The Community Safety Fund Enabling communities to reduce crime and protect victims

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1 The Community Safety Fund Enabling communities to reduce crime and protect victims Funding deadline: midday Tuesday 31 st January 2017 Guidance Notes Please read these notes before completing your application form.

2 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Welcome to the Nottinghamshire Police & Crime Commissioner s Community Safety Fund. The Fund provides grants to third sector community based organisations to enable local delivery against the Police & Crime Plan. 1.2 The Commissioner s Police and Crime Pan sets out the Commissioner s ambitions for crime and policing up to The Plan is refreshed annually. The latest plan is on his website on: Information/Police-and-Crime-Plan/Refreshed-Plan /Police-and-Crime- Plan-2016.pdf. 1.3 Whilst final budget decisions have yet to be made, the Commissioner hopes to be able to provide grant funding at a similar level to previous years, which has been a total of around 250, The funding is available to support third sector organisations (i.e. organisations that are not for profit and non governmental, for example registered charities and social enterprises) to assist the Commissioner to reduce crime and protect victims, witnesses and vulnerable people. 1.5 Grant application forms are available on-line at Applications are invited for up to a maximum of 25,000. Organisations may apply for one project only. 1.7 Successful projects will deliver during some or all of the period 1 April March 2018 only. 1.8 The deadline for receipt of electronic and hard copy applications is midday on Tuesday 31 st January COMPLETING THE APPLICATION FORM 2.1 General Please complete the form in a minimum of Arial font size 12. Please stick to the stated word limits on all questions. If you are applying for 5,000 or less then you may provide brief detail only. 2.2 Organisational status (questions 1.2 and 1.3) Organisations must be legally constituted. This may be as a charity, social enterprise, company limited by guarantee or other not for profit status, for example a trust. The Commissioner is unable to give grants directly to organisations with no legal status. If your organisation does not have legal status and you wish to apply for a grant you may do so. However, you must demonstrate in your application that a legally constituted organisation is willing to act as an accountable body for your funding, and attach a letter or to confirm its agreement. 2

3 2.2 Bank account Your organisation must have a bank account in the name of the group, with at least two unrelated signatories. You will be asked for your bank details if you are awarded a grant. 2.3 Employees (question 1.7) Please complete this question if you are applying for more than 5, Safeguarding (question 1.12) If your project will work with children and young people or vulnerable adults, you must have adequate safeguarding policies in place, which must be submitted with your application. 2.5 Helping to deliver the Police and Crime Plan The Refreshed Police & Crime Plan has a number of strategic themes and key activities, outlined on page 44 of the Plan. The Commissioner has identified a number of areas where third sector organisations are well placed to help deliver the Plan. These are listed below. Applications for funding to deliver activity in these areas will score more highly in the evaluation of the grant applications. Priority Theme 1: Protect, support and respond to victims, witnesses and vulnerable people Under this theme, grant applications will be particularly welcome for: Community led projects, working in partnership with Nottinghamshire Police, to facilitate positive relationships between BME and/or new and emerging communities and Nottinghamshire Police. Community led initiatives to promote community cohesion and tackle xenophobic and race-related hate crime. Pilot or other projects to meet a gap in support services for victims The Commissioner has worked with partners to co-commission a range of specialist support services for domestic and sexual abuse in the city and county. He has also recently commissioned a new victims service which includes restorative justice, called Nottinghamshire Victim CARE Community Safety Fund grant applications for funding to support victims will only be considered if they provide strong evidence of unmet need or seek to pilot an innovative new approach to supporting victims. Priority Theme 3: Focus on priority crime types and those local areas that are most affected by crime and anti-social behaviour The Commissioner already works with community safety partnerships to fund initiatives in the areas of highest crime in the city and county. Successful projects 3

4 must demonstrate the need for the service and that they are additional to current provision. The areas where grant applications would be particularly welcomed are: Community led initiatives to reduce noise and alcohol related anti-social behaviour. Community led initiatives to reduce rural crime, including using social media to share local intelligence. If you wish to apply for a project focussing on a local area in the county we advise you to contact the Co-ordinator or Manager of the local community safety partnership, to ensure that your proposal does not overlap with existing provision. The contact details are: Community Safety Contact name Partnership Ashfield Rebecca r.whitehead@ashfield-dc.gov.uk Whitehead Bassetlaw Gerald Connor gerald.connor@bassetlaw.gov.uk Newark and Sherwood Ben Adams Ben.adams@newarksherwooddc.gov.uk Broxtowe Marice Hawley marice.hawley@broxtowe.gov.uk Gedling David Jayne david.jayne@gedling.gov.uk Mansfield Marsha Mann mmann@mansfield.gov.uk Rushcliffe Judith Brown JBrown@rushcliffe.gov.uk Priority Theme 4: Reduce the impact of drugs and alcohol on levels of crime and anti-social behaviour The Commissioner works with partners to co-commission substance misuse services under the umbrella of his alcohol strategy. Successful projects in this theme must demonstrate the need for the service and that they are additional to current provision. The alcohol strategy is on the Commissioner s website: Events/Alcohol-Conference/Alcohol-strategy-refresh.pdf Applications for the following will be particularly welcomed: Targeted education and awareness raising initiatives with young people specifically in relation to new psychoactive substances and class A drugs. Any funded initiative will be targeted rather than offer universal provision. Community led projects to support improved mental health with young people, and reduce drugs and alcohol use. Community led early intervention and prevention of drugs and alcohol related anti-social behaviour. 4

5 Priority Theme 5: Reduce the threat from organised crime The Commissioner already funds a number of initiatives to reduce organised crime. We would welcome grant applications in relation to: Education and awareness raising initiatives to support the prevention of digital and cyber crime including fraud, computer misuse and on-line abuse. Priority Theme 6: Prevention, early intervention and reduction in reoffending The Commissioner welcomes applications under this theme in the following areas: Community led initiatives in the city and conurbation to tackle knife crime. Initiatives must work closely with their local community safety partnership. Targeted early intervention and diversionary activity with people at risk of offending and/or anti-social behaviour. Projects working with offenders, particularly addressing the mental health needs of offenders. Projects seeking to work with offenders must demonstrate that they are additional to current provision. Evidence shows that to be successful, early intervention and diversionary activity must be targeted at people at highest risk of offending and / or anti-social behaviour. If you are submitting a project under this theme then you must demonstrate how you intend to target the project effectively. All successful projects under this theme must demonstrate that the work they propose is additional to the work led by local community safety partnerships. See contact details under Priority 3 for more information. Priority 7: Spending your money wisely We would welcome grant applications to: Develop and enable volunteering and active citizenship to build stronger communities. 2.6 Project activity (question 2.8) Projects applying for funding must be ready to deliver. Development work will not be funded. Please provide a clear delivery plan setting out how you will deliver the project and clearly stating how many people will benefit and what outcomes you will achieve. Please see below for further information about outputs and outcomes. Projects with a clear delivery plan will score more highly. 2.7 Referrals (question 2.9) If the success of your project relies on receiving referrals from agencies such as the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland Community Rehabilitation Company (operated by the Reducing Reoffending Partnership) or Youth Offending Services (for example), then you must be able to demonstrate that you have 5

6 agreements in place with those agencies. You should list the agencies as partners in the delivery of the project and submit evidence of their involvement via or letter as part of your application. 2.8 New and existing work (question 2.11) The Commissioner welcomes pilot projects but these must include a robust element of evaluation. The evaluation report must be sent to the Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner at the end of the project. Organisations may apply for funding for new or existing work. However, organisations applying for funding for existing projects must demonstrate strong evidence of need for their project, the impact of the work they have done so far, and that there is no other funding available. The purpose of this funding is not to shore up, or to replace, mainstream local funding. The Commissioner is unable to provide long term on-going funding for projects. Organisations which have previously received funding from the Commissioner may apply for further funding in However, you must tell us what the funding so far has achieved and demonstrate that you have identified ways in which the project can become sustainable and independent of the Commissioner s funding. 2.9 Local base and volunteering Organisations applying for this Fund must be based locally and employ local people. Applications that engage volunteers and aim to be self financing, and therefore sustainable, will be considered favourably Sustainability The Commissioner cannot provide ongoing funding for projects. You should consider when developing your application how your project will continue once the Commissioner s funding has finished at the end of the financial year Project budget (question 3.1) Please complete the separate excel spreadsheet for your project. Further information about direct and indirect costs is below. 3 FINANCIAL INFORMATION 3.1 You may apply for up to 25,000. However, in order to support as many projects and initiatives as possible, grants of 20,000 and above will be awarded only for exceptional projects. You are more likely to be successful if you apply for a smaller grant. Applicants are requested to outline in their application form how they would scale down their initiative if awarded a reduced grant. 3.2 All grant funding must, without exception, be spent by 31 March In addition, all services / activities funded by the grant must be fully complete by 31 March

7 Any grant which is unspent by 31 March 2018 will become repayable to the Commissioner. 3.3 The funding is revenue and cannot be used to purchase capital items. Capital items are those with a shelf life of more than one year. 3.4 No additional awards will be made to recover the cost of Value Added Tax (VAT), but grant funding can be used to cover the cost of irrecoverable VAT. 3.5 The project budget must be fully completed, listing each item of expenditure under the relevant heading and adding in additional rows if required. 3.6 The project budget must distinguish between direct and indirect costs. Examples of direct costs are salaries and travel expenses for project staff, venue hire, materials required to deliver the project. Indirect costs are activities or services that benefit more than one project. Examples include rent and utility costs, insurance or audit costs and management time. 3.7 The Commissioner will not fund projects with indirect costs of more than 10% of the total direct project costs. 3.8 You should list any payments to third parties, including consultants, as separate items under direct project supplies and services. 3.9 The Community Safety Fund grant is public money. If your project is successful, you have a responsibility to ensure that appropriate levels of tax are paid through PAYE. If you are contracting with third parties to deliver some or all of the project, including freelance consultants, please confirm that they are responsible to make declarations of income to HMRC If any organisation in receipt of this grant fails to comply with any of the conditions set out in this document, or commits any breach of faith such as misrepresentation or concealment of information, the Commissioner may require the repayment of all or part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Commissioner and notified in writing to the grant recipient. 4 MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING ARRANGEMENTS 4.1 Outputs and outcomes All projects supported by the Commissioner must help to deliver the Police and Crime Plan. Project applications that can deliver specific results which relate to the Plan will score more highly in assessment. In your delivery plan you must tell us about the outputs and outcomes you expect the project to achieve. Outputs are the countable activities your projects will provide, and how many people they will support (for example, number of training courses and number of people attending training courses). Outcomes are the changes that happen as a result of your project. Examples of project outcomes include: 7

8 reduced offending by people, previously identified as being at high risk of offending, who were supported by an initiative; and victims reporting that they feel safer and more confident, along a numbered scale, following help from a support service. Assessors will score your application form more highly if you tell us exactly what and how many activities you plan to provide, how many people you plan to support and what change your project will achieve. You must also tell us (question 2.10) how you will measure outputs and outcomes. There are many ways to measure outcomes. Often these involve establishing a baseline at the beginning of the project by asking a set of questions (for example, asking victims to tell you how safe they are feeling) and then asking the same questions again at the end of the project. If managed properly, this will allow you to establish what changes have occurred as a direct result of the project. There is useful guidance on measuring outcomes on the Charities Evaluation Services website: Monitoring Successful projects will be required to report on performance and spend in the Monitoring Report which will be sent to successful applicants with their funding letter. Grants awarded of 12,000 and under will be required to complete the Monitoring Report on completion of the project or by 31 st March Grants awarded over 12,000 will be required to complete the Monitoring Report by 30 October 2017 for the first six months of the project and 30 April 2018 for the remaining six months of the project. All organisations receiving funding during will receive a monitoring visit from a staff member from Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, who will conduct a random sample of the evidence of the project s spend, activity and outcomes. 5 ADVICE ON FUNDING APPLICATIONS 5.1 If you are considering applying to the Community Safety Fund and would like to seek advice on whether or not your project idea might fit within the Commissioner s priorities, or you have any questions about the application form, please do not hesitate to contact Helen Kane on grants@nottinghamshire.pnn.police.uk or call

9 6 SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION FORM 6.1 The person completing the form should be knowledgeable of the organisation s governance arrangements, the project for which grant funding is being requested and the partners that are part of the project. 6.2 Written evidence demonstrating the active involvement and support of any partners listed as part of the project delivery must be provided with the application. 6.3 Detail of your organisation s financial position is requested to evaluate the viability of the organisation in delivering the project. All sources of external funding should be recorded. 6.4 For grant applications for 12,000 or less only one letter of support or reference is required. For those organisations applying for grants over 12,000, two references should be supplied. Referees should be from other government bodies such as local authorities, health agencies or the police. They must understand the work of your organisation and be able to comment on your ability to deliver the project. Original references should be submitted with the application form. We may contact referees as part of the evaluation process. 6.5 The terms and conditions MUST be read and agreed to before returning a hard copy of the application form with the completed and signed declaration. 6.6 The Conflict of Interest Form MUST be read, completed and signed and a hard copy returned to us with your application. 6.7 The application form MUST be signed by your organisation s Chair, Company Secretary or Treasurer. We must receive an application form with an original signature by the deadline of midday on Tuesday 31 January When we assess the grant applications we may need to request additional information to support your application. You will be contacted directly if this is the case. 7 SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION You must submit: 7.1 an electronic copy of your application form, delivery plan and budget to grants@nottinghamshire.pnn.police.uk. Please make sure you include the name of your organisation in the file title. 7.2 one original hard copy of: your application form with an original signature; letter(s) of support/reference; confirmation from your accountable body that it agrees to act as the accountable body for the project (if relevant, see question 1.3); 9

10 safeguarding policies (if your project will be working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, see question 1.12); evidence from any partners about their involvement in the project (if relevant, see question 1.14); delivery plan (question 2.8); confirmation from organisations that they will refer to your project (if relevant, see question 2.9); details of what your project has achieved with previous funding from the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner (if relevant see question 2.12); and project budget (question 3.1). The hard copy of the application form and the above attachments must be received no later than midday on Tuesday 31 January Hard copies should be sent to: Katherine Potter, Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Arnot Hill House, Arnot Hill Park, Arnold, Nottinghamshire NG5 6LU. Applications which do not include a hard copy will not be assessed. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. Please do not enclose any additional information unless we request it. It will not be considered. 8 ASSESSMENT 8.1 The deadline for receipt of both electronic and hard copy funding applications is midday on Tuesday 31 January Please see above for details of how to submit your application. 8.2 Grant applications will be assessed by two officers from the Nottinghamshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. Please note that: applications will be assessed solely on the information given on the application form; the first version of your application that we receive will be assessed - if you subsequently submit a revised copy, it will not be assessed; you must adhere to the word limits, as additional text will not be considered; assessors may have no prior knowledge of your organisation or project. 8.3 Grants will be assessed against a scored matrix assessing the: evidence of need for the project; fit with the Commissioner s priority themes and the areas outlined in 2.5 above; applicant organisation s experience of delivering similar work; delivery plan (considering approach, timescale, outputs and outcomes); and value for money. 10

11 8.4 The assessors will develop funding recommendations for the Commissioner which will be considered by a panel which includes representatives from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Nottingham Crime and Drugs Partnership, the Safer Nottinghamshire Board and a senior police officer. 8.5 Funding recommendations will then be made to the Police and Crime Commissioner at the end of February. 8.6 The decision of the Police and Crime Commissioner is final and cannot be appealed against. 8.7 There are a significant number of third sector organisations working within Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, providing good quality and excellent services. We anticipate demand will outweigh the amount of funding we have available several times over. Not all applications will be successful. However, this does not prevent you from making future applications for grant funding. 8 OFFER OF GRANT 8.1 Successful applications will receive a letter of grant offer by 3 March This will confirm the amount and the payment dates. It may also include some conditions which need to be met before funding can be released. Acceptance of the offer and the terms and conditions will be required. 8.2 We appreciate you will be keen to find out the result of your funding application, however, because we will be very busy with preparing funding letters, please do not contact the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner about the outcome of your application before 7 March. 9 FUTURE FUNDING 9.1 The application form provided is for grant funding for the financial year 1 April March 2018 only. In the current financial climate the Commissioner is unable to confirm what funding will be available in future years. However, the Commissioner is committed to working with community groups wherever possible to prevent and reduce crime and protect vulnerable people and victims. 9.2 Announcements on future funding available will be made on the Commissioner s website and through community and voluntary sector networks. 11