Decisions

The Air Quality Administration Committee considered and agreed a report on 1 October 2024, which provided an update on the Case for a new Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan. It confirms that in response to changing circumstances and opportunities an updated appraisal of Greater Manchester’s proposed investment-led plan has been undertaken against a benchmark charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ) in the centre of Manchester and Salford.

It is for the Government to determine what measures Greater Manchester is to implement. The appraisal shows that only the investment-led plan complies with the requirement placed on the 10 Greater Manchester Authorities to deliver compliance in the shortest possible time and by 2026 at the latest.

The Committee agreed a delegation was made to the Group Chief Executive, GMCA, GMFRS & TfGM, in consultation with the GM Clean Air Lead, to approve the final submission of material to the Government’s Joint Air Quality Unit and deal with any supplementary requests from the Unit in support of the appraisal.

The Group Chief Executive, GMCA, GMFRS & TfGM, in consultation with the Greater Manchester Clean Air Lead, has approved the final submission of material to support the case for an investment-led, non-charging Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan to the Government’s Joint Air Quality Unit.

The reports will be published at Technical Documents New | Clean Air Greater Manchester (cleanairgm.com) - Evidence Submission for a new Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan.

GMCA have run a competitive process via a Mini-Competition in which 1 bid was received in total.

The Mini-Competition comprised of 2 parts, the first being Quality questions which accounted for 85% of the total score. The Quality selection process involved evaluating the bidders’ responses on a number of criteria:

- Employer Engagement (Step 1) - 20%
- Business Skills Review & Individual Skills Development Plans (Step 2) - 15%
- Skills Brokerage (Step 3 – Skills Brokerage) - 10%
- Essential Work Skills Provision (Step 4 – Skills Delivery) -10%
- Quality Assurance - 5%
- Finances & Profile - 5%
- Performance, Data & Reporting - 10%
- Capability to Deliver - 10%

Social Value was weighted as 15% of the overall score (9% Qualitative and 6% Quantitative) and was evaluated via the Social Value Portal.

Quality questions were assessed initially by individual evaluators, with each question being evaluated by a minimum of three evaluators who had all completed and signed Conflict of Interest declarations.

In addition to the previously mentioned assessment criteria, bidders were also subject to comprehensive Finance and Economic Standing, Information Governance and Safeguarding evaluations. These were carried out by specialists within GMCA and conducted in line with the processes published within the documentation.

Bidders were also required to meet minimum requirements for Ofsted or, where no recent Ofsted inspect was available, produce a good internal Self-Assessment Report.

A contract for services will be awarded to The Growth Company for the delivery of GMCA 930 Employer Engagement and Essential Work Skills for Employed GM Residents (Test and Learn) at a cost of £4,460,000.

Following a competitive procurement process using GMCA’s Education Work and Skills Flexible Procurement System, GMCA wishes to award one contract with a total value of £4,460,000 to The Growth Company Limited.
Background
GMCA looked to procure a Workforce Development package of support and access to Essential Skills for Work, that truly meets the needs of Employers and their Workforce and provides an opportunity to build upon previous workforce development activities and genuinely test how skills provision can be delivered to a workforce, ensuring it is contextualised, meets the needs of employed residents and is funded more effectively.

A key purpose of this commission is to support the wider development and preparation for a GM Adult Skills offer – GMs Skills for Life and Work. GMCA are keen to understand what works well for Greater Manchester businesses and residents and we can ensure the skills offer and delivery is fit for purpose.

Therefore, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) looked to procure a Workforce Development package of support aimed at helping Employers and their workforce by:
1. Raising awareness of the training support that is available, not only in specific occupational specialisms but the essential skills needed for the workplace.
2. Supporting employers and their workforce to understand their current and future training needs, so that their businesses have the skills and talent they need for resilience, productivity and growth.
3. Providing the right Essential Work Skills training provision that meets this need, in particular the feedback received as set out in the LSIP.
4. Signposting to other relevant Skills Provision, where applicable

Part of GM’s Adult Skills Programme, this commission will provide support to Employers with their Workforce Development needs, and also deliver tailored and contextualised Essential Work Skills (English, ESOL, Digital & Maths), where this is currently a gap in provision for Employers and their Workforce across Greater Manchester. GMCA want to ensure businesses are able to access the skills and talent they need, by providing high quality learning, and wrapping support around individuals, enabling them to realise their potential.

For the purposes of this commission, when GMCA say Employed GM Residents we mean:
• Residents in employment (including apprentices)
• Self-employed residents
• Volunteers and Unpaid Workers.

In 2018, Greater Manchester Combined Authority led a successful c. £1.2m funding application to the Home Office to enhance the complex safeguarding offer across Greater Manchester, by embedding psychologists/psychotherapists into multi-agency complex safeguarding teams in each of the ten districts of GM.

The service is provided by Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of the four GM NHS mental health trusts. This collaboration between the four trusts mirrors the arrangement in the GM Resilience Hub, set up to provide advice and support to people affected by the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.

The first psychologists commenced work in four complex safeguarding teams in January 2019 and was rolled out to the remainder of GM in line with the move towards multi-agency, complex safeguarding teams in each of the ten GM districts.

The role of the psychologist is to:

• Improve the understanding, knowledge and expertise of a range of frontline practitioners in the subject of trauma and therapeutic approaches to recovery.
• Add value to the assessments and interventions delivered by key workers (including social workers) so that they are informed by therapeutic approaches to trauma recovery.
• Embed case formulation into the practice of complex safeguarding teams, to make sense of young people’s difficulties in the context of their relationships, social circumstances and life events.
• Undertake reflective supervision either individually or with groups of professionals, to support them with the challenging work that they are undertaking.

This programme is funded as a contract between GMCA & Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust via the following funding streams:

• NHS Integrated Care GM agreed to commit £25,000 per annum for three years from April 2022 which is paid directly to Pennine Care from NHS Integrated Care GM (not via GMCA)
• The 10 GM Local Authority Directors of Childrens Services (DCS) supplement this via a contribution from their own budget of £10,000 per annum, per district for the same period. The DCS contributions are paid centrally to GMCA form the 10 GM Local Authorities.
• The Deputy Mayor of GM supplents this via a contribution of £10,000 per annum from the Deputy Mayor’s Investment Fund for the same period

GMCA PCC (Complex Safeguarding) wish to pay £110,000 to Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust as part of a contract between GMCA & Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust to cover provision of a Psychologist for the GM Resilience Hub Trusted Relationships programme covering the delivery period 2024/25.

YouthBank’s mission is to work with worldwide organisations who want to give young people authentic leadership, decision-making and community-building opportunities while growing the network and supporting young people through grant-making. YouthBank have developed a framework, training and resources that enable organisations to provide necessary support with confidence and integrity.

YouthBank International seeks to build an ecosystem of individuals, organisations and businesses that share its values and its aim of bringing decision making opportunities to young people. The 10th Anniversay Fito conference is being held in Lake Como, Italy in September 2024 and will bring together young people and practitioners from around the world to share elarning and best practice.

The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit are seeking to make the following payment covering x1 ticket for the YouthBank 10th Anniversary Fito Conference.

YouthBank International
A payment to be made of £200.00 to cover x1 ticket for the VRU Programme Principal’s attendance to the event. The ticket covers attendance for all 3 days of the event.

Frank Shani is the father of Nathaniel Shani, who was tragically murdered on 15th September 2023 in Tavistock Square, Harpurhey. Since Nathaniel’s murder, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor have both met Frank Shani and the wider family of Nathaniel to support them following the murder and to discuss issues of knife crime more generally, providing assurance that work is taking place to reduce knife crime and other serious violence across the city region.

A memorial service is planned for Nathaniel on 15th September 2024, one year on from the date of his murder, for which the Shani family sought £500.00 to cover the cost of wreaths, banners, T-shirts and other decorative items. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor have approved this funding. The VRU will coordinate the purchase and delivery of items in question.

The VRU wishes to fund the provision of memorial items, such as wreaths, banners, T-shirts and other decorative items, to the maximum value of £500.00 to be used for a memorial service dedicated to the memory of Nathaniel Shani, who lost his life through knife crime in September 2023. The items in question will be paid for via a GMCA purchase card with the items being delivered directly to Frank Shani, the father of Nathaniel.

The VRU Education implementation 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, as it has in previous years. The VRU have had access to this journal for 24 months by the time its current access expires, which has proven vital in shaping both intervention thinking and systems change work within the VRU and beyond.

The VRU intends to spend £248.00 with Bristol University Press from the VRU Education Budget line (2024-25) 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.

The reasons for the decision are:

In light of the forthcoming publication of the Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding Strategy for 2024-2027, and in partnership with GMP, Programme Challenger and the Violence Reduction Unit, the GM Complex Safeguarding Hub is organising a Child Exploitation conference for the wider workforce.

Tackling child exploitation and extra-familial harm requires everyone to play their part and to work as a joint system. As such, the launch of this strategy is a call for action, as well as an opportunity to ensure that frontline professionals across all sectors are appropriately equipped to support complex safeguarding teams through early identification, information-sharing, safeguarding, and multiagency disruption.

With the support of the Deputy Mayor, who will be opening one of the 4 events, the conference will aim to support this strategic vision by upskilling non-specialist frontline professionals.

The event will cover a range of key exploitation-related topics e.g. language, neurodiversity, trauma, child-centred approaches, lived experience, multiagency disruption, online harms, identities, the overlap between CCE & CSE, and the role of girls in County Lines. These thematics were selected in response to the training needs identified during our latest weeks of action.


To maximise reach, the content of the conference will be repeated across 4 days (listed below). Each iteration of the event will take place in person, at GMP Sedgley Park Training Centre in Prestwich, M25 0JT. The dates are the following:

• September 10th (first iteration)
• September 12th (second iteration)
• October 15th (third iteration)
• October 16th (fourth iteration)

GMCA Complex Safeguarding wishes to pay £1000 from the Complex Safeguarding Budget (Deputy Mayor Investment Fund) to fund an input on Girls & Exploitation at the Complex Safeguarding Child Exploitation Conference for the Wider Workforce.

In light of the forthcoming publication of the Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding Strategy for 2024-2027, and in partnership with GMP, Programme Challenger and the Violence Reduction Unit, the GM Complex Safeguarding Hub is organising a Child Exploitation conference for the wider workforce.

Tackling child exploitation and extra-familial harm requires everyone to play their part and to work as a joint system. As such, the launch of this strategy is a call for action, as well as an opportunity to ensure that frontline professionals across all sectors are appropriately equipped to support complex safeguarding teams through early identification, information-sharing, safeguarding, and multiagency disruption.

With the support of the Deputy Mayor, who will be opening one of the 4 events, the conference will aim to support this strategic vision by upskilling non-specialist frontline professionals.

The event will cover a range of key exploitation-related topics e.g. language, neurodiversity, trauma, child-centred approaches, lived experience, multiagency disruption, online harms, identities, the overlap between CCE & CSE, and the role of girls in County Lines. These thematics were selected in response to the training needs identified during our latest weeks of action.

To maximise reach, the content of the conference will be repeated across 4 days (listed below). Each iteration of the event will take place in person, at GMP Sedgley Park Training Centre in Prestwich, M25 0JT. The dates are the following:

• September 10th (first iteration)
• September 12th (second iteration)
• October 15th (third iteration)
• October 16th (fourth iteration)

GMCA Complex Safeguarding wishes to pay £830+VAT from the Complex Safeguarding Budget (Deputy Mayor Investment Fund) towards speaking and travelling fees to fund an input from SWGfL Online Safety on the topic of Online Harms & Exploitation at the Complex Safeguarding Child Exploitation Conference for the Wider Workforce.

In light of the forthcoming publication of the Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding Strategy for 2024-2027, and in partnership with GMP, Programme Challenger and the Violence Reduction Unit, the GM Complex Safeguarding Hub is organising a Child Exploitation conference for the wider workforce.

Tackling child exploitation and extra-familial harm requires everyone to play their part and to work as a joint system. As such, the launch of this strategy is a call for action, as well as an opportunity to ensure that frontline professionals across all sectors are appropriately equipped to support complex safeguarding teams through early identification, information-sharing, safeguarding, and multiagency disruption.

With the support of the Deputy Mayor, who will be opening one of the 4 events, the conference will aim to support this strategic vision by upskilling non-specialist frontline professionals.

The event will cover a range of key exploitation-related topics e.g. language, neurodiversity, trauma, child-centred approaches, lived experience, multiagency disruption, online harms, identities, the overlap between CCE & CSE, and the role of girls in County Lines. These thematics were selected in response to the training needs identified during our latest weeks of action.

To maximise reach, the content of the conference will be repeated across 4 days (listed below). Each iteration of the event will take place in person, at GMP Sedgley Park Training Centre in Prestwich, M25 0JT. The dates are the following:

• September 10th (first iteration)
• September 12th (second iteration)
• October 15th (third iteration)
• October 16th (fourth iteration)

GMCA Complex Safeguarding wishes to pay £1270 from the Complex Safeguarding Budget (Deputy Mayor Investment Fund) towards speaking fees and travelling/accommodation fees to fund an input from Keyring on the topic of Neurodiversity & Exploitation at the Complex Safeguarding Child Exploitation Conference for the Wider Workforce.

A strategic priority of the Home Office is to end all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) as set out in both the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan and to support vulnerable victims of interpersonal violence, including children affected by domestic abuse.
A strategic aim of the Deputy Mayor within the Greater Manchester Gender Based Violence Strategy is to respond effectively to Perpetrators. This is critical to reducing the risk posed by the perpetrator to reduce Domestic Abuse and protect victims.
The grant has been awarded due to the framework being successful in a bidding process, and the Home Office are satisfied that this is a well-defined framework describing the outcomes and impacts that the funding is intended to achieve

GMCA have been successful in obtaining Home Office grant funding, to support the continuation of perpetrator-focused domestic abuse
interventions, with the aim of reducing re-offending and protecting victims and survivors of domestic abuse.
Funding will be provided to PCCs as the lead partner, but the expectation is that PCCs will deliver interventions in collaboration with partner organisations. In GM it is agreed that this will be the 10 local authorities, Greater Manchester Police and The Hampton Trust.
The Deputy Mayor, in partnership with the Home Office has agreed that funding be split into two parts as outlined below: -
Part 1: Funding to deliver adult focussed domestic abuse interventions. The Home Office have agreed that the 10 GM Local Authorities would be the partner organisation to deliver adult focused domestic abuse perpetrator interventions.
The Deputy Mayor agrees to award each GM Local Authority the fundingoutlined below in 2024/2025 to commission their own interventions.

Manchester £145,000
Bolton £95,000
Stockport £95,000
Wigan £95,000
Bury £95,000
Salford £95,000
Rochdale £95,000
Trafford £95,000
Oldham £95,000

Part 2: Project CARA
Project CARA is an early ‘awareness raising diversionary’ intervention
targeting domestic abuse offenders who have received a Diversionary
Caution. Offenders attend two workshops which are designed to help them understand what domestic abuse is, the impact it has, and its consequences. It also signposts offenders to other specialist services.
This will be done in partnership with the Hampton Trust and GMP.
The Hampton Trust will have a grant agreement with GMCA, as the specialist organisation they will continue to support the role out of CARA through GMP, ensuring that the service is to a correct standard and that the delivery of the programme is continually monitored. The Hampton Trust also holds the licence to deliver CARA.
GMP have commissioned a specialist organisation to deliver CARA and will be provided funding through the Home Office Grant.
The Deputy Mayor agrees to award GMP £238,750 and the Hampton Trust £44,800; The funding will be used from the Home Office Fund.

The reasons for the decision are:

To update Manchester’s Good Night Out Guide, delivered in partnership with Manchester city council, to provide offline information to use when on a night out in Manchester city centre, such as places to go if in need and services to access help and/or make a report about something that’s happened whilst out.

The funding is to design, print and deliver:
- 10,000 Good Night Out Guides
- 500 A4 posters
- Updated social media assets
- Advertising to run along relevant transport spots (e.g. bus stops on Oxford Road corridor.)

GMCA will pay £3,890.50 to Carbon Creative to design and print the 2024 run of the Manchester Good Night Out Guide.

In order to interview victims for the Victims of Crime survey rights 8-12, promotional material has been created which will be sent to victims via the GMP Witness Care Unit and the Probation Service Victims Contact Scheme and Victim Notification Scheme. The printing will be done by Manchester City Council through their in house printing service. The quote is for £85 for the first print run but the Decision Notice is for £350 to allow for increased print runs.

Funding be allocated up to the amount of £350 for the printing of promotional material for the Victims of Crime survey by Manchester City Council.

The work carried out will be a development of previous work completed with Mike Trace; Mike is the sole supplier needed for this work.

The Substance Misuse team is seeking £5,000 to commission supplier Michael Trace to work with GMCA and GMP to assist in aligning the GMP Drug Strategy and the National Drug Strategy policy approach as previously agreed with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The policy approach agreed includes responses taken to different patterns of drug use, and types of drug user, that have relevance to the work of GMP.
This supplier charges a rate of £500 per day and would be commissioned for 10 working days.

The GMCA Complex Safeguarding hub wishes to obtain Research in Practice’s support with using this resource as part of a pilot with Wigan and Manchester councils (revised approach to peer reviews). This tool will enable local multi-agency partnerships to reflect on eight evidence-led Practice Principles and consider the extent to which these are already present within local responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm. It aims to support multi-agency partnerships at senior operational and strategic levels to hold constructive and honest conversations about behaviour and culture with a view to strengthening responses and multi-agency relationships.

GMCA Complex Safeguarding wishes to pay £2,010 from the Complex Safeguarding Budget (Deputy Mayor Investment Fund) to pay for support from Research in Practice to implement their Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) partnership self-assessment tool as part of the revised peer review methodology.

The reasons for the decision are:

In light of the forthcoming publication of the Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding Strategy for 2024-2027, and in partnership with GMP, Programme Challenger and the Violence Reduction Unit, the GM Complex Safeguarding Hub is organising a Child Exploitation conference for the wider workforce.

Tackling child exploitation and extra-familial harm requires everyone to play their part and to work as a joint system. As such, the launch of this strategy is a call for action, as well as an opportunity to ensure that frontline professionals across all sectors are appropriately equipped to support complex safeguarding teams through early identification, information-sharing, safeguarding, and multiagency disruption.

With the support of the Deputy Mayor, who will be opening one of the 4 events, the conference will aim to support this strategic vision by upskilling non-specialist frontline professionals.

The event will cover a range of key exploitation-related topics e.g. language, neurodiversity, trauma, child-centred approaches, lived experience, multiagency disruption, online harms, identities, the overlap between CCE & CSE, and the role of girls in County Lines. These thematics were selected in response to the training needs identified during our latest weeks of action.

To maximise reach, the content of the conference will be repeated across 4 days (listed below). Each iteration of the event will take place in person, at GMP Sedgley Park Training Centre in Prestwich, M25 0JT. The dates are the following:

• September 10th (first iteration)
• September 12th (second iteration)
• October 15th (third iteration)
• October 16th (fourth iteration)

GMCA Complex Safeguarding wishes to pay £2,712 for the provision of food and refreshments at the Complex Safeguarding Child Exploitation Conference for the Wider Workforce.

Due to the success of the first three phases of the campaign, the VRU has recently commissioned a 4th phase that will continue to focus on taking a preventative approach to tackling violence. The campaign aims include raising awareness of positive alternatives to violence among young people aged between 10 and 25 years and reassuring young people in this age group and their communities that work is being done to reduce violent crime in Greater Manchester, building on the community cohesion element of Phase 3. In the third phase, the VRU commissioned a mural in Salford via another provider which was well received. The mural will be co-created with young people with an aim to display young people’s commitment to being greater than violence and serve as a reminder of the bright future young people in Greater Manchester can go on to achieve.

The VRU are seeking to award £2,000 to the artist Oskar With a K (a Manchester based muralist and artist) to create a public mural in Wigan using imagery (agreed with the VRU Communications Manager) relating to the fourth phase of the I am Greater Campaign.

In order to implement the digital victims of crime gateway support project, we require 2 x of each type of these license packs that will enable victims of crime to use and create user accounts and store data.

The cost is per month, and we would need to purchase the licences for 9 months (this is to do with GMCA’s next licence anniversary check point being next April).
This would then give us 1000 licences to allow people to access the website, and 200 licences to allow users to create an account.

We would monitor this monthly, and if needed, would need to acquire additional licences to fit the demand on the gateway. It is felt that this current approach is proportionate to anticipated demand.

A funding envelope of £4950 to enable the go-live of the victims of crime digital support gateway at the end of August. We require the purchasing of packs of licences through Phoenix Software to allow the public to:

• Access the website, which is classed as someone being an ‘anonymous user’
• Create an account in the portal, which is classed as someone being an ‘authenticated user.

To cover a 9-month period as a trial period, this would work out as:

1 month = 2 x £58.59 + 2 x £156.23
1 month = £117.18 + £312.46
1 month = £429.64
9 months = £429.64 x 9
= £3866.76
(+ Contingency of £1,083.24 in case further license packs are required by demand)
=£4950

When it became obvious that there were significant capacity issues with GMP and their ability to deliver the Authentic Voice programme agreed by the GBV Board – the Director of the PCCJF Directorate met with the Chief fire Officer to determine whether the programme could be pivoted to support the cultural change programme in GMFRS. The Chief Fire Officer agreed with this approach and the programme was tailored to be delivered to GMFRS.

The Training Programme
• Working with the 30 middle managers, we can run them through the Look Again exercises
• We will then work with them to reflect and co-design how they would filter this thinking down to staff they manage and also how they will inspire the leaders above them.
• From that work, we can collect and curate the stories to playback to the 30 middle managers and show them what we want them to see, feel, and be inspired by.
• By getting people to look again they’ll constantly challenge their own assumptions, learn from that, and also inspire others to see how to perform better.
• This pilot will set up ripples that you can then allow you to quickly use this investment to roll out to a wider number of staff on a continuously rolling basis without the constant set-up. Once the programme is set-up, more people can join and this can be run by GMFRS.

Legacy Of The Training Programme
• After the pilot SBL and SafeLives will work with GMFRS to reflect, review, iterate and plan for widening the reach.
• This will include updating the knowledge board and systems map.
• GMFRS will clearly be able to see where we started and how positive outcomes have been created.
• Plan for maintaining the momentum and impact of the initiative for future phases.
• Work out a plan to integrate positive changes into GMFRS policies in the future.
• Disseminate successes and learnings.
• Celebrate the 30 middle managers so that they can see what they’ve accomplished and become allies to the bigger goals.
• Work towards embedding these changes into the cultural fabric of GMFRS.
• Ensure that GMFRS is seen as a desirable and progressive employer.
• Use all this progress to deepen social ties beyond GMFRS and across the communities in Greater Manchester

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime approves funding for the delivery of the Look Again programme developed by Super Being Labs in conjunction with Safe Lives. This programme of training will be delivered as a pilot to 30 managers in GMFRS the aim of the training is to assess the current state of gender bias, discrimination, exclusion, misogyny, and barriers within GMFRS and then identify key areas for improvement. Originally this work was supposed to be targeted at GMP as an Authentic Voice training programme but there was no capacity within the training division to deliver this and also GMP personnel have been in receipt of Safe Lives DA Matters training to every front-line Officer. The Authentic Voice Programme was budgeted at £170,640 and this programme targeted at GMFRS will cost £90,591 – comprising:
£71,300 – Super Being Labs
£19,291 – Safe Lives

TecSAFE (previously TecSOS) has been running since 2011 and is now a mainstream police system in around 36 Forces and over 50 police control rooms. It has sustainability going forward having been part of the police digital service (PDS) since April 2023.

The service provides a covert application on the victims mobile phone which triggers a police alarm when activated by the victim. The alert opens a call with the GMP control room who then utilise real time tracking to ensure that any response is directed to the person.

The system is trialled and tested and is cost effective. The system provides victim support and reassurance.

A specific relationship with BT that means TecSAFE victims are given special treatment on the national BT 999 system, they are recognised by BT as TecSAFE callers, and immune from automatic disconnection in the event of a silent call.

Real-time location/speed/direction updates are provided directly into police control rooms enabling effective and accurate tracking during an emergency
The system shares information/intelligence added by the OIC with all police control rooms 24/7 regarding the victim and perpetrator details/risks, so that all 50+ police control rooms can respond effectively to an activation from another force’s victim – protecting victims and officers.

In summary, police can send the right response to the right person in the right location. The applications will be utilised to protect a range of vulnerable victims. The system will provide enhanced protection and will improve any associated response.

This funding will fund the scheme during the second year of the roll out to allow 100 applications.

This will contribute to the following Police, Crime and Fire actions for the GMS Delivery Plan:
• Tackle gender-based violence and abuse in all its forms.
• Gender-based Violence Strategy.

This also contributes towards delivery of priorities within the Standing Together Plan:
• Keeping people safe and support victims, specifically improve services to victims of sexual and domestic violence.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime approves funding for the second year delivery of the Tech Safe Initiative by GMP. The app is being used to support vulnerable victims/survivors of domestic abuse. The funding required to deliver the second year of delivery is £7,200 which allows for 100 licences to be used. During the delivery of this second year of the Tec Safe Initiative Officers in GMP will position support for the future delivery of Tec Safe Initiative into GMP Business Plans going forward. Budget provision has been made for this funding to come from the Police and Criminal Justice element of the GBV Budget cost centre 3044.

The Victims Gateway project ambition is to develop a digital solution that transforms the way victims and survivors access, engage, and interact with victim services across Greater Manchester in a way that reflects the journey of a victim, and enables better use of data to inform decision-making.
This digital solution will put the needs of victims front and centre, allowing them to track and manage their own service journey, as well as access services at a time convenient to them, with the flexibility to engage and re-engage over time as their needs change.
In addition to managing their own service journey, they will also be able to access helpful resources under the form of materials and the option to ask experts for information.
UBDS Digital are the digital supplier building the gateway and will provide a managed service for 12 months following the gateway going live.
Justification for this expenditure:
Milestone Extension:
• To allow for the development and implementation of an API Integration between the Victims Gateway and the Greater Manchester Victims Service Case Management System (CMS).
• Going live with this API integration will provide a better experience for victims of crime using the Victims Gateway.
• This supports the Deputy Mayor’s commitment to improving the experience of citizens of Greater Manchester.
Managed Service:
• To ensure that all bugs and updates are actioned in a timely manner.
• To ensure content remains accurate and up to date.
• To support further development of the Victims Gateway following its launch.

UBDS Digital be awarded an extension of £141,145 for the following:

• Extension of final milestone of Victims Gateway: £31,741
• 12-month Managed Service: £109,404

GMCA Contract Reference: 864.1

Hitch hold the hosting and the domain rights to the I am Greater website via previous commissioning in 2023. During Phase 3 (delivered by Agent Marketing) Hitch continued to host the website as Agent Marketing were unable to do so. Phase 4 is being delivered by EY3 Media, and for continuity of service, it has been determined that the most cost-effective way forward is to continue to pay Hitch Marketing this award of £1,020 to continue hosting the I am Greater web domain, as EY3 Media would be required to purchase fresh domain rights which would be less cost effective and more time consuming. This funding award is needed for the website to continue to run effectively.

The GM VRU is seeking to award Hitch Marketing £1,020 for the hosting and domain for the I Am Greater website. This is for the period 1st March 2024 – 28th February 2025 inclusive, when the campaign will need to be reviewed.

Hate crime has been identified as a significant issue which requires a coordinated partnership response. It is proposed that the following be supported:

That up to £50,000 be provided in support of a central awareness campaign, including a focus to promote Greater Manchester’s Hate Crime Awareness Week in February 2025. Building on the partnership approach taken to the campaign in 2024 work will continue with GMP, Local Authorities, TfGM, CPS, GMFRS, NHS and other partners to access their advertising assets and maximise the effectiveness of the campaign.

A number of media channels will be considered in support of the campaign including advertisement on public transport, radio and paid advertisement on social media.

The funding will also allow for the provision of branded promotional materials, that will be disseminated to each local authority area. The materials will feature dedicated partnership branding to be used in future campaigns.

The funding will also enable the continued provision of the www.letsendhate crime.com website, which is a partnership landing page to easily direct the public to report hate crime, receive support or seek general advice. Funding will ensure the content remains up to date and relevant.

A task group has been formed bringing together communications and community safety staff from partner organisations to plan and manage the campaign. Work will be undertaken to ensure the campaign reflects the concerns raised to the partnership by communities.

Details of previous communications campaigns have been shared with members of the Greater Manchester Equality Panels and comments will be built into the next campaign along with feedback from the refreshed Hate Crime Plan survey responses from March 2024

Up to £50,000 be allocated to support activity to raise awareness, reporting and understanding of hate crime in Greater Manchester. This will include a central awareness campaign in support of Hate Crime Awareness Week in February 2025.

The GM Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is organising a Primary School Summit on the 3rd of October, following a successful previous summit in 2021. We are hosting an event for primary school leaders and local leaders from across Greater Manchester to come together to share good practice and to build solutions around some of the most pressing issues that primary schools currently face around youth violence.
Speakers for the day include:
The Mayor & Deputy Mayor, representation from the Children’s Commissioner’s office, and Mancunian Campaigner and
Advocate Sarah Anastasiou, alongside the VRU Parent and Carer Support Team (PACs). Each speaker will focus on themes including online harms, student aspiration and self worth and parent and carer relationships.
There will also be opportunities for attendees share theirs views and feed into discussions and locality based solution building. Local representatives from GMP, Local Authorities and Community Safety Partnerships, Heath, and Fire & Rescue will also be in attendance

The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit are seeking to make the following payments for a VRU hosted Primary Summit Event:
AJ Bell Stadium (Special Catering Company, Salford City Stadium):
A payment to be made of £5,250.00 to book event space at AJ Bell Stadium (Salford City Stadium) covering event space for 200 attendees well as refreshments and standard lunch buffet provision covering all participants.
This decision supercedes a Decision previously signed on 08/08/2024
which was for a lower figure of £3,250.00. The figure has now been
revised as it did not in fact include lunch provision for all attendees.

The NGO Forum is an active network of VCSE and public sector organisations who engage with each other, and Challenger, to share information and build the capacity of all members to identify and tackle modern slavery and human trafficking. Internal organisation venues are unavailable for the September 2024 meeting, and we have sourced an external venue to enable this key networking event to take place, in support of delivery of Programme Challenger objectives

£385 be allocated to Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce as a venue for the September Greater Manchester Anti-Trafficking and Slavery Forum.

In light of the forthcoming publication of the Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding Strategy for 2024-2027, and in partnership with GMP, Programme Challenger and the Violence Reduction Unit, the GM Complex Safeguarding Hub is organising a Child Exploitation conference for the wider workforce.

Tackling child exploitation and extra-familial harm requires everyone to play their part and to work as a joint system. As such, the launch of this strategy is a call for action, as well as an opportunity to ensure that frontline professionals across all sectors are appropriately equipped to support complex safeguarding teams through early identification, information-sharing, safeguarding, and multiagency disruption.

With the support of the Deputy Mayor, who will be opening the event, the conference will aim to support this strategic vision by upskilling non-specialist frontline professionals.

The event will cover a range of key exploitation-related topics such as language, neurodiversity, trauma, child-centred approaches, lived experience, multiagency disruption, online harms, identities, the overlap between CCE & CSE, and the role of girls in County Lines. These thematics were selected in direct response to the training needs identified during our latest weeks of action.
To maximise reach, the content of the conference will be repeated across 4 days (listed below). Each iteration of the event will take place in person, at GMP Sedgley Park Training Centre in Prestwich, M25 0JT. The dates are the following:

• September 10th (first iteration)
• September 12th (second iteration)
• October 15th (third iteration)
• October 16th (fourth iteration)

Each GM district will be offered 9 tickets per event, which represents a total of 36 multiagency delegates across the four events.

The conference will be followed up by the delivery of an online programme of learning events in October, which will offer further opportunities for multiagency professionals to deepen their understanding of the topics raised during the event, and to involve the colleagues they believe would benefit from being trained.

Once the funding transfer has been authorised and actioned, further Decision Notices relating to venue and speaker costs will be submitted for approval.

The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit are seeking authorisation to internally transfer £4,000 from its budget to the GM Complex Safeguarding budget (within the Deputy Mayor Investment Fund) to co-fund the 2024 Child Exploitation Conference for the Wider Workforce.

The strategic aim of VRUs communications plan is to reduce serious violence by increasing aspirations of young people in Greater Manchester, and reassuring the public that the VRU is working together with partners and the community to address serious violence and its underlying causes.
The communications objectives are to:
• Raise awareness of how Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is working together with partners and the community to address serious violence.
• Promote an alternative to violence by showcasing opportunities for people affected by violence and build aspirations for young people through campaigns and communications activity.
• Demonstrate the impact of the VRU in reducing serious violence, especially violence amongst young people.
The aim of this contract is to support the above objectives by amplifying the VRUs presence online and reach.
The content creation contract will:
- Provide a steady stream of high-quality content- this could include written blog material, short video edits, social graphics etc.
- Provide a content plan/calendar for the year, with space built in for ad hoc requests/events/news, sometimes with short time frames
- Ensure our website and social channels are fresh and engaging - Increase the number of people we reach with our communications, especially within our key target audience groups
- Use social ads to ensure certain messages reach certain audiences,
including when community tensions are high/after a serious incident

Following a commercial service led procurement process, the GM VRU within GMCA have commissioned EY3 Media to deliver the VRU’s next content creation contract, covering delivery from August 2024 to April 2025. This contract would cover content provision for the VRU website, social media channels, and VRU events. The total contract value is to be £30,000.

The redesigned GM Victims Services website will offer a hub of fundamental information such as crime type and likely victim impact descriptors as well as contact details, signposting and guidance on referral pathways to victims of crime in Greater Manchester. The website is referred to by partner organisations and links into victims’ services such as those provided for sexual violence and domestic abuse.

As part of the digital transformation of victim services, we have reviewed the content on the GM Victims Website and developed new pages to update the relevant information for victims.

As this exercise has been undertaken by a collection of individuals, it is felt that the content needs to go through a process of independent review and amendment in order to develop a sense of overall coherent narrative style.

This copy-write review stage will also ensure that writing styles are appropriate, language is clear, concise, avoids jargon, abbreviations and unnecessary terminology.

We have scoped whether this copy-write exercise could be undertaken internally by our communications team, however there is insufficient capacity to deliver this, and therefore it has been recommended to commission this exercise.

An initial amount of £3000 was approved with a Decision Notice to undertake this copy writing exercise for the GM victims of crime pages, however the amount of content produced by the GMCA Police and Crime team far exceeded initial scope and it has been required to allocate further funding in order to complete this exercise. This additional allocation is still compliant with procurement regulations and is confirmed to be the final spend to complete.

£1900 be made available to undertake the final round of copywriting for the content for the new GM Victims Website. This will also include the copy writer evaluating the home page

The content of the website has had a full re-write with subject-matter-experts for the various crime types creating the page content. It has been recommended by our internal communications team that an independent experienced copy-writer review and revise overall content to make the narrative coherent and cohesive and easy to understand across the site.

• £3000 - Previous Decision Notice for Initial copy writing Quotation
• £1900 – This Decision notice to complete copy writing work
Overall Final costs for Copywriting = £4900

The reasons for the decision are:

Partyline Catering
A payment to be made of maximum £170.00 to cater (provision of basic buffet option for 15 people) to cater a visit by Home Office civil servant colleagues from the Hotspot Response and Serious Violence teams to meet with GMP Operation Venture colleagues and the Deputy Mayor on Tuesday 6th August 2024.

The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit are seeking to make a payment of maximum £170.00 to Partyline Catering to cater an in-person meeting between the Home Office, GMVRU, GMP and the Deputy Mayor in August 2024.

Improved, meaningful and consistent engagement between children and young people and the police is one of the key outcomes of the GMP Child Centred Policing strategy and the GM Youth Justice Transformation Delivery Board. To help achieve this, we recently held a workshop event in Oldham, involving youth service representatives and GMP colleagues from across GM on June 14th, 2024.

We set up this workshop with the aim of bringing together GM partners from youth service agencies and each GMP district to share best practice in developing truly child centred police scrutiny panels across each of the ten GM areas.

The four key principles of the Young Person Scrutiny Panel are:
1. Young person led
2. Facilitated by youth service agencies.
3. GMP involvement and investment.
4. Follows the Lundy Model of Participation.
Following the event, we have now provided an exemplar Terms of Reference; guiding scope and principles, and general FAQ, to assist youth sector partners in establishing their own forums. There will be a follow up workshop event, to be held in November to “check in” and discuss progress/challenges etc and to continue to provide support.

Providing each GM area with £1000 will help go towards the maintenance costs of each forum: transport, refreshments, resources etc. To ensure that the children and young people are never out of pocket for attending and are provided with appropriate food/drinks.

A key aim of the panels, as well as to help improve the relationships and understanding between CYP and the police, is to gather CYP’s views about certain issues and common themes around policing and community safety.

This feedback will be collected and collated by the youth sector partners and shared with colleagues from GMCA/VRU/GMP and GM partners. The hope is that this will help inform policy, practice and the forums can be used as a vehicle for children and young people’s voices, that will be captured in an ongoing capacity.

The ten heads of GM youth services have been sent emails outlining the expectations around this additional funding and a further communication will go out prior to the follow up workshop event in November 24, outlining the following;

Confirming that a CCP Youth Voice forum is established in the specific GM local authori9ty area.
That the funding is used to facilitated and maintain the forums
The timescale for setting up is by March 2025
That feedback and data is collected and collated to inform local CCP practice and to support potential further funding opportunities (YEF, etc)

A total funding envelope of £10,000* be agreed to be shared equally among each of the ten GM area youth services, to support and maintain youth service facilitated CYP police panels/forums.

*£1,000 to each GM Local Authority Youth Service.

Vehicle crime continues to be a concern for communities and GMP has been meeting with partners to review the issue and take positive action.

Following similar initiatives across the UK with other police force areas, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and GMP are looking to enter a partnership to create Operation Solihull - aimed at tackling theft of motor vehicles, chop shops, and handling stolen goods (vehicle parts).

The operation will also aim to increase the intelligence GMP has on vehicle crime and Organised Crime Group activity in this area.

The Operation will target crime to all vehicles, but will utilise the technical knowledge and capabilities of JLR in the training of officers and response to crimes.

The proposed partnership has support from GMP Chief Officers and the Strategic Lead for Vehicle Crime.

Donation funding of £200,000 be accepted from Jaguar Land Rover to complete a large-scale, six-month long policing operation to tackle vehicle crime in Greater Manchester.

The reasons for the decision are:
The agreement with Manchester Metropolitan University provides for drug use monitoring to keep professionals and the public well-informed and respond to the threat of new, potent, or adulterated drugs.?

The agreement includes a research project to identify changes and emerging issues in the use of substances by Greater Manchester residents and for 120 laboratory tests on samples obtained across Greater Manchester by the police. The entry of potent synthetic opioids into the UK drugs market makes the testing of available samples a critical element in preventing drug related deaths.

The agreement requires that the testing laboratory is able to receive, test, and destroy controlled drugs. The MANDRAKE laboratory at MMU is nationally and internationally affiliated providing data directly to Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Early Warning Advisory (UNODC EWA).

MMU’s facility has a permanent Manchester city-centre based laboratory which is the only fully home office licensed, non-commercial facility in Greater Manchester and is formally embedded into the Greater Manchester Police forensic pathway. No other organisation holds a similar position within either GM or the wider UK.

The requirement to provide testing services alongside research projects means that MMU is considered the only supplier who can met the requirements of the agreement.

Following this extension, the next project will be put to tender to provide assurance that the sole supplier status is valid.

The current agreement with Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) for the delivery of the GM TRENDS research and laboratory testing will be extended for 12 months to 31st May 2025 at the value of £72,000.