On 20 October 2018, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Brokenshire announced the creation of the £5m fund to help councils develop more of a focus on tackling gangs and youth crime through Troubled Families teams.
The fund also supports the government's Serious Violence Strategy. Launched in April 2018, the strategy sets out a strong evidence base for intervening early with young people engaged in crime, encouraging positive activities to engage them and building protective factors such as links with their community.
What activities will it support?
There are five areas that ministers want proposals to address:
- Develop children's personal resilience to withstand peer pressure and make positive choices, particularly during the transition from primary to secondary school.
- Early awareness raising of the dangers of gangs and youth violence, and changing the culture over the acceptability of carrying knives - for example, supporting families where siblings or parents have been involved in gang or violent crime.
- Help parents and carers to develop the skills and knowledge to ask the right questions and identify risks with their child, and what support is available. A wide range of professionals need to be equipped to provide the right advice, guidance and support to parents.
- Increase collaboration between councils and voluntary agencies to improve the local response to violent youth crime.
- Provide robust data to help shape future interventions.
How much is available?
Allocations from the £5m pot will be available to spend in 2018/19 and 2019/20. Bids from councils should not exceed £500,000.
While authorities are restricted to making a single bid, they can also make one joint bid alongside other councils. The fund is available through the Troubled Families programme, which covers England only.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's (MHCLG) fund prospectus says it will decide on the amount allocated to joint bids based on "the size and impact of the proposal, and the effect it will have on the remaining proportion of funding available".
What are the timescales?
Time is tight for developing bids. The deadline for applications to be received by the troubled families team at the MHCLG is 11.45pm on Friday, 7 December.
Bids will be assessed in December and January, with the Secretary of State making the final decision on who receives funding.
The first wave of funding will be administered in January.
Successful bidders will be required to submit financial returns every six months throughout the programme showing how funds have been spent, with a final return submitted six months after completion.
How will bids be judged?
Applications will be assessed by officials from across government departments and then reviewed by an assessment panel of specialists who will make recommendations to the Secretary of State.
There are five essential criteria that bids must fulfil to be considered for funding. These are:
- An authority that is participating in the Troubled Families programme
- Maximum of one bid per single authority, plus one collaborative bid
- Bids should be supported by the troubled families co-ordinator, director of children's services and policing lead or police and crime commissioner
- Single authority bids should not exceed £500,000, while joint bids should state the amount sought
- Meet the focus areas of the fund.
What else do bids need to show?
The quality of the intervention has the greatest weighting in the decision making process. Interventions should be evidence-based and targeted at need, as demonstrated through data and the views of families.
Bids should also provide estimates of how many families will benefit, explain how impact will be assessed and evaluated, and demonstrate how learning will be used to develop future approaches. Applicants must show the voluntary sector has been engaged in the bid development and how the project can be delivered at pace.
More from: www.gov.uk/government/publications/troubled-familiessupporting-families-against-youthcrime
Funding roundup
- City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation's charitable funder, has awarded £141,000 to Bromley Mencap to provide specialist job training for young disabled unemployed people. It will pay for specialist job trainers to deliver work experience, volunteering opportunities and training for 81 young disabled people in horticulture, catering and bike recycling.
- Co-op Foundation is inviting organisations to tender for two contracts designed to tackle youth loneliness by strengthening youth services. It includes up to £85,000 to develop and support the "Belong" Learning Network; and up to £150,000 to develop resources aimed at improving the capabilities of youth workers and organisations to tackle loneliness. The deadline for bids is midday on 3 December 2018.
- The government has announced new funding to tackle bullying of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people in schools. Voluntary and charitable organisations are being offered a share of up to £1m to extend an existing anti-bullying scheme in 1,200 schools. A further £1m will be available to organisations focusing on young people's health and social care, and £600,000 will be offered to community groups to build sustainability.
- A total of 29 projects working to divert children and young people away from violent crime will receive £17.7m of government funding over two years through the Early Intervention Youth Fund. The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime in London received £4.2m to be shared between 10 projects. Sussex will receive £890,616 to establish a network of coaches to work with at-risk young people. And Wales will receive £1.2m to create youth support intervention projects.
