DD2746 London Resilience Forum Grant

1.1.    The London Resilience Unit (LRU) is part of the Greater London Authority. We deliver and coordinate resilience services on behalf of the London Resilience Partnership and London Local Authorities. London Resilience Partnership (LRP) members meet regularly at the London Resilience Forum (LRF) meeting. 
1.2.    The Mayor approved the GLA’s recipient and use of up to £522,000 ringfenced grant from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for the purposes of supporting various LRF projects (MD3257). The funding is ringfenced, to be spent on behalf of LRP, with the agreement of the LRF, and will not form part of the London Resilience Unit’s annual budget. The Mayor also delegated authority to the to the Interim Executive Director of Strategy & Communications to approve such expenditure. 
1.3.    The LRU is seeking Executive Director approval for the expenditure on LRF related activity. 
1.4.    The LRF Strategy approved in February 2025 sets out the following priorities: 
•    place people at the heart of London’s resilience arrangements
•    support the preparedness of London’s communities and a whole of society approach
•    enhance understanding of risk
•    support robust preparation, response, and recovery
•    support integration and long-term resilience of people and place
•    learn and improve
•    enhance leadership, governance, and accountability. 
1.5.    The LRF has agreed to fund core areas of work that align with the LRF Strategy’s priorities, on delivery of community resilience work and development of an information sharing platform. These are: 
•    expenditure of £173,154 in grant funding to Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Emergencies Partnership as a contribution to its costs of it enhancing its London Communities Emergencies Partnership project.
•    expenditure of £100,000 in grant funding to Groundwork South as a contribution to its costs of scaling up its community resilience projects.
•    expenditure of £38,000 in grant funding to London Plus as a contribution to its costs of further development of the London Communities Emergencies Partnership emergency response capability
•    expenditure of £210,500 on services and supplies, from the existing provider required for development and implementation of an information sharing platform to improve multiagency communication.
1.6.    To enable further development on community resilience, a GLA grant to VCS Emergencies Partnership, in respect of its London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP) activity, will enable the following:
•    continuation of its core funding support to LCEP for financial year 2025-26, coordinating voluntary and community sector response to emergencies in London
•    enhanced engagement of faith and belief communities, through additional support of London Boroughs Faiths Network
•    a ‘just in case’ community resources fund, providing flexible funding to community, voluntary and faith sector partners before, during and after crises to community, voluntary and faith sector partners
•    extension of work engaging community venues on climate-related severe weather risks like heatwaves and flooding, including through grants to engage venues in the London Cool Spaces network.
1.7.    A grant to London Plus to further development of LCEP emergency response capability, including on training, staff development and small grants delivery with the voluntary and community sector.
1.8.    LCEP is the umbrella body representing Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Equalities sector organisations on the LRF. It is uniquely placed to ensure that funding and capacity building programmes benefit the widest possible range of London’s communities, including those that are often overlooked in resilience planning. 
1.9.    Also to enable community resilience work, a GLA grant to Groundwork South will enable it to:
•    implement its new London Community Resilience Toolkit, through the provision training and small grants to community, voluntary and faith sector partners
•    scale up and extend delivery of its Climate Connected Communities project, engaging communities on climate resilience
•    implement and develop of London Community Resilience Hubs, working with community spaces, building on previous pilot work undertaken.
1.10.    Having developed the Community Resilience Toolkit and initiated work on community resilience hubs and climate community engagement, Groundwork South is uniquely placed to continue and scale up those projects for the benefit of Londoners. 
1.11.    The proposed information sharing platform will improve multiagency communication and collaboration and share information between partners (such as GLA, Met Police, London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service, Local Authorities) in an intuitive way both in a crisis but also as part of business-as-usual situational awareness and information sharing. It will support improved best practice principles of shared situational awareness and joint understanding of risk in line with best practice principles and national doctrine. It will provide users an enhanced understanding of risk and support robust preparation, response, and recovery. It does this by collecting and presenting information in a relevant and priority-based way, for real time information sharing. 
1.12.    The expenditure proposed on services and supplies required for the development and implementation of the information sharing platform will enable: 
•    ensure functionality meets operational and partner needs through system design and development
•    support adoption across London Resilience teams, London Situational Awareness Team (LSAT), and wider partners and stakeholders through training and onboarding
•    secure continuity of service until March 2026 through covering ongoing licence costs.
1.13.    Officers acknowledge that section 9 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code ("Code") requires that contracts of the value proposed in respect of the information sharing platform are procured competitively.
1.14.    Section 10 of the Code, however, allows exemptions from this requirement where a supplier has previous involvement in a specific current project or the award concerns the continuation of existing work that cannot be separated from the new project/work. 
1.15.    The contract for the existing information sharing platform was procured by TfL Procurement and Commercial, using the IT reseller framework.
1.16.    The contract award to the existing provider falls within section 10 of the Code, because the platform is developed as an enhancement of a pre-existing internal situational awareness platform. By using the existing platform as a foundation, the new information sharing platform will deliver improved multiagency information sharing. Due to the experience of the existing provider of the GLA’s (and other partners’) requirements and specific technical knowledge of the underlying platform, continuity and value for money is achieved. It is unlikely, due to the experience of the existing providers’ specialist suppliers of the GLA’s (and other partners’) requirements and specific technical knowledge of the underlying platform, that any other supplier could match or better their offering. 
1.17.    Accordingly, approval of an exemption from the requirement of the Code to compete such contracting opportunities in sought in respect of the award to the existing provider.
 

2.1.    This expenditure proposed will assist to meet the following objectives, which align with the GLA’s aims and are of benefit to London and Londoners:
•    strengthen community resilience capability and delivery, increasing engagement with community, voluntary and faith sector organisations delivered through grants with VCS Emergencies Partnership and Groundwork South
•    strengthen partner communication, information sharing, and situational awareness delivered through the information sharing platform.
2.2.    The expected outcomes of the activity in respect of which expenditure is proposed:
•    increased community preparedness for emergencies
•    improved relationships and communications between LRF partners
•    improved community understanding of risk
•    improved situational awareness
•    improved preparation, response, and recovery.
2.3.    These timelines for the outcomes are listed at paragraph 7.2 below. The outcomes will be evaluated, and the result recorded in interim and final reports. 
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the “Equality Act”), as a public authority, the Mayor and the GLA must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act comprise age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (the duty in respect of this last characteristic is to eliminate unlawful discrimination only).
3.2.    The potential impacts of this decision have been considered and no adverse impact is expected on equalities issues or any people with relevant protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act.
3.3.    Community resilience projects through LCEP and Groundwork South will directly support engagement of community, voluntary and faith sector organisations. These civil society organisations work to improve the lives of London’s diverse communities and reduce inequalities.  
 

4.1.    The London Resilience Forum (LRF) members were consulted with and have agreed to fund two core areas of work: delivery on community resilience and an information sharing platform. 
4.2.    Resilience is a cross cutting principle in the GLA's mandates and the support to these projects will further resilience with communities and partners.  
4.3.    Data Protection considerations will be made in relation to the information sharing platform and robust data protection measures will be taken to ensure the platform complies with GDPR and GLA policies. A comprehensive DPIA will be completed to assess risks and ensure compliance. 
4.4.    Onward community resilience grant funding will be provided to registered charities or companies only. Due diligence advice from the GLA Grant Services team has been incorporated into this process.
4.5.    The proposals of which approval is sought concern the award of grant funding to VCS Emergency Partnership, Groundwork South and London Plus Boroughs, as a costs of their LCEP, Community Resilience and LCEP Response Capability projects.  
4.6.    GLA officers have carried out an analysis of the proposals against the Statutory Guidance for the UK subsidy control regime.  They have assessed that the subsidy control regime is non-applicable in these circumstances because the proposed financial assistance does not constitute a subsidy.
4.7.    Specifically, each of the proposed grant awards fail to satisfy Limb 2 of the four-limbed test set out in the Subsidy Control Act 2022. This is because the funding is ringfenced for non-economic purposes, with the benefit of the vast majority of the funding accruing to end-recipients (in this case voluntary, community, and faith sector partners) with minimal costs for core operational function.
4.8.    There are no conflicts of interest from those involved in drafting this decision or its clearance.
4.9.    The following risks have been identified and mitigated against:

5.1.    Approval is sought for expenditure in 25-26 relating to:
•    £173,154 as a grant to VCS Emergencies Partnership
•    £100,000 as a grant to Groundwork South
•    £38,000 as a grant to London Plus
•    £210,500 for the information sharing platform.
5.2.    Funding of £521,654 has been received in 24-25 from MHCLG to meet the projected expenditure. This income will meet the 25-26 expenditure profile outlined in the MD having been processed as a receipt in advance  in line with grant conditions. The expenditure and income budgets will be updated in-year accordingly to reflect the extra spend to be incurred.
5.3.    The funding should be monitored against objectives and outcomes outlined in section 2, and any deliverables should be outlined in funding agreements.
5.4.    This funding will be managed and administered by the London Resilience Unit, within the Strategy and Communications Directorate and does not feature in the delivery plans. It will be part of the Core function expenditure.
 

6.1.    The decisions requested of the Director fall within the general powers of the GLA (under authority delegated by the Mayor) in section 30 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (GLA Act) to do anything which it considers will further any one or more of its principal purposes to promote social and economic development and wealth creation and the improvement of the environment in Greater London. Section 34 of the GLA Act also allows the Mayor to do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of any functions of the GLA exercisable by the Mayor. In formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people under section 33 of the GLA Act
•    consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom under section 30(4) and (5) of the GLA Act
•    consult with appropriate bodies under section 32 of the 1999 Act.
6.2.    In taking the decisions requested, the Director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty namely the need to: eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.    
6.3.    Officers have confirmed that the provision of additional funding to the VCS Emergency Partnership and Groundwork South may be viewed as a conditional gift rather than a payment for the provision of services. 
6.4.    The Subsidy Control Act 2022 requires that grant funding be assessed in relation to requirements. Officers have made this assessment and have set out at sections 4.3 to 4.6 (inclusive) above and have a concluded that the additional funding proposed does not amount to an unlawful subsidy. 
6.5.    The procurement of the services and supplies required for the development and implementation of the information sharing platform is valued at £210,500.  Section 9 of the GLA's Contracts and Funding Code (the "Code") requires that the GLA undertake a tender process or make a call off from an accessible framework for procurements of this value. However, section 10 of the Code also provides that an exemption from this requirement may be justified where a supplier has previous involvement in a specific current project or the award concerns the continuation of existing work that cannot be separated from the new project/work. Officers have set out at sections 1.13 to  1.16 (inclusive) above the reasons why the procurement of the services and supplies falls within the said exemption. Accordingly, the Director may approve the exemption, if they wish.
6.6.    If the Director makes the decisions sought, officers must ensure that: 
•    no commitment to the award of additional funding to VCS Emergency Partnership and/or Groundwork South and/ or London Plus is made until funding agreements are entered into with and executed by the GLA and those parties/any current funding agreements are varied (as applicable)
•    appropriate contractual documentation are put in place and executed by the GLA and the supplier before the commencement of the attendant, services and supplies.
 

7.1.    Grant funding will be allocated to the Voluntary Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP), who jointly manage LCEP, and Groundwork South for the delivery of community resilience funding.
7.2.    Key dates on project delivery are detailed below: