COVID-19 funding for domestic abuse and sexual violence support services
These prospectuses provide charities with information about two different Ministry of Justice (MOJ) funds and how the assessment processes will work for each one during the coronavirus pandemic.
MOJ has secured £25 million as part of a £76 million government package of support to charities supporting vulnerable people including victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.
The extraordinary COVID-19 funding will be distributed through two separate funds, one through Police and Crime Commissioners and one through the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund. Separately from the funding MOJ will also provide an extra £3 million to PCCs specifically to fund Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) until 2022.
PCC funding
The funds will be distributed as follows:
- Domestic abuse services that are already commissioned by PCCs (£10 million)
- Domestic abuse services that are not currently commissioned by PCCs (£5 million)
- Sexual violence services that are already commissioned by PCCs and those that are not currently funded by PCCs (£5 million)
PCCs must conduct an assessment of need for COVID-19 related emergency funding in relation to both sexual violence and domestic abuse support services in their local area. This process must be open to all relevant support organisations in the PCC area – and encourages funding requests from small specialist organisations that support groups with protected characteristics.
The funding for domestic abuse victims is in addition to the extra £10million for domestic abuse safe accommodation charities announced by MHCLG and the £2million for national and regional community-based domestic abuse charities announced by the Home Office.
Deadline for organisations to send information to PCCs is 5 June 2020.
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National Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund
This funding will help rape support providers to meet the additional costs registered charities have incurred or will incur whilst adapting their services during the pandemic, including but not limited to:
- Short term income disruption resulting from COVID-19
- Essential costs of sustaining current activities during the pandemic
- Increased demand
Existing recipients of grants from the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund are invited to request funding. For more information please see the guidance and Frequently Asked Questions.
Funding requests using the template below should be submitted to rapesupport@justice.gov.uk by Tuesday 2 June 2020.
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Last updated 29 May 2020 + show all updates
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Guidance updated.
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First published.