ADD415 Team London Major Events Packages

1.1 In the summer of 2012, the GLA delivered a successful Team London Ambassadors programme in support of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 7,000 highly trained and motivated volunteers were deployed in pods across 43 locations in the summer of 2012. The role of the programme was to enhance the visitor welcome to the capital and ensure that London maximised the potential benefits from the 2012 Games

1.2 Since 2013 Team London ambassador volunteers have been deployed at locations in London, as part of the Visitor Welcome programme, providing a visitor welcome to London’s tourists. The response from tourists to the ambassadors was overwhelmingly supportive, with 97% of visitors asked commenting positively on the helpfulness of volunteers.

1.3 Due to the success of the Visitor Welcome programme, Team London has an extensive database of experienced volunteers whilst we are also scaling up the work we carry out with events companies to ensure a steady and continued supply of events volunteering opportunities that can scale in line with our volunteer numbers increasing year on year.

1.4 Therefore, Team London has designed a series of Major Events packages, aimed at events companies who require support with all the planning and delivery of recruiting, scheduling, training, managing and co-ordinating volunteers at Events. It is to be noted that Team London have costed these packages after working out the resources required in terms of GLA staff time and any other project collateral required to support these events companies.

2.1 Due to the increased resource that Team London is expending working with larger scale events regarding their volunteering needs; officers have developed four Major Events packages in order to recoup the costs of assisting events companies with their volunteer logistics.

2.2. Three of the Major Events packages are listed below:

1. Introductory
2. Intermediate (available in a 4 or 6 week package)
3. Advanced (available in a 2 or 4 month package)

2.3 The Major Events packages and associated costs are detailed below:

2.3.1 Introductory Packages are free of charge as they offer access to both our websites.

2.3.2 Intermediate Major Events Package includes Team London carrying out the following:

• Creating a post for the volunteering role on the website
• Monitoring of interest and applications
• Ensuring 10% of roles are offered to the 2Work programme.
• Writing content for social media and newsletter.
• Responding to queries.
• Confirming event information.
• Sending reports of potential volunteers to the event company.
• Assisting at the Briefing Session for volunteers.
• Receiving feedback and sending out evaluation surveys.

The costs of this package are £250 to cover staff time spread over the 4 weeks or £500 of staff time and resource spread over 6 weeks of support from Team London. A full explanation of the costings and time resources can be found in the appendix to this decision.

2.3.3 Advanced Major Events package includes Team London carrying out the following:

• Creating a post for the volunteering role on the website.
• Monitoring interest and applications.
• Ensuring 10% of roles are offered to the 2Work programme.
• Writing content for social media and newsletters.
• Responding to queries.
• Confirming event information.
• Building shift patterns and upload to Get Scheduled.
• Managing shift bookings and queries.
• Sending reports of scheduled volunteers to the Event Organisers (if requested).
• Preparing volunteer handbooks or additional materials that might be needed.
• Planning and delivering an appropriate briefing session for all event volunteers.
• Receiving feedback, sending evaluation surveys and Thank you emails.

The costs of this package are £2000 which includes Team London staff resource spread over 2 months of support, and £3500 for support spread across four month.

2.3.4 Fourth package: In addition, the support of a Volunteer Manager can be added to the Advanced Major Events Package, creating an Advanced ME Plus package. This carries an additional charge of £500 therefore increasing the overall price of the 2 month package to £2500 and the 4 month package to £4000.

For the Advanced ME Plus Package Team London will carry out all of the tasks detailed in section 2.3.3 as well as:

- Supplying a Volunteer Manager who will develop and deliver the event briefing and then support volunteers during event days. A site visit for the Volunteer Manager is compulsory. The Volunteer Manager will be employed for a minimum of 14 hours in total and will be paid at the London Living Wage rate.

2.4 Team London anticipates receiving a maximum of £15,000 in income from the companies already committed to purchasing events packages in this decision. Any further income from future packages shall be the subject of individual Delegated Authority Record approval by the Assistant Director of Team London

2.5 For a full breakdown of the number of staff hours contributed by GLA officers to each package and
the length of time this is spread across, please see the costing breakdown which is attached as an appendix to this decision.

2.6 The forecast of the income anticipated by Team London from the Major Events packages is as follows:

2.7 Team London have so far agreed to support London Marathon, Formula-E, Pride London and Moonwalk with a selection of the packages listed pending ADD approval. Discussions have taken place with other companies who are expected to take up one of the package options and these will be finalised upon ADD approval.

3.1 Team London will ensure that all events companies that request a major events package for Team London to assist with volunteer planning and management at their events have an equalities policy in place. Team London will have sight of the organisation’s Equalities policy prior to entering into any agreements.

3.2 All recruitment, selection and training will be fair and provide equal opportunities for all. All volunteer roles will be open for everyone to apply for and volunteers will all be selected after initial recruitment and training against the same criteria.

4.1 The Team London programme directly supports the Mayor’s priorities to drive volunteering in the capital. Visitor Welcome links to key Mayoral priorities – specifically to improve quality of life, and through training of unemployed volunteers, supports jobs and skills and promotes youth opportunities.

5.1 Approval is being sought for Team London to receive external income for the provision of Major Events support packages. The maximum income receivable of £15,000 agreed under this decision paper, is specifically from events companies that request a major events package.

5.2 Team London carried out a costing exercise identifying the team resources required to provide the support packages, and this principle was applied to calculate the price per each package. The London Marathon, Formula-E, Pride London and Moonwalk have commissioned support packages committing up to £15,000 and the team has estimated that this level of income would cover the costs of the resources expended in the provision and design, as outlined in the body of this report and detailed in Appendix1.

5.3 Other funding agreements have been secured from a number of events companies with the income being received throughout the year. Interest from other organisations, for events taking place later in the year, has also been expressed. Should third party contributions exceed the target of £15,000 further approval will be required to spend against the additional income.

5.4 The individual elements provided by Team London in the Major Events packages amounts to the provision of “Services” and VAT will therefore apply. VAT is paid on the income received, so it is advisable that agreements entered into with the events companies include a “specific VAT clause” that allows VAT to be legally added to the payments. The third party should be forewarned that VAT is applicable, unless there is an agreement between GLA and the events company.

5.5 Team London, within the Communities & Intelligence directorate would be entering in an agreement to provide a service (on behalf of Greater London Authority) and will be responsible for the management of these events support packages, ensuring compliance with the Authority’s Financial Regulations, the GLA Contracts & Funding Code and Expenses & Benefits Framework.

5.6 Any changes to this proposal including budgetary implications will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision making process.