Background
The Violence & Exploitation Support Service (VESS) was launched on the 3rd June 2024 and will aim to reduce violence, reduce violent victimisation and reduce harmful behaviours. MOPAC have invested £5.2m per year for three years, with the service anticipated to support 600 children and young adults each year. The service is delivered by the first pan-London alliance of organisations. The Alliance includes; Safer London, St Giles Trust, New Horizon Youth Centre and Anna Freud. Effective safeguarding and protection of young Londoners can’t be done in silos. Through this Alliance, the service will be able to reach more young Londoners and their families affected by violence and exploitation than ever before.
MOPAC have awarded the provision of statutory support services for the Violence & Exploitation Support Service (VESS) to the London Innovation & Improvement Alliance (LIIA), who act on behalf of all London’s LAs as an Alliance Partner.
How is VESS delivered?
The service aims to provide comprehensive support to young Londoners tailored to their individual circumstances, ensuring they receive the right support – at the right time. It offers an integrated support model, drawing on the strengths of each Alliance partner, with a focus on four core themes – navigation, team support, safeguarding, and participation. Central to the new service is the AMBIT “team-around-the-worker” principle. Each caseworker is surrounded by a diverse team of professionals specialising in a variety of areas. This collaborative approach maximises expertise while minimising the need for young Londoners to repeatedly share their stories or maintain multiple relationships with different professionals.
Every young Londoner referred to the service will be assigned a trauma-informed caseworker, who provides dedicated and consistent support for as long as is needed. Trust forms the foundation of the support and building trust takes time. Consistent and reliable Alliance caseworkers take the time to build strong trusting relationships, working at a pace that works for each individual young Londoner. The Alliance model enables the service to provide the highest level of support, resulting in impactful and tangible positive outcomes for young Londoners and their families.
LIIA’s role in Local Authority Coordination
LIIA have been identified and awarded as well-placed to host and deliver the Local Authority coordination component of the VESS service. This Local Authority coordination will take place alongside the Alliance partnership, which is responsible for delivering the support service to children and young adults.
Through the VESS codesign process, the following scope was identified for Local Authorities to support the Alliance.
- Improved access to support
- Increasing awareness of support services and available capacity
- b. Improving and simplified pathways to support
- Improved coordination
- Improving information sharing and knowledge exchange
Over the period of August 2024 – March 2025, LIIA are undertaking an initial design and delivery phase, working closely with the Alliance, Local Authorities and other public sector partners, such as police, probation, prisons, health and education. Our aim is to fully understand how best LIIA can coordinate routes into the VESS service, so Local Authorities and other pan-London referring agencies have a simplified and equitable experience when trying to identify the relevant support for their children and young adults.
We will also undertake pan-London strategic analysis of the various harm types associated with youth violence and criminal exploitation, which will guide the VESS service and provide useful data insights to project partners. LIIA will take an agile approach during the design phase, testing out new ways of working with partners and developing the model, before moving into full service delivery from April 2025.
Partners
