Bids are to be led by police and crime commissioners (PCC) in England and Wales, with involvement from community safety partnerships and other crime reduction bodies.
The Home Office fund aims to support early interventions and prevention initiatives, with the focus on delivering positive outcomes for young people and focusing on tackling risk factors to youth violence. In addition, there is a commitment to building the evidence base of what works.
What will it fund?
It will support early intervention programmes for young people primarily under the age of 18 at risk of criminal involvement as victims or perpetrators. Successful projects will:
- Deliver services to support and prevent young people from getting involved in crime by supporting positive activities
- Deliver positive outcomes for young people, focused on addressing risk factors which are linked to serious violence
- Build on, and develop, understanding of what works in practice for tackling risk factors
- Drive improved local, multi-agency partnership working
- Reduce levels of serious crime.
While the primary focus is on tackling and preventing serious violence, the fund will also help increase young people's resilience to various vulnerabilities that can raise the risk of being a victim of crime. Projects supporting young adults aged up to 25 will also be considered where identified by local partnerships as a priority group.
How much is available?
Initially, £11m was to be available, but in July Home Secretary Sajid Javed announced this would be doubled to £22m over two financial years, 2018/19 and 2019/20. Funding of up to £700,000 split equally over the two-year programme is available. However, the department has said more will be considered in certain circumstances, such as for bids from consortia.
Grants will be paid per financial year and in arrears. Bidders should have financial and legal arrangements in place with partner organisations.
Who is eligible?
In addition to working in partnership with community safety organisations, PCCs must demonstrate that interventions are evidence based and show how the project will support young people at risk of criminal involvement.
PCCs working with local partnerships can submit more than one bid, but bidders cannot receive separate grant funding to deliver the same interventions.
Successful bidders must be transparent over how the grant funding is used.
What needs to be provided?
To be successful, bids must:
- Demonstrate understanding of the drivers of serious violence and how bids address these
- Identify local needs based on an assessment of an area's crime profile
- Have cross-sector support - applications should be developed with local partners, including the voluntary sector
- Demonstrate links with other local provision and schemes in the area - including how the initiative fits in with these and what it would add
- Have an element of match-funding
- Outline monitoring and evaluation arrangements, and explain how data will be collected and shared to support the independent evaluation
- Provide information on the team and resource allocated to the project, and any experience of delivering similar projects
- Outline how value for money will be achieved.
How will it be evaluated?
Successful bids will need to work with an independent evaluation partner during the set up, delivery and evaluation of their project, which will support local partnerships with monitoring arrangements and gather qualitative and quantitative data over the course of the project, including an overview of what has been learned about good practice.
The bid prospectus states a separate feasibility study could also be run, which will consider using police national computer numbers to track individuals' trajectories in offending.
Timescales
Bids should be made via the Crown Commercial Services eSourcing tool. An online questionnaire must be completed and submitted by noon 14 September 2018. The contract start date is 1 October 2018.
Funding roundup
- Projects for young people in Brighton & Hove can bid for a share of £88,000 through the council's youth-led grants programme. Support for young people with mental health and substance misuse problems, to promote volunteering and work experience, and that offer additional activities are to be prioritised. The deadline for applications is 12 September.
- The deadline for applications to HeadStart Action, a personal and social development programme for young people at risk of becoming Neet (not in education, employment or training), is 7 September. Part of the Young Londoners Fund, grants of up to £40,000 are available to community groups, small charities and voluntary organisations in London to deliver HeadStart Action, which uses social action and employer encounters to engage and inspire young people.
- The government has published guidance on how councils and voluntary organisations can bid for £6m in funding to support children of parents with alcohol dependency. The funding package includes a £4.5m innovation fund for councils to develop plans that improve outcomes for this group of children, £1m to fund national capacity building by non-governmental organisations and £500,000 to expand national helplines. The deadline for applications is noon 7 September.
- The Community Foundation for Merseyside is supporting organisations in the North West to bid for a share of the #iWill Fund. Grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 are available for youth social action projects aimed at increasing participation among 10- to 20-year-olds. The deadline for applications is 21 September.
