The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)

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The Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime MOPAC LCPF Project was initially funded by the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit to delivery 2019 – 2020.  
The MOPAC project aim was to identify the top 100 Children and Young People at the greatest risk of educational exclusion, offending behaviour and/or vulnerability to criminal/sexual exploitation, whilst working with the schools in the borough.
In June 2021, the Policing and Crime Unit announced plans to expand the MOPAC Programme and reach to supporting additional families across London.

Barnet Focus

  • Reducing and preventing violence – preventing and reducing violence affecting young people
  • Protecting people from being exploited or harmed – reducing the number of young people and adults who are criminally exploited or harmed; keeping young people in the justice system supported and safe; and keeping people safe online.

MOPAC Referrals

The two main criteria for young people eligible for MOPAC support are: 

  • Children who are at risk of temporary or permanent school exclusion
  • Children involved in or at Risk from Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) thus deemed to be a Vulnerable Adolescent

This does not exclude other areas of concern being highlighted, however, the focus on MOPAC intervention will be on the two criteria areas above as the aim will be to evidence on how MOPAC intervention has improved the outcomes for this group of young people. 

Young people are identified from a range of partners including the Schools, Police, Social care, Health and Housing.

The aim of the 0-19 MOPAC project is to work with young people to prevent school exclusion and reduce numbers of children at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and or Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) linked to low level offending. Staff will also use the Early Help CEAM process.

The project will also increase engagement of young people into positive activities. This is through engagement with tailor made programmes, education, training, and identified positive activities. In addition, support for the wider family is available through parenting programmes and family support which will be key factors in providing a holistic approach for each young person.

Young people need to meet one of the two main criteria, and not be open to the REACH Team, or Youth Justice Service and currently living in Barnet, in order to be accepted for MOPAC.

The MOPAC team will work closely with schools, Social Workers and Early Help Practitioners to identify young people aged 10-17 years who may benefit from the project and in order to have a team around the child approach. The MOPAC team is aligned with the Early Help Hubs and continue to have regular contact with the Vulnerable Adolescence team to ensure a holistic view of the young person is identified.

The programme will also consider current local and community issues and how this could impact on the young person in relation diversionary activities available to support the young person to explore different pathways. 

Each young person has an allocated worker who provides direct work and diversionary activities for 12 weeks. The young person is actively engaged in co-producing their plan and supported into universal positive activities as part of step down prior to the work ending. This will also ensure that all young people have ongoing support and clear exit strategy.

MOPAC programme may also consider other concerns in addition to the main criteria including: 

  • Anti-social behaviour
  • Peer relationships
  • Offending behaviour 
  • Transitioning from year 6 to year 7 

MOPAC practitioners use the principles and practices of informal social education to engage young people in constructive dialogue, within a broad agenda of personal and social educational development. The work is underpinned by mutual trust and respect and relies on the voluntary engagement of young people and their families.

Universal Plus Cases

Referrals from Partners will be made via a 0-19 Universal Plus referral pathway.  

The MOPAC worker will assess the needs of the young person and the family, this includes the environment that they are spending their time in. A bespoke programme will then be put together to address the issues and concerns. 

The length of the intervention can be up to 3 months dependent of the level of issues that are identified.

All MOPAC intervention will be held under Universal Plus and as such will not require an Early Help assessment, however an assessment will be completed similar to the assessment tool used for Out of Court Disposals. There are 3 types of Universal Plus cases:

  • Programmes delivery 
  • Casework direct sessions 
  • Services requested by CSC (commissioned services)

The intervention offered with MOPAC Universal Plus support:

  • Youth focused/targeted intervention 
  • Early Help groups/programmes
  • Linked to Positive Activities
  • Alternative Education provision (when appropriate) 
  • Wider Family support/Signposting  

Universal Plus cases requiring MOPAC support will be allocated to the relevant work Early Help Hub tray for progress and action. Case will then be reviewed and if appropriate, allocated to MOPAC practitioners delivering a plan based on the requested service. 

For casework sessions, where the young person requires short focused or ‘one to one’ support; the expectation is that practitioners will use the Universal Plus process to deliver the intervention requested and work with the family in a timely manner towards their goals and the development of resilience.

From a casework perspective, working with a Universal Plus case should follow a process of:

  • Agreeing the work and timescales with the family
  • Delivering the intervention
  • A review of the plan
  • End review process and closure on the EHM recording system

Social Care Referrals

Request for support by statutory services, these cases remain professionally led by CSC. However, MOPAC involvement is in relation to delivering additional intervention support. In this instance, the CSC social worker should use the commission form on the LCS recording system to request the service required.

These cases will be referred to the relevant Early Help Hub tray on LCS who will review and pass on to MOPAC if appropriate.