police officers as part of the Violence Crime Taskforce, the Mayor established the Violence Reduction Unit to adopt a public health approach towards tackling violence. The London VRU has a budget of £14.8 million which includes £7 million awarded by the Home Office for 2019/20.

1.1 The VRU has published a strategy and work programme with eight key objectives. In line with these objectives, a programme of spend has been developed.

1.2 Objective 4 of the VRU strategy is to enable communities to be strong, safe and resilient. Within which the Unit is looking to enable communities to lead from within to build sustainable futures following an incident of serious violence.

1.3 A serious violent incident can be described as: “Any incident in relation to knife crime or serious violence where the effectiveness of the response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community. This can be any incident, not just a fatality. It is the impact of the incident that needs to be assessed as ‘likely to be significant’ before the incident can be considered serious”.

1.4 The hyper local areas will be “neighbourhoods” and will be no larger than a London electoral ward. VRU Area Prioritisation Tool will be used to inform the decision on which three areas to initiate work. The tool brings together data from a range of sources including statistics on different types of violent crime from the MPS incident records; perceptions of crime, local area and the police from the MOPAC Public Attitudes Survey; and public health data from a range of official sources. Within each of these broad categories are 17 measures that are groupings of around 60 indicators. These data have been set to electoral ward level where possible and London borough-level elsewhere.

2. Issues for Consideration

2.1. See above.

3. Financial Comments

3.1 The cost will be a fixed amount of £50,000k in 2019/20.

3.2 The contractor will be required to develop and deliver a suitable proposal encompassing the following outputs:

• Deliver a pilot programme of community based trauma support for families, friendship groups and for professionals who work with affected communities and who may be vulnerable to direct or secondary trauma as a result of an serious violent incident, e.g. youth practitioners.

• The pilot programme should provide feedback and learning to the VRU as well as an evaluation of the activity for its impact and to inform provision elsewhere.

• The pilot programme should ideally operate within one London Borough area.

• The pilot programme should initiate engagement in local neighbourhoods, through workshop sessions, to capture the local needs of the area are and establish whether they are being met appropriately.

• The pilot programme should identify examples of current support that is accessed such as bereavement and counselling services and where there are gaps in provision, quality and access.

• The pilot programme should identify the barriers to accessing services and make clear recommendations on how to reduce these, giving specific consideration to cultural sensitivities.

3.3 The outcome for the Unit as a result of this investment will be to inform future alloations of additional resources to local areas which are experiencing high levels of violent incidents through funding effective practical and emotional support to those most impacted. This may include for example local specialist services for young people who have witnessed a serious incident or have had a bereavement as a result of a serious incident.

3.4 Funding for initiatives is likely to be concentrated on locally trusted third sector organisations with links to the affected communicated they represent and who are able to provide a visible supportive presence immediately following an incident as well as extending trauma based training to local trusted community organisations and individuals, including youth practitioners, so that longer term support is accessible, available and that has been designed by local people.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. MOPAC has powers under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (formerly under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011) to award grants to secure the reduction of crime and disorder in London.

4.2. Paragraph 5.12 of the Scheme of Delegation and Consent delegates approval to the Chief Executive for the procurement strategy for all MOPAC revenue and capital contracts of a total value of between £50,000 and £499,999.

5. Public Health approach

5.1 The spend plan takes a public health approach to tackling violence, which means looking at violence not as isolated incidents or solely a police enforcement problem. Instead, this approach 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.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1 A full Data Protection Impact Assessment will be completed by all providers if required as part of the mobilisation for the services, to ensure that all delivery is fully compliant with the requirements of the GDPR.



6.2 All contracts and grant agreements will include clear provisions relating to compliance in this area, and in relation to the processing of personal data. These terms have been drafted following consultation with MOPAC’s GDPR Project Manager.

7 Equality comments

7.1 Under s149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as a public authority the Deputy Mayor/MOPAC must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act; and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (the duty in respect of this last characteristic is to eliminate unlawful discrimination only).

7.2 The chosen provider will be required to have due regard to the protected characteristics of the people and communities relevant to this piece of work.

8.0 Background/supporting papers

8.1 None.