DD2755 Workforce Integration Network Design Lab programme

1.1.    The Workforce Integration Network (WIN) was established in 2018 as part of the Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration.  WIN works with employers to address the structural barriers that prevent underrepresented groups from accessing and progressing into good work thereby fostering inclusive growth. WIN seeks to achieve this through direct employer engagement; partnerships and business support; the development of practical research and resources; and initiatives to create links between employers and underrepresented groups. 
1.2.    WIN takes an intersectional approach. It recognises the importance of tailoring interventions to the needs of different groups that experience barriers to workforce inclusion. Drawing from the latest data and insights, WIN has identified the following groups as facing the greatest barriers to accessing good work and experiencing significant labour market inequalities, and therefore prioritises them for tailored support:
•    Black men (16-24; and 50 and over)
•    Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black women.
Data also shows socio-economic status and disability as key intersecting factors that impact on individuals’ ability to access good work .
Design Lab summary 
1.3.    The WIN Design Lab is an equity innovation and change programme. It is one of the GLA’s main offers for large employers in London to promote inclusive growth and build a fairer and more equitable city. The programme provides a bespoke package of support to businesses to explore the causes of underrepresentation in their workforces in an evidence-driven way, and to design and test approaches to tackling them. 
1.4.    Each cohort is supported over a 10-month period through coaching, workshops, and peer learning to design and implement projects that improve inclusion practices and increase workforce diversity. The 2025-26 programme builds on the 2022-25 Design Lab, approved by DD2590 and MD3265; and on the 2021-22 programme, approved by MD2859 The third phase of the programme builds on learning from prior years, and places emphasis on system change and design thinking to identify new ways to address labour market inequalities.
1.5.    The 2025-26 programme will support up to 10 NHS employers in the health sector to improve their workforce EDI programmes and policies, with the aim of improving access to and career progression  within the NHS for Londoners from underrepresented backgrounds. 
1.6.    The WIN team will also deliver a legacy offer for participants who graduated from the 2023-25 programme to ensure continuity of Design Lab projects and good practice, as well as ongoing collaboration amongst participants. The legacy offer will provide support to employers to accelerate project implementation, share best practice, create a community of practice amongst organisations and track impact. 
1.7.    The programme will leverage the partnership established with NHSE London Region EDI LWRS (London Workforce Race Strategy) to support amplify programme impact across the NHS and share best practice at a London-level. 
The 2021-25 WIN Design Lab 
1.8.    The WIN Design Lab has supported 56 businesses, in cohorts of up to 10 employers across six sectors (construction & infrastructure, technology, health, creative, green economy). These represent a combined workforce of more than 150,000 employees. The programme was delivered by a strategic design consultancy, and an anti-racism training organisation. 
1.9.    Recent achievements of the programme include the following:
•    The health cohort included 11 of the largest NHS trusts in London, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, King’s College Hospital and Imperial College NHS Trust. All 11 employers completed the programme and developed 13 new inclusion projects with the potential to impact more than 100,000 London employees.
•    Based on the Design Lab work with the health cohort, the WIN team formalised a partnership with NHSE London Region EDI LWRS (London Workforce Race Strategy) endorsed by the London People Board, to tackle systemic workforce inequalities in healthcare. The partnership will roll out the Design Lab framework and empower NHS employers to actively dismantle barriers to good work faced by Black, Asian, and racially minoritised Londoners. This work will be largely focussed on amplifying the methodology and learnings from the Design Lab across the NHS in London. The NHSE team attended the launch of the Design Lab legacy alongside participating trusts to share joint work aims.
•    Creative cohort employers completed the programme and graduated in September 2024. Participants included 11 large employers in post-production, media and cultural organisations such as the National Theatre, Framestore and M&C Saatchi. Employers developed 13 projects with the potential to impact 10,000 employees
•    The green economy cohort graduated in March 2025. Participants included six large employers in clean construction, engineering and green spaces, such as Lendlease, Ferrovial UK and Glendale. Participants developed 6 projects with the potential to impact 11,000 employees.
•    The WIN Design Lab green economy cohort has been selected as a pilot in C40 Cities’ Visible project. The WIN Design Lab will serve as case study of how cities internationally can promote innovative EDI initiatives for a fairer, equitable transition. C40 Cities’ Visible project harnesses the power of cities to decarbonise their built environments in a way that is just and economically viable. The aim is that pilots will pave the way for replication and scale up, as lighthouse projects that inspire similar action by other stakeholders locally and other cities globally. This has a positive impact for London as the programme is being platformed as best practice in the city amongst industry leaders.
•    The WIN team in partnership with C40 Cities, and with support from the GLA Economic Fairness, Skills, Environment, and Energy teams delivered the event on “London’s Green Transition: Business at the Forefront of Inclusive Growth on March 19, 2025.  The event brought together more than 80 businesses, industry bodies, skills providers and trade union representatives to ideate initiatives to grow and diversify green jobs, promote good work in the sector, and embed social equity in the development of decarbonisation projects.
Early outcomes from Design Lab interim evaluation report
1.10.    The GLA procured an independent evaluator to produce a report tracking early programme outcomes for the Health and Creative cohorts, to be delivered by the end of 2024-25. It is expected that changes in organisational culture and establishment of workforce inclusion projects have a longer timeframe to produce outcomes on access and progression to jobs for Londoners from WIN’s beneficiary groups. However, preliminary findings show the following employer outcomes to date:
Outcome 1: Innovative practice/intervention
1.11.    Development and implementation (e.g., via prototyping/piloting) of innovative practice(s) or reform(s) that measurably improves EDI in their organisation.
1.12.    Evidence: employers in the Health, Creative and Green cohorts developed a total of 32 projects through the Design Lab across the following categories: 
•    Improvements to recruitment practices to increase inclusion and accessibility. 
•    Initiatives to improve career progression for underrepresented groups. 
•    New policies and procedures, such as an anti-racism policy, training for staff, improved grievances procedures, and recruitment strategies.
•    Enhanced data collection and reporting (e.g. through data dashboards) on workforce diversity, such as ethnicity, disability, and gender- whilst considering intersectionality. This aims to use data to tailor EDI initiatives based on evidence and reduce pay gaps. 
•    Outreach work with local community groups and jobcentres to promote job opportunities to underrepresented Black, Asian, and racially minoritised residents.
•    Creation of new safe spaces for Black, Asian, and racially minoritised employees to talk about their experiences of racism in the workplace and receive support.
Outcome 2: New EDI knowledge and skills
1.13.    Employer staff have increased understanding, behaviours, skills and strategies to bring about positive change to progress equity and anti-racism in their organisations.
1.14.    Evidence: All the Health and Creative employers interviewed that had been through the Design Lab reported positive outcomes on their understanding of behaviours, skills and strategies to bring about positive change. Most said they gained new information that added to their knowledge.
Outcome 3: Motivation and commitment   
1.15.    Employers have increased motivation and commitment to bring about positive change to progress equity and anti-racism in their organisations.
1.16.    Evidence: several participants felt the programme had a positive impact on the motivation and commitment of others in their organisation, including senior leadership, as a result of engaging in the programme and through gaining a better insight into EDI.
Outcome 4: Self efficacy
1.17.    Employer staff have increased self-efficacy and feel more equipped to bring about positive change.
1.18.    Evidence: Some employers reported improved self-efficacy in being able to bring positive change in their organisation. For example, one Creative employer mentioned the Design Labs had given her and her EDI team “leverage” and “an extra level of agency” within the organisation. 
The 2025-26 WIN Design Lab proposal
1.19.    The 2025-26 Design Lab will work with up to 10 employers in the health sector. The programme will follow a similar model to the 2022-25 Design Lab and it will build on its learnings and successes.

1.20.    The programme will be targeted at large employers with more than 250 employees and a London-based decision centre to drive London workforce related initiatives.

1.21.    The 2025-26 Design Lab will partner with sector-level organisations who will support with recruiting and engaging employers, and disseminate programme learnings to a wider audience. The programme will work closely with the NHSE London EDI team through the established partnership. It will also engage London Anchor Institutions Network, and others. 

1.22.    The WIN team will procure a service provider with experience in innovation and equity-design to deliver bespoke support from employers in the health cohort. Through sector and company-level workshops, one-to-one coaching, and peer learning, the programme will support employers to identify the causes of underrepresentation in their workforces and implement solutions. The service provider will also develop communication assets such as videos, case studies and blogs, to share learnings across London’s business community.     

1.23.    The programme will continue adoption of the successful 2022-25 equity-centred design methodology. Participants will go through a challenge identification, ideation, and project development process over the course of 10 months. They will also assess their own roles in advancing EDI within their organisations through various frameworks.

1.24.    An independent evaluation of the programme is underway will be completed by April 2026. The first evaluation report will be finalised by summer 2025.The WIN team will build upon the emerging learnings from this evaluation to improve the offer and assess its impact upon completion.
The Design Lab legacy offer

1.25.    The legacy offer will provide support for organisations that graduated from the 2022-25 programme to accelerate project implementation, build a community of practice, and track impacts. 
1.26.    The overarching aim of the legacy offer is to collaborate with organisations that participated in the Design Lab to build on the progress and achievements made through the programme and collectively improve recruitment and progression of Londoners from Black, Asian, and racially minoritised groups in their workforce. At a high level, the legacy offer will include: 
•    Quarterly meetings to share progress on projects and foster cross-sector peer learning. 
•    Project implementation support by a specialised organisation.
•    Engagement with community and employability organisations.  
•    Mayoral awards ceremony. The GLA will commission a delivery partner to provide specialised support to participants to implement and scale up pilot projects to tackle workforce inequalities.
1.27.    The WIN team will procure an organisation to deliver services to employers to advance the projects they’ve developed over the 2023-25 programme. 

1.28.    WIN will look to procure a user-friendly guide outlining the Design Lab principles and a framework for how organisations can implement Design Lab programme learning. The guide will be disseminated to organisations such as industry groups, other cities, or regional authorities, who wish to replicate the Design Lab methodology and best practice within their organisations or for a cohort of organisations.
 

2.1     The long-term objectives of the programme include:
•    Participating employers improve their equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) practices so they are more inclusive, and represent best practice; and they use their position within their respective sectors to encourage change among their peers
•    Participating employers improve the representation of Black, Asian and racially minoritised Londoners in their workforce at entry and senior levels, so it is representative of London’s workforce.
    2.2    The desired medium-term outcomes of the programme are that participating employers:
•    Implement initiatives and make organisational changes to improve EDI policies, resulting in the recruitment and retention of more employees from underrepresented groups
•    Publish EDI initiatives and data and use this data to improve employer practice
•    Develop new evidence-based EDI knowledge, awareness and skills that they apply directly to their specific organisation
•    Align with other relevant GLA initiatives such as the Mayor’s Good Work Standard,  Mayoral Skills Academies,  the London Anti-Racism Collaboration for Health and more, to address wider structural inequalities
•    Share their experience and learnings with non-participants through a community of practice. 
2.3    The desired short-term outcomes of the programme include:

•    Participating employers identify challenges in their organisations that lead to underrepresentation in their workforce
•    Participating employers identify potential solutions and develop pilot projects to test them
•    Participating employers collaborate with peers in their industry to identify sector-level barriers to entry and progression of underrepresented groups
•    Internal and external stakeholders, such as NHSE London EDI team, CIPD, and C40 Cities, are engaged in the Design Labs for joint working. 
 

3.1    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as a public authority the GLA must have due regard to the need to: eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act; and advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
3.2    The relevant protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Compliance with the duty may involve ensuring people with a protected characteristic are provided with all the opportunities that those without the characteristic would have.
3.3    WIN focuses on improving pathways for underrepresented groups in the workplace, particularly those who face the highest barriers, such as Black men; and Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Black women. An intersectional analysis showed that these groups experience significant inequality and exclusion because they possess one or more characteristics in addition to ethnicity that compound disadvantage. Further, disability and socio-economic class are also key intersectional factors that can negatively impact on labour market outcomes.  
3.4.   The health sector faces workforce inequalities. In London’s NHS, only 14.7 per cent of senior managers are from a Black, or minority ethnic background. Staff are underrepresented in consultant and senior medical manager roles and overrepresented in non-consultant career grades.  Further, Black and minority ethnic candidates are 1.6 times less likely than white candidates to be appointed after shortlisting. 
3.5     Research shows that Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners in the creative sector face multiple barriers to accessing and progressing into good jobs. Only 23.8 per cent of creative industries jobs are held by individuals from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, falling short of the London average of 33.2 per cent. Notably, black Londoners face disproportionately higher barriers, with only 3.9 per cent representation in the sector compared to the city’s 9.1 per cent average .6 Some of the barriers for these groups include financial insecurity, which dictates an inability to take risks such as freelance work or unpaid internships; and nepotism and elitism creating glass ceilings within the sector.7
3.6    In the green economy sector, barriers to entry – such as lack of representation at senior levels and non-inclusive workplace cultures – prevent ethnic minorities, women, disabled people and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds from entering the workforce. Only 19 per cent of workers in the construction sector are from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds in the city, while women account for less than 15 per cent of the sector workforce. Further, experiences of covert racism in the sector are common in the construction sub-sector. The level of discrimination was identified to be implicit; as such, there are no obvious trails to be identified except accounts of individuals closely linked to the issues at hand.8 A study by recruitment analytics specialist Hays discovered that, of those Black people who managed to break into the construction sector, 78 per cent claimed they had experienced career restrictions due to their race or other demographic factors such as sexuality or age.9
3.7    This DD aims to improve employers’ EDI practices by supporting them to develop innovative projects to improve recruitment and progression of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic staff. Projects aim to tackle the sector-specific barriers that Londoners from Black, Asian, and racially minoritised backgrounds face in the workplace. This includes inclusive recruitment policies, career progression initiatives such as mentorship and sponsorship, better community engagement and outreach strategies, etc.  As a result, this MD is expected to have a positive impact on Londoners sharing protected characteristics.
3.8    The programme is based on the principles of equity-centred design, which includes a participatory design approach. Through the programme, employers involve staff from Black, Asian, and racially minoritised backgrounds in the co-design of new policies and projects, which is critical to ensure initiatives address the needs of staff. Projects developed on sponsorship and mentorship provide opportunities to break down glass ceilings that prevent staff from racially minoritised backgrounds to access senior roles. These projects are expected to have positive outcomes on career progression for staff from racially minoritised backgrounds, diversify senior leadership, and reduce ethnicity pay gaps. Projects to make job ads, outreach, and recruitment processes fairer and more inclusive, will have a positive impact by diversifying the pool of applicants, improving the application process experience, and lead to improvements in the recruitment of Londoners from racially minoritised backgrounds. Projects that focus on organisational change policies such as anti-racism strategies will have a positive impact by improving the experiences of staff from racially minoritised backgrounds in the workplace through more inclusive cultures, practices, and experiences with managers, senior leadership and colleagues. 
 

4.1   The risks, and mitigations, are detailed in the table below: 

Links to Mayoral Strategies and priorities
4.2.   The WIN Design Lab is aligned with the recently published London Growth Plan, which sets out opportunities to boost sustainable and inclusive economic growth across all of London’s communities. The programme is aligned the inclusive growth ambitions to ensure that these jobs lead to career progression and a route to higher pay and living standards for all Londoners. 

4.3.   The programme is also aligned with the aims of the Inclusive Talent Strategy, which will build on the capital’s skilled workforce, tackle systemic issues across education and employment to unleash the potential of all Londoners and - in turn - London’s economy. Particularly on aims to reduce the number of Londoners in poverty due to labour market barriers and to increase employment of underrepresented groups in the higher-paying growth sectors. 

4.4.   The WIN Design Lab programme aligns with the “Supporting Londoners into good work” programme objectives

4.5.  The programme is aligned with the “London level outcome objective:
•    Londoners have access to good work  

4.6.   The WIN Design Lab programme is aligned with the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion objectives. It contributes directly to Objective 9 – “to ensure London's workforce reflects its population at all levels and in all sectors” – by working collaboratively with employers to address underrepresentation in their workplace. 

4.7.   The programme supports and builds on Pillar 4 of the Good Work Standard, which aims to set out a commitment to action for businesses on EDI and their recruitment practices. 
4.8.   The Design Lab’s green economy cohort is aligned with the Mayor’s Green New Deal, which aims to support a just transition to a low-carbon economy that can provide good green, skilled and local jobs. 
4.9. The Mayor is the Chair of the C40 cities network, working to speed up action across cities to tackle climate change and deliver a just transition. The Mayor highlighted that London will lead by example by doubling the size of London’s green economy and establishing good, green jobs accessible within communities that need them most. The WIN Design Lab green economy participation in C40’s Visible project will serve as an example of how London is leading the way by working with employers to address underrepresentation in the clean construction sector.
Consultations 
 4.10. The 2022-25 WIN Design Lab was designed incorporating learnings from the 2021-22 programme that were captured by the independent evaluators commissioned to assess its outcomes. The evaluation included interviews with participating businesses and stakeholders. The programme has been developed in response to the issues and challenges that partners and stakeholders raised at the time.
 
4.11.  The Design Lab was scoped in discussion with industry representatives and is based on specific challenges each sector faces. Ethnographic research, including interviews with workers in the sectors, has been undertaken by the supplier. 

4.12.  The legacy offer has been developed through interviews with participating employers, incorporating their feedback into design. 
Conflicts of interest
4.13.  There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of the officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form.
 

5.1    Approval is sought for the expenditure of up to £200,000 to procure service providers in order to deliver services to 10 health sector employers; and to up to 30 employers who participated in past Design Lab programmes in 2025-26 and share learnings with a wider audience.
5.2    The expenditure of up to £200,000 will be funded from the WIN programme budget.
5.3   There is budget available in the WIN programme budget approved for 2025-26 to meet this 
        expenditure
 

Power to undertake the requested decisions
6.1    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Executive Director (the “Director”) fall within general powers of the GLA in section 30 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of wealth creation and economic development within Greater London and, 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;
·    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;
·    consult with appropriate bodies.    
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, victimization and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic 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    The decision, above, seeks approval of expenditure of up to £200,000 in order to procure service providers to deliver support to a new cohort of health sector employers as part of the WIN Design Lab programme and the continued support for businesses who have previously graduated from the programme.  Officers are reminded to comply with the requirements of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and the Procurement Act 2023, when they undertake the procurement of the said service providers.  Furthermore, officers are reminded to put in place appropriate agreements between the GLA and the relevant service providers.
 

7.1    The Design Lab will be delivered according to the following timetable: