Improving support for girls and young women affected by gangs, violence and exploitation

2. Description of the procurement

The programme will deliver a range There are currently significant barriers to the identification of co-designed activities with girls and young women who have experienced with experience of acute harm associated with gangs, violence and exploitation. These activities will enable the collation Services can only support those that are identified and amplification referred, and understanding the reality of the lives of girls and young women’s voices in relation women is key to that harm, to inform and improve professional developing effective responses to their needs. *Bringing Building on learning from the evaluation of VRU commissioned programmes such as Maia and recent work by MOPAC’s Evidence & Insight team, it has been highlighted there is considerable work to be done in raising awareness, improving identification and ensuring that professional responses can best meet the needs of girls and young women. The three strands of work outlined below aim to increase awareness, improve identification, quality and quantity of support available across MOPAC, the VRU and other partners. The planned activity includes: *Grant funding of a network of linked girls and young women’s groups within local communities, which will provide a safe space for positive peer connection for those who have been impacted by gangs, violence and exploitation, to support trauma-responsive individual development and co-development of proposals to improve systems and services for girls and young women. These groups will also have the opportunity to work together to collaboratively co-develop ideas, proposals, recommendations and resources and so will operate as an ‘eco-system’. *Improving understanding of how to define and identify girls and young women affected by violence and exploitation with funding to create a contemporary gendered risk and needs assessment framework. *Funding analytic activity with the Metropolitan Police Service to bring together data across building capability and capacity in the gathering and analysis of data relating to girls and young women impacted by violence and exploitation. This notification specifically relates to the procurement of a co-ordination provider to support the delivery of the first strand of funded activity, with the following functions: **Bringing together the eco-system of grant funded girls and young women’s groups and leading on co-design and co-delivery activity with girls and young women. *Leading **Leading on the continuous learning and development of grant funded practitioners who directly support girls and young women. *Monitoring **Monitoring and evaluation including co-developed recommendations for improved professional responses. Programme delivery will run for one year and include all above activities. There is scope for the completion of the evaluation beyond programme delivery, anticipated to be funded on a day rate basis. We are publishing this notification to ask organisations to complete an informal questionnaire to further develop our understanding of the market. The deadline to respond to the questionnaire is 18th September 12pm (NOON)