Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Funding - Drive

On 18th September 2020 the Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrators competitive grant funding for 2020-21 was opened to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales to submit applications, both independently and/or in partnership with other organisations.

MOPAC submitted a number of bids relating to its commissioned services and extended this opportunity to all local authorities/districts in London. PCD 876 approved the acceptance of those applications that were successful, as well as the distribution of awards to applicable local authorities.

This report provides details of the funding awarded to MOPAC from the Home Office Drive Fund to implement/expand the Drive programme in 2020-21 to the South Basic Command Unit and allocations of subsequent MOPAC funding to sustain the programme in 2021-22.

This decision is requesting approval to formally award applicable funding totalling a maximum of £674,734 in 2020-21 to five providers involved in the multi-agency delivery of Drive in the form of a collaborative agreement.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the funding awards totalling a maximum £674,734 in 2021-22 to the providers involved in the delivery of the Drive programme across the South Basic Command Unit.

2. Approve the use of £199,505 Home Office DRIVE funding in 2020/21 and distribute MOPAC grant funding from February 2021 to March 2022 2020-21 and 2021-22 to all providers in the form of a collaborative agreement.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. MOPAC is committed to holding perpetrators of domestic abuse to account and the Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan (PCP) 2017-2021 demonstrates this by committing to developing effective interventions for perpetrators that minimise repeat patterns of abuse and ensures support for victims and their families.

1.2. Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the key priority areas in the PCP. The Mayor’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2018-2021 sets out a commitment to challenge perpetrators of domestic abuse to change their behaviour.

1.3. Drive is an intensive, coordinated multi agency response to serial/repeat high harm domestic abuse perpetrators to change their behaviour with a crucial focus on increasing victim safety, working alongside and complimenting existing interventions.

1.4. Drive – Croydon was previously funded from 2017-2020 under Home Office Police Transformation Fund (PTF) awards. In December 2019, Drive – Croydon was sustained in 2020-21 through Tranche 2 of the Mayor’s VAWG Fund (MVF) – Sustaining Innovation. PCD 663 relates.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. On 18th September 2020 the Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrators funding for 2020-21 was opened to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales to submit applications, both independently and/or in partnership with other organisations.

2.2. The funding is for delivery in 2020-21 only and in addition, as part of the criteria set by the Home Office, bids were required to provide six months match funding that supported continuous delivery of the programme for a total of twelve months from October 2020.

2.3. MOPAC have been awarded a total of £199,505 from the Home Office Drive Fund to support commencing the expansion of the Drive programme to the South Basic Command Unit (BCU) in this financial year. PCD 876 approved the acceptance of this award.

2.4. MOPAC are seeking approval to sustain the Drive programme in South BCU for 12 months (April 2021-March 2022) utilising Mayoral funding, at a maximum cost of £674,734.

2.5. The intention is to extend the replication pilot of the Drive programme from in Croydon and test expansion of the programme at scale across a BCU area, incorporating Bromley and Sutton. A breakdown of proposed funding awards and recipients party to the collaborative agreement are as follows:

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This decision requests approval to allocate Home Office funding of £199,505 to support DRIVE expansion in 20/21 financial year. It also seeks approval to develop DRIVE programme for a further year in line with Home Office grant conditions by working collaboratively across South BCU.

3.2. The table sets out the available funding committed to support DRIVE programme in 20/21 and 21/22 (see attached pdf).

3.3. Home Office grant condition stipulates funding in 20/21 only with a request for MOPAC match funding to support programme continuity into 21/22.

3.4. MOPAC will meet the grant conditions by providing a match fund of £179,904 from 21/22 Mayoral Growth fund (of £500,000 allocation) for Violent Offenders services, plus 20/21 carry forward of £130,830 arising as a result of HO grant income in this financial year. This carry forward is still subject to approval but will be earmarked as part of CJC year-end formal process for approval.

3.5. The usage of the 21/22 Mayoral Growth funding remains consistent with the original funding criteria for sustaining and expanding the DRIVE programme (PCD 663). The approved 21/22 DRIVE funding of £364,000 will continue to address the behaviour of high harm domestic abuse perpetrator's as set out in the VAWG bundle (PCD 846).

3.6. Overall funding of £674,734 in 21/22 provide opportunities to scale up the programme and deliver more interventions, as well as explore further collaborative options to achieve economies of scale.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Officers must ensure the Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations are complied with.

4.2. Officers should ensure that the funding agreements are put in place with and executed by MOPAC and each of the providers before any commitment to fund is made.

4.3. Officers can confirm that sufficient assurance has been carried out to this decision to determine that the DMPC has legal authority to agree the recommendations on funding of grants.

4.4. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve:

• All bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding; and/or where appropriate a strategy for grant giving;

• The strategy for the award of individual grants and/or the award of all individual grants whether to secure or contribute to securing crime reduction in London or for other purposes.

5. Commercial Comments

5.1. PCD 876 approved MOPAC acceptance of funding for the 2020/21 Home Office Domestic Abuse Drive and Perpetrators competitive grant funds.

5.2. The process of allocating these funds to the 5 organisations through a Collaboration Agreement has been discussed extensively and is the approach to take in this project.

5.3. The present commission is a pilot project in early stages that fits the criteria for grant making. The decision addresses the acceptance of extra funding from the Home Office to extend the present project and expand it to other areas of London. MOPAC has taken the approach of terminating the present legal arrangements in order to restructure the project around a collaborative agreement to include Home Office’s requirements. .

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. These Grant Awards are informed by the Mayor’s public health approach to violence reduction and therefore part of MOPAC’s contribution to overall efforts led by the Violence Reduction Unit.

6.2. VAWG is a significant public health issue, costing the health care system £1.3 billion a year. Domestic abuse has a significant and enduring impacts on individual’s physical health and mental wellbeing. These programmes seek to intervene with perpetrators and provide support to victims (and their children) and will work in partnership with local agencies such as health, social care, criminal justice and the voluntary sector to manage the risks posed by these individuals and seek to reduce repeat victimisation.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations 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

8.1. 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.

8.2. The promotion of VAWG support services supports MOPAC’s equalities duties.

8.3. The programmes receiving funding focus on the delivery of domestic abuse interventions. Domestic abuse is a gendered crime and is a form of violence against women and girls. Women experience higher rates of repeated victimisation and are much more likely to be seriously hurt (Walby, S. and Towers, J. May 2017 ‘Measuring violence to end violence: mainstreaming gender’, Journal of Gender-Based Violence, vol. 1), or killed than male victims of domestic abuse (Office for National Statistics 2017 Domestic abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2017. Published online).

8.4. In addition, women are more likely to experience higher levels of fear and are more likely to be subjected to coercive and controlling behaviours.

8.5. MOPAC is clear that providers are required to deliver services in line with MOPAC’s equalities duties and this is reflected in the standard equalities’ clauses within grant agreements, as well as MOPAC’s monitoring framework of the services for their duration.

9. Background/supporting papers

PCD 663

PCD 846

PCD 876