ADD2120 Social Integration policy and programme development

These requests follow from the DSP team’s agreed spend in MD2091.

• Social Integration policy review and analysis: £25,000

Social Integration is a major priority for the Mayor. The DSP team is developing a strategy which will identify specific policy and project options to improve social integration in London. As this is a completely new area of work for the GLA, additional resources are required to ensure the strategy is evidence based, and draws on international best practice.

This analysis will underpin the Social integration strategy and ensure the Mayor’s resources are used to have the biggest possible impact on London’s communities.

• Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme scoping study: £15,000

This work requires a specific piece of scoping work to build on existing community re-settlement

initiatives and support the GLA to identify how best to support a London wide re-settlement scheme for Syrian refugees.

Social Integration policy review and analysis: £25,000

The team would like to commission independent external advice to:

• work with the DSP Manager and other senior policy officers to scope, analyse and prepare options for social integration policy and projects relating to both the Deputy Mayor’s brief and the wider GLA group;

• identify UK and international examples of social integration policy approaches and projects;

• map London wide stakeholders working on social integration;

• conduct an options appraisal of social integration policy and projects that uses the existing evidence base and takes into account the London context;

• map the statutory, charitable and private funding streams currently supporting social integration initiatives in London.

This funding would secure an external advisor who would work closely with the team to deliver this brief over a period of 10 weeks. The outcome would be an evidence based policy appraisal to inform the Social Integration strategy.

Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme scoping study: £15,000

The team would like to commission independent external advice to scope the options for a sustainable community sponsorship and partnership scheme for the resettlement of Syrian refugees in London. This work will include:

• engaging with boroughs, sponsors and Government stakeholders involved in existing or pipeline community sponsorship agreements to understand what has worked and where further opportunities through a London approach may exist;

• scoping interest from boroughs and build understanding of what they would need from a London model to overcome the challenges to participation that exist at the moment;

• undertaking initial stakeholder engagement (civil society, communities, businesses, funders/philanthropists) to scope interest in a London model, building a database of interested partners and offers to take forward, brokering discussions on immediate opportunities where appropriate

• establishing a network of borough co-ordinators in London to support cross borough / organisation collaboration, including developing terms of reference for the group;

• sourcing international examples of community sponsorship and partnership and analysing how these models might apply to London’s context;

• conducting an analysis of how a community sponsorship scheme might overcome London’s specific challenges to participating in resettlement;

• developing a preliminary model for a London approach to community sponsorship and partnership that could be implemented by the GLA or another London stakeholder;

• developing an agenda and invite list for a major Mayoral event in December 2017 to generate interest and commitments to community sponsorship and work with the Manager to submit this to Mayor’s Office for approval.

The outcome of this work will be a fully scoped model for community re-settlement which can then be delivered by the DSP team.

All of the DSP team’s work is directed to tackling inequalities in London and reducing discrimination and disadvantage wherever possible. This work will help the team fulfil its duties to promote greater equality in London.

4.1 The estimated cost of £40,000 will be funded from the Diversity and Social Policy Team’s budget for 2017-18.