ADD2635 GLA grant making cost benefit analysis

1.1. The Greater London Authority (GLA) is one of the largest funders of civil society in London.
Between 2018-20 financial years, the most recent data source, it distributed £87.7 million thorough
1,134 grants with a median grant size of £15,000.

1.2. Across the GLA Group, grants are delivered in innovative and efficient ways. However, there is a risk of silo working, limiting the opportunities for collaboration and economies of scale.

1.3. Different teams are responsible for designing and managing their own grant programmes, and
therefore, there is a huge variation in the portfolio of projects and processes that are delivered and
used by the GLA Group. The impact of this is:

i. significant resources for each individual team in developing and delivering grant programmes

ii. risks of missed opportunities for alignment of objectives, reducing overall impact on shared
outcomes

iii. difficulty in understanding overall impact across the GLA programmes, as monitoring is not
aligned

iv. difficulty for civil society organisation to understand the GLA as a funder, due to different
expectations and processes across different teams

v. potential overreliance on external contractors to deliver grant programmes and lack of
organisational memory due to knowledge being outsourced.

1.4. The objective of this piece of work is to ensure value for money and maximise opportunities for
collaboration by developing a cost benefit analysis that illustrates the transactional benefits of
improved coordination of civil society grant-making across the GLA Group. A second element of this piece of work is the design of a potential centralised programme management office that could
improve data held by the organisation, efficiency, innovation, and collaboration with internal and
external stakeholders. This piece of work has been costed on the basis of equivalent pieces of
research and will be procured via an invitation to quote.

2.1 The project will support the GLA’s objective of coordinating and improving the way we articulate the impact of the GLA’s group work by:

i. establishing a cost base for grant giving activity in the GLA and cost benefit analyses that
articulates the case for change

ii. creating a framework to support officers in deciding whether to manage grants internally or
outsource to a third-party grant management organisation

iii. developing a framework that considers a range (value) of grants and considers the six steps
(design & development, market engagement, application assessment, award, performance
monitoring and evaluation) of the grant giving process

iv. designing a Programme Management Office (PMO) function to be used across civil society grant making, that could be replicated across the GLA group.

3.1 The public sector equality duty requires the identification and evaluation of the likely potential
impacts, both Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 ( the “Equality Act”) as public authorities, the Mayor and the GLA must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristics and those who do not. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act compromise of age, disability, gender re-assignment,
pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil
partnerships status. Due to the nature of this proposed decision, no particular, positive or negative,
are foreseen on persons with a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

3.2. By improving data management this project will contribute to a more equitable grant making
practice. More consistent and targeted and enhanced reporting will ensure more opportunities for
targeted and intelligent funding including potentially increased focus on priority areas (thematic or
geographical), including groups sharing a protected characteristic.

4.1 The GLA Group Collaboration objectives agreed in 2019 stated there is a drive across the GLA group to make the organisation more efficient and effective. To achieve this, the following principles have been identified to guide the work that will lead to an improvement of processes and procedures:

i. avoid doing the same things in multiple organisations- e.g., remove unnecessary duplication by centralising and consolidating similar activities and the teams that carry them out

ii. enable a more mobile and flexible workforce-e.g., remove barriers that prevent the workforce working flexibly across the GLA group, whether culturally, technically, or physically and

iii. drive efficiency through scale-e.g., ensure maximum value by identifying common goods and
services and bringing together the way they are delivered and bought.

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.2. The Mayor in his 2021 manifesto also committed to increase efficiencies by maximising the
collaboration across the GLA family.

Risks and issues

4.3. This is a discreet research project, the only risk associated to this activity are delays in finalising the project due to insufficient resources being allocated to the project. To minimise this risk, the project team will work closely with consultants to ensure that the project keeps to the timeline.
Conflict of interest

4.4. There are no conflicts of interest to note from any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of this form.
 

5.1. Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £20,000 to commission a cost benefit analysis that will inform the development of grant making processes and systems across the GLA group.

5.2. This one-off expenditure will be funded from LEAP core budget which is ringfenced external
funding.