18th April 2017

Funding: support for victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse

The Home Office is seeking to award grant funding to non-statutory sector organisations in England and Wales working across a large geographical area to provide support to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse (SVSCSA). This follows the success of the SVSSA fund administered during 2016/17 financial year. For 2017/2018, £4.7m has been provided proportionally to all 43 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to administer to local provision for supporting victims.

HO acknowledges that that this funding stream will not be suitable for some organisations that work with victims and survivors across a wider geographic area, and therefore may find it difficult to bid successfully to Police and Crime Commissioners. Therefore, it has withheld £600k specifically to allow for voluntary organisations to submit a proposal for this purpose for 2017/2018, and if successful, they will be allocated funding centrally via a Grant Agreement from the Home Office.

All bids must be for one year only, and bidders must be able to demonstrate the ability to spend their entire potential award by the end of the 2017/18 financial year. Organisations wishing to apply must operate over a large geographic area, which must, as a minimum, be 3 PCC areas. While there will not be a formal cap placed on the amount an organisation can bid for, it expect all bids to be scalable. More details about scalability will be made available in the published documents.

The process leading to the award of the grant will be administered using Crown Commercial Services eSourcing portal. To take part in this grant funding opportunity click HERE.