Decisions

The cards will be given to frontline officers in the Operation Venture team, youth workers, and Navigators working in hospitals and the community to give out to young people who they think might need/be interested in the service. The cards will contain the Navigator and VRU logo, with a very brief description of the service, and a QR code to take people to the referral page.

The VRU are seeking to award Media and Digital Ltd (MaD) £392 for the purpose of printing a further 10,000 business cards to promote the Navigator service in Greater Manchester.

To date, the VRU have awarded Media and Digital £392 in financial year 2022-23 for the previous printing of an initial run of 10,000 Navigator business cards. The total awarded by the VRU to Media and Digital following this decision will be £784.00

The VRU Education delivery group is committed to the prevention of Gender Based Violence. Transgender Visibility Day provides a forum for the VRU to show its support and work with an experienced charity in delivery of educational activity/resources related to Transgender Visibility. It is proposed to support 3 volunteer schools via The Proud Trust and evaluate the effectiveness of the approach.

As requested by the Mayor of GM, The VRU intends to spend £2000.00 with The Proud Trust from the VRU Education Budget line (2022-23) to fund provision of educational activity/resources relating to Transgender Visibility Day 2023

The Experts by Experience programme is designed to appoint people with lived experience of serious violence to be trained in the skill of Appreciative Inquiry, and to use Appreciative Inquiry to carry out a critical appraisal of the GM VRU’s Community Led Pilots programme and more generally appraise the GM VRU’s Community Led approach. Big Life Group’s provision of a community worker will provide a vital link between those appointed to lead the evaluation and members of the community the VRU serves.

Big Life Group
A payment to be made of £2400 to Big Life Group to provide a Community Worker & x4 individuals with lived experience of serious violence who will support the VRU’s Experts by Experience programme, a qualitative evaluation of the VRU led by individuals with lived experience of serious violence. The Community Worker will provide ongoing advice and support to the Experts by Experience appointees who will be conducting the community led evaluation. They will also support workshops between January and May 2023, culminating in a final joint event in May 2023 to include senior Decision Makers from the GMCA, including the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit are seeking to make a payment of £2600 to Big Life Group for:

• £1200 for provision of a Community Worker to support the VRU’s Experts by Experience Community Led Evaluation programme
• £1400 for funding of x4 individuals with lived experience of serious violence to support the programme

The main objective of the first workshop is to create an open environment for colleagues to share ideas and discuss the opportunities and barriers faced by the rehabilitative services. Outcomes from this workshop will shape the two following events that will take place in May and July.

A series of events will take place with the Greater Manchester Integrated Rehabilitative Services (GMIRS) partnership to allow partners to discuss how services can best work together to support the rehabilitation of people on probation facing multiple challenges.
The first of three workshops will be held at Friends Meeting House, on Monday 13 March 2023 from 10am to 2pm key stakeholders.

Venue and catering £2150.00
Event facilitation up to £2975.00

Following competition Parts Alliance emerged as the preferred supplier for Lots 1 to 3, and Fleet Factors emerged as the preferred supplier for Lot 4.

The Deputy Mayor approves the award of a 2 year contract for the provision of Vehicle Spare Parts to Parts Alliance Ltd and Fleet Factors Ltd, with the option to extend for a further 2 years. The likely value of 4 years spend would be circa £1 million.

This opportunity has been ring-fenced to current GMCA Devolved AEB providers who are delivering Level 2 Maths qualifications.

These providers were invited to submit an Expression of Interest to deliver this additional support above and beyond what the AEB will fund to detail:
1. The barriers learners are experiencing in achieving their Level 2 Maths
2. Proposed activities to alleviate these barriers
3. Rationale behind the number of learners identified as at risk
4. Costings to deliver this additional support

Providers eligible for submitting an Expression of Interest for this support were invited to submit because:
1. According to previous academic year ILR data, they have delivered Level 2 Maths qualifications in Greater Manchester AND/OR
2. According to their submitted and approved plans for the 2022/23 academic year, they plan to deliver Level 2 Maths qualifications
a. During the assessment process, the latest 2022/23 academic year data was checked to support this

13x AEB providers submitted an EOI for this support. All of these EOIs following assessment and any necessary follow-ups/negotiations have been approved.

Multiply is a UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funded national programme, commissioned and delivered locally, to support adults who do not have GCSE/Level 2 maths or equivalent to gain skills in Maths/Numeracy.

A key aim of the GM Multiply Scheme is to increase the number of adults achieving a maths qualification, up to and including Level 2.

The Enhanced Level 2 Support will support Greater Manchester residents aged 19+ who have already engaged and enrolled on a Level 2 Maths Qualification (e.g. GCSE or Functional Skills) to achieve their qualification, but they are at risk of not doing so. This could be because;
• They have failed their exam, or only gained Level 1
• They are at risk of dropping out
• They have acknowledged they require additional support

Following an Expression of Interest process, the Grant award has been approved to the following organisations:


Provider / Spend
BOLTON COLLEGE / £89,200.00
BURY COLLEGE / £40,000.00
BURY METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL / £16,882.00
HOPWOOD HALL COLLEGE / £48,650.00
MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL / £33,188.05
OLDHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL / £46,272.00
SALFORD CITY COLLEGE / £178,202.00
TAMESIDE COLLEGE / £64,825.00
THE OLDHAM COLLEGE / £65,300.00
THE TRAFFORD COLLEGE GROUP / £47,193.00
WIGAN AND LEIGH COLLEGE / £25,920.00
WIGAN METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL / £2,618.00
WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION / £8,140.00

Total - £666,390.05

Please see attached the Expression of Interest form that providers were invited to complete for this process.

The Deputy Mayor for Police, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire has a responsibility to provide services for victims of crime, including victims of rape and sexual assault.

The amount to be invested is a provisional figure for 22-23 to enable payments to be made to the provider whilst final contract value negotiations are concluded. This forms part of the strategic financial review that GMCA and GMHSCP have been undertaking for services that support victims of rape and sexual offences. Any further funding required will be the subject of a separate decision notice.

This budget is allocated to the Greater Manchester Sexual Assault Referral Centre, based at the St Mary’s Centre at Manchester Foundation Trust. The provision is an all-age service which provides support for victims of rape or sexual assault in terms of a forensic examination and crisis support, support for people going through the criminal justice process and therapeutic/counselling support. The service can be accessed by a referral from an agency, including but not exclusive to Greater Manchester Police, or victims can also choose to self-refer. The service currently supports anybody who lives in Greater Manchester in addition to providing support for individuals who were assaulted in Greater Manchester, but do not reside in the area.

Demand
There were just over 11,000 sexual offences reported to GMP in 2021-2022, of which 36% were rape. 55% of these offences were committed against adults whilst over 5000 sexual offences were committed against children. This included 1400 offences which were rape against a child. Approximately 950 forensic medical examinations are undertaken by SARC each year


Attached is a statement from colleagues at NHS Integrated Health Trust around the selection of St Mary’s as the Greater Manchester SARC.



Progress towards agreeing a full Service specification for SARC and Implementing a 3 year contract

Over the course of 2022/23 we have been working with SARC to both document the service provision with the associated costings, and also outline the service needs to improve operational delivery to meet demand. This is with a view to move to an agreed position over a fixed rate contract until 2026.

In order to progress this work, we have been documenting SARCs services based on the segregation of the service into the below 4 pillars:

1. Forensic medical examinations for adults
2. Forensic medical examinations for children / young persons
3. ISVA provision
4. Therapeutic counselling support

We have moved to a position where we are on the verge of agreeing the service specification for pillars 1 and 2 and 3. Once we have finalised this work, a contract will be drawn up to cover 3 years and will be in place for financial year 2023/24

Pillar 4 The Therapeutic counselling support has inherent complications as demand has stripped capacity at SARC. We will seek procurement advice on meeting commercial compliance regulations with any agreed way forward for this work.

To allocate a funding envelope of £1,950,000 to St Mary’s SARC for the provision of support services to victims of rape and serious sexual offences to cover the period of 1st April 2022-March 31st, 2023.This covers the quarterly contract payments for the service incorporating the main staffing costs with overheads, ISVA provision and therapeutic support, and also minor elements of overlapping costs of the Forensic Medical Examinations.

The SARC service is jointly funded by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership on a 50/50 basis and as such, the amount indicated above is the total SARC budget. The GMCA contribution is half of this. (£975k).

It is important to note that actual costs for the SARC service for 2022-23 are still being finalised. This decision notice has been estimated to cover expected costs, however with some shortfall possible. This will be funded by reserves where necessary.

The Deputy Mayor for Police, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire has a responsibility to provide services for victims of crime, including victims of rape and sexual assault.

This budget is allocated to the Greater Manchester Sexual Assault Referral Centre, based at the St Mary’s Centre at Manchester Foundation Trust. A 24-hour rota is staffed by forensic medical examiners to provide an all-age service which provides support for victims of rape or sexual assault in terms of a forensic examination and crisis support. The service can be accessed by a referral from an agency, including but not exclusive to Greater Manchester Police, or victims can also choose to self-refer. The service currently supports anybody who lives in Greater Manchester in addition to providing support for individuals who were assaulted in Greater Manchester, but do not reside in the area. Approximately 950 forensic medical examinations are undertaken by SARC each year


It is extremely important that when individuals do report an assault or sexual abuse against them that the right support is in place. The SARC funding, allocated to services for victims of rape and sexual assault, enables this.

Demand

There were just over 11,000 sexual offences reported to GMP in 2021-2022, of which 36% were rape. 55% of these offences were committed against adults whilst over 5000 sexual offences were committed against children. This included 1400 offences which were rape against a child.


Progress towards agreeing a full Service specification for SARC and Implementing a 3 year contract

Over the course of 2022/23 we have been working with SARC to both document the service provision with the associated costings, and also outline the service needs to improve operational delivery to meet demand. This is with a view to move to an agreed position over a fixed rate contract until 2026.

In order to progress this work, we have been documenting SARCs services based on the segregation of the service into the below 4 pillars: Pillars 1 and 2 relate to this decision notice.

1. Forensic medical examinations for adults
2. Forensic medical examinations for children / young persons
3. ISVA provision
4. Therapeutic counselling support

We are fully confident that we can agree a contract position with St Marys for the SARC service for pillars for the forensic medical support element (pillars 1, 2) which are drawing very near to completion, and will be in place for financial year 2023/24 onwards.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority will invest up to £750,000 with St Mary’s Sexual Assault and Referral Centre (SARC) for the provision of forensic medical examinations for victims of rape and sexual assault in Greater Manchester, and also for the forensic consumables required to operate the service This is for the period 1st April 2022 – 31st March 2023.

The SARC service is jointly funded by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership on a 50/50 basis and as such, the amount indicated above is the total SARC budget. The GMCA contribution is half of this. (£375k).

It is important to note that actual costs for the SARC service for 2022-23 are still being finalised. This decision notice has been estimated to cover expected costs, however with some shortfall possible. This will be funded by reserves where necessary.

£670k Doctors Fees
£70k Consumables required to undertake FME
TOTAL £750k

This is requested in-order to run a fully complaint restricted (2 Stage) tender opportunity and award a contract to commence on, the 1st of March 2024 for a period of 3 years, with the option to extend up to a further 2 years on an annual basis.
The current provider ‘Oasis’ has agreed to the 12-month extension and agreed the terms and conditions will remain the same – Including price.
The reasoning behind a 12-month extension rather than a shorter duration, is due to the Authorities assets being on a rolling 12-month maintenance agreement plan.
This will ensure that any potential incoming provider can pick up the maintenance schedule and make implementation seamless, without any risk to critical safety assets.

Approval is given to extend the contract for the Provision Of Building Services Maintenance & Installation (HEVAC), by a further 12 months, whilst the Authority retenders the business opportunity. The value of this 12 month extension is £1.78m.

The GM Collaborative Commissioning project is working to understand and improve health support for children and young people in touch with the criminal justice system.

This programme forms part of GM’s Health and Justice Strategy, and is funded by NHS England.

The scope has been determined by local knowledge about the high correlation between children and young people in the criminal justice system, and their complex (often unmet) mental health and communcaition needs. This high level of correlation was highlighted by Professor Eddie Kane’s research for the GM Health and Justice Strategic Review in 2018.

As a result, and as part of the overall project, we are piloting the provision of additional speech and language capacity within youth justice services, recognising the high levels of young people who the services work with, with communication, speech and language needs. Year One of the pilot in 2019/2020 showed the value of additional SALT capacity, and flagged up some more detailed themes which we are continuing to explore in further years.

£27,331.00 is allocated from the portion of the Collaborative Commissioning Network budget held by GMCA. CCN is a NHS England initiative that explores how health services are delivered in justice settings.

The funding will be used to fund Invoice for 2 years funding for the NHSE Bury & Rochdale Youth Justice Services SALT post over
2021/22 and 2022/23

CCN is a NHS England national initiative to explore new ways of delivering health services in justice settings, and in GM we have focused our response on children and young people in 4 priority pathways:
• Those in contact with Liaison and Diversion Services either within police custody or a court setting;
• Those transitioning into and out of detention;
• Those transitioning into and out of secure welfare placements;
• Those presenting at Sexual Assault Referral Centres.

The VRU Education delivery group specifies a commitment to the prevention of Gender Based Violence within its’ Terms Of Reference. Ongoing access to the latest academic thinking around Gender Based Violence will prove vital to shaping intervention spend within the VRU both in year and in future financial years. The VRU have had access to this journal on a free trial basis for 3 months which has proven vital in shaping both intervention thinking and systems change work within the VRU and beyond.

The VRU allocates £233.00 with Bristol University Press from the VRU Education Budget line (2022-23) to fund access for x9 GMCA colleagues to the Journal of Gender Based Violence for 12 months, and to provide x1 physical copy of this journal to the GM VRU on a quarterly basis.

Due to the success of the first two phases of the campaign, a decision has
been made to run a third phase. The third phase will build on active bystander training/messaging which was delivered in the second phase with clear examples of how to safely intervene when violent language is used, to prevent the situation from escalating. Additional resources will be created for schools and colleges and for parents.

Following a legal procurement process, the GMCA have commissioned Agent Marketing to deliver a third phase of the I am greater campaign. The campaign is aimed at young people in GM and encourages them to be greater than violence by identifying with positive role models and being an active bystander. The third phase of the campaign will build on the first two phases, and
include young people in the design and creation of campaign materials. The total amount of funding to be awarded is £47,525.

In December 2022, Home Office Funding was made available to all Police Forces via the Home Office ATOM 2 Programme for the purchase of equipment and software to tackle online based sexual offending.


GMP made an application to the programme, which is being allocated via Cumbria Constabulary and the NPCC MOSOVO Portfolio, led by Chief Constable Michelle Skeer.

On 16th January 2023 GMP were informed that the application had been successful and the funding had to be fully spent in th 2023-24 financial year.

Project 1 - Increase in the capacity of existing Advanced Digital Forensic triage kits, standalone laptops and CCTV/digital media reviewing tools:
Cost £21,600

Project 2 – Increase in the capacity of remote monitoring software for GMP,
Cost: £28,200

The Deputy Monitoring Officer is authorised to sign the funding agreement with Cumbria PCC as set out below:

GMP have been awarded £49,800 in response to their application for ATOM funding in order to purchase equipment and software to tackle online based sexual offending.

The funding will be drawn down by the GMCA from Cumbria PCC who are the lead.

Procurement legislation requires GMP to tender for these goods and services. The recommended route provides the most effective route to market.

Approval is given to tender for the supply of Tactical Communications and Hearing Protection using an open tender procedure. The contract will be for 5 years, with the option to extend for a further 5 years. The likely value for GMP of 10 years spend would be circa £538k.

The 2 X Complex Safeguarding posts were previously resourced through secondment agreements with individual LAs but it has been agreed that the GMCA will now host these posts with funding provided through £26k contribution from each Local Authority. The staff will require laptops and phones in order to operate from the GMCA. This proposal is to use a proportion of the LA contribution for this purpose.

Essential equipment costs to be allocated in order to establish and base complex safeguarding officers at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. This funding is sourced via the 10 GM district local authorities via Directors of Children’s Services.

• Dell Laptop £960
• iPhone 13 Mini £539
X 2 Officers

TOTAL £2998

£78,246 of funding was awarded to Migdal Emunah through Greater Manchester’s additional funding bid to the MoJ in 2022. This is the amount over 3 years and is for the delivery of a Reducing Harm caused by sexual abuse workstream across Greater Manchester. This requires working with a variety of organisations within the sexual violence support sector.

Following initial scoping of this the requirement for additional administrative support to enable delivery of this was identified. It is felt this request is reasonable and will support GM priorities around sexual violence to be delivered and fulfilled.

The funding agreed is subject to a grant agreement and appropriate oversight and monitoring is in place.

An outline of the project is below:

• Year one – to hear the voices from the various communities in Greater Manchester and collate the themes/issues which are most important to our communities. To report on these as collective themes/issues and also highlight some of the individual community challenges by the end of year one.
• Year two – to identify the top 3-5 issues across our communities with some key actions and ideas for reducing harm in these areas.
• Year three – to produce a full report of all the main themes and issues across all communities, including specific issues pertaining to individual communities, and suggested solutions for reducing harm in each of these areas.
This is a one off funding contribution to support the initial stages of the project.

£4875 be awarded to Migdal Emunah to support them leading of the delivery of Reducing Harm caused by Sexual Abuse workstream – on behalf of the GMCA.

This is based on an estimated cost of £16 per hour 2 days per week, including Employers NI contribution (putting someone on payroll). This is based on 5 months which is roughly £975 per month.