Use the below search options at the bottom of the page to find information regarding recent decisions that have been taken by the council’s decision making bodies.
Alternatively you can visit the Officer and Mayoral decisions page for information on officer delegated decisions that have been taken by council officers.
In August 2019, the Mayor announced during the
GM Reform Board that GM’s approach to tackling violence would
be “community-led” in line with the GMs’
ambitious public service reform programme, which led to the
establishment of the GM Community-Led Programme (CLP).
The key focus of the CLP is ensuring that young people and
stakeholders in a specific locality or place come together,
focussing on a strengths-based approach in the pilot sites to
identify what work is already taking place, what gaps may exist and
what the opportunities might be to address these gaps. Key to this
approach is harnessing and building on existing strengths and
capacity from within the community to develop projects and
activities.
The programme is co-ordinated by a VCSE Sector Strategic Lead
(Michael Phipps) who is working with Public Sector and VCSE sector
partners to deliver the programme and is based within the GM
VRU.
The VCSE Sector Strategic Lead is responsible for maximising the
contribution of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise
(VCSE) sector in leading a series of place-based responses to
violence affecting young people in those areas most in need of help
and in achieving better outcomes for residents in those
communities. The VRU Community-Led Delivery Group has been formed
to oversee and scrutinise the overall programme of work, including
the spending plan.
This programme is about working with communities to find solutions
to problems that exist in their area. Investment is important and
there is funding available to develop and deliver solutions that
communities define and collectively agree on. The key priority is
about building trust with communities and acting upon their
challenges and ideas through prioritising a range of shared
actions.
To date, the CLP is operating in all 10 areas of GM. Additional
focus is being given in 25/26 on the roles of the Violence
Reduction Alliance Facilitators in expanding match funding
opportunities to maximise the sustainability of each
programme
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 25/06/2025
Decision:
The GM VRU are seeking to award to Bolton
Community Voluntary Sector (CVS) £375,000 in financial year
2025-26, via grant funding, to support in the delivery and
administration of the VRU’s Community-Led Pilots Programme on
behalf of 10 GM. The grant agreement will cover the period 1st
April 2025- 31st March 2026. This further investment in the GM
Community-led Programme will fund the following;
£300,000 (£30,000 for each CLP area subject to VRU and
10 GM approval of each CSP’s proposals for use of the
funding) in capacity building funding to enable local areas to fund
their Violence Reduction Alliance Facilitator within the VCSE
sector, who will support the VCSE Coordinator in the roll out,
administration, and sustainability of the Community-led programmes
in all 10 boroughs of GM.
£75,000 per year to continue funding the VCSE Sector
Strategic Lead who will continue to work with Public Sector and
VCSE sector partners to deliver the programme and is based within
the GM VRU. A small allocation of this £75,000 will also be
used to fund central project management at Bolton CVS.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The away day is to improve the communication
and working relationships between CPS lawyers and district
detectives when building rape or sexual offence files for a
charging decision or trial. It important to have an independent
facilitator to aid open and honest conversations which might at
times be difficult and conflicting.
Under the delivery of Op-Soteria and linked to a priority of the
Local Criminal Justice Board, chaired by the Deputy Mayor, the
RASSO away day is an opportunity for Police and CPS to build
relationships in order to ensure file build and charging decisions
are improved in terms of quality and timeliness. The aim of the day
is to look at what is working well and barriers/solutions to
effective working relationships between CPS RASSO district crown
prosecutors and district Detective Inspectors.
Operation Soteria was developed in response to national concern
around the investigation of rape and the increasing epidemic that
is violence against women and girls. It aims to increase the number
of adult rape and serious sexual assault cases reaching charge,
and, in addition, deliver
sustained improvement in the criminal justice whole system
response.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 26/06/2025
Decision:
£300 is paid to Kerry McKevitt,
PNMPeople to facilitate the RASSO away day on 14th July
2025.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
To allow the Greater Manchester Gender-Based
Violence Panel to meet in person when GMCA meeting rooms at the
Tootal Buildings are unavailable
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 26/06/2025
Decision:
A payment of £248.00 be made to House of
Friends and Books in Manchester to cover:
• meeting space for 14 attendees
• tea/coffee/juice and cake
For 14 attendees for a meeting of the Greater Manchester
Gender-Based Violence Lived Experience Panel to be held on Monday 7
July 2025.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The reasons for the decision are:
The Deputy Mayor and the researchers are launching a report on
Honour-Based Violence/Abuse, Forced Marriage and FGM. The launch is
designed to begin to disseminate the recommendations within the
report to key stakeholders.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 26/06/2025
Decision:
£731.25 is used for a room booking and
refreshments at HOME for the launch of the Honour-Based
Violence/Abuse, Forced Marriage and FGM Report held by the Deputy
Mayor for partners and stakeholders.
Room booking £506.25
Refreshments £3.00pp for 75 people = £225
Total £731.25
An additional amount of funding is made available as follows
– this is due to the fact the report launch was moved from
19th June to 2nd September and the room booking time has been
extended to 2 hours and the catering extended to 100 people.
Additional room booking cost: £150 (total overall
£881.25)
Additional catering cost: £75 (total overall
£300)
New total: £956.25
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The Deputy Mayor has agreed an envelope of
funding to the value of £1.1M to support the delivery of
Operation Soteria within GMP, with the purpose of:
• To improve investigative outcomes for Victims in Rape and
Serious Sexual Offences
• Develop an environment for change to enable the future
implementation of the National Operating Model
SSAIDP is a national learning programme for those working, or
aspiring to work, in Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO)
investigations. The learning programme is also aimed at supervisors
who manage and support RASSO investigations and managers who have
tactical and strategic leadership in the area of sexual assault
investigation.
SSAIDP is designed for specialist rape investigators and is not
intended to a be delivered as foundation training for all
investigators (PIP2). However, as GMP does not operate a specialist
rape investigation model, consideration has been given to define
the target audience. Based on the principle that SSAIDP should be
delivered to all investigators who manage RASSO offences, due to
the overlap in content and potentially high volume of staff, it
makes sense to commence delivery of SSAIDP to Detectives who have
not attended the Rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO)
Investigative Skills Development Programme (RISDP) course (now
ended), as they will not have received any specialist RASSO
training.
These officers will be:
• New Trainee DC’s who are on the PIP2 pathway (between
MOD A and MOD B courses)
• Accredited Detectives who are in RASSO investigative roles
who have not attended RISDP
Following consultation with the College of Policing, GMP has
licence approval to deliver SSAIDP as part of the PIP2 programme.
Capacity within the GMP training school is available to commence
delivery of the new PIP2 (SSAIDP) pathway from June 2025,
delivering six courses over 2025 (20 delegates per course) training
a total of 120 trainee DC’s. Thereafter, approximately nine
PIP2 courses are delivered annually (180 delegates per year), which
will achieve a total of circa 750 trainee Detectives trained by
September 2029.
Due to a lack of capacity in the training school, an alternative
for delivery to existing Detectives has had to be identified.
• The proposal is for SSAIDP training to be delivered as a
standalone course made for Detectives who have already completed
the PIP2 training and not attended RISDP training.
• There are currently 527 Detectives in main office district
roles (from DC-DCI rank). Of these, 206 are RISDP trained (39%).
This data indicates there are 321 Detectives who have not received
RISDP training. Some of these will be DI and DCI rank, however the
majority will be DC’s. These will need to be prioritised for
SSAID training.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 03/07/2025
Decision:
To fund the costs of SSAIDP training to the
value of £91,200 (excluding VAT) over 2025/26, 2026/27 &
2027/28.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
Operation Wage is Greater Manchester
Police’s new district-based model for tackling fraud and
cybercrime. It builds on the success of the CECAS pilot in
Stockport and Trafford, where embedding fraud prevention officers
within neighbourhood teams led to a measurable reduction in victim
losses and improved community engagement.
Outcomes to date from the initial pilot in Stockport
/Trafford:
Stockport
• £5,928,443 was lost to volume fraud in Stockport in
2023 (before Operation Wage). In the same period in 2024 since the
commencement of the intervention this figure reduced to
£2,465,901. A reduction of 58% in losses to volume
fraud.
• In 2023 there were 1,211 victims of volume fraud in
Stockport. This figure reduced to 822 for 2024 – a reduction
of 389 victims (-32%).
Trafford
• From April 2023 – December 2023 (before Operation
Wage) there were £5,720,079 reported victim losses. In the
same period in 2024 (April – Dec) since the commencement of
the intervention this figure reduced to £1,339,236. A
reduction of 76% in losses to volume fraud.
• In 2023 (April-December) there were 916 victims of volume
fraud in Trafford. This figure has reduced to 513 for the same
period in 2024 – a reduction of 403 victims (-44%).
Operation Wage Investment
The £100k investment from the DMIF will be used to recruit
three new CECAS officers for a 12 month period, enabling GMP to
expand the model into additional districts and lay the foundations
for a full-force rollout.
Fraud is now the most common crime type in the UK, yet it receives
a disproportionately low share of policing resources. The current
centralised CECAS model has delivered strong results, but expanding
this to a local model would enable data-driven targeting and
responses, volunteer-led outreach, multi-agency collaboration and
early intervention – to prevent people becoming a victim of
fraud in the first place.
The uplift plan supports the implementation of the model through a
phased and cost-effective rollout across multiple districts.
Sustainability
The respective Assistant Chief Constable is aware and supportive of
this programme of work and regular updates will be provided to
assess the benefits of the programme in the long-term. In addition,
work is underway to plan a series of round table events with
partners, including the private sector to demonstrate the benefits
of this work and seek sustained funding.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 03/07/2025
Decision:
£100k funding from the Deputy Mayors
Innovation Fund (DMIF) be invested into tackling fraud via
GMP’s Operation Wage model. The funding will enable expansion
of the team to fully trial the model and assess its potential to
deliver wider value in fraud prevention.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The Revolving Doors team, with their lived
experience of repeated contact with the CJS, aim to co-produce and
include stakeholders to focus on strategic service design and
commissioning.
In September 2024, during a Justice and Rehabilitation Executive
meeting, Revolving Doors expressed interest in expanding their
partnership commission. The Chair agreed to advance the proposal,
with a commitment to integrating lived experiences into planning,
suggesting the JRE Programme Board review the business case.
On April 23 2025, the JRE Programme Board approved the GMCA
Revolving Doors Lived Experience Team (LET) business case. This
approval is vital to addressing the high costs and demands from the
revolving doors cohort, driven by unmet health and social needs.
The LET will use lived experiences to provide qualitative insights,
inform data, and design interventions. This approach aims to reduce
system demand, address offending root causes, and position Greater
Manchester as a centre of excellence, sharing insights with other
authorities.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 04/07/2025
Decision:
Revolving Doors' comprehensive system for
lived experience teams will receive funding of £94,000 for
the 2025/26 period.
The programme will be evaluated before reviewing the procurement
route in 2026/27.
This allocation will support the Greater Manchester Combined
Authority whole system LET business case, which details a thorough
approach to co-production with individuals who have lived
experience within the entire criminal justice pathway. Review and
consider procurement for any further work.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement
with the Home Office ended 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 from the Minister of State
for Policing, Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12-month funding settlement, it was 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
was 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 extended contracts
expiring on 31st March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025.
This was due to the fact that a grant agreement from the Home
Office was not expected to be received until June 2025. The initial
3-month extensions were underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined
Authority capital financing & legal reserves, to cover the
highly unlikely eventuality that the grant agreement from
government does not come through. The grant agreement has now been
received from the government, therefore the VRU is able to extend
this contract from its current mid-year end date to the end of the
financial year.
The Parent and Carer Support (PACS) service provides support for
parents and carers who have concerns about their child. They may
have noticed a change in their child’s behaviour, and/or
suspect that their child is involved in violence, criminality or
potentially being exploited. The project was created in response to
feedback obtained by parents and carers from the Navigator
Programme and other parenting groups, where issues around
education, neurodiversity, risky behaviour, feelings of isolation,
and a breakdown in relationships were identified as potential areas
of concern.
The PACS team offer one-to-one support for parents and carers,
bespoke action plans, peer-to-peer support, advocacy, third-party
counselling options, and a therapeutic online 10-week course based
on the principles of non-violent resistance known as
‘Encounter’. Encounter aims to improve ‘parental
presence’ by focusing a parent/carer on their behaviour
rather than their child’s, helping to rebuild
relationships.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 03/07/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s PACS (Parent & Carer Support) programme by 7
months. The current contract end date is 30th August 2025. This
Decision seeks authorisation to add £250,000 to the existing
contract to retain PACS programme provision and extend the contract
until 31st March 2026. The extension will be awarded to the
existing programme provider, who are Oasis UK. The total amount of
the existing contract is £900,000. The total value once this
extension has been completed will be £1,150,000.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
To date, the multi-agency partnership working
approach reflected in its staffing arrangements has enabled the GM
VRU to develop new and existing relationships with partners across
a wide range of thematic areas to tackle serious violence in both
GM and across the UK. The GM VRU is seeking to continue to fund its
staff members to continue developing these programmes of
work.
The partners will report to a VRU director and Partnership lead who
are employed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
The first 3 months of 25/26 were covered by an existing decision
notice. The decisions were split to ensure provision was in place
prior to GMCA receiving the Home Office grant agreement in June
2025
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 02/07/2025
Decision:
The GM VRU are seeking to award the following
organisations to continue funding the VRU staff for the remaining 9
months of financial year 2025-26:
Internal Staff (GMCA)
Programme Support
Victims Champion
Research Officer (Lead Analyst)
External Staff- Secondments From Other Organisations:
Youth Justice Operational Lead (0.2 FTE) to be awarded to Tameside
Council
Youth Justice Strategic Lead (0.1 FTE) to be awarded to Wigan
Council
Probation Lead (0.4 FTE) to be awarded to the National Probation
Service
Clinical Lead (0.2 FTE) To be awarded to the Manchester University
NHS Foundation Trust
Contracts for Professional Services:
Education Lead (0.4 FTE) - to be awarded to the College of Maths
via a separate Decision Notice
Public Health Lead (0.2 FTE)- to be awarded to Helen Lowey
Consultancy Ltd via a separate Decision Notice
The costs for the Education Lead & Public Health Lead posts are
included in the below total of £264,129.96 to ensure the full
in year staffing costs are reflected, and to ensure VRU staffing
costs are always clear and transparent. The cost included within
this overall figure for the Education lead role is £19,000,
and for the Public Health lead role is £18,000 (total
£37,000). However, as noted above, to satisfy GMCA’s
constitutional requirements concerning commercial services &
legal arrangements for the Education Lead & Public Health lead
posts, separate Decisions are also required for both posts which
have been submitted for sign off alongside this Decision. It is
important to clarify that the below figure includes costs totalling
£37,000 for both posts.
Total: £264,129.96
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The reasons for the decision are:
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement with the Home Office
ended 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 from the Minister of State for Policing,
Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12 month funding settlement, it was agreed
(including via the previously signed Decision Notice for the 3
month extension of this contract in March 2025) 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 was 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 extended contracts expiring on 31st
March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This was due to the
fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office was not expected
to be received until June 2025. The initial 3-month extensions were
underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined Authority capital
financing & legal reserves, to cover the highly unlikely
eventuality that the grant agreement from government does not come
through. The grant agreement has now been received from the
government, therefore the VRU is able to extend this contract
through to the end of the financial year.
The Community Sports programme is one of the VRU’s flagship
interventions. In recognition of the positive impact that sport can
have on young people’s experiences, and it’s essential
role in helping many young people to avoid negative situations,
peer contacts, and routines and help to prevent involvement in
youth offending, the VRU originally commissioned StreetgamesUK in
2022 to deliver a programme that enables the VRU Community Sport
Lead to continue to explore opportunities to embed the work already
developed in partnership with StreetgamesUK, and their community
sport analysis tool, as an evidence-based approach to delivering
the VRU’s vision for the role of community sport. This
approach seeks:
• More sport in more places
• More workforce with more competencies
• More vulnerable young people referred to- and engaged in-
community sport programmes.
In 2025/26, this approach will also involve the VRU working in
partnership with Streetgames to learn from their experience of
capacity building as the VRU develops capacity in the arts and
culture sector to produce arts and culture-led interventions.
This programme is in the process of being evaluated by Manchester
Metropolitan University, as with all VRU flagship programmes.
Streetgames have also commissioned a wider systems change
evaluation via Loughborough University across several of its
programmes, including its VRU funded programme in Greater
Manchester.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 20/06/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s Community Sports programme by 9 months. The current
contract end date is 30th June 2025. The new end date would be 31st
March 2026. The value of this extension will be £150,000. The
extension will be awarded to the existing programme provider, who
are Streetgames. The total amount of the existing contract is
£650,000; the total value once this extension has been
completed will be £800,000.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
This will act as the launch even of the
Violence Reduction Community-Led Action Network. The purpose of the
network is to provide a place for communities to be properly heard
pertaining to their experiences and views of violence. The Action
Network will facilitate meaningful and relevant conversations,
share applicable data, knowledge, community insights and make
representations directly to the Violence Reduction Governance Board
in order to influence and shape GM’s collective effort in
preventing and responding to violence.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 11/07/2025
Decision:
The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit
are seeking to make the following payments for the VRU Action
Network Launch event on 14th July 2025:
HOME Theatre
A payment to be made of £400.00 to book space at HOME Theatre
covering event space for between all attendees.
Wardley Ltd
A separate payment to be made of £650.00 to cover catering
(standard lunch package) for all attendees to the above event.
Wardley ltd are the catering provider of HOME Theatre and must be
paid separately to the HOME event costs.
This replaces a previous Decision signed in June 2025 which quotes
a lower catering figure of £150.00
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The reasons for the decision are:
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement with the Home Office
ended 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 from the Minister of State for Policing,
Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12 month funding settlement, it was agreed
(including via the previously signed Decision Notice for the 3
month extension of this contract in March 2025) 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 was 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 extended contracts expiring on 31st
March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This was due to the
fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office was not expected
to be received until June 2025. The initial 3-month extensions were
underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined Authority capital
financing & legal reserves, to cover the highly unlikely
eventuality that the grant agreement from government does not come
through. The grant agreement has now been received from the
government, therefore the VRU is able to extend this contract
through to the end of the financial year.
It is a requirement stipulated by the Home Office that VRUs must
spend a small proportion of their yearly budget on data sharing
agreements and putting data sharing architecture into place. The
Violence Reduction Unit commissioned JMU Services Ltd in 2022 to
deliver TIIG (Trauma Injury & Intelligence Gathering) data via
a multi-year contract to assist wider programme evaluation.
Liverpool John Moores University receive, process, clean and
securely store anonymised trauma-related injury data collected by
Greater Manchester Emergency Departments. This data is used on a
regular basis by a range of VRU staff and partners to support the
targeting of services and interventions, strategic planning around
need, and problem profiling.
TIIG has been providing services in Greater Manchester for around
15 years, provided throughout that time by Liverpool John Moores
University (JMU Services Ltd). TIIG provide a key link with health
services and non-police data around violence that cannot be
accessed through other means.
This data is used in monitoring core VRU outcomes, evaluating VRU
interventions, supporting partner services and local
authorities’ analytical capacity, and strategic
planning.
The charge for delivery in 25/26 is reflective of the agreed
workplan to be delivered by TIIG in 25/26. This is the
‘expanded’ workplan agreed upon in 23/24 and 24/25,
following a smaller workplan in 22/23. These include continuing an
intensive work programme with A&Es to improve the quality of
ISTV data. This will also further fund TIIG’s dedicated Data
Quality Lead who is experienced in working with organisations to
improve data collected.
Use of this data is embedded in a wide range of VRU work, and
discontinuation of the contract would result in significant
disruption to the VRU’s ability to deliver interventions,
monitor outcomes, and report to the Home Office.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 20/06/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s TIIG contract by 9 months. The current contract end
date is 30th June 2025. The new end date would be 31st March 2026.
The value of this extension will be £36,840. The extension
will be awarded to the existing programme provider, who are JMU
Services Ltd (Liverpool John Moores University). The total amount
of the existing contract is £133,925; the total value once
this extension has been completed will be £170,765.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement
with the Home Office ended 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 from the Minister of State
for Policing, Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12 month funding settlement, it was agreed
(including via the previously signed Decision Notice for the 3
month extension of this contract in March 2025) 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 was 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 extended contracts expiring on 31st
March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This was due to the
fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office was not expected
to be received until June 2025. The initial 3-month extensions were
underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined Authority capital
financing & legal reserves, to cover the highly unlikely
eventuality that the grant agreement from government does not come
through. The grant agreement has now been received from the
government, therefore the VRU is able to extend this contract by 12
months.
BLOCKS is a child-centred, strengths-based, trauma-informed
programme providing one-to-one support for young people as they
transition from primary to secondary school to mitigate potential
risks of involvement in or connection with violence. Co-designed
with young people, parents, and primary school teachers and staff,
the programme includes 10 primary schools from across Greater
Manchester and is delivered by Salford Foundation. Over the course
of the 3-year contract so far, BLOCKS mentors have worked in both
the school environment and the community, during school holidays,
providing structured support, mentoring and social skills
development.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 20/06/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s BLOCKS (primary school transitions) programme by 12
months. The current contract end date is 30th September 2025. This
Decision seeks authorisation to add £300,000 to the existing
contract to retain BLOCKs programme provision and extend the
contract until 29th September 2026. The extension will be awarded
to the existing programme provider, who are Salford Foundation. The
total amount of the existing contract is £900,000. The total
value once this extension has been completed will be
£1,200,000.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The reasons for the decision are:
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement with the Home Office
ended 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 from the Minister of State for Policing,
Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12 month funding settlement, it was agreed
(including via the previously signed Decision Notice for the 3
month extension of this contract in March 2025) 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 was 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 extended contracts expiring on 31st
March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This was due to the
fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office was not expected
to be received until June 2025. The initial 3-month extensions were
underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined Authority capital
financing & legal reserves, to cover the highly unlikely
eventuality that the grant agreement from government does not come
through. The grant agreement has now been received from the
government, therefore the VRU is able to extend this contract
through to the end of June 2026.
The Navigator programme is the VRU’s flagship tertiary
intervention, supporting those who have been victims (and
perpetrators) of serious violent crime. The programme works with
young people aged 10-25, to help them to cope and recover from
their experience of violence and assist with access to local
support networks to prevent the potential of further
violence.
Initially rolled out in four hospitals across Greater Manchester
(Royal Bolton Hospital, Salford Royal Hospital, Manchester Royal
Infirmary and Manchester Royal Children’s Hospital), due to
the success of the project, scope has been expanded to Wythenshawe
Hospital, and to include referrals from Northwest Ambulance Service
(NWAS) and community referrals, whilst a custody navigator
programme has now also been launched. This variation seeks to
include funding to extend provision of the custody element as well
as the hospital, community and education elements. The results form
the custody element will inform continued delivery of the 3D
Custody Programme.
It is vital that Navigators build trust with young people who may
not otherwise engage with other services. The Navigator project is
completely independent and confidential, young people are entitled
to receive support regardless of whether they report an incident to
the police or not. The GM Navigator programme has been nationally
appraised, with evaluation presented at the Royal College of
Paediatrics and Child Health in March 2024 to widespread
praise.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 20/06/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s Navigator programme by 12 months. The current contract
end date is 30th June 2025. This Decision seeks authorisation to
add £546,895.50 to the existing contract to retain existing
hospital, community, Education & custody navigators provision,
and extend the contract until 30th June 2026. The extension will be
awarded to the existing programme provider, who are Oasis UK. The
total amount of the existing contract is £1,525,646. The
total value once this extension has been completed will be
£2,072,541.50
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
Since its establishment in 2019, the GM VRU
have devolved a large proportion of the Home Office Serious
Violence Funding to the 10 GM CSPs, to utilise their existing
partnerships and community knowledge to address SV within their
local areas.
In the 2024/25, the CSP funded activities resulted in interventions
being delivered to over 30,000 Young People across GM. The GM VRU
intends to continue funding the positive work being delivered by
the CSPs by providing funding for a further year in 2025/26.
In March 2025, the Deputy Mayor wrote to the 10GM CSPs to announce
that the VRU would continue to devolve funding to CSPs from the VRU
& SVD Home Office grants (once those grants were received by
the Home Office) on the condition that a spending plan was
completed and submitted, with the endorsement of their respective
Directors of Children Services and Public Health, for the approval
of the GM VRU.
It is an expectation of the GM VRU that outcomes and activities
commissioned by the CSPs should be monitored locally and reported
back to the GM VRU. Furthermore, the CSPs are asked to ensure that
the programmes and services commissioned are in line with the
following areas of need which continue to feature within the VRU
Strategic Needs Assessment:
• Child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing
• Children and young people in Alternative Provision, at risk
of exclusion or not accessing education, particularly where
violence has been identified as a cause for concern
• Adverse childhood experiences and trauma-responsive
activity
• Adolescent early help services, including drugs and alcohol
services, youth engagement and provision, including community
sports
• Support for parents who are concerned about their child
becoming a victim or perpetrator of violent crime
• Transition for children and young people between primary
schools, secondary schools and further education
• Following amendments to Home Office VRU guidance for 25/26,
some consideration should be given to interventions concerning
Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
As well as the above areas, the GM VRU also expects districts to
apply the following:
• Be data led, making full use of the GMCA VRU Violence
Dashboard and Strategic Needs Assessment and CSP’s Serious
Violence Duty local SNAs and response strategies.
• Ensure that a minimum of 33% of funding is spent on
‘high impact’ interventions as defined by the Youth
Endowment Fund Toolkit.
• Employ the principles of community-led approaches where
opportunity presents, including co-designing and planning.
The amounts to be devolved to each district are:
• Bolton: £143,000 VRU & £17,171.76 SVD
• Bury: £150,000 VRU & £17,171.76
• Manchester: £193,000 VRU & £22,000 SVD
• Oldham: £150,000 VRU & £17,171.76 SVD
• Rochdale: £150,000 VRU & £17,171.76
SVD
• Salford: £143,000 VRU & £17,171.76 SVD
• Stockport: £150,000 VRU & £17,171.76
SVD
• Tameside: £143,000 VRU & £17,171.76
SVD
• Trafford £143,000 VRU & £17,171.76 SVD
• Wigan: £143,000 VRU & £17,171.76 SVD
As noted on the recently signed STEER grant funding decision
notice, the 6 districts in which STEER operates have contributed
£7,000 each from their total devolved funding allocation to
co-fund further delivery of the STEER programme, hence the
remaining amounts devolved to CSPs above
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 20/06/2025
Decision:
The Violence Reduction Unit agrees to award
each Greater Manchester Community Safety Partnership (CSP) the
below grant funding as part of the Devolved 2025/26 GM Violence
Reduction Unit Serious Violence Funding.
CSP Devolved Funding: £1,508,000 from Home Office VRU 25/26
Grant & £176,545.84 from SVD 25/26 Grant (Total Devolved
from VRU to CSPs in 25/26 to be £1,684,545.45)
The GM VRU has agreed to continue to devolve funding to the 10 CSP
areas across GM from its core 25/26 VRU Home Office VRU and Serious
Violence Duty grants. The funding will be granted on the condition
that the individual CSP plans are aligned to the wider strategic
priorities of their authority and partners and are co-signed by
Directors of Children’s Services and Population Health.
Both VRU and SVD funding will be awarded to CSPs in one combined
grant between GMCA & each local authority. The period for each
grant agreement will be 1st April 2025- 31st March 2026.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The VRU’s Education Lead is managing a
commission via the Education Community Partnership to strategically
engage all APs/PRUs across GM in order to progress the education
commitments of the greater Than Violence strategy. As part of this,
a symposium (facilitated by City in the Community, who work with
Aps/PRUs) held an initial symposium on 27th March with the
Education Lead. The event explored how the VRU can better engage
the most marginalised young people in education—ensuring it
works in their best interests and leads to stronger outcomes.
The VRU’s focus is on young people in Local
Authority-designated Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and Alternative
Provisions (APs). Too many of these learners remain outside of
mainstream education and, despite the best efforts of those who
support them, their opportunities and achievements remain limited.
As part of their manifesto commitment, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor
have tasked GMCA with designing a pathway and set of experiences to
help these young people become MBacc-ready—offering them a
future that is both ambitious and achievable.
This second symposium seeks to continue channelling momentum built
from the March 2025 event and continue driving engagement from all
PRUs in Greater Manchester. This will again be a high-level
discussion, engaging key partners and stakeholders who shape the
strategic agenda across Greater Manchester.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 19/06/2025
Decision:
The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit
are seeking to make a payment of £1000.00 to GM Chambers of
Commerce to cover venue and catering costs for 40-45 attendees to
facilitate space for a symposium on engaging Alternative Provision
(AP) & Pupil Referral Units to as part of the VRU’s
Education Strategy group on 8th July 2025. This will be the second
such symposium in 2025.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
To ensure that victim support services that
are funded by the GMCA are contributing to the Standing Together
Plan and are addressing identified needs, a Strategic Needs
Assessment for GM Victims of Crime has been initiated. The
overarching aim of the Victim Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) is
to provide a high-level overview of what we know about victim need
across GM, our current service provision, and whether our current
service provision is meeting the needs of victims.
Most of our data on victims comes from Greater Manchester Police
and our commissioned services, we therefore have little insight
into the experiences of victims who don’t come to the
attention of the police or victim services. This significantly
impacts upon victims of Gender Based Violence as we know the
staggering levels of underreporting in this arena and this piece of
work should seek to respond to this. In order to fill this data
gap, a Call for Evidence has been identified as being required to
help inform the Victims of crime SNA.
To deliver this Call for Evidence, GMCA require a skilled
facilitator to help us engage with the sector and develop
understanding including current demand and service quality,
identify gaps in provision, highlight where there is best practice
and carry out a comprehensive review of the services, we currently
commission. This is to inform future funding of services which
support victims of crime. We want the review to identify what is
working currently and what is not.
We are also seeking support in understanding the victim / witness
experience by carrying out a range of engagement / listening
exercises with the sector and victims and witnesses with lived
experience themselves.
The review will include assessing current demand for services,
predicting future demand, identifying gaps, assessing available
resources and other associated costs or organisational
requirements. It will also need to consider what is commissioned
locally across Greater Manchester. It will Identify best practice
and work with all stakeholders to reach a consensus about what good
looks like in Greater Manchester
Where applicable, the work will seek to identity where further
research / data collection is required to bridge gaps in
understanding and build an intelligence picture which can inform
commissioning decisions for victims of crime. It will also seek to
understand how services we commission operate with Greater
Manchester Police, Local Authorities, Criminal Justice / and NHS
partners, other VCSE organisations and the GM Victims Multi-Crime
service.
Outputs:
A detailed report and slide-pack be submitted to GMCA with a number
of viable options to be considered by the Deputy Mayor. This will
include a position statement outlining the work undertaken to reach
these conclusions along with who was engaged and how.
A final draft of the report will be due late August 2025, with the
finalised report due late September 2025.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 12/06/2025
Decision:
To award a 4-month contract for the provision
of Delivering Call to Evidence: Victim of Crime Sector Engagement
Facilitator - To Support the Greater Manchester Victims’
Strategic Needs Assessment, to Equality Collabs Ltd. The value of 4
months spend would be £49,875
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
Every quarter, the Safer and Stronger
Communities directorate have a team away day around different
themes to keep the team’s knowledge and understanding to the
best of their ability. The theme for the away day on the 27th June
is around Racism and Discrimination in both the workplace and
society, exploring microaggressions and practising effective
responses and presenting an examination of statistics on
contemporary manifestations of racism in both of these areas.
Mindseta is a creative training company dedicated to delivering
unforgettable and transformative DEI (Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion) experiences for all stakeholders.
They collaborate closely with senior management, HR, DEI leaders,
and ERGs to shape environments that provide equal opportunities for
all employees to thrive.
By balancing creativity, learning, and community, they foster
cultural development and empowerment, guiding organisations toward
a future centred on collective humanity.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 12/06/2025
Decision:
The Safer Stronger Communities team are
seeking to make the following payment to a company called
‘Thisismindseta’ as they are hosting a training
workshop for the team around Racism and Discrimination in both the
workplace and society.
Thisismindseta:
The decision is that GMCA to pay £3,500 for training to
Mindseta.
This will be hosted at GM Chamber of Commerce, Manchester for a
total of 40 attendees (including trainers and staff) on the 27th
June 2025. No space within GMCA is available on this date to
accommodate meeting attendees.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The reasons for the decision are:
The purpose of this funding is to update recruitment materials and
communicate these to a wider body of people for use within the 2025
recruitment campaign. Updated materials are an essential aspect of
the new campaign, allowing GMCA to more effectively communicate the
importance of the scheme, the role of ICVs and the benefits of
becoming an ICV to attract new volunteers. These materials will be
used within the planned advertising included in the requested
funding, as well as within a series of updates and improvements to
outreach/engagement and new recruitment pathways.
The goals of the 2025 recruitment campaign are to:
1. Better communicate the role of an ICV, the importance of the
scheme, the difference that ICVs make and the benefits this
offers.
2. Increase visibility and raise awareness.
3. Make it easier to apply and fully understand what the role
entails.
4. Better target under-represented demographics and increase
diversity.
5. Increase applications from individuals that are passionate about
the work carried out by the scheme and the values that an ICV
should possess.
Through these changes and the planned increased number of
volunteers, the key benefits of launching a new recruitment
campaign are to improve resilience within the volunteer pool,
making the scheme better placed to achieve a Gold award within the
ICV QAF and to create a scheme that is better representative of
Greater Manchester in terms of diversity of personal attributes and
location of volunteers.
It has been necessary to seek external support from an agency for
the recruitment campaign based on capacity and resourcing
considerations within GMCA. Agency support provides the most
productive and effective means of developing and launching the
campaign in a timely manner. This will also act as a timely
investment in recruitment which has not been reviewed or updated
since 2020.
Volunteer numbers have decreased over time due to both resignations
and a lack of new applicants, reducing resourcing capacity.
Additional short-term burden has been created through the
recruitment of Animal Welfare Visit scheme volunteers from the
existing pool of ICV volunteers. Improvements to recruitment and
subsequent increases to the volunteer pool within the scheme will
allow GMCA to continue to meet its statutory requirements to run a
functioning scheme, as well as create a scheme that is better
representative of the people of Greater Manchester through improved
diversity.
With the requested funding, GMCA will have stronger, more effective
means of raising awareness of the ICV scheme, demonstrating its
commitment to its statutory responsibilities set out within the
Police Reform Act 2002 and assuring the people of Greater
Manchester that the welfare and rights of detained persons is being
closely monitored.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 12/06/2025
Decision:
Funding of up to £12,000 is requested to
cover costs relating to the 2025 recruitment campaign for the
Independent Custody Visitor (ICV) scheme, covering agency fees,
design, communications management, photography and videography and
printed materials.
The costs associated with this funding will be used to create new
recruitment materials and have this managed within advertisements
and campaigns, working with agency partners Pixel8 and
BuyMeMedia.
Work by the agency partners will include design for recruitment
concepts, photography and videography, design and printing of
hard-copy recruitment materials, graphics for social media adverts,
management costs for the project and for paid media and ad-hoc or
unforeseen costs in the running of in-person recruitment
engagements.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The PhD candidate appointed to the GMSO study
has been withdrawn from the University of Manchester following
concerns raised by both academic supervisors and GMCA.
To keep the study on track, Professor David Gadd provided a
10,000-word rapid review of the evaluation evidence and a
substantive research design to underpin the evaluation and support
the recruitment of a further PhD student.
Professor Gadd is currently working with members of his own team to
develop the ethical protocols needed for the study to proceed.
Academic writing regarding the study will continue into 2029.
A PhD candidate remains required to provide essential evaluation
information to inform future commissioning on a longer-term basis.
They will continue to work under the supervision of Professors
David Gadd and Emma Barret in the Department of Criminology.
Accountability will continue to the project advisory group,
comprising Mr Duncan Craig OBE (Honorary Research Fellow and
CEO of We Are Survivors), Katherine Self
(Senior Policy & Partnership Officer, Greater Manchester
Combined
Authority), Dr Polly Turner, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Dr Neil
Gredecki, Lecturer in Psychology and Mental Health and Siobhan
Pollitt, Chief Executive, Back on Track.
It is a core requirement of the PhD that the candidate and research
team will work alongside the funder, Greater Manchester Combined
Authority, to continue to develop the evaluation framework that
will ultimately assess the effectiveness of a new model of
intervention.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 12/06/2025
Decision:
To award the University of Manchester
£17,000.
A contract variation is requested. According to the terms of the
contract, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority can extend the
contract period by up to 12 months with a 3-month notice.
To cover this variation an additional £17,000 is
requested.
The additional money is to support Professor David Gadd in the
provisional research design for the evaluation of the Greater
Manchester Sex Offender Intervention, Creating Change.
The full evaluation from the pilot, will continue to be led by a
PhD graduate and will be hosted in the Department of Criminology in
the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. The
academic research questions the studentship will address is:
What should be done to reduce the risks of reoffending among
convicted sex offenders whose offending is foregrounded in multiple
disadvantage, previous victimisation and/or substance use and poor
mental health?
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement
with the Home Office ended 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 postMarch 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 from the Minister of State
for Policing, Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12 month funding settlement, it was
agreed
(including via the previously signed Decision Notice for the 3
month
extension of this contract in March 2025) 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 was 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 extended contracts expiring on 31st
March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This was due to the
fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office was not expected
to be received until June 2025. The initial 3 month extensions were
underwritten by Greater
Manchester Combined Authority capital financing & legal
reserves, to cover the highly unlikely eventuality that the grant
agreement from government does not come through. The grant
agreement has now been received from the government, therefore the
VRU is able to extend this contract through to the end of the
financial year.
It is a requirement stipulated by the Home Office that VRUs must
spend a minimum of 10% of their yearly budget on programme
evaluation. The Violence Reduction Unit commissioned ManMet in 2022
to deliver multiyear programme evaluation, and participatory
youth framework activity to assist with the creation of the Greater
Than Violence strategy. The VRU will continue to require evaluation
support in 2025/26, including a potential focus on systems change
evaluation to identify and evaluate the impact of the GM VRU across
the wider system in which it operates. ManMet continue to have a
direct link to GMP Data via its Big Data centre.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Executive
Decision published: 17/07/2025
Effective from: 25/06/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s Programme Evaluation contract by 9 months.
The current contract end date is 30th June 2025. The new end date
would be 31st March 2026. The value of this extension will be
£192,500. The extension will be awarded to the existing
programme provider, who are Manchester Metropolitan University
(ManMet). The total amount of the existing contract is
£877,749; the total value once this extension has been
completed will be £1,070,249.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
This grant is awarded to the 10 GM FE
Colleges, via grant funding awarded to GMCA from the Department for
Education (DfE) in April 2025. The funding will be used to fund
capital projects which improve the estates and teaching &
learning space for 16-19 year olds accessing provision at the
colleges. This will address the challenges in increased learner
numbers in this age group, and a lack of sufficient teaching &
learning space for relevant provision.
The grant period is from 1st June 2025 to 30th September 2026, and
colleges have demonstrated. Outcomes of the grant funding are the
increased number of places for 16-19 year olds to access FE
provision. The approximate number of places that will be created is
c3000 (this includes places for September 2025 and September
2026).
The approach to this funding was outlined in the Greater Manchester
Post-16 Sufficiency Fund paper and approved at the GMCA meeting on
30th May 2025.
SCOPE OF GRANT
In April 2025 the Skills Minister announced that £10million
capital funding will be made available to GMCA to support capacity
for the rising numbers of 16–19-year-olds in Greater
Manchester; this grant is for FY2025-26 and can support the
creation of new places needed for the forthcoming autumn term
(September 2025). It is welcome both in terms of creating vital
capacity needed in the system and as a significant step forward in
devolution, as it is the first time DfE has made place-based
funding of this nature available in a 16-19 context.
This grant funding should support the following key
objectives:
1. To provide additional capacity in 16-19 providers, where there
is a demographic increase in learners and there is not enough
existing suitable capacity to accommodate that increase, for
academic years 2025/26 and 2026/27.
2. To ensure that provision to be delivered through the additional
space developed meets local and national skills requirements and is
reflective of learner demand and need; and
3. To do so in the most efficient and sustainable way possible, to
ensure value for money in the investment of public funds, and to
support the Government’s target of achieving net zero carbon
emissions.
The grants will be used to fund capital projects which deliver an
increase in teaching and learning space to address the current
sufficiency challenges for 16–19-year-old learners across GM.
Only capital expenditure is eligible related to increasing capacity
in the education estate for 16- to 19-year-olds. Investments must
deliver the best long-term value for money in recognition of the
temporary nature of the demographic increases in this age group.
Where possible, longer-term use by different age groups could
demonstrate good value for money.
GMCA will schedule quarterly key performance monitoring points (in
line with the quarters outlined in Appendix B) during the duration
of the Grant delivery period, for the purpose of reviewing the
overall position in terms of project expenditure, delivery of any
key project milestone outlined in the grant proposal, and any
interdependencies arising from continued place-based sufficiency
planning and development. This monitoring will be done on an
informal basis and will include LA strategic leads. GMCA will
provide a monitoring report template.
ALLOCATION PROCESS
As outlined and approved in the 30th May GMCA paper, the total of
£10,000,000 DfE funding was allocated to colleges using a
weighted allocation methodology.
Following a review of seven allocation methodologies with strategic
leads from the 10 GM Local Authorities, the recommendation to take
forward the option that was agreed as being the fairest, most
evidence-led approach based on currently available, GM-wide data.
This methodology combines multiple factors/weightings included in
the calculation of LA values that influence capacity, such as NEET
levels and travel to learn flows. The methodology contains some
variations in the granularity of data/insights but offers
opportunities to build consensus between LAs (with whom the primary
statutory duty resides) and the institutions in their areas (which
have access to the most up to date evidence of applications,
enrolments and - in acute cases - waiting lists), in order to
generate the most insightful picture of need. With a focus on
institutions that deliver technical education and a diverse offer
at a range of levels and for vulnerable learners, as well as
facilities in a range of locations across GM that could be used by
other age groups, this has the potential to deliver the greatest
impact for the target cohort and wider value for money.
The agreed allocations are set out in the table below:
College - Grant amount
Bolton College - £556,030.85
Bury College - £500,756.87
The Manchester College - £5,043,941.58
Oldham College - £437,190.69
Hopwood Hall College - £649,741.34
Salford City College - £1,203,015
Trafford & Stockport College Group - £314,960.37
(Stockport £224,191.57 (Trafford)
Tameside College - £743,426.21
Wigan & Leigh College - £326,745.51
GMCA provided a Grant Requirements Document outlining the
requirements for college proposals including eligible programme
activities, timeline, payment model. Colleges were asked to submit
proposals containing information about their capital projects, any
match they had committed from the college, how many spaces will be
created as a result of the grant funding, as well as a project cost
breakdown and risk plan.
A review of these proposals was undertaken to ensure projects were
in line with the main objectives of the funding. This was not a
competitive process as the grant allocation had already been
approved, however we wanted to understand the scope of the projects
and for the purpose of reporting back to DfE in April 2026, we
needed to gather information on the number of new places created as
a result of the funding. It also ensured that the college had
sighted their LA strategic lead on their plans.
See Annex 1 for a summary of each LA delivery model/proposal, for
information.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Executive
Decision published: 15/07/2025
Effective from: 23/07/2025
Decision:
Grant funding of £10,000,000 is granted
to the ten GM Further Education (FE) Colleges to deliver capital
projects to increase capacity and deliver additional places for
16-19 year old learners for Academic years 2025/26 and 2026/27, to
address the current sufficiency challenges.
Lead officer: Nicola Ward
As detailed in the report.
Decision Maker: GM Mayor
Decision published: 11/07/2025
Effective from: 27/06/2025
Decision:
1. Paul Dennett, Deputy Mayor of Greater
Manchester, acting in the place of the Mayor, agreed in principle,
to the creation of an MDC for the regeneration of the Old Trafford
Regeneration area.
2. Paul Dennett Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester, acting in the
place of the Mayor, approved the undertaking of a consultation
exercise, as described above and in this report.
Lead officer: Nicola Ward
As detailed in the report.
Decision Maker: GM Mayor
Decision published: 11/07/2025
Effective from: 27/06/2025
Decision:
1. Paul Dennett, Deputy Mayor of Greater
Manchester, acting in place of the Mayor, agreed that the
Exclusives offer should continue and the approach to
re-commissioning being taken by officers.
2. Paul Dennett, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester, acting in
place of the Mayor, delegated authority to the Group Chief Finance
Officer (in consultation with the Chief Executive Officer Lead and
Portfolio Lead for Education, Skills and Work) to approve the award
of the new contract and any post-award
Lead officer: Nicola Ward
The procurement process for this opportunity
was an Open Invitation to Tender under the Procurement Act
2023.
1 bid was received.
The selection process evaluated the bidder’s response on the
following criteria:
• Sourcing and Managing Exclusives - 20%
• Promotional Activity - 15%
• Social Media - 10%
• User Engagement - 10%
• Management of Delivery - 15%
• Performance management and reporting - 10%
• Value for Money - 5%
• Social Value - 15% (9% Qualitative and 6%
Quantitative)
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.
A contract for services will be awarded to The Growth Company for
the delivery of GMCA 1209 Our Pass Promotion and Exclusives
Service.
The contract will commence on 28th July 2025, and the initial
period is due to end on 27th July 2027. The GMCA has reserved the
right to extend this contract for up to an additional 2 years (in
12-month increments).
The value of the first extension period is up to £414,000 and
the value of the second extension period is up to £426,500.
Therefore, the estimated total value of the contract, including all
optional extension periods, is up to a maximum of
£1,623,500.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 11/07/2025
Effective from: 19/07/2025
Decision:
Following an open competitive procurement
process, GMCA wishes to award one contract with a total value of up
to £1,623,500 to The Growth Company Limited.
Background
Our Pass was launched as a pilot in 2019 to give young people aged
16-18 greater access to educational, leisure, social and cultural
activities through a free or discounted public transport offer and
access to a range of exclusive offers and discounts. In January
2023, it was agreed to make the Our Pass travel offer permanent,
subject to annual review.
GMCA have now sought for an organisation to deliver a suite of
services that will underpin the Our Pass travel offer, working
alongside GMCA and TfGM to ensure that Our Pass is connected to and
embedded within our growing offer of services for young people
across GM.
This new service will encompass what is currently delivered under
Our Pass Exclusives, but with a refreshed scope to align the
service with GMCA and TfGM’s evolving developments and
priorities for young people in GM.
There are four main strands to delivery of the Our Pass Exclusives
and Promotion service:
1. Sourcing and Managing Our Pass Exclusives
2. Engagement and Promotion for Our Pass and Our Pass
Exclusives
3. Management of digital products
4. Working with stakeholders
Lead officer: Nicola Ward
The VRU’s 2022-2025 funding settlement
with the Home Office ended 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 from the Minister of State
for Policing, Fire & Crime Prevention.
Due to this being only a 12 month funding settlement, it was agreed
(including via the previously signed Decision Notice for the 3
month extension of this contract in March 2025) 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 was 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 extended contracts expiring on 31st
March 2025 by 3 months through 30th June 2025. This was due to the
fact that a grant agreement from the Home Office was not expected
to be received until June 2025. The initial 3-month extensions were
underwritten by Greater Manchester Combined Authority capital
financing & legal reserves, to cover the highly unlikely
eventuality that the grant agreement from government does not come
through. The grant agreement has now been received from the
government, therefore the VRU is able to extend this contract
through to September 30th 2025.
The 2023 Greater Than Violence strategy contains multiple
commitments to work across educational settings over the next
decade, particularly concerning pupils with special educational
needs and/or disabilities.
In order to progress this work, the VRU needed to appoint an
individual who could function at a senior level and invoke the
necessary changes across the education system. As such, it
appointed an independent education lead via the College of Maths.
Since July 2022, the education lead has operated in a complex
partnership environment, working with multiple stakeholders to
identify best practice, implement strategy and effective
intervention measures. The independent education lead was appointed
as in order to succeed in this work, it was deemed necessary that
the individual would need to have had extensive experience as a
headteacher, and was both competent and fully conversant with the
business landscape of
education, including matters pertaining to national and local
policy, through to direct operational delivery.
Building resilience within the school community and general
education
setting is vital in order to reduce the risk of young people
becoming involved in violence but also addressing the outcomes and
factors when violence does occur. This work covers all elements of
primary and secondary and
further education as well as other specialist education provision.
The Education Lead also supports delivery of the Mayor’s
manifesto commitments around MBacc and wider education and
employment opportunities for young people more generally.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 20/06/2025
Decision:
GMCA Safer & Stronger Communities
(Violence Reduction Unit) wish to extend provision of the
VRU’s Education Lead contract by 3 months. The current
contract end date is 30th June 2025. The new end date would be 31st
September 2025. The value of this extension will be £19,000.
The extension will be awarded to the existing provider, which is
the College of Maths. The total amount of the existing contract is
£178,400; the total value once this extension has been
completed will be £197,400
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The VRU’s Education Lead is managing a
commission via the Education Community Partnership to strategically
engage all APs/PRUs across GM in order to progress the education
commitments of the greater Than Violence strategy. As part of this,
a symposium (facilitated by City in the Community, who work with
Aps/PRUs) held an initial symposium on 27th March with the
Education Lead. The event explored how the VRU can better engage
the most marginalised young people in education—ensuring it
works in their best interests and leads to stronger outcomes.
The VRU’s focus is on young people in Local
Authority-designated Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and Alternative
Provisions (APs). Too many of these learners remain outside of
mainstream education and, despite the best efforts of those who
support them, their opportunities and achievements remain limited.
As part of their manifesto commitment, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor
have tasked GMCA with designing a pathway and set of experiences to
help these young people become MBacc-ready—offering them a
future that is both ambitious and achievable.
This second symposium seeks to continue channelling momentum built
from the March 2025 event and continue driving engagement from all
PRUs in Greater Manchester. This will again be a high-level
discussion, engaging key partners and stakeholders who shape the
strategic agenda across Greater Manchester.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 19/06/2025
Decision:
The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit
are seeking to make a payment of £1000.00 to GM Chambers of
Commerce to cover venue and catering costs for 40-45 attendees to
facilitate space for a symposium on engaging Alternative Provision
(AP) & Pupil Referral Units to as part of the VRU’s
Education Strategy group on 8th July 2025. This will be the second
such symposium in 2025.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
Kelly Brown, the owner of Mother On A Mission,
has been campaigning against violence since the death of her son
Rhamero West in September 2021. Whilst Kelly has used much of her
time up until 2024 raising funds for ‘bleed box’ kits,
she now wishes to use her experiences to engage local young people
in a preventative context. The VRU wishes to continue to provide
both financial and administrative support to enable her to continue
delivery of a sustainable support offer in Fallowfield.
Interventions include:
- Twice weekly youth club including premises hire and hot
food.
- Local educational trips for young people (Museums /
libraries)
- Local outreach work
- School Holiday activity
Further activity surrounding the funding is outlined below:
- Manchester Community Central (MACC) will be continuing to provide
Mother On A Mission with advice and support to enable them to
establish & develop as an organisation.
- The VRU Parent & Carer support team will continue to partner
with Mother On A Mission to provide the opportunity to contribute
to peer support design.
- The VRU will arrange transfer of VRU funds (2025/26) and continue
to assist Mother On A Mission with appropriate reporting. Mother On
A Mission will continue to submit quarterly returns to the
VRU.
- The GMCA Research team have been tasked to continue working with
Mother On A Mission to evaluate delivery arising from this grant
funding.
The VRU has been pleased with the first year of delivery by Mother
On A Mission, with evaluation provided by the GMCA Research team
who will continue to work with the organisation to evaluate the
next phase of delivery. It should be noted that this funding was
awarded to Mother On A Mission on the basis that they secure and
prove match funding of sufficient value prior to demonstrate a
commitment to sustainability of funding beyond solely VRU, a
condition that will be written into the grant agreement and has
already been agreed to by Mother On A Mission.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 12/06/2025
Decision:
With Deputy Mayor approval, the programme
director agrees a VRU budget allocation of £10,000 via grant
funding to Mother On A Mission to continue deliver a 12-month
programme of youth provision in the Fallowfield area. This award is
predicated on Mother On A Mission demonstrating proof of match
funding to the VRU. The grant period will cover
01/06/2025-31/05/2026.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The roundtable will act as a forum to explore
deeper partnerships between the Housing sector and statutory
agencies to see how Housing can contribute to reducing harms such
as serious violence and serious organised criminality. This follows
recent Housing sector engagement with the Violence Reduction
Governance Board and Programme Challenger Executive Board
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 28/05/2025
Decision:
The Safer Stronger Communities team are
seeking to make the following payment to Friends Meeting House
(Manchester):
Friends Meeting House:
A payment to be made of £266.00 to book a room at Friends
Meeting
House, Manchester for 20 attendees to host a Housing/CSP engagement
workshop. No space within GMCA is available on this date to
accommodate meeting attendees.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
This grant funding will allow GMCA to operate
a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in financial year 2025/26. As
outlined in the grant agreement, VRUs bring together local partners
to understand the causes of serious violence and deliver targeted
prevention work. The scheme will also support the
Government’s Safer Streets Mission including the development
and implementation of Prevention Partnerships with a specific focus
on testing Local Prevention Partnership Panels in the first year of
their establishment.
In signing this agreement, GMCA must ensure VRU delivery throughout
the duration of the Grant adheres to the minimum requirements for
funding, detailed in the 2025/26 VRU Application Guidance, provided
to each eligible VRU area to aid the development of delivery
proposals, and may be subject to update or change throughout the
duration of the year. In addition, VRUs
will be provided with detailed guidance on the delivery
expectations to
introduce Local Prevention Partnership Panels, which will also be
subject to revision as required. Within the VRU Application
Guidance, a VRU’s Core Function is defined.
This is to offer leadership, establish a Core Membership and,
working with all relevant agencies operating locally, provide
strategic coordination of the local response to serious violence.
VRUs must support a multi-agency, public health approach to
preventing and tackling serious violence.
The GMCA shall use the Grant to tackle serious violence by building
on itsexisting VRU. The key success measures are as follows:
• A reduction in hospital admissions for assaults with a knife
or sharp
object and especially among those victims aged under 25,
• A reduction in knife-enabled serious violence and especially
among
those victims aged under 25,
• A reduction in all non-domestic homicides and especially
among those victims aged under 25 involving knives.
The VRU must continue to use, and update, the following
mandatory
products in 2025/26:
• Strategic Needs Assessment
• Theory of Change
• Annual Report
• Response Strategy
• Pilot Delivery of Local Prevention Partnership Panels
VRUs must nominate a Director to lead all requirements outlined in
this Decision Notice.
Provision of detailed quarterly reports (using Home Office
templates) is stipulated as a condition of grant funding. The
deadlines for quarterly reporting are 31st July 2025, 31st October
2025, 31st January 2026 and 30thApril 2026.
In order to draw down this grant funding, the VRU must secure
match
funding to the value of 20% of their 2021/22 grant funding amount.
The VRUs fully costed match funding plan (approved by the Home
Office) for 25/26 totals £2,279,812.50 which far exceeds this
target. This is broken down in the finance section of this Decision
Notice.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 04/06/2025
Decision:
The Deputy Mayor, carrying out the functions
of
Police & Crime Commissioner on behalf of the Mayor, gives
authorisation for GMCA to enter into a grant agreement with the
Home Office (Young Futures Delivery Unit) to receive
£4,341.877.11 in grant funding relating to ‘Serious
Violence Fund- Violence Reduction Units’ for 25/26. In so
doing, the Deputy Mayor authorises the match funding plan finalised
by the VRU for 2025/26 and approved by the Home Office which the
VRU will need to ensure is met in order to draw down the entirety
of this grant funding.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The Violence Reduction Unit intends to run a
team away day to unite the wider GM Violence Reduction Partnership
(including leads from public agencies across GM including Health,
GMP, Probation, Public Health, Youth Justice and Education amongst
others) in order to review business from the previous 12 months and
look ahead to the next 12 months, ensuring that Violence Reduction
is at the heart of every aspect of planning. The away day is
intended to generate team cohesion and ensure a partnership-wide
approach to our core business planning. This year’s away day
will include an input from a researcher from Manchester Centre for
Youth Studies.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 28/05/2025
Decision:
The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit
are seeking to make the following payments for a VRU Partnership
Away Day on 18th June 2025
Friends Meeting House
A payment to be made of £834.00 to book a room & catering
at GM Friends Meeting House covering event space for between 20 and
35 attendees, as well as lunch & refreshments (Teas, Coffees,
Water, Standard Working Lunch Platter for all attendees) covering
20-25 participants.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The REIGN Collective is a community interest
company that is owned and operated by sexual exploitation and abuse
survivors. The purpose of their work is to make sure fewer children
are failed by a system that survivors with lived experience at
REIGN fell through as young people. As survivors, REIGN realised
their stories and insight have the power to impact professionals
and challenge misconceptions, as well as improve services and how
they are delivered. They do this by educating professionals on how
CSE/A unfolds in a child’s life, allowing them the chance to
hear from survivors’ experiences directly, discover new ways
of working with children subjected to this crime, ask any questions
they would not be able to find answers to elsewhere, and understand
how their roles could make a lasting impact in a young
person’s recovery journey.
The VRU have commissioned REIGN to deliver a series of workshops
across schools in Greater Manchester (to be coordinated via the VRU
Education Hive online resource) that will focus on child criminal
and sexual exploitation from the victim’s perspective.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the workshops, participants will:
? Have a clearer understanding of what victims and survivors
experience
when facing CSA/CSE
? Understand what children and young people need from professionals
to help them when they have faced these crimes.
? Be challenged on views already held and leave with new ways of
thinking around CSA/CSE.
? Have an insight into how grooming develops and what perpetrators
are doing within this process.
? Finally, come away with new ways of working to help children you
might work with.
This grant funding has been subject to the approval of a funding
proposal submitted by the REIGN Collective to the VRU’s
Education Lead, who has subsequently met with REIGN to discuss in
detail in person. The VRU will be seeking feedback from schools to
understand the impact of these sessions.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 28/05/2025
Decision:
The VRU wishes to award REIGN Collective CIC
£11,000 in grant funding to deliver a series of workshops in
schools aimed at raising awareness of- and preventing young people
becoming victims of- child criminal and sexual exploitation. The
grant period will cover 01/06/2025-31/05/2026.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
Under its Safer Streets Mission, the
Government has committed to tackling serious violence by halving
knife crime and violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a
decade. The government wishes to accelerate whole system approaches
to these aims by implementing Young Futures Prevention
Partnerships.
Engage/PIED panels that GM VRU and our partners have been rolling
out across GM in recent years have been identified as areas of good
practice by the government These panels are our attempt to identify
children and young people who come to the attention of the police
but are not known to other services and in a multi-agency
arrangement, find positive alternatives for that child to try and
prevent an escalation in criminality and to protect them from harm.
There are currently 12 such panels across GM.
The Home Office, as part of its Young Futures Programme, has shown
a keen interest in these panels as a way of preventing youth
violence. This event will allow GM PIED leads to spread and scale
learning across GM in advance of Prevention Partnership Pilot
delivery.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 28/05/2025
Decision:
The Safer Stronger Communities team are
seeking to make the following payment to GM Chambers of
Commerce:
Chambers of Commerce:
A payment to be made of £1040.00 to book a room at GM
Chambers of Commerce, Manchester for 30 attendees (including lunch
for all attendees, standard working lunch option) to host the 30th
May 2025 PPIED/Engage Roundtable. No space within GMCA is available
on this date to accommodate meeting attendees.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
In 2024, Causeway and Leica Studies worked
with five survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking to
develop a photography exhibition that demonstrated the ways in
which Greater Manchester made them feel safe. The survivors engaged
with the work as part of the recovery and reintegration journey,
providing their experiences of what the city-region means to them
as a survivor. The photographs were used throughout the activity of
the week, including being displayed in Manchester Library, and will
be used again for future anti-slavery day and related
activity.
To thank the participants and provide a reminder of their
experience and contribution to raising awareness of MSHT in the
city-region, Challenger is providing prints of the photos to the
survivors who contributed.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 28/05/2025
Decision:
Up to £200 will be provided to Causeway
Charitable Services to provide printed photographs to survivors who
engaged in a photography exhibition for Anti-Slavery Day in Greater
Manchester.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
Stockport Women's Centre (SWC) is a registered
charity and part of the Greater Manchester Women’s Support
Alliance (GMSWA) whose vision is to see an approach to women facing
multiple unmet needs which emphasises early intervention and
prevention, diverting women away from statutory intervention.
The GMWSA was awarded the contract to deliver the Women’s
Support Service as part of the GMIRS commissioning process. SWC
will oversee and deliver a counselling service for women who access
this service. This counselling service forms an important part of
the support and recovery for women who have faced trauma to help
them cope, recover and move forward with their lives as well as
helping to address health inequalities for women who are in the
justice system.
The counselling service works to: -
• Reduce health inequalities among women across GM.
• Improve mental health and well-being for women through
psycho-educational and therapeutic support.
• Build personal resilience.
• Reduce pressure on statutory mental health services.
We know this therapeutic support is particularly effectively when
delivered with on-going generic support offered by support workers
from within the Alliance. The service also delivers a continuous
counselling support for GM women in HMP Styal that continues into
the community upon release.
Funding for the first year of delivery (2022/23) was via ICM health
budgets. At the March 2023 JRE these budgets were aligned to the
Police, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire Team and overseen by the
Tackling Health Inequalities and the Criminal Justice System Joint
Operational Group.
The JRE approved this approach and the budget for this service form
April 2023 to March 2025. This Decision Notice is for continuation
of funding to maintain and expand the existing provision that has
been delivered since 2022. The funding is from the 1 April 2025 to
31 March 2026. Currently there is no identified recurrent funding
after this period.
Funding has been agreed by NHSE (Mel Brown) and been transferred to
the ICB (Jane Brooks). GMCA finance team are aware of this and will
ensure funds are transferred accordingly.
Decision Maker: Group Chief Finance Officer
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 28/05/2024
Decision:
£189,999 is awarded to Stockport
Women’s Centre (SWC) to provide the Women’s Counselling
Service on behalf of the Women’s Support Alliance. This
funding is for 1 year only and there isn’t any recurring
funding identified at this stage.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The GM Victims Services website offers a hub
of fundamental information, contact details, signposting and
guidance on referral pathways to victims of crime in Greater
Manchester. The website is linked/referred to by partner
organisations and links into victims’ services such as those
provided for sexual violence and domestic abuse
Having engaged with partners and wider stakeholders, it has been
identified that the current website would be enhanced in terms of
its presentation, and welcoming nature by including additional
images that demonstrate ‘support’ as a wider theme.
This will include stick figures depicting empathy amongst other
illustrations.
To inform this process, a workshop was held in March 2025 with the
support sector, victims with lived experience and partners which
discussed ideas and suggestions that could be drawn up and
developed.
This session proposed guidelines for creating these images to avoid
issues and challenges such as images that could be triggering to
victims, or something that is not compliant with equality diversity
and inclusion best practice.
Glorious Creative attended these sessions and have received the
outcomes and discussion to begin drawing up the assets that best
fit the feedback from the support sector.
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 14/05/2025
Decision:
An envelope of £4950 be assigned for
Glorious Creative to work with the GMCA to develop a bank of images
and icons that can be used on the Greater Manchester Victims
Service website, its public launch and promotional
materials
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
The reasons for the decision are:
Following development of the GM Education Hive, feedback from
teachers is that they would like access to more online resources
that can assist with lesson plans and keeping updated regarding
presenting risks to children. The VRU team has no expertise in
developing such resources and researched existing available
options. Pol-Ed is a West Yorkshire Police developed online
education programme and resource, written by teachers for teachers
in schools. Its purpose is to keep children safe by developing
their understanding of risks, consequences, and the law, in order
to develop their resilience and ability to help and support each
other. Content for schools includes a wide range of fully resourced
lessons, assemblies, passports for personal development and
assessment, planning matrices and other supporting documents to
successfully embed Pol-Ed within a school setting. Designed and
created by specialist subject matter teachers and police officers,
the lessons and resources cover a wide range of key issues,
specifically linked to the objectives within the PSHE, Citizenship
and RSE statutory curriculum. The ready-to-go Pol-Ed resources
include schemes of work overviews, lesson plans, supporting
resources such as pupil activities, assemblies, and special event
packs to support standalone day/week focuses within school. Pol-Ed
lessons can easily be embedded within current schemes of work used
in schools or can be taught as standalone lessons to address
specific needs of the school community and the pupils within it.
POL ED will provide online access and IT / lesson plan support to
all schools in Greater Manchester for a 12-month period, accessed
via an online portal.
Other available resources were not as comprehensive and were cost
prohibitive (charging per school). Over 1300 educational
establishments in GM).
Decision Maker: Director for Safer and Stronger Communities
Decision published: 08/07/2025
Effective from: 14/05/2025
Decision:
The GM VRU is seeking to award £20,000
to match fund a £20,000 contribution from GMP to engage POL
ED online teachers’ resource (delivered by West Yorkshire
Police). This would be governed by a contract between GMCA &
West Yorkshire Police.
Lead officer: Lisa Lees
As per the requirements of the Constitution
and to ensure GM political proportionality across membership of the
Committee.
Decision Maker: GM Mayor
Decision published: 04/07/2025
Effective from: 30/06/2025
Decision:
To appoint Councillors Peter Crossen
(Stockport, Conservative), Max Woodvine (Oldham, Conservative),
Howard Sykes (Oldham, Liberal Democrat) and Jon Byrne (Stockport,
Labour) to the Bee Network Committee for 2025/26.
Lead officer: Nicola Ward