London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) Mayoral Youth Clubs Safety Programme

London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) Mayoral Youth Clubs Safety Programme Indicative Contract Value: Up to £2900,000 excl. VAT Contract Duration: 1 March 2027 – 31 March 2029 with option to extend to 31 March 2030. This market warming session will be delivered jointly with the VRU's Tertiary Service. The two programmes form complementary elements of the VRU's tertiary violence reduction offer for young people affected by violence and exploitation. While the Mayoral Youth Clubs Safety Programme will provide specialist youth workers embedded across Mayoral youth club settings to identify risk, build trusted relationships and connect young people to support, the redesigned tertiary service will provide intensive, specialist and longer-term support for young people experiencing established, escalating, or entrenched violence and exploitation. Together, these programmes aim to strengthen London's pathway of support for vulnerable young people through earlier identification, stronger partnership working and improved access to specialist interventions. The London Violence Reduction Unit. The London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), hosted within the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), pioneers a partnership-based public health approach to tackling violence rooted in prevention and early intervention. Since 2019, the VRU has invested in over 550,000 targeted interventions for young people across London. The VRU invests in interventions at critical moments to keep young people safe in and out of school and at the key touchpoints that influence a young person’s journey; early years and families, education, positive opportunities, youth work, and communities and place. The Mayor of London has increased investment in London’s Youth Clubs. Across 32 London boroughs and the City of London, a £30 million programme is funding youth clubs to extend and expand their existing offer into weekday evenings, weekends, and school holidays – when young people need safe spaces the most – and provide specialist support to those facing the greatest challenges. This investment strengthens youth clubs as trusted community spaces – where connections are made, young people feel safe and valued, and opportunities are created, all with support from trusted adults. The programme will help community organisations reach more young people aged 14–24 years old and strengthen the quality and sustainability of their provision. It will do this by delivering an increased universal, open-access provision, and targeted specialised support for young people facing greater challenges. For more information on this specific Youth Clubs programme, please see The Mayor's investment in youth clubs | London City Hall. Safety is a core outcome of this Mayoral investment in youth clubs. Whilst it will provide universal youth provision alongside targeted support, some young people will require specialist interventions beyond the expertise and capacity of local delivery partners. It has been agreed that a London-wide Safety Offer sits alongside the core Youth Clubs programme. Drawing on its regional oversight and networks across London, alongside seven years of experience and expertise in commissioning impactful violence reduction programmes, the VRU is looking to commission a specialist organisation to provide additional capacity to connect with the Mayoral funded youth clubs across the 32 boroughs. This provider will deliver a pan-London service providing specialised youth workers, who will be embedded across the 33 Mayoral Youth Clubs, who will provide targeted support for young people experiencing or at risk of violence and exploitation, offer support to enhance feelings of safety and boost connections and pathways into wider specialist services. Description of the Service The future service will operate as a pan-London tertiary intervention with strengthened local delivery through dedicated, specialised youth workers for each Mayoral Youth Club area, with a minimum of 2:1 borough to youth worker ratio. The aim of the Safety Programme will be to provide a visible, connected and meaningful presence across the 33 Mayoral Youth Clubs to support children and young people who are affected by, or vulnerable to, violence and exploitation. Its purpose is to identify those at risk (working with the youth club provider), provide direct support, make referrals into appropriate services and interventions and enhance feelings of safety. The VRU will commission a specialist organisation to deliver the Safety Programme. This additional resource will establish a network of specialist practitioners who will work alongside funded Youth Club partnerships, providing additional capacity and expertise to identify, engage, and support young people who face higher levels of risk. They will work with local partnerships to build trusted relationships with young people, provide targeted interventions and support, and help young people access wider opportuniti