Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme Extension Funding

In the Chancellor’s Finance Statement 2021 an additional £25m funding was committed towards expanding current and implementing new domestic abuse perpetrator programmes in this financial year (2021-22). Of this £25m, the Home Office earmarked £7m for continuation funding for existing programmes.

On 6th September 2021, the Home Office confirmed continuation funding to PCC’s for four existing programmes awarded funding in 2020-21. The Home Office have subsequently awarded MOPAC a total of £976,890 funding for the delivery of these programmes from October 2021 to March 2022.

Funding for all programmes is to be distributed by the Home Office through PCC’s via grant agreements. PCC’s will also retain oversight of the programmes, reporting to the Home Office.

This decision is requesting approval to both accept and subsequently award all applicable funding awards confirmed by the Home Office.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Formally accept funding awards totalling £976,890 from the Home Office for four existing programmes, via grant agreements; and

2. Formally award the funding totalling £639,523 to three lead local authorities to deliver the related programmes of activity, via grant agreements.

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. The Mayor’s 2021 manifesto retains this commitment.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The Chancellor announced in his budget this year an additional £25m funding towards expanding current and implementing new domestic abuse perpetrator programmes in this financial year 2021-22. This is currently separated out into:

A. £11m for this funding programme;

B. £7m for continuation funding for existing programmes; and

C. £7m unallocated.

2.2. The £7m continuation funding for existing programmes (B above) is now being distributed to PCC’s by the Home Office (HO)

2.3. The HO have confirmed funding awards totalling £976,890 to MOPAC to provide a maximum of 6-months’ continuation funding (Oct 2021-March 2022) for all programmes that received funding in 2020-21. Please see a full breakdown of the programmes, award mechanism and values below:

• Re-MOVE abuse – London Borough of Barking and Dagenham:

o Direct grant award by HO to MOPAC, and onward direct grant award by MOPAC to London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, up to £209,052.

o An intervention and accommodation-based approach to stopping domestic abuse.

• Perpetrator Intervention Project – Royal Borough of Greenwich:

o Direct grant award by HO to MOPAC, and onward direct grant award by MOPAC to Royal Borough of Greenwich, up to £107,689.

o A perpetrator programme of intensive intervention and therapeutic support.

• The Redbridge Perpetrator Programme (Spotlight) – London Borough of Redbridge:

o Direct grant award by HO to MOPAC, and onward direct grant award by MOPAC to London Borough of Redbridge, up to £322,782.

o Virtual intervention service set up by Children’s Social Services in response to COVID-19 for low/medium risk perpetrators.

• Drive South Basic Command Unit – MOPAC:

o Direct grant award by HO to MOPAC, up to £337,367.

o An intensive, coordinated multi-agency response to domestic abuse perpetrators to change their behaviour.

2.4. Funding for all programmes is to be distributed by the HO through PCC’s via grant agreements. PCC’s will also retain oversight of the programmes, reporting to the HO for the grant period.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This decision requests approval to accept Home Office grant of £976,890 for the continuation of Domestic Abuse Perpetrator programme.

3.2. The programme is funded for a period of six months from October 2021 to March 2022 across three local authority partners and the South BCU.

3.3. MOPAC will act as the lead partner for three local authorities delivering community programmes in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, London Borough of Redbridge and the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

3.4. The grant award to the three local authorities is confirmed at £639,523 as set out in section 2.3.

3.5. MOPAC’s Drive South BCU will receive £337,367 from the £976,890 fund. This award will contribute to existing Mayoral investment in South BCU as confirmed in PCD 889.

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. Public Health Approach

5.1. 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.

5.2. Domestic abuse has significant emotional, physical and financial impacts on adult and child victims-survivors. More than 1.9 million adults experienced domestic abuse last year in England and Wales .

5.3. The social and economic costs of domestic abuse are disproportionately borne by women. One in four women have experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime and domestic abuse represents a third of all violent crime recorded by the police , .

5.4. There are also significant implications for the public purse, with the cost distributed across various government departments including Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health, Child and Adult Social Care and the Department of Housing Communities and Local Government. The lifetime costs to the UK economy of cases of domestic abuse identified in just one year (2016-2017) were estimated at more than £66 billion, a 2019 Home Office Research Report estimated .

5.5. 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.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. 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.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. 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.

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

7.3. 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).

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

7.5. 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.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. DMPC Decision relating to Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator and Drive Fund awards in 2020-21.

8.2. PCD 889: DMPC Decision relating to Home Office Domestic Abuse Drive Fund award in 2020-21.