Decision details

In November 2016 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) invited bids for a national £20 million fund to help support victims of domestic abuse.

The new fund was made available to increase refuge spaces and other accommodation for women fleeing domestic violence, covering a range of services, from providing somewhere safe to live and recover, to providing education, employment and life skills training and helping victims rebuild their lives.

The Housing Independence Team submitted an application on behalf of Sheffield City Council and was successfully awarded a grant of £93,500 to be spent over a two year period (2016/17 and 2017/18).

This report seeks permission for Sheffield City Council to accept the grant funding from DCLG and to pass on this year’s funding of £23,500 to Sheffield Area Refuge and Support (SARAS) for improvements to the refuge service and to kick-start work on the expansion of the Sanctuary scheme within BME communities.

Proposals for payment of the 2017/18 grant funding will be the subject of a further report.

(i) To approve the acceptance of £93,500 grant from the DCLG Domestic Abuse Fund for expenditure in accordance with the bid submitted; and

(ii) to approve expenditure, in consultation with the Director of Finance, of the £23,500 received for 2016/17 in accordance with the bid. Payment of £23,000 will be made to SARAS as grant and £500 spent on the development of proposals for the Sanctuary scheme.

The grant from DCLG will allow the Council to both mitigate against future reductions in budgets, to test new approaches to support, and to enhance existing service provision to victims of domestic abuse.

At bid stage officers considered:

a) Bidding with other sub-regional authorities. A cross boundary bid was the preferred option from DCLG but preliminary discussion with other sub-regional authorities indicated that 1) some of them were already bidding for separate bids; 2) there was little communality of intent on the areas of service to be targeted.

b) Not bidding due to timescales and capacity. However it was felt that additional investment would both mitigate against increased budget pressures and allow for SCC to test new approaches.

An option now would be to wait for DCLG to issue an offer letter and run the risk of not passing on the funding to SARAS and Action this financial year. At this stage we know who to give the funding to, what the sums to be passed on are to be spent on, and that they are in line with the estimated costs.