Decision details

The VRU’s current 3-year funding settlement with the Home Office is due to end on 31st March 2025. The VRU have engaged extensively with the Home Office ever since the new government took power in July 2024 to understand what the landscape for serious violent crime reduction would look like post- March 2025. As a result, all 20 VRUs nationally have been extended, with a new, 1 year funding settlement covering financial year 2025/26 confirmed in a letter to the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester and the Director of the Greater Manchester VRU form the Minister of State for Policing, Fire & Crime Prevention.

Due to this being only a 12-month funding settlement, it has been agreed that to avoid interruption of the VRU’s programmes for young people most at risk of becoming victims of- or perpetrating- serious violence, time to re-procure services via the open market is not available. Therefore, the GM VRU will maintain its existing contracts via contract variations for each. This will also mitigate the risk of experienced staff leaving both providers and GMCA VRU positions, which would have a detrimental effect on programme provision. In the first instance, the VRU will extend contracts expiring on 31st March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This is due to the fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office will not be received until June 2025. The initial 3-month extensions will be underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined Authority capital financing reserves, to cover the highly unlikely eventuality that the grant agreement from government does not come through.

To ensure a strong public health approach is adopted across Greater Manchester for Violence Prevention, it is critical to incorporate senior public health expertise and knowledge. Since Helen Lowey Consultancy Ltd was appointed in October 2022, the VRU has reaped multiple benefits, including:

• Provision of sufficient senior expertise to influence and negotiate with District Directors of Public Health and Strategic Health Leads across a range of organisations and settings

• Representing GM wide public health agenda in relation to Police, Fire and Crime to support integration within the developing locality boards and development of an Integrated Care System

• Advising the Mayor and Deputy Mayor regarding opportunities and
approaches to support reducing Youth Violence and Gender Based
Violence

• Representing the Public Health agenda at the GM Violence Reduction Governance Board and provide credible leadership and guidance at a senior level to support systemwide change and improvement.

• Providing oversight of all relevant data and ways to strengthen and
improve the VRU understanding of all factors relating to violence.

• The consultant has overseen the production of two Serious Violence Strategic Needs Assessments during her time with the VRU

The appointment of Helen Lowey Consultancy Ltd has brought added value to the VRU via unpaid Public Health Registrar placements. Whilst the VRU has been in receipt of one placement since Aug 2023 (due to end May 31st, 2024) the qualifications held by Helen Lowey Consultancy Ltd allows the VRU to receive two unpaid Public Health Registrar placements at the same time from August 2024.

GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities (Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the VRU’s Public Health Lead contract by 3 months. The current contract end date is 31st March 2025. The new end date would be 30th June 2025. The value of this extension will be £18,000. The extension will be awarded to the existing provider, which is Helen Lowey Consultancy Ltd. The total amount of the existing contract is £208,000; the total value once this extension has been completed will be £226,000.