Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve commissioned support services for child victims of crime.

The Victims Funding Strategy sets out a framework to improve the alignment and coordination of the Government’s commissioning of victim support services to enable all victims to receive the support they need. The strategy introduced national commissioning standards, which will encourage an expected level of service for victims. It also introduced core metrics and outcomes to be collected on all government funding, to ensure we are building a comprehensive evidence base that will allow us to generate a much clearer picture of the needs and experiences of victims using support.

The strategy will be overseen by a cross-government board, which will bring together government departments and key stakeholders in this space to monitor implementation. As part of the strategy, we also committed to reviewing and refreshing existing UK government commissioning guidance for commissioners of local support services. Part of this will include looking specifically at the commissioning of services for children and young people as victims of crime.

The Victims and Prisoners Bill aims to improve the support offered to children and young people. Child victims are covered by the definition of a victim in the Bill, as they are in the current Victims Code.

To drive forward better strategic multiagency collaboration on commissioning for victim support services, the Bill will place a duty on Police and Crime Commissioners, local authorities, and Intergrated Care Boards to collaborate on support services for child and adult victims of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and other serious violent crime.