Grant Funding - Tackling Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service for Professionals

The Home Office is seeking bids for grant funding relating to Tackling Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service for Professionals. A total funding pot of up to £400k is available for the provision of a Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) Support Service for Professionals. Funding will pilot a service to deliver England-wide targeted support to safeguarding professionals on tackling HSB (working with children and young people who are both displaying these behaviours and affected by it), as well as collate evidence & intelligence of the challenges local partners are facing, in order to inform future policy decisions. The pilot will be targeted at designated safeguarding leads within early years provision, primary and secondary schools, alternative provision and colleges, but also open to wider safeguarding professionals (including police, social workers and health practitioners). Support will be offered regarding specific incidents of HSB & also for strategic/systemic questions, such as policy considerations. The support provision will provide initial support & signpost to existing resources & advice. Duration The period of the grant funding will be from January 2022 to March 2022, with potential to extend into next financial year if funding agreed. The provider(s) must have existing capacity to deliver the service by no later than January 2022 to ensure the maximum duration for the service to run to inform the evidence base on harmful sexual behaviour. To ensure value for money a charge per contact payment plan will be in place with a clear stipulation within the funding agreement regarding the minimum staffing requirement over the lifetime of the support service. Objectives: This support service will help to build the evidence base & improve practice responses across those areas seeking support. The support service will help to deliver the following objectives: - Harmful sexual behaviour will be better identified by professionals - Young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour will receive earlier support & help to respond to underlying issues/trauma, which will be trauma-informed & joined up across safeguarding agencies - Those impacted by / experiencing harmful sexual behaviour will receive earlier support which will also be trauma informed & joined up across safeguarding agencies. - Over the longer term, fewer incidents of harmful sexual behaviour in areas schools and LA areas, with fewer young people affected by it - Professionals gain confidence in dealing with such incidents of HSB - Implementation of whole-system, trauma informed responses to HSB to ensure a change in the culture of how harmful sexual behaviour is perceived & responded to, - Learning gathered on the sorts of issues and incidents local professionals particularly struggle with when responding to HSB, to inform future policy development - Learning gathered on what a 'best practice' whole-system response to HSB looks like, which can be collated and shared nationally.

Additional information: Bids will go through a selection process run by the CSA Early Intervention and Prevention team in conjunction with Home Office Commercial. Bids will be reviewed by a Home Office and DfE panel with the relevant expertise in both commercial and compliance policy and CSA prevention policy. Bids will be evaluated against three critical success factors: Time, Cost and Quality. Bids can be either singular or in collaboration but must be put forward by a lead who can be the legal entity/accountable body on behalf of the partnership. Bids will be assessed against the following criteria: • Provider ability to deliver the service from January 2022. • Subject matter expertise in responding to harmful sexual behaviour in a trauma informed manner. • Description of the innovative and/or evidence-based support they will be piloting • Identified target audience (of professionals) with clear insight evidencing why the approach will be effective for this audience. • Clear timeframe for delivery. • Clear plans for evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of the intervention. • Clear plan for disseminating what is learned from the evaluation. • Description of how evaluation of the activity will be used to inform future activity, for example could the activity be scaled up and expanded. • Demonstration of how value for money will be achieved. This will be evidenced in a project delivery plan accompanied by the bid.

How to respond: Organisation(s) interested in making a bid are required to request an application form by sending an e-mail request to: [email protected] with the subject header as 'HSB 2021/22 Competition'.

Please note the requirements set out in this notice and attached Statement of Outcomes, particularly in terms of expertise and ability to deliver to tight timescales before submitting an application.

All completed application forms must be received by Home Office by the closing date/time specified. Any applications received by Home Office after the closing date/time will not be considered.