Decision details

Hammersmith and Fulham, and Community and Voluntary Sector partners have been awarded £360,000 from the SFAYC fund to deliver effective interventions to children and families at risk of offending.

Hammersmith and Fulham will appoint a Contextual Safeguarding and Gangs’ Co-ordinator to be a point of contact and work across agencies to ensure that young people at higher risk of offending and exploitation are identified and supported with right intervention. The Council and Community and Voluntary (CVS) partners will provide one to one support, positive activities and mentoring to identify young people; and support their families

The report seeks the approval for Children’s Services to deliver the Supporting Families Against Youth Crime (SFAYC) initiative across Hammersmith and Fulham using the grant of £360,000 awarded by the central government.

Reasons for urgency:

The Council will be subjected to a Troubled Families Spot Check by the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) between May and June 2019 and we would want to show that we have started delivering the Supporting Families Against Youth Crime (SFAYC) initiative for which the Council and CVS have been granted £360,000 to deliver in Hammersmith and Fulham. The grant was awarded in March 2019 by the MHCLG as part of the Troubled Families programme.

The SFAYC programme will work with young people at high risk of offending and their families to minimise the risk of exposure or engagement in serious crime. The recent serious violence and death of a young person in Hammersmith and Fulham calls for early and effective support young people at high risk of offending.

That the Leader in consultation with the Director of Children Services, approves:

1.    A waiver under Contract Standing Orders (CSO) 3.1 in relation to the competition requirement set out in CSO 10.2 on the grounds that this is in the council’s overall interest.

2.    The direct award of the following contracts for the provision of the SFAYC project for a fixed term of 12 months from the start date:

i.            direct award of contract to Key4Life (a charity working in Hammersmith and Fulham) with a total annual contract value of £49,000 for the 12 months duration of the project.

ii.          direct award of contract to Wipers Youth ( a community interest company working in Hammersmith and Fulham) with a total annual contract value of £22,000 for the 12 months duration of the project. 

iii.         direct award of contract to Violence Intervention Project (a charity working in Hammersmith and Fulham) with a total annual contract value £90,000 for the 12 months duration of the project

3.    Note the external recruitment of a Contextual Safeguarding Co-ordinator on a fixed term contract for the duration of the project. The Co-ordinator role involves project managing; project evaluation and performance data returns to the MHCLG; and working with partners to ensure that data on young people at risk is shared and put in place a targeted range of interventions for each young person and their family.

4.    Note that the Council and CVS partners have been given £360,000 to jointly deliver a project that work with young people at risk and families to reduce offending and crime up to March 2020.

The reason for the decision is to enable the Council and CVS partners to access and use the awarded grant to deliver the proposed project.

As described in the report.