Commissioning

Violence Reduction Units – like the Humber VPP – primarily receive funding from the Home Office. Where appropriate, we also seek in-kind or financial match contributions from local partners to supplement these grants.

We use this funding to commission interventions ranging from mentoring and sports programmes to hospital navigators and educational resources.

Our commissioned projects are often designed for young people at risk, aiming for early intervention and reducing reoffending. We use a public health approach, which focuses on preventing violence by addressing its root causes through multi-agency partnerships, data-driven insights and community involvement.

The Commissioning Process and Approach

Each year, the Humber VPP is required to submit a delivery plan to the Home Office for approval. As part of this, we need to identify which interventions we are proposing to fund and the evidence for these choices. Before we submit the plan, it has to be signed off by our board.

The Humber VPP uses data from health, police and local authorities to identify high-risk areas, demographics and trends to make sure services meet specific local needs. By bringing our partners together, we can co-produce projects and share resources.

We engage in a competitive bidding process to award contracts to successful providers. Our role is to test, implement and evidence what works, with a view to the interventions being supported by mainstream funding in the future. That’s why we must be very selective with our limited funding.

Our partners also fund and deliver many other services that either focus directly on violence prevention or some of the risk factors that lead people to being affected by violence. Though we can’t fund core statutory services, we aim to add value by testing different approaches and linking these services with referrals and support.

Partnership and Co-Production

The Humber VPP works with community-based, third-sector organisations to make sure projects are culturally relevant and trusted, often focusing on "place-based" interventions.

Using a "Hub and Spoke" model, we act as a central "hub" (managing funds, commissioning projects and monitoring delivery), while working with local Community Safety Partnership "spokes" to identify and deliver local interventions.

Drawing on our youth voice findings, children and young people across the Humber region have identified a range of key needs and challenges to meaningful engagement. Organisations seeking funding from the Humber VPP are required to demonstrate how they will address the needs identified. 

Monitoring and Evaluation

We use a commissioning catalogue (based on the Youth Endowment Fund toolkit) and outcomes framework (currently in development) to measure the success of projects against key priorities - for example, reducing knife crime and supporting victims.

Funded organisations are accountable to the Humber VPP, requiring regular monitoring reports and financial assessments, with strict conditions on how funding is used.

Data is also central to evaluating the impact of interventions and refining strategies, such as analysing the effectiveness of programmes.