VRU – Young people - Engage, Divert and Community Leadership

Keeping Londoners safe is a top Mayoral priority and the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) was established to adopt a public health approach towards tackling violence in the capital.

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 and continues to develop. This proposal focuses on the young people leading change objective, placing young people at the heart of decisions through establishing a young persons’ action group and enabling young people to lead programmes of change.

This proposed decision includes an additional number of programmes to allocate funding to, in line with the VRU work programme. This below spend will largely fall into the following financial year, this decision proposes to reprofile 2019/20 of the Mayoral budget into 2020/21 to fund these three programmes.

• An allocation of up to £100k for the LDN Filmmakers programme, providing the opportunity for young people across London from PRU’s, YOS’s and Children in Care to develop and produce short films which focuses on their perceptions of violence. The programme is designed develop skills and experience in film production and engages young people on how we can change the narrative regarding violence in the media and better understand the impact through the eyes and stories of young people directly. The project will also focus on providing an individually tailored mentoring programme, Alumnae network and facilitating access to employment and training opportunities within the media & film industry for the participants. £72,445 will be allocated directly to Chocolate Films as the organisation to facilitate this programme; and £27,555 for other running costs such as venue costs.

• £15k will be allocated towards an ‘Explore your horizons’ networking event giving young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) and those who are with the opportunity to gain access to careers, education and training advice in networking session with professionals across many industries within the UK.

• Finally, the VRU have been working on the setting up of a Young Persons’ Action Group to amplify the voices of young Londoners and offer them real opportunities to lead. £110k is requested to fund the set up and running costs of the group which include running costs and paying the young persons.

In terms of 2020/21 budget, the VRU budget is £15.2m which is inclusive of £7m funding from Home Office, which is still subject to a bidding and application process. This decision proposes to fund the following three programmes from the existing 2020/21 budget:

• Engage: £175k towards a youth diversion project operating in two custody suites (Islington and Holborn) for under 18s. Youth workers are embedded in custody suites to use the teachable moment of arrest to intervene in a young person’s life and refer them into statutory services, with a view to reducing reoffending.

• Divert: £457k towards a diversion scheme operating in six custody suites which supports 18-25 year olds to find employment, education and training, with a view to preventing reoffending.

Both Engage and Divert are programmes funded by MOPAC in 2019/20. The VRU will be leading on these programmes going forward to support VRU diversionary work programmes.

• The previous DMPC decision PCD 673 ‘VRU Work Programme- Community’ allocated £350k towards the provision of a community and voluntary sector led programme of work on leadership, directly supporting the London public health approach and VRU objectives. Following the competitive grants application process, it was decided that two organisations would be funded towards this area of work. This decision requests a further £350k allocated from the 20/21 budget.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve three elements of work:

a) Approve total funding of £100,000 for the LDN Filmmakers project, including direct award of up to £72,445 to Chocolate Films and delegate approval to Director of Violence Reduction Unit of £27,555 for other running costs including other running costs, venue hire etc.

b) Approve allocation of £15,000 to Explore Your Horizons networking event

c) Approve allocation of £110,000 to Young Person’s Action Group including;

i. Entering into an SLA with the Greater London Authority (GLA) for the payment to the members of the Young Persons Action Group.

ii. Delegating approval to Director of Violence Reduction Unit for approval of other individual elements of funding such as venue hire, other running costs.

d) Approve reprofiling of £225,000 of 2019/20 Mayoral budget into 2020/21 to fund the above three programmes.

e) Allocate £175,000 from the existing 2020/21 budget towards Engage programme, via a direct grant to London Borough of Camden.

f) Allocation of £457,000 from the existing 2020/21 budget towards Divert, via a direct grant to Bounce Back Foundation

g) Following competitive grants process, award a further £350,000 for the Community Leadership programme, funded from the existing 2020/21 budget.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. This decision outlines and requests DMPC approval to approve six elements of work. These include:

1.1.1. LDN Filmmakers project: The LDN Filmmakers programme will work with young creatives to create five films which celebrate and showcase the talent in the city whilst tackling the issue of Youth Violence in London. Five films will be created over a series of filmmaking workshops facilitated by Chocolate Films filmmakers, giving young people an opportunity to be creative in a filmmaking style.

1.1.2. Explore Your Horizons: A networking event giving young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) and those who are with the opportunity to gain access to careers, education and training advice in a networking session with professionals across many industries within the UK, bringing big business leaders together with young people. The main benefits include providing support to PRUs, YOTS, in care/institutions to inspire their young people to consider the range of opportunities available to them by allowing them to discover different types of jobs, sectors, pathways in to employment and ultimately to support them to make more informed career choices.

1.1.3. Young Persons’ Action Group: In May 2019, the VRU Partnership Reference Group committed to setting up a Young Person’s Action Group for the unit. Between June and September, the unit carried out a series of consultative workshops and planning activities with young people towards setting up the group. This funding request is for the actual set up of the group, including paying the young persons, running costs, venue hire etc.

1.1.4. Engage: £175k towards a youth diversion project operating in two custody suites (Islington and Holborn) for under 18s. Youth workers are embedded in custody suites to use the teachable moment of arrest to intervene in a young person’s life and refer them into statutory services, with a view to reducing reoffending.



1.1.5. Divert: £450k towards a diversion scheme operating in six custody suites which supports 18-25 year olds to find employment, education and training, with a view to preventing reoffending.



1.1.6. The previous DMPC decision PCD 673 ‘VRU Work Programme- Community’ allocated £350k towards the provision of a community and voluntary sector led programme of work on leadership, directly supporting the London public health approach and VRU objectives. Following the competitive grants application process and evaluation of bids, two organisations were selected. This decision requests a further £350k allocated from the 20/21 budget.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. DMPC decision PCD 673 ‘VRU Work Programme- Community’ allocated £350k towards the provision of a community and voluntary sector led programme of work on leadership, directly supporting the London public health approach and VRU objectives. Following the competitive grants application process and evaluation of bids, two organisations were selected. This decision requests a further £350k allocated from the 20/21 budget.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. Total funding allocation for these programmes of work totals to £1.2m. Of this, it is proposed to fund £225k of this via the existing 2019/20 VRU commissioning budget (Mayoral funding), and reprofiled into 2020/21. £982k is to be funded from the existing 2020/21 budget.

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 4.8 of the MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation provides the DMPC with delegated power to:

• approve 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 Issues

5.1. LDN Filmmakers Project: This proposal to award directly to Chocolate Films is to maintain continuity of service for a project previously established by the GLA. The VRU proposes to build on the relationships with the young people who were previously participants; expanding the employment and training opportunities.

5.2. Young Persons’ Action Group (YPAG): The members of the YPAG will be directly paid by the GLA, in line with existing arrangements within the GLA where young people are employed for specific projects. The VRU will enter into an SLA to pay the GLA for these costs.

5.3. Engage and Divert: These programmes were previously funded by MOPAC but the VRU will be leading on these programmes going forward to support VRU diversionary work programmes. For the purposes of maintaining continuity of service and to ensure no break in service, it is the wish of the VRU to award via a direct grant.

5.4. The community and voluntary sector led programme of work on leadership will be awarded following a competitive grants process: following a stringent assessment it was decided that two organisations would be funded to deliver their programmes.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. 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.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. 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.

7.2. 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.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. 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).

8.2. The Violence Reduction Unit has commissioned an Equality Impact Assessment. The impact assessment recognises the importance of ethnicity, sex, age and socio-economic background as equality characteristics that the VRU programme will impact in positive ways through commissioning a programme that works with young people who are most affected by violence, with a focus on those who are disproportionately represented as victims and perpetrators (BAME groups). The assessment also highlights the need to recognise the distinct experiences of male and female young people. The LDN Filmmakers Programme will provide opportunities to young people referred via PRU’s, YOS’ and Children in Care to address these equalities issues with appropriate clarity and sensitivity.

9. Background/supporting papers

9.1 None.