Guidance

Child sexual abuse support services transformation fund: prospectus

Published 11 June 2020

Introduction

Child sexual abuse

Sexual abuse can have a devastating impact on children and young people. Although the nature and extent of the impact of abuse can vary significantly between individuals, we know that being a victim of child sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes over the course of a person’s lifetime, including physical, emotional and mental wellbeing, relationships, socioeconomic outcomes and vulnerability to revictimization.

The government will shortly publish a national strategy to tackle all forms of child sexual abuse. A key objective of the strategy will be ensuring that all victims and survivors are able to access timely, consistent and high-quality support services that are appropriate to their needs.

To support the strategy, in September 2019 the Home Secretary announced an additional £30 million package to help prevent child sexual abuse, bear down on offenders and support victims and survivors. As part of this commitment:

• we have doubled the funding available in 2020-22 to organisations supporting victims and survivors at a national level (including adults who were abused during childhood) through the Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (SVSCSA) fund. The SVSCSA is jointly funded by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice (the SVSCSA competition is now closed)
• following an announcement at the Prime Minister’s virtual summit on hidden harms in May 2020, we are launching a new child sexual abuse support services transformation fund in order to develop and embed best practice in support for children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse

Support for children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse

The support available to children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse encompasses a wide range of statutory and non-statutory services funded by several different national and local commissioners.

Children and young people need different levels of care and different types of support and this will be dependent on their circumstances, the pace of their recovery and the level of expertise and support they receive at the point of disclosure, as reflected in the strategic direction for sexual assault and abuse services. There is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach.

CSA support services are primarily commissioned at the local level with local authorities, clinical commissioning groups and Police and Crime Commissioners all playing a key role in commissioning appropriate services. For example, local authorities commission specialist sexual health services, CCGs are responsible for mental health services and PCCs deliver support services for victims of crime.

At a national level, NHS-England commission a network of paediatric sexual assault referral centres and the Ministry of Justice funds specialist services for victims of all forms of sexual abuse, including child sexual abuse. Through the support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse (SVSCSA) fund, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice also provide grant funding to services working at a national level to support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse (including adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse).

The support offer

Through the CSA support services transformation fund we will provide grants to successful bidders, paid under the government’s grant-making powers. We are looking to award up to £2.8 million across England and Wales by the end of the 2021-22 financial year (£1.4 million is available in financial year 2020/21 and £1.4 million in 2021/22).

The Home Office is looking to support a range of proposals with this funding and, in making a final decision on allocation, will seek to ensure an appropriate distribution of projects in terms of type of intervention and the groups of children and young people who will be beneficiaries. While there is no formal cap on the amount an organisation can bid for, bidders should bear this in mind when deciding upon the size of grant they will be applying for.

Successful proposals must contribute to the achievement of the overall objectives of the fund, which are:

1. to promote and disseminate best practice in the provision of support to help children and young people cope with and, as far as possible, recover from sexual abuse 2 to improve the quality of support available to children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse
2. to build understanding of what works to support children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse

Grants will be awarded to statutory or non-statutory organisations. Due to the collaborative nature of the fund, we also welcome partnership proposals that aim to improve collaboration and joined-up working between commissioners, service providers and community organisations.

Bids should cover the 2 year period of the fund, with renewal of funding in Year 2 dependent on budget availability and performance against critical success factors which will form part of the grant agreement. We will require biannual (twice a year) progress reports against project outputs and outcomes, on which continued funding will also be conditional.

The Home Office will pay grants in arrears for expenditure during financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22. Please note that organisations may bid for costs already incurred since 1 April 2020, provided the costs relate to the project purpose as defined in the grant agreement. In the case of joint bids, lead organisations are expected to have their own financial arrangements with the partner organisations forming part of their bid.

Eligibility criteria

In order to be considered for funding, bids must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• bids from statutory and non-statutory organisations are invited. The Home Office also welcomes partnership proposals that aim to improve collaboration and joined-up working between commissioners, service providers and community organisations
• the proposal outcomes must benefit children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse. For the purposes of this fund, children and young people will be defined as:

1. children under the age of 18
2. children and young people under the age of 25 with learning delay or disability
3. young people between 18 and 25, provided they experienced sexual abuse during childhood (before the age of 18). This is in recognition of the challenges of transition from child to adult services

• proposals will also be considered eligible that work with safe parents, carers and family members to support the wellbeing of children and young people (as defined above) who have experienced sexual abuse;
• bids must comply with Home Office financial guidelines (further details are contained with the bidding documentation)
• bids must demonstrate how the project is scalable, in case the organisation is awarded less funding than originally bid for (and how the scaling options would affect what could be delivered under the proposal).

In making a final decision on allocation of funding, the Home Office will ensure that an appropriate distribution of projects is funded in terms of type of intervention and the groups of children and young people who will be beneficiaries.

The application process

Submitting applications

All applications must be made through the Home Office (HO) Jaggaer eSourcing portal.

Bidders should be approved for usage within 24 hours of registering on the system.

To register on the portal, you will need to provide information which will include:

• the full legal name of your organisation
• your DUNS number – a unique nine-digit number provided to organisations free of charge by Dun & Bradstreet
• profile information describing your organisation and the size of your business
• the full legal name of your organisation

Once registered as a supplier on the portal, please e-mail your confirmation to: victimsfund@homeoffice.gov.uk. You will then be given access to the event which will include all the instructions and documentation you will need in order to bid.

If you have any difficulties registering on the system, then you should contact the supplier eSourcing Helpdesk: customersupport@jaggaer.com

Application criteria

We will assess proposals against a range of criteria. Applicants should ensure that their answers are clearly evidenced.

Outcomes

Bids must demonstrate how they will contribute to improved outcomes for children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse (you may wish to read the knowledge review published by the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse, which identifies a series of outcomes considered most important by both professionals and young people).

In addition, bids must demonstrate how they contribute to one or all the following broader systems-level outcomes:

• improving the quality of support available for children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse
• building the understanding and evidence base on what works to support children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse to inform future interventions and commissioning decisions
• improving collaboration and joint-working in the delivery of support to children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse across agencies such as health, social care, police and the voluntary and community sector

Proposals to work with safe parents, carers and family members will be considered but bids must describe how they will contribute to improved outcomes for children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse.

Need and additionality

Proposals must be for additional activity not currently provided for through service provision funded by another national or local commissioning body, for example, PCC, CCG, local authority.

We would particularly welcome proposals focused around:

• the development of new services or the development/extension of existing services to better meet the needs of children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse
• improvements in our understanding of and approach to supporting children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse
• responses to new challenges or contexts of abuse for example, responding to online child sexual abuse or adapting service provision in the context of social distancing

Bids should be based on an assessment of the needs of children and young people through an analysis of available evidence and data. We recognise that child sexual abuse remains a largely unreported crime and that the under-representation of some groups of children and young people in official statistics and service provision is itself a source of evidence. In cases where empirical data is still emerging, the lived experiences of children and young people also provides a valuable source of evidence.

Partnership working

Bids should demonstrate how the activity will complement and add to existing provision to support children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse, encouraging better collaboration and joined-up approaches between commissioners, service providers and communities.

Ability to deliver

Bids should demonstrate the experience of the organisation/partnership in delivering similar projects and the capability of the organisation/partnership to safeguard and support children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse. Bids should outline how you will ensure the quality of services provided, including evidence of quality assurance processes.

Monitoring and evaluation

Bids should incorporate monitoring and evaluation to measure outcomes for victims and survivors (the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse provides guidance for CSA services on using monitoring and evaluation to support effective intervention). The level of monitoring and evaluation should be proportional to the size of the grant requested. Costs for monitoring and evaluation can be included as part of the proposal.

Sustainability

Bids should outline the sustainability of project activities, demonstrating how the impact is intended to last beyond the funding period.

For example, bids should demonstrate how approaches could be rolled out across a wider area or develop tools that have the potential to be rolled out more widely, such as training products or learning materials.

Reflecting the views of a diverse range of children and young people

Bids should place the voice of a diverse range of children, young people, parents and carers at the heart of project design and delivery. Bids should reflect how the proposed activity is designed to benefit children and young people from diverse backgrounds, including groups known to be disproportionately affected by child sexual abuse or groups that are under-represented in official data and statistics for example, children and young people with disabilities, boys, BAME victims and survivors, LGBT victims and survivors.

Scoring

We will use a 0-100 scale for each of the criteria, where 0 represents no demonstration and 100 represents an excellent demonstration. The application criteria will be weighted as below:

1. outcomes (weighting: score x 5)
2. need and additionality (weighting: score x 5)
3. partnership Working (weighting: score x 5)
4. ability to deliver (weighting: score x 3)
5. monitoring and Evaluation (weighting: score x3)
6. sustainability (weighting: score x 3)
7. reflecting the views of a diverse range of children and young people (weighting: score x 3)

Proposals will also be scored against a series of financial capability questions.

Full details on evaluation criteria and scoring will be provided with the instructions and documentation for bidders. In making a final decision on allocation of funding, the Home Office will ensure that an appropriate distribution of projects is funded in terms of type of intervention and the groups of children and young people who will be beneficiaries.

Timetable

Application window opens	10 June 2020
Deadline for receipt of completed applications	12 August 2020
Evaluation of applications	August/September 2020
Announcement of successful applications	September 2020

Please send any queries to: victimsfund@homeoffice.gov.uk