MOPAC: Redesigning victim-centric service delivery models

The challenge

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) commissions services providing direct support to victims/survivors of crime in London, including support delivered by specialist voluntary sector organisations for victims/survivors of sexual violence. These services were under significant strain, burdened by growing waiting lists adding pressure on the service providers and often resulting in delays in accessing both emotional and practical support.

In fact, for victims/survivors in the criminal justice system, only 6% of rape reports ended in a successful prosecution, and two thirds were withdrawing before they’d reached court because the process itself was so traumatising . This spurred MOPAC to collaborate with its providers to identify how they could tackle the challenges they faced, and improve access to support for victim/survivors when they need it most.

They recognised the need for dedicated support to help them to:

1. Develop a comprehensive demand and capacity model
2. Co-design a set of service recommendations
3. Design the future commissioning model
4. Identify an approach to transition to the new service and commissioning model

Our approach

Gate One was identified as the right partner to help MOPAC achieve their objectives given our previous expertise working with justice sector stakeholders to deliver future-proof transformation and change. For us, this was a once in a career opportunity to accelerate meaningful change with visible and real-life impact, both in the long and short term.

Our driving force was to be victim-led — not designing a service that only talks to providers or senior leadership. We engaged directly with victims/survivors and designed an approach to consult a broad and inclusive range of individuals, defining a model that reflected the diversity of the victim profile in London.

Over 6 months, we conducted 35 trauma-informed interviews, 40 surveys and 7 focus groups directly with victims/survivors. This gave us a solid understanding of what support they needed and to test emerging recommendations to assess the impact from a lived experience perspective. It was also important for us to keep the individuals informed of how their input was influencing meaningful change, something that hadn’t always happened in the past and was very much valued by all parties.

For MOPAC, as well as transforming the service to be victim-centric and needs-led with equitable access for all, it was crucial to collaborate with providers in terms of co-design and co-production. This was particularly important — they were entering a process of significant change in how they commission these services in the future.

Engaging a ‘co-design’ approach

There were several challenges, including leadership changes during the project and limited capacity for engagement from providers who were central to the co-design. Achieving consensus when bringing 7+ organisations together, all having varying priorities and opinions, also put us to the test. We researched other UK commissioning models to ensure the most effective use of funding, and ultimately design a model prioritising equitable access.

To get under the skin of the complexities, we encouraged MOPAC to start addressing areas of improvement identified by the victim/survivor engagement in the near term, rather than waiting for the new contract the following year. Trying to re-design service provision is complex, so we engaged blue sky thinking: what would success look like? And how could we meet this objective?

We co-designed a number of recommendations, underpinned by a demand and capacity model that brought together data sets and culminated in a projected model of what we expected demand to be under different scenarios. MOPAC and its providers then looked at capacity and demand — deducing what choices could be made for victims/ survivors within the funding envelope. So, the service design process was a combination of both qualitative and quantitative design.

The wider impact

This was an incredibly powerful tool for MOPAC as they’re continuously in conversations with the Ministry of Justice to discuss funding for tackling violence against women and girls. When taken through the demand and capacity model and shown the impact of demand in the coming years, the Ministry of Justice really stood up and took notice. For example, if we see police reports go up by x, or in fact, the proportion of victims that they’re referring into these services go up by x, this is what the shortfall looks like. In fact, they were so impressed with the model that they asked MOPAC to share it for them to use.

In terms of national lobbying, it also proved to be an engine for change and continues to be a point of innovation. This has never been done anywhere else and has the potential to make a real impact in other areas of local government.

Key results

The new service and commissioning model, entirely underpinned by our victim and provider feedback, has started to take MOPAC in a new direction that wasn’t possible before. It’s helped them embed the way they execute user-centred design, giving immediate value and improving the resilience of those services, increasing their reach and easing some of the pressures on the system.

Our challenge was to collaborate and standardise the services offered to create equity of access (including for male or transgender victims for example), without losing specialism or engagement with victims from a range of demographics. Through a collaborative approach (NHS England joining every workshop and being part of the co-design), we identified an opportunity for co-commissioning — streamlining how providers receive money and align on outcomes to ensure maximum delivery per pound spent. Together, they’re now identifying gaps in the sector and where they could be investing further (leadership development training for example).

Impact for MOPAC

• Costed, informed service development – 10 recommendations developed and approved
• The future service model is made up of a holistic set of recommendations that will:

• • improve flow through the system to minimise postcode lottery effect
  • deliver needs-led support services to better meet victim/survivor needs
  • enable providers to make changes improving workforce resilience

• Clarity of demand and capacity – a bespoke interactive tool was developed to show system capacity, helping them to understand the impact of decisions (X many advocates in the system would enable X many victims to be supported). MOPAC is now using this tool to lobby the government for increased funding, something not previously possible when evidence of the ‘unmet demand’ didn’t exist. We also ensured the team could leverage the model and ensure lasting change after we’d completed the consultation.
• Co-commissioning with NHS England on sexual violence support services – maximising available budget into the sector, reducing the duplication of funding for the same services, and making it easier for providers to deliver a better service when their commissioners are aligned.
• Continuous change management and coaching – we ensured all stakeholders understood why decisions were being made and went out of our way to engage with them 1:1 to help level the playing field and create equal footing for parties across the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector.
• Procurement of a new support service model for London by MOPAC (which we co-designed throughout this project), via a 7-year (5 year plus 2×1 year extensions) contract with a total value of £65million.

Impact for service providers

• Consulted 40 partners/providers throughout via face-to-face workshops and meetings – Rape Crisis member organisations, organisations supporting victims with neurodiversity, plus statutory sector organisations (MOJ, Met Police, BTP, NHS).

• Involved service providers in the governance throughout – we developed trusted relationships with providers to fully understand impact and elicit feedback i.e. one-year contracts, limited resilience, ability to innovate, invest etc. We could then recommend that MOPAC, as commissioner, considers how they can take on risk and increase the length of contracts to provide greater security and stability.

• Following project completion, MOPAC launched the tender for the new service via a seven-year contract (5 year + 1 +1) that will provide sustainability, reduced risk and help to stabilise the workforce (previously operated on 12-month horizons only). This is a monumental and pivotal shift in how the service can operate, providing certainty and long-term security for the workforce, subsequently reducing high levels of staff churn.
• Increased diversity of services informed by victim/survivor feedback – the role of peer support, instrumental in the recovery journey, which was not previously available in London (only in pockets and often self-led from the victim seeing the gap).
• Provided change expertise and enlisting an award-winning leadership coach to deliver bespoke sessions, ensuring they were set up to cope with the change and minimise disruption to staff.

Impact for victims

• Their diverse voice has been heard! (accompanying image will be added)
• Over 35 victim/survivor interviews conducted in person and remotely
• 7 focus groups with victims/survivors
• 40+ survey responses capturing the breadth of the victim profile – some want anonymity e.g. more male responses through this channel
• Future services will be shaped by their needs and should result in:

• • shorter waiting lists and more timely support
  • more diverse service provision (better suited to their needs)
  • a smoother recovery journey from an experience perspective i.e. less being passed around the system from provider to provider or being forgotten about on a waiting list for years.