Issue details

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

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


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

Demand

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


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

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

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

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

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