Projects will tackle child sexual exploitation, female offending and youth offending.
Sadiq Khan has announced £10m of funding for crime prevention projects that tackle child sexual exploitation, female offending and youth offending in the capital.
The Mayor of London’s investment will be directed at four new projects that would not have been created without the funding.
Boroughs worked together with the voluntary and community sector to create the projects and submitted joint bids for the funding, using joint working to put the needs of victims first.
The four projects are:
Advance Women Centres and Advance Minerva Wrap Around support services for female offenders – £2,996,940 over three years for a service for female offenders in 15 London boroughs (Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Newham, Waltham Forest and Westminster). The service will provide female offenders with services including keyworker support, group-work, mentoring, and other specialist support to tackle women’s offending and help prevent re-offending.
Taith (Journey) London - £1,857,863 over three years for a specialist service targeted at the perpetrators of harmful sexual behaviour in nine London boroughs (Barking & Dagenham, Bexley, Greenwich, Hammersmith & Fulham, Havering, Kensington & Chelsea, Redbridge, Wandsworth and Westminster). The service will provide assessment and specialist intervention to children and young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour, helping them to take responsibility for their behaviour and to move on to develop safe and healthy relationships.
Whole System Approach to Female Offending - South London Alliance - £1,606,173 over three years for a female offending service in six London boroughs (Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth). The service will put in place an approach to supporting female offenders and those at risk of offending, including early intervention, triage, resettlement and increasing women centre provisions.
Out There Response and Rescue - £3,036,916 over three years for a pan-London service across the 32 boroughs to develop and deliver support for vulnerable young Londoners exploited by criminal gangs to sell drugs in other towns and cities known as ‘county lines’. County lines is a major, cross-cutting issue not only involving drugs but also violence, gangs, safeguarding, criminal and sexual exploitation, modern slavery, and missing persons. This project will be the first large scale county lines service that brings together police intelligence analysis, London boroughs and specialist voluntary and community organisation to tackle this complex issue.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The safety of Londoners is my top priority and that means doing everything possible to prevent crime in all our communities.
“This funding will help boroughs to tackle and prevent serious crimes from child sexual exploitation to youth offending and female offending using a more joined-up approach, allowing them to spend the money where it is needed most.
“These four new projects will provide much-needed support on critical issues across London.”
The Co-Commissioning Fund - part of a wider £72m London Crime Prevention Fund - encourages boroughs and other services to work together to ensure that every Londoner has the access to the services they need to help support them and keep them safe. By working across boroughs, the Fund aims to address gaps in provision, promote and build upon best practice, and drive innovation by bringing partners together.
Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, said: “In order to tackle some of the most serious and complex policing challenges in London, we must work together with organisations and boroughs, regardless of borough boundaries.
“In adopting the new approach to funding, innovative services will be available across London as another tool in the fight against crime.”
Today’s announcement follows the launch of the Mayor’s new wide-ranging Violence Against Women and Girls strategy last Friday. The strategy follows in-depth consultation with survivors as well as Londoners, police and partners. It includes measures to tackle rape, sexual assault, FGM, trafficking, controlling behaviour, forced marriages, stalking, harassment, and misogyny - building on the recent international #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns.
Cllr Lib Peck, Lambeth council leader, said: “Getting the funding secured for this project is a vital step towards keeping this vulnerable group of women across south London safe from harm.
“In Lambeth, my administration has made tackling Violence Against Women and Girls a key political priority.
“We were one of the first councils in the UK to develop an integrated VAWG strategy, bringing together all strands of violence that either only, or disproportionately, affect women under the same umbrella.
“Our strategic work has been developed in conjunction with victims.
“This latest project, which Lambeth Council will contribute towards, is the next step in meeting our commitment, and in particular supporting those who are affected by the criminal justice system.”
Lynn Gradwell, Director of Barnardo’s in London, said: “Harmful sexual behaviour among children is an issue that should concern everyone, so we’re absolutely delighted that the Mayor of London has awarded nearly £1.9million for Barnardo’s and our local authority partners to begin providing trauma recovery for children and young people across nine boroughs.
“Taith is an award-winning, specialist prevention programme that has been developed by Barnardo’s in Wales over the last 17 years, and we’re really excited to be able to bring that expertise to the capital. Over the next three years we will work tirelessly to support children and young people affected by harmful sexual behaviour, building stronger families and enabling many more young Londoners to enjoy safer childhoods.”
Niki Scordi, Chief Executive of Advance Charity, said: “We welcome the commitment of the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to strengthen the community-based response for women in the criminal justice system. Evidence shows that the use of custodial sentences for women who commit non-violent offences and are often victims of abuse themselves, leads to the break-up of families and does not reduce re-offending. The new grant will enable Advance and its partners, through its Minerva WrapAround programme, to provide holistic, consistent and trauma-informed support through community advocates and women centres across London, improving the outcomes for women and enabling them to break the cycle of offending.”