London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) Mayoral Youth Clubs Safety Programme

London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) Mayoral Youth Clubs Safety Programme Indicative Contract Value: Up to £2900,000 excl. VAT Contract Duration: 1 March 2027 – 31 March 2029 with option to extend to 31 March 2030. This market warming session will be delivered jointly with the VRU's Tertiary Service. The two programmes form complementary elements of the VRU's tertiary violence reduction offer for young people affected by violence and exploitation. While the Mayoral Youth Clubs Safety Programme will provide specialist youth workers embedded across Mayoral youth club settings to identify risk, build trusted relationships and connect young people to support, the redesigned tertiary service will provide intensive, specialist and longer-term support for young people experiencing established, escalating, or entrenched violence and exploitation. Together, these programmes aim to strengthen London's pathway of support for vulnerable young people through earlier identification, stronger partnership working and improved access to specialist interventions. The London Violence Reduction Unit. The London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), hosted within the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), pioneers a partnership-based public health approach to tackling violence rooted in prevention and early intervention. Since 2019, the VRU has invested in over 550,000 targeted interventions for young people across London. The VRU invests in interventions at critical moments to keep young people safe in and out of school and at the key touchpoints that influence a young person’s journey; early years and families, education, positive opportunities, youth work, and communities and place. The Mayor of London has increased investment in London’s Youth Clubs. Across 32 London boroughs and the City of London, a £30 million programme is funding youth clubs to extend and expand their existing offer into weekday evenings, weekends, and school holidays – when young people need safe spaces the most – and provide specialist support to those facing the greatest challenges. This investment strengthens youth clubs as trusted community spaces – where connections are made, young people feel safe and valued, and opportunities are created, all with support from trusted adults. The programme will help community organisations reach more young people aged 14–24 years old and strengthen the quality and sustainability of their provision. It will do this by delivering an increased universal, open-access provision, and targeted specialised support for young people facing greater challenges. For more information on this specific Youth Clubs programme, please see The Mayor's investment in youth clubs | London City Hall. Safety is a core outcome of this Mayoral investment in youth clubs. Whilst it will provide universal youth provision alongside targeted support, some young people will require specialist interventions beyond the expertise and capacity of local delivery partners. It has been agreed that a London-wide Safety Offer sits alongside the core Youth Clubs programme. Drawing on its regional oversight and networks across London, alongside seven years of experience and expertise in commissioning impactful violence reduction programmes, the VRU is looking to commission a specialist organisation to provide additional capacity to connect with the Mayoral funded youth clubs across the 32 boroughs. This provider will deliver a pan-London service providing specialised youth workers, who will be embedded across the 33 Mayoral Youth Clubs, who will provide targeted support for young people experiencing or at risk of violence and exploitation, offer support to enhance feelings of safety and boost connections and pathways into wider specialist services. Description of the Service The future service will operate as a pan-London tertiary intervention with strengthened local delivery through dedicated, specialised youth workers for each Mayoral Youth Club area, with a minimum of 2:1 borough to youth worker ratio. The aim of the Safety Programme will be to provide a visible, connected and meaningful presence across the 33 Mayoral Youth Clubs to support children and young people who are affected by, or vulnerable to, violence and exploitation. Its purpose is to identify those at risk (working with the youth club provider), provide direct support, make referrals into appropriate services and interventions and enhance feelings of safety. The VRU will commission a specialist organisation to deliver the Safety Programme. This additional resource will establish a network of specialist practitioners who will work alongside funded Youth Club partnerships, providing additional capacity and expertise to identify, engage, and support young people who face higher levels of risk. They will work with local partnerships to build trusted relationships with young people, provide targeted interventions and support, and help young people access wider opportunities and services. The Safety Programme will operate as a pan-London network, enabling practitioners to share learning, insight and effective practice across boroughs and communities. This will help strengthen local responses to emerging issues, support partnership working and contribute to the wider learning and development of the programme. The service will contribute to the Violence Reduction Unit's public health approach to preventing and reducing violence in London, by preventing harm, identifying and addressing risk factors, and improving outcomes for children and young people. The service is expected to: •Provide specialised youth workers who build trusted relationships with children and young people who may be at risk of harm, supporting them to access the Mayoral youth club as a safe space. •Provide a regular presence within the Mayoral youth clubs, working with youth club staff to identify young people with existing or potential risk and need for further support. •Assess needs and vulnerabilities of children and young people identified as at risk, including those impacted by exploitation, extra familial harm, online and digital harms and domestic abuse. •Provide targeted support and engagement, including 1-1 support for children and young people at greater risk of harm, holding casework where appropriate. Prioritise tertiary young people, with support extending to secondary young people as capacity allows. •Facilitate access to appropriate statutory, community and specialist support services through referrals and where needed building connections and support pathways, including connecting with families /parents /guardians as appropriate to ensure a whole family approach. •Undertake contextual safeguarding assessments, working with the youth club providers and local authority partners, to assess contextual risk of youth club and surrounding environments, and deliver peer group contextual interventions where appropriate. •Deliver workshops and group work aimed at increasing safety of young people attending the youth club and support awareness of risk, based on identified local concerns/need. •Work collaboratively with mayoral youth clubs and wider statutory agencies to strengthen the connections and pathways between the many safety programmes held both by VCS and public authorities; and do so through a place-based approach. •Strengthen local partnership responses to emerging safeguarding and violence-related issues through sharing understanding of emerging risks, contextual safeguarding and issues impacting children and young people in local areas. •Operate as a pan-London network, share intelligence and effective practice across London through a connected practitioner network. •Contribute to reductions in vulnerability and harm and improving outcomes for children and young people. •Embed trauma-informed practice, lived experience and cultural sensitivity throughout service delivery. Target Audience Young people aged 14 to 24 living in London who are identified as experiencing, or are at significant risk of violence, criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation and related harms. Scope of Delivery The provider will be expected to deliver a consistent pan-London service of support for children and young people at risk across the 33 mayoral youth club partnerships, through strong local relationships with Mayoral Youth Club Providers, Local Authorities, safeguarding partners, community organisations and specialist services. Core elements are expected to include specialist youth engagement and support, identifying and assessing needs, facilitating targeted referrals and engagement with wider services, contextual safeguarding and where appropriate, casework. Indicative Service Model While the final specification has not yet been developed, current thinking suggests the service may include: Specialist Youth Work and Engagement The Safety Programme seeks to enhance the capacity of Youth Club partnerships to prevent violence and exploitation, improve safeguarding and ensure young people receive timely, appropriate support. •Build trusted relationships with young people at risk. •Trauma-informed and culturally sensitive youth work. •One-to-one support for young people affected or at risk of violence and exploitation. •Needs assessments and referrals to appropriate services. •Casework and coordination with statutory and specialist services. •Contextual safeguarding assessments and interventions. Building Partnerships The service is expected to work closely with Mayoral Youth Club Providers, local authorities, safeguarding partnerships, education providers, health services, community organisations, borough violence reduction initiatives and other VRU tertiary programmes. •Through a regular presence, build relationships with the Mayoral Youth Club Providers within the youth clubs, and work collectively to identify young people with