Survivors UK

The Police and Crime Plan recognises that whilst women and girls are disproportionally affected by domestic and sexual violence, men and boys also experience these crimes. A commitment has been made to “support victims and survivors whatever their gender, and … also offer specific support for men and boys.”

Survivors UK are a unique organisation in providing specialist support for male victims affected by sexual violence and rape; and occupy a trusted and leading place in the Capital in supporting men. A direct award for a further twelve months, with an option to extend will allow continuity of the Service and align with wider MOPAC commissioned services in this area.

That the DMPC is asked to:

i) approve a direct grant award of £73,126 to Survivors UK as the specialist provider available to respond to needs faced by men who are victims and survivors or sexual violence; and

ii) delegate authority to sign any individual grant agreement related to the work described in section 2 to the Chief Executive Officer.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Police and Crime Plan recognises that whilst women and girls are disproportionally affected by domestic and sexual violence, men and boys also experience these crimes. Therefore, the Mayor made a commitment to commission services to:

‘support victims and survivors whatever their gender, and … also offer specific support for men and boys.”

1.2. This was further confirmed through the Victims’ Commissioner’s male victim’s roundtable held in January 2020 which heard from male victims/survivors and the services that support them. This meeting found that due to the particular barriers and stigma faced by men when seeking support for sexual violence, it is important for men to be able to access specialist support which recognises their specific needs.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Survivors UK are a unique organisation, nationally recognised as a male-centred and male-run organisation. As such, they occupy a trusted and leading place in the Capital to support men affected by sexual violence and rape.

2.2. A direct award to Survivors UK for the delivery of this programme is requested. Survivors UK are currently funded by MOPAC to deliver one to one counselling sessions, group counselling therapy and and Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA) service for male survivors. Over the past twelve months they have supported 1064 males who have directly engaged with these services, with a further 257 utilising the help phone line.

2.3. Survivors UK consistently report high levels of demand for their services with wait times for the ISVA on average five weeks and counselling wait times averaging seven to nine months. These numbers are anticipated to considerably increase over the next year due to the recent high-profile case of a prolific serial rapist who was targeting men and Survivors UK have already reported a 400% increase in calls over the past month.

2.4. MOPAC fund a number of sexual violence services which men can access for support, these are more general and operated by mainstream and/or LGBT+ specialists. This can present a barrier for heterosexual men and/or those who feel they are not in a position to publicly identify their sexual orientation.

2.5. Therefore a direct award for a further twelve months, with an option to extend will allow continuity of the Service and also align with wider MOPAC commissioned services in this area.

3. Financial Comments

3.1 The grant award to Survivors UK amounts to £73,126 for the period 1st April 2020 to 31 March 2021. The grant will be funded from MOPAC’s core budget.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. In line with section 4 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, the DMPC has authority for the approval of the strategy for the award of individual grants and the award of all individual grants (section 4.8).

4.2. In line with section 5.22 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Delegation, the Chief Executive Officer has authority for the finalisation of planning and contractual/grant arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of contracts and grant agreements.

5. Commercial Comments

5.1. The recommendation made in this report follows the principle requirements as documented in the MOPAC Contract Regulations and authorisation requirement as in the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation. A direct grant award is proposed in recognition of the specialist nature of the services being delivered, and Survivors UK’s unique position in being able to provide these.

5.2. The programme managers will continue to monitor progress against project milestones which will be documented in the grant agreement. Such actions will help mitigate risk and ensure the grant delivers value for money.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. This Grant Award is 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.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. The programme uses personally identifiable data of members of the public. GDPR issues are identified and mitigations will be put in place through an updated or fresh Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to be completed by the provider, who will be the data controller for the programme.

7.2. These requirements will be reflected in the standard GPDR compliance clauses contained within the grant agreement for this programme.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. The Equality Act 2010 puts a responsibility on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity.

8.2. 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.

8.3. The promotion of specialist support services for male survivors of domestic and sexual abuse supports MOPAC’s equalities duties.

8.4. MOPAC is clear that the outputs from this programme of work will provide a better standard of provision to victims/survivors of domestic and sexual abuse whilst having a greater positive impact on certain groups in society who are disproportionately vulnerable to and affected by crime.

9. Background/supporting papers

None