ADD2388 Social Integration – ESOL Plus project spending

The Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration ’All of Us’ sets out how he aims to improve social integration in London. Londoners not proficient in English scored lower on a number of social integration measures across these three categories when surveyed in 2019 : relationships, equalities, and participation.

Over 300 languages are currently spoken on London streets . The Mayor has described the importance of English and the need for government and cities to improve the support we provide to learners, because a common language is necessary for a common life. The Integrated Communities Strategy laid out the importance of speaking and understanding English for better integration into life in the UK .

The ESOL Plus programme funds innovative pilots to provide ESOL to learners who have particular needs that are currently challenging to meet through mainstream provision, such as the Adult Education Budget (AEB). The focus of the pilots is on innovation, partnership working, and the potential to scale.

The first round of the ESOL Plus programme focussed on learners with childcare needs (ESOL Plus Childcare) and those in low-paid work (ESOL Plus Employers). The findings from both of these programmes will be disseminated to the sector and inform future AEB policy.

The next round of ESOL Plus pilots will focus on promoting partnership work between the ESOL and Culture sectors. An additional £25k for the ESOL Plus Arts grant will ensure a greater capacity to enable an appropriate number of projects will take place and test different approaches. There is a good basis of work being done at the cross-section of ESOL/arts, but little thought leadership, evidence or sharing of good practice about the outcomes it can create.

Delivery of informal ESOL alongside creative, cultural or heritage-focussed activities can provide rich contexts for diverse vocabulary to arise alongside opportunities for individual expression and confidence-building, for example through engagement with visual and dramatic arts. Informal ESOL that integrates such activities, particularly when delivered in partnership with skilled creative professionals, can therefore not only improve language learning but also increase cultural participation and confidence for those who face barriers accessing formal provision. This is therefore an ESOL project with a true social integration purpose.

The allocated funds will cover a call for up to four bids of up to £15,000 or £30,000 each to deliver innovative partnership projects that involve a practitioner, organisation or institution from the culture, arts or heritage sectors. The grant will cover the costs of the project, and up to £11,000 to be commissioned for the evaluation process and sharing of the outcomes. The funds will be allocated upfront in 2019-20 for delivery in 2020-21. ESOL Plus Arts aims to provide grant funding to enable innovation in the ESOL sector.

This change in budget is requested in order to enable to Social Integration Team to fund the most innovative and ambitious projects after a stringent grant selection process. Previous rounds of ESOL Plus (MD2461) have funded a number of unique models of provision for vulnerable learners to access ESOL – this additional funding will enable the projects to have a much more comprehensive resource to produce valuable comparative evaluation of methods to be used by the ESOL sector.

• The Social Integration Team works with colleagues across the GLA to:
• Deliver key initiatives with social integration at their heart
• Lead policy and advocacy work to remove specific barriers to social integration
• Mainstream social integration in the organisation’s strategies, projects and policies
• Partner with a wide range of stakeholders to affect change for Londoners.

Specific outcomes for the ESOL Plus project (as in MD2461)

2. Budget changes as set out below:

Of the £100k approved via MD2461, £24k was used for the delivery of the ESOL Plus Childcare and ESOL Plus Employers pilots. The remaining £76k and £25k being approved via this decision (for a total of £101K), is proposed to be used for the ESOL Plus Arts pilot. Applicants to the ESOL Plus Arts pilot are invited to bid up to £30k per project. The GLA will look to appoint two projects for the value of up to £15k and two projects for the value of up to £30k. The remaining £11k is set aside for the evaluation of the pilots and subsequent dissemination of key learnings.

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Equality, integration and inclusion are the drivers behind this programme. Tackling disadvantage and discrimination is a central part of programmes on social integration.

The programmes around ESOL are specifically designed to overcome the additional barriers that specific groups face to social integration.

The Survey of Londoners findings 2019 show that Londoners not proficient in English are more likely to be looking after their house/children compared with those proficient in English (14 per cent vs 3 per cent). They are far more likely to be in the lowest income quintile (less than £14,900 p.a.) than those proficient in English (44 per cent and 17 per cent respectively).

The findings also showed that Londoners with low proficiency in English are less likely to have participated in formal culture or events, such as visiting museums or galleries; going to the cinema, theatre or music events, compared to fluent speakers of English – 26% vs 67%.

The grant agreement requires the GLA to have funding agreements and contracts signed by the end of March 2020. Invoices will need to be processed and projects’ timelines agreed by then.

ESOL Plus pilots aims to deliver projects that are in line with the Mayor of London priorities as laid out in the Social Integration Strategy. In addition, ESOL Plus Arts is ambitious in providing an opportunity for the ESOL and Arts sectors to work in partnership and deliver programmes in line with the Culture Strategy for London.

The draft project specification, scoring criteria and guidance will be developed and shared with internal stakeholders – Team London; Skills Team; Culture Team. Final evaluations and evidence gathered will be shared with relevant teams who will discuss on next steps.

There is no known conflict of interest for anyone involved in the preparation of this decision.

Approval is being sought for expenditure of £25,000 on the ESOL Plus Arts pilot scheme programme.

This decision will take the approved ESOL Plus budget envelope to £125k (£100k previously approved via MD2461).

This £25,000 will be funded via a budget virement, within the 2019/20 financial year, from the Social Integration budget towards the ESOL Plus Programme, both within the CSP Unit.