Total underspend

It is anticipated that an underspend of £72,703.82 is likely with £70,511.45 relating to two core project.

Victims’ Services Core Grant Underspend

Bedfordshire Victim Care Service Children and Young Person Victim Care Coordinators

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) identified a gap in service for children and young people experiencing crimes other than domestic abuse and sexual violence. With a provision vicariously provided by Bedfordshire Victim Care Service, a decision was made to pilot the introduction of specialist children and young person victim care coordinators into Bedfordshire Victim Care Services with secondment from Embrace Child victims of Crime (CVOC) as a local specialist service in support children and young people. Due to a series of internal decision-making requirements, recruitment and referral pathway considerations and data handling requirements, there has been a delay in mobilising the service. Embrace have developed a pathfinder route to expedite the introduction of the service, increasing capability of their current team while recruitment is underway. It is predicted that spend will be proportionate to the time remaining on the project, with an underspend seen for quarters 1 and 2.

ISAC

Following the commissioning cycle, Victim Support were successful in receiving funding to recruit an ISAC to support victims of non-domestic abuse stalking and harassment crimes. Due to delays experienced during the recruitment phase, spanning quarters 1 and 2, Victim Support incurred an underspend of £24,057.00 as expenses were incurred from quarter 3.

DA/SV Ringfenced Funding

Translation Services

The Counselling Foundation received a funding allocation of £15,000 per year for 3 years to provide an interpreter capability to counsellors when supporting their clients. During 2023/2024 the demand for this service has decreased, with barriers to use of an interpreter such as additional layers of communication with statutory partners and disengagement of victims to services with specialist counsellors/ support capability in their preferred language, while mitigations have been put in place to encourage engagement, there is likely to be a reported underspend.

Victims’ Services Core Grant Allocation of Underspend

Victim Support – Triage and Intervention Officer

Victim Support with the aid of a funding uplift via the MoJ in 2022/2023 piloted the introduction of an administration post in the form of a Triage and Intervention Officer which provided the IDVA service with added capacity when accepting standard/ medium cases. Victim Support currently receives triage and intervention support for the high-risk service funded by another partners and looks to expand this provision into the standard/medium risk service to improve staff resilience and enable the IDVAs to focus on advocacy and less so on the triage and referral element. The predicted cost is £25,000-£30,000, it is proposed that the underspend from the Victim Support ISAC role funded via the Victims’ Services Grant Fund is re-allocated to support the cost of the Triage and Intervention Officer, funded until March 31^st, 2024.

Additional DA counselling Living Your Life

Living Your Life have identified the need for additional resource with respect to counselling support for 3 cohorts of victims of sexual violence/domestic abuse as the funded allocation provided by the OPCC for the financial year has been fully allocated by October 2023. Living Your Life have responded to demand and have exceeded the limit/KPI set within their grant agreement. A proposal is made for additional funding to support further counselling sessions for these 3 cohorts, at a rate of 2 referrals per month per cohort. The predicted cost is £18,720.00 for 24 clients to receive 192 sessions overall. It is suggested that a portion of the underspend from the Secondment of Victim Care Coordinators from Embrace would be re-allocated to meet this demand from the Victims’ Services Gant Fund.

Azalea – Continuation of Operation Octan

Bedfordshire Police received funding via Operation Octan to supply Victim Engagement Officer support on a 3 weekly (out of a 4-week period) to Azalea, a sexual exploitation charity operational in Luton. In recent months, Operation Octan has ceased, and funding is no longer available to continue the support of the Victim Engagement Officers, risking withdrawal of the service. During the period of operation, the service however has increased the support available to those experiencing sexual exploitation as well as increase victim engagement, safeguarding and disclosures regarding perpetrators which has improved the ability to respond to this form of criminality. It is anticipated that a budget of £819.66 would be required to support the cost of the officer’s time to continue this service until 31^st March 2023. It is suggested that a portion of the underspend from the Secondment of Victim Care Coordinators from Embrace would be re-allocated to meet this demand from the Victims’ Services Grant Fund.

DA/SV Ringfenced Funding

The Counselling Foundation – Additional DA counselling ability

The Counselling foundation have identified the need for added resource with respect to domestic abuse counselling as the funded allocation provided by the OPCC for the financial year has been fully allocated by October 2023. The Counselling Foundation have responded to demand above their grant agreement KPI of supporting 68 people, with over 100 referrals allocated to counselling sessions (accepting a rate of disengagement). A request is made for additional funding to support further counselling sessions, which would need to be provided on a capped basis until the end of the year to ensure provision remains available. It is proposed that a portion of the underspend from the Translation Service via the DA/SV ringfenced funding equating to £7.000.00, leaving a sufficient amount for translation support to continue as demand is received.

Remaining Underspend

The remaining underspend will be utilised and allocated to support current project where there is a need to support demand, also the Commissioning Team can allocate small amounts of funding to providers where there is a need identified in Bedfordshire, procurement of further activities will be completed in line with 7 Force Contract Standing orders.