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Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (SVSCSA) Fund 2020-22

Published 6 April 2020

1. Introduction

1.1 Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse can have a devastating impact on victims and survivors. Although the nature and extent of the impact of abuse can vary significantly between individuals, we know that being a victim or survivor is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes in many areas of a person’s life, including physical, emotional and mental wellbeing, relationships, socioeconomic outcomes and vulnerability to revictimization.

Later this year the government will 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 are increasing the funding available to organisations supporting victims and survivors at a national level 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.

2. Support for Victims and Survivors

The support available to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse encompasses a wide range of statutory and non-statutory services funded by several different national and local commissioners. Victims and survivors will need different levels of care and different types of support at different times in their lives and this will be dependent on their circumstances, the pace of their recovery and the level of expertise and support received 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. On a national level, NHS-England commission a network of Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) and the Ministry of Justice funds specialist rape and sexual abuse support services. Through the Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (SVSCSA) fund, the Home Office commissions services working at a national level to support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse (funding is provided jointly by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice).

3. The Support Offer

Through the Support for Victims and Survivors of CSA fund, we will provide grants to successful bidders, paid under Government’s grant-making powers. We are looking to award a total of £2.4 million across England and Wales by the end of the 2021-22 financial year (£1.2m is available in financial year 2020/21 and 2021/22). Bidders should consider this when deciding upon the size of grant they will be applying for.

Grants will be awarded to non-statutory sector organisations working nationally to provide services that help victims and survivors cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the impact of child sexual abuse.

The service(s) should be offered over a large geographical area - as a minimum, this must be at least 3 PCC areas, but higher scores will be awarded for reaching significantly larger areas. This is in recognition of the fact that organisations providing services over a wide geographical area play an important role in victim support but cannot easily apply to a single local commissioner for funding.

There are no restrictions on the type of service that the fund can support, but examples of previously funded projects include:

• support lines (emotional and practical support)
• online resources
• evidence-based telephone and online counselling services
• support groups
• services targeting specific hard to reach groups e.g. supporting victims and survivors from lesser hear communities or those with disabilities.

While there will not be a formal cap placed on the amount an organisation can bid for, we require all bids to demonstrate that they are scalable. To ensure diversity of funding, please be aware that we may scale back top scoring bids in line with the scalability details provided.

Bids should cover the two-year period of the fund, and renewal of funding in Year 2 will be 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 these milestones, on which continued funding will be conditional.

The Home Office will pay grants in arrears for expenditure during financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22. 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.

4. Eligibility Criteria

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

• proposals are invited from non-statutory organisations only. The Home Office welcomes partnership proposals
• the project must directly support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in England and Wales, including children and young people under 18 years of age affected by sexual abuse and adult survivors of sexual abuse during childhood. Projects will also be considered that work with safe parents, carers and family members to support the wellbeing of children and young people who have experienced abuse
• bids must comply with Home Office financial guidelines (further details are contained with the bidding documentation)
• bids must demonstrate how the organisation will spend the whole of the funding within the funding period for which it is allocated
• 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 victims and survivors who will be beneficiaries.

5. The Application Process

Submitting Applications

All applications must be made through the Home Office (HO) Jaggaer eSourcing portal. Bidders will first need to register on the 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

Once registered as a supplier on the portal, please e-mail 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 by email: customersupport@jaggaer.com.

5.1 Application Criteria

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

Support to Victims and Survivors

Bids should demonstrate how the funding will be used by your organisation to provide a service that directly support victims and survivors to cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the impact of child sexual abuse. Bids will also be considered that include work with safe parents, carers and family members to support the wellbeing of children and young people who have experienced abuse.

National Reach of Services

Bids should demonstrate how the funding will be used by your organisation to support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse nationally. As a minimum, this must be at least 3 PCC areas, but higher scores will be awarded for reaching significantly larger areas.

Identification of Demand

Bids should demonstrate the demand for the proposed service through analysis of available evidence and data.

Quality

Bids should demonstrate how your organisation will ensure the quality of services provided, including evidence of quality assurance processes and any national quality standards that the organisation has achieved.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Bids should demonstrate how your organisation will incorporate monitoring and evaluation to measure outcomes for victims and survivors. The level of monitoring and evaluation should be proportional to the size of the grant requested.

5.2 Scoring

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

1. Support to Victims and Survivors (weighting: score x 5)
2. National Reach of Services (weighting: score x 5)
3. Identification of Demand (weighting: score x 3)
4. Quality (weighting: score x 3)
5. Monitoring and Evaluation (weighting: score x 3)

Criteria 1 and 2 are ‘showstopper’ criteria – bids will need to receive a minimum score in order to proceed to a full assessment against the remaining criteria.

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

Full details on scoring will be provided with the instructions and documentation for bidders.

6. Timetable

Application window – 6 April 2020 to 28 May 2020

Evaluation of applications – June 2020

Announcement of successful applications – June/July 2020

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