Youth violence and exploitation intervention service

THIS IS A CONTRACTS AWARD NOTICE. The Police and Crime Commissioner is looking for a supplier to deliver an effective range of services to target a cohort of young people who are most at risk of criminal behaviour. This 12-month intervention will build upon some smaller scale work that has been undertaken in parts of the County but not all. Primarily the service will operate in Warrington, Halton and Cheshire East but will also be required to work in partnership with an existing service provider in Cheshire West and Chester who deliver a similar service around exploited young people (only). There is an expectation that the provider will work alongside this service provider and compliment their offer by supporting an extension of this service to include young people who are perpetrators of violent crime.

• Cheshire West and Chester have already commissioned a similar service in their area but only for victims of exploitation – the new provider will need to work with the existing provider to compliment that service and extending to meet the needs of young people involved in serious violence.
• The existing provider in Cheshire West and Chester is Queensberry AC.

Following on from work across Cheshire around compliance with the Serious Violence Duty, we have developed a Serious Violence Needs Assessment and consequently we have developed strategy to address the issues identified. One of which, is young people at risk of serious violence or associated with exploitation, particularly around County Lines drug supply. Key issues associated with at risk individuals are frequent absenteeism/exclusion from school, often associated with societal risk issues around exposure to domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health issues.

The timescales for the delivery of this service are challenging, as such only those organisations that are utterly confident they can deliver an April 2024 implementation should apply.

The contract will have the facility to be extended up to 31st March 2029 (subject to available funding) to extend existing services and/or cover additional mentoring/group work to other wider but related cohorts.

Please note the total value shown as £1m is the likely anticipated value if the contract ran for the full maximum term. The initial contract term is £200k.