Greater Manchester
Police and Crime Commissioner’s
Youth Aspiration Fund
Prospectus: Framework and Grant Scheme
2014
This document provides an explanation to the Grant process and guidance on how to submit responses. Please read this document thoroughly, and make note of the allocation criteria. The Evaluation Panel cannot consider awarding grants to organisations that do not answer all the questions within the grant application.
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
The Police and Crime Commissioner has made a commitment to provide appropriate schemes for children and young people from age 8yrs to 25yrs with a target range of 11yrs to 18yrs (flexibility will be permitted on the age range if a specified need is defined) who are identified as being at risk of offending, risky behaviour, vulnerable to exploitation and harm, have complex needs, live in a family or community which is vulnerable to exploitation and harm. The aim is to ensure that young people are diverted away from the criminal justice system and risky behaviour and provided with appropriate support, guidance, challenge and personal development. The ultimate goal is to tackle young people’s vulnerability, anti-social behaviour, crime and reoffending through families, schools, communities and partnerships.
Grants will be provided by the Police and Crime Commissioner through the Youth Aspiration Fund to invest in a local asset-based (working with individual’s strengths and community provision) approach across the Greater Manchester area, whilst providing a framework for delivery to ensure that value for money and outcomes are achieved. This investment will help promote both national and local policy for early intervention and prevention with the clear aim to divert young people away from risky behaviour by providing alternative activities and life choices.
The Police and Crime Commissioner wishes to support approaches that reduce crime and the impact on victims. There is unlikely to be a single solution to complex needs that drive risky behaviour, but there is scope for local, community-wide alliances to help children and young people achieve their potential and reduce exposure to known risk factors linked to later behaviour problems or exploitation.
PRIORITY FUNDING THEMES:
The funding themes are:
· Preventing involvement in serious and organised crime
· Reducing the risk of child sexual exploitation
· Building resilience and supporting aspirations
· Reducing offending
· Promoting Restorative Justice
Preventing involvement in serious and organised crime
This is a core element of the national serious and organised crime strategy. In terms of local strategy it is the Prevent strand that is one of the least well developed. Some areas in Greater Manchester have a partnership working approach to tackling serious and organised crime in development. Whilst these approaches will provide increased engagement and interventions focussed on developing an understanding of families who have been identified as being linked to involvement in serious crime, the available interventions for hard to reach children and young people to be diverted away from crime remains limited. The Police and Crime Commissioner welcomes approaches that fill this gap and link to families and the local community.
Reducing the risk of child sexual exploitation
Child sexual exploitation is a complex issue and one which impacts on individual and community relationships. A common feature of child sexual exploitation is that the child or young person does not recognise the coercive nature of the relationship and does not see themselves as a victim of exploitation. Also, how exploitation is viewed depends very much on attitudes within the wider community and that can alter from community to community. For example, what is seen as unacceptable behaviour in one area may not be in another where it is almost seen as the “social norm”.
The Police and Crime Commissioner welcomes applications from organisations which seek to challenge the behaviour of young people and the community, preventing them from becoming vulnerable. We are particularly interested in hearing from those organisations who work with the young people and communities who have been marginalised by the recent high profile cases in Greater Manchester and those areas where there may be emerging risks.
Building resilience and supporting aspirations
By using an asset-based approach of working with young people and positively encouraging what they can do, rather than what they can’t do, the Police and Crime Commissioner wishes to support schemes that build community resilience and empowerment. There is an expectation community schemes must have an added value element which includes the personal development of young people and aims to prepare them for progress into volunteering, education, training, employment or for life in general. These schemes may include; mentoring, befriending and/or a therapeutic element. It is recognised locally based services are best placed to support young people in their communities targeting individuals and/or communities at risk and in need. We wish to see the services:
· develop young people’s self esteem,
· reduce isolation in the community,
· have positive peer influences,
· address health and wellbeing needs,
· foster economic and social independence.
Reducing offending behaviour
Youth Diversion underpins a range of statutory and non-statutory support services. The number of first time entrants in to the Criminal Justice System in Greater Manchester has been steadily falling for the last 5 years, as shown in the figures below.
Year / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014First time Entrants across GM / 2799 / 2161 / 1608 / 1184 / 1133
Although first time entrants into juvenile criminal justice are reducing, youth reoffending rates are now increasing. The Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour, published its report‘Time for a fresh start’ http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/catalogerfiles/independent-commission-on-youth-crime-and-antisocial-behaviour/fresh_start.pdf in the summer of 2010. This provides a strategic blueprint for reform of the way society responds to offending and other antisocial behaviour by children and young people.
Overall crime levels have been falling for the past 20 years, local and national enthusiasm for cost-effective action to tackle the root causes of problem behaviour in children’s lives has been recognised by the Police and Crime Commissioner. To sustain this progress funding is being made available for youth diversion projects that must be related to activities with the potential to reduce youth crime, linked to the Commissioner’s pledge to:
Reduce offending and re-offending and to identify and progress both innovative and test partnership initiatives that:
· focus on early intervention
· address crime, anti-social behaviour and offending behaviours
· use resources effectively
· represent the most efficient ways of working
The Police and Crime Commissioner is keen to engage partners to take cost-effective, local action to reduce antisocial behaviour and young people’s involvement in crime. Acknowledging that policing cannot successfully combat crime alone, and that failure to get timely help to children who are persistently antisocial makes it more likely they will grow into repeat and serious offenders. Considering this, it makes prevention and youth diversion interventions a sound economic as well as social investment.
Promoting Restorative Justice
The Ministry of Justice guidance asserts that Restorative Justice provides opportunities for those directly affected by an offence – victim, offender and members of the community – to communicate, and agree how to deal with the offence and its consequences.
The basic principles include:
· putting things right and healing relationships - giving satisfaction to victims and reducing reoffending
· ensuring that those directly affected by crime are involved in the process, and that their wishes are given careful consideration
· setting realistic and achievable objectives that benefit the victim, community and young person
· addressing and being sensitive to cultural and special needs, with an understanding and respect for the diversity of different communities
The Police and Crime Commissioner is interested in supporting and developing approaches around community initiatives which link the offender to the Criminal Justice System, the victim and the community. Approaches should be able to demonstrate how victim’s needs will be at the heart of any approach and how public confidence and awareness will be considered. The Commissioner is also willing to consider innovative approaches that focus on early intervention and prevention which may take a broader mediation approach particularly in relation to community resolution, combating bullying and developing peer to peer relationships.
OUTCOMES
We expect the service deliverers to achieve outcomes based around either a focus on or combination of the following :
· Reductions in crime
· Reductions in young people not in education, employment or training
· Improvements in school attendance
· Decrease in antisocial behaviour
· Reduction in teenage pregnancy
· Improved health and wellbeing outcomes
· Increased confidence, tolerance and better social skills in young people
· Reduction of vulnerability of young people at risk of exploitation
· Retain or re-connection of young people with the local community
· Improved personal development and growth that discourages young people from getting involved in crime and increased aspirations and entry to employment
· Increased volunteering from young people
· Decreased demand on public services
· Increased victim satisfaction and confidence
The Police and Crime Commissioner is open to a dialogue with applicants about outcome measures depending on the nature of the scheme and its aims.
The Youth Aspiration approach that we are building towards will be subject to local evaluation and there will be an expectation that all service providers will engage fully with the evaluation process. This will be important not only to identify what works but in demonstrating why future funding should support this area of work through ongoing commissioning. However, evaluation will be proportionate, depending on the scale of the scheme.
Submissions are actively encouraged for projects/activities that cover more than one local authority area providing they can demonstrate they can meet the local connections expected. Collaborative approaches between different localities and/or the public and voluntary/charity sector will be prioritised.
PART 1
Approach:
The Police and Crime Commissioner is seeking expressions of interest from the Public, Voluntary and Community Sector under a grant allocation process for locally based youth aspiration and diversion approaches which focus on the delivery of services to tackle young people’s complex needs, vulnerability, anti-social behaviour, crime and offending. Level 1 Local Youth Grants are restricted to the voluntary/community sector only, for all other levels the public sector can apply or be part of a submission.
The initial grant fund is £567.000. Submissions can be made for:
· Level 1: Local Youth Grants: less than £5,000 but mainly limited up to £1,000. Seed funding and community level support
· Level 2: Above £5,000 and less that £30,000: sustaining and expanding services, pump prime money or for additional services
· Level 3: Above £30,000: must be able to demonstrate sustainable planning for continued provision, be able to provide evidence based practice for the proposed scheme, be an established provider within Greater Manchester and/or have a successful service provision model.
· Level 4: Public Service Reform Grants: Over £100,000: evidenced based approach and can demonstrate Public Service Reform principles (referred to in the Commissioning Principles at Appendix A under Driving Change), is scalable and reduces demand on public services
Required outcomes will be proportionate to the level of funding, however all submissions must consider how they encourage, support or sustain an asset-based approach to the community and voluntary sector.
All submissions will be expected to consider how additional funding from another source/s will be used or sought. Submissions will not necessarily need to be match funded but the ability to bring in additional funding will be considered as part of the decision making criteria.
The time period for funding is flexible and by negotiation but, it will be expected that a start time for your proposal would be within 2 months of a successful decision.
Funding is for a maximum 14 months effective from February 2015 to March 2016, but it could also be less than this depending on the proposal and pending satisfactory periodic reviews. The Evaluation Panel will take into consideration how you propose to reduce the level of financial support from the public purse.
How the allocation will be made:
Consideration of the greatest need across Greater Manchester will be taken into account; however the ambition will be to ensure that a level of provision for youth activities will be available for all areas.
The table below sets out some youth offending data which provides the context of demand across Greater Manchester. However, this may not translate in to a direct equation of allocation due to the themes contained within this framework and levels of existing service provision.
Project area / 0-17 Population / Pre-CourtReprimand
Final Warning
Conditional Caution / First Tier
Absolute Discharge
Bind Over
Compensation Order
Conditional Discharge
Fine
Referral Order
Reparation Order
Sentence Deferred / Community Disposals
Youth Rehabilitation Order
Youth Default Order / Custodial Sentences
Detention and Training Order
Section 90-92 Detention / First Time Entrants
Bolton / 28,219 / 104 / 106 / 91 / 14 / 151
Bury / 18,011 / 52 / 71 / 45 / 9 / 58
Manchester / 43,124 / 225 / 385 / 268 / 67 / 310
Oldham / 24,448 / 79 / 166 / 69 / 24 / 107
Rochdale / 21,553 / 71 / 163 / 112 / 27 / 88
Salford / 20,685 / 114 / 139 / 101 / 32 / 114
Stockport / 26,320 / 73 / 120 / 84 / 13 / 68
Tameside / 20,508 / 111 / 107 / 81 / 26 / 109
Trafford / 22,748 / 57 / 89 / 40 / 4 / 94
Wigan / 29,247 / 133 / 123 / 82 / 16 / 119
Sustainability:
With increasing pressure being placed on public sector funding and the significant number and value of grant applications previously submitted, the Evaluation Panel will be looking at how organisations plan to secure alternative income opportunities and reduce the level of financial support from the public purse, either as part of their overall proposal or during the period of the proposed funding. This could be through looking for alternative grant funding, developing the organisations profile by becoming a social enterprise, or increasing benefits and outcomes or groups of services coming together, to reduce overheads, enabling an increased focus on direct service delivery.
The Police and Crime Commissioner is interested in services that build on the wealth of experience that local people have. This could be in any capacity – for instance, volunteering opportunities, including recruiting volunteers and developing activities for volunteers to engage in, that lead to increased employment or well-being as well as developing new sources of volunteers or peer mentors.