Key information
Decision type: Director
Reference code: DD2093
Date signed:
Decision by: Fiona Fletcher-Smith, Executive Director of Development, Enterprise and Environment
Executive summary
This DD seeks approval of expenditure of up to £505,500 of ‘Mayoral Pledges’ and programme support for the fourth round of the Civic Crowdfunding Programme as defined in and decision-making in respect of which was delegated to the Executive Director Development & Enterprise by the Mayor under cover of MD1596 (£560,000 capital) and MD1561 (£140,000 revenue). This decision form seeks approval of the grant of funding to the highest scoring projects in response to the funding criteria, led by local community groups, which will be allocated grant funding of up to £445,500 (£364,000 Capital and £81,500 Revenue) towards their crowdfunding campaigns. Approval is also sought for Revenue expenditure of up to £60,000 to support promotion and delivery of this round and ensure that the funding opportunity is accessible to all Londoners.
Decision
The Executive Director of Development, Enterprise & Environment approves expenditure of up to:
a) £445,500 in total (£364,000 capital and £81,500 revenue) as a contribution to the costs of the projects (as ‘Mayoral Pledges’ under the GLA’s Mayor’s Civic Crowdfunding Programme) scoring highest in the applications made via the Mayor’s Civic Crowdfunding Programme to take place from March 2017(Individual funding allocations will be agreed within this envelope according to governance arrangements at paragraph 2.5 and without recourse to a further decision.);
b) £60,000. (revenue) expenditure (from the budget made available under cover of MD1561) to support the further promotion and development of the programme as follows:
i) up to £20,000 on marketing and communications activity; and
ii) up to £40,000 on programme support activity to provide engagement and outreach activity, evaluation, research and future platform feasibility work; and
2. an exemption from the requirement of section 4.1 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code to undertake competitive procurement activity to secure £10,000 (of the £40,000 noted at decision 1b)ii) above) of services from Spacehive (the GLA’s current crowdfunding platform providers).
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
1.1 The Mayor has pledged to make London a fairer, open and accessible city for all to live and prosper. Engaging civil society in London’s decision making and giving all the opportunity to champion, generate and deliver new ideas for London gives all Londoners a stake in the future development of their city. Crowdsourcing ideas and crowdfunding their delivery provides a new way to bring local communities together, through active citizenship, to help foster social integration and develop new connections, opportunities and networks of mutual support and collective ownership – building stronger and more resilient communities.
1.2 Since 2015, the Regeneration team has been developing and piloting a matched crowdfunding programme as a tool to support local investment in London’s communities. The initiative enables the GLA to pledge to civic crowdfunding projects as ‘one of the crowd’, working in partnership with London’s citizens. This approach places more power into the hands of local communities to drive projects that matter to them. The initiative has been highlighted by the World Government Summit as an exemplar of innovative government practice; showcased as one of just ten handpicked projects from around the world in the Edge of Government pavilion in Dubai.
1.3 The Mayor’s Crowdfunding Programme is developing a more collaborative approach to regeneration, whereby groups of citizens can propose project ideas – that benefit their wider community - directly to City Hall. They can then gain access to funding and support to realise them. The programme is administered through an online crowdfunding platform (Spacehive – a London based startup), which ensures that ideas are presented in public, including detail of budget requirements. This online presence then gives groups something to use to talk to their local community about the idea and gain this wider support, both in terms of financial buy-in and general approval.
1.4 The online platform enables anyone to propose an idea in public and anyone to ‘pledge’ towards a project’s funding target. If enough people back an idea, and the target is reached, then the project goes ahead. The Mayor pledges, as one of the crowd, to the best ideas demonstrating local support. The process of running a campaign is as important (in terms of local engagement) as the funding that may result.
• By running a proactive crowdfunding campaign, any organisation (with a public/social remit) can develop their idea alongside the wider community, demonstrating enthusiasm and support.
• Anyone, from Londoners to businesses and public organisations can all back projects with both finance and offers of resources or support.
• The Mayor will pledge up to £50,000, and no more than 75% (typically less than 50%) of the total project cost, to help realise the best ideas that demonstrate local support.
• If the organisation meets its crowdfunding target, the Mayor’s pledge will be triggered and a funding agreement will be entered into with the organisation to afford access to the GLA funding.
a. Working with civic crowdfunding platform Spacehive, the Regeneration Team developed a model that encourages community-led ideas and promotes local engagement to support high streets, town centres and communities in line with GLA Regeneration objectives. This was intended as a first step to enable local people to contribute directly to the wider thinking about the future of their area, whilst exploring the opportunity presented by modern technology and emerging forms of collaborative civic governance. The learning from this process has informed the direction and focus of the programme for which approval is now sought.
b. A scaling up of this kind of activity, has many potential benefits:
for the GLA
• Londoners are full of great ideas and creativity – crowdsourcing gives us a tool to capture those ideas.
• It’s also a potential way to ask Londoners what they think about choices that must be made (with first hand understanding of the conflicts at the heart of elements of our work) and for them to potentially have more direct influence over which projects GLA funds. This activity could pave the way for wider exploration of the potential of participatory budgeting.
• Crowdfunding is a way to explore new finance and partnership structures to support Mayoral objectives by aligning the public, private and third sector alongside citizens as powerful new local delivery agents.
• The Mayor can demonstrate leadership, both for the boroughs but also cities around the world, in how to coordinate and direct this kind of activity – something which is happening anyway – to best support strategic objectives and deliver an agglomerative impact to improve the city, for everyone.
• This could involve catalysing the growth of an accessible ‘ecosystem’ of support to enable citizen-led civic projects to be proposed, funded and delivered at scale across the city.
• There is an opportunity to convene the public, private and third sectors to back citizen activity, leveraging and focusing a significant amount of financial resource, skills, capacity and Corporate Social Responsibility activity towards improving the city in line with Mayoral objectives - a way for business to give back to the city and communities that enable them to flourish.
• In time, teams from across the GLA can build on the Regeneration team model to propose thematic ‘calls’ for project ideas to stimulate local responses to Mayoral priorities and pledge funding and resources as one of the crowd, alongside other Londoners and businesses.
• This will demand an innovative and dynamic approach to governance and administration, which could influence progressive change in working practices both across the GLA and in other public sector organisations.
for Londoners
• A chance for all Londoners to contribute to the future development of the city, and feel more attached to their local community.
• A sense of empowerment and responsibility which will stimulate civic pride and develop the relationship between ordinary Londoners and the GLA.
• A new way to bring local communities together and develop new connections, opportunities and networks of mutual support and collective ownership – building stronger and more resilient communities.
• The skills developed through proposing and delivering civic projects are significant and transferable, helping people in their work and personal life.
• Capacity built within local organisations to deliver future / sustained initiatives and develop a network of active, engaged and capable ‘local civic leaders’ for London.
c. Delivery overview
• The pilot has delivered three rounds of funding in 2015 and 2016 as part of a ‘live trial’ – an iterative design process that is intended to help us develop the optimal longer term solution.
• £825,000 has been pledged by the Mayor of London to 57 local projects.
• The Mayor’s pledges have attracted £1.2million of match funding from almost 5,700 Londoners
• The Mayor’s pledge has proved a key catalyst in legitimizing ideas and ensuring they succeed.
• 97% of the projects pledged to by the Mayor under the pilot have achieved their crowdfunding target and then entered into grant with us, compared to a 47% average for Spacehive and 25% global average. This demonstrates the positive influence that the Mayor’s activity has in catalyzing success.
• The Regeneration team is supporting delivery by aligning key stakeholders and advising on technical issues – crucial when dealing with projects in the built environment.
Ongoing evaluation of the Mayor’s crowdfunding activity to date, working in partnership with GLA Intelligence Team, has demonstrated some of social impacts of the programme. These include:
• Improved and increased pride and sense of place within localities, made possible through the ownership that comes not only through managing and delivering projects
• New and stronger relationships are forged within communities resulting in friendships and neighbourly attitudes that create a sense of belonging, improved self-worth, feelings of safety and better social lives.
• Improved knowledge of the planning and participation process is enabling more people within project groups to get involved with more formal local government processes, such as planning consultation and neighbourhood planning
• Increasing professional skills through project management and delivery and stakeholder engagement providing participants with confidence to pursue new or alternative paid employment.
In funding round 4, if approved, more work will be done to capture and understand the broad range of impacts that these crowdfunding projects will deliver.
d. Round 4 will be the last of those delivered via funding secured via the London Regeneration Fund (capital approved under cover of MD1596 and revenue approved under cover of MD1561). It will also be the last delivered under the current agreement with our crowdfunding platform provider Spacehive) subject to the outcome of a procurement exercise in 2017.
A new funding round
2.1 From March 2017, this new civic crowdfunding round will be opened, making up to £445,500 available to groups all over London to propose projects that respond to a challenge or opportunity in order to improve their places. This round will seek to support innovative and place-based community projects across the city. An open call will run from February to end April 2017 (Specific dates TBC and may change to ensure a smooth experience for applicants), with all projects needing to be placed on the Mayor’s Spacehive page.
2.2 The criteria for support will require that projects be innovative and distinctive; seek to build on or enhance the character that makes a place special; bring an economic and social benefit to the community; have strong local support and show this via a vibrant crowdfunding campaign. Projects will be evaluated as follows:
• Project description (40%),
• Deliverability and risk (20%),
• Value for money (20%),
• Wider Impact / Support and campaign activity (20%).
Spacehive will provide an evaluation of each project’s crowdfunding campaign and attitude to local engagement using an agreed methodology. This takes into account both number of backers and the project’s commitment to wider promotion and engagement, alongside the momentum of the campaign and it’s financial progress.This will feed into the scoring of the final criteria, alongside the GLA Regeneration team’s assessment of wider impact or complimentary value to wider regeneration objectives.
All guidance will be clear and made public on both the London.gov programme pages and on the fund’s Spacehive page.
2.3 The evaluation of project submissions will entail an initial view of project rankings scored against the above criteria. A shortlist will also ensure a balance of geographic spread, type of applicant / organisation, type of project and range of outputs / targeted outputs and outcomes from the proposed investment.
2.4 It is anticipated that between 20-35 projects will be funded. Project funds granted (in total) will not exceed £364,000 Capital and £81,500 Revenue. The Mayoral pledge will not exceed 75% of project value in each instance. However, in a change to previous rounds, the upper limit of the Mayoral pledge will increase to £50,000 in each instance, to enable the programme the potential to support a small number of larger capital projects that are community led, are of high quality with transformative potential and demonstrate strong local support. Mayoral Pledges will be determined by reference to the evaluation criteria noted at paragraph 2.2 above in order to identify the best ideas and most vibrant campaigns but which also aims to ensure a proportionate catalytic effect to allow for maximum campaign success whilst achieving best value for the GLA.
2.5 Governance and decision making arrangements – Following the evaluation and moderation process (moderation activity being undertaken in liaison with the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, Assistant Director for Regeneration and GLA Governance team) a recommendation will be made that the highest scoring applications receive a Mayoral Pledge. A formal public announcement detailing Mayoral Pledges awarded to specific projects will be made at the time that these pledges are registered on the Spacehive platform, making it clear that any award of grant funding will remain subject to the project in question achieving its full funding target and entry into and execution by the recipient of a grant funding agreement on the GLA’s standard funding conditions.
2.6 At this stage, outputs and outcomes of the investment can only be indicative. A concerted focus will be placed on applications being received from a broad range of groups; including but not limited to residents associations, local community groups, charities, social enterprises and Business Improvement Districts. This round will also target awareness of the opportunity in parts of London where previously there have been fewer project ideas submitted. Appendix A provides a map of successful and unsuccessful projects to date.
The following measures will be targeted:
- Match funding – To date, the programme has attracted an average match funding rate of £1.25 for every £1 pledged by the Mayor. This round will seek to match or exceed that rate. The appraisal process will determine an appropriate pledge which would both maximise public value but also ensure a consistent catalytic effect is experienced by each campaign. We will target our investment to ensure that local support is weighted more heavily than financial success of the campaign at the point of evaluation.
- Backers – This round will seek to achieve an average of at least 100 individual backers per campaign backed with a Mayoral Pledge. Campaign support will be considered as part of the appraisal.
- We will seek to encourage submissions from every London borough. The appraisal moderation panel will ensure a fair distribution of funding across London.
Programme Support
2.7 Delivery of the programme to date has demonstrated a pipeline of small, diverse, locally led projects proposed by groups with the energy and enthusiasm to deliver them. However, these projects have come to light with minimal support funding to raise awareness of the opportunity or to provide capacity building activity. Consultation engagement work with the London Assembly Regeneration Committee and Local Authority partners has drawn attention to the need for more activity which aims to lower the barriers to entry and demonstrate the relevance of the programme to a wide range of groups in order to satisfy our equality and diversity ambitions for engagement with the opportunity. The upcoming round of funding provides an opportunity to do more to raise awareness and support groups across London to conceive, test and develop ideas that deliver improvement in their local area.
2.8 £20,000 will be used to deliver a marketing campaign that will seek to raise awareness across London of the opportunity. Together with £10,000 approved under cover of (ADD391) a media brief will be developed and a campaign devised to be implemented in parallel with the launch of the new round in February 2017. This will aim to go beyond our ‘known networks’ and target a broad spectrum of the London ‘public’. The campaign will be devised with the GLA Marketing Team and will target an increase in the number and quality of the projects submitted by also awareness of the programme, which inspires and sows the seeds of ideas that generate future project proposals, developing a sustainable pipeline of activity. Central to the campaign will be a creative approach which will revisit the image and branding of the programme and harness the Mayor’s convening power via a variety of media. This activity will be monitored and evaluated to develop a baseline understanding of engagement impact that can be adjusted to focus future activity as required to ensure wide and diverse engagement with the programme.
2.9 In addition to marketing, there is a range of workstreams being devised that will support a strengthening of City Hall’s crowdfunding offering to Londoners and the ability to the understand the impact of the programme. This work will take the form of commissions and research that look at the following:
a) Capacity building – outreach work is important to help groups gain the skills, tools, guidance and support to:
• come together around shared objectives in an organised way
• gain clear understanding of the process and roles/responsibilities required for success
• develop ideas that respond to local challenges and opportunities in a creative and innovative way, considering a range of potential options
• maximise the chance of delivering a successful crowdfunding campaign
• ensure smooth delivery of projects in the event of a successful campaign
• signpost to resources that can offer practical or emotional support throughout the process
This work will build detailed awareness of the opportunity as a full life-cycle commitment and provide support that lower the barriers to entry; key to ensure wide and diverse participation. Spacehive, as platform providers, will be engaged in the delivery of this work by supporting a series of events that aim to communicate the opportunity that the Mayor’s programme presents and how an inclusive range of groups can engage.
Accordingly it is proposed that a contract for the services is awarded to Spacehive (with a of up to £10,000).
Given the value of the proposed contract, when taken together with expenditure on the services of Spacehive to date, it is acknowledged that section 4.1 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code (“Code”) requires that such services be procured via calling off services from a suitable framework or via competitive tender. Section 5 of the Code however, provides that exemptions from that requirement maybe approved where a supplier has had previous involvement in specific current project or a where there it involves continuation of existing work which cannot be separated from the new project.
Given the unique position that Spacehive hold as platform partners, the continuation of their support from the programme cannot be separated from the new work required. It is therefore proposed that Spacehive be contracted, outside of the existing contractual arrangement, to deliver these services via exemption of 4.1 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code to undertake competitive procurement activity.
b) Peer-to-peer engagement – the crowd can be used not solely as a tool to raise funds but also as a means to share skills, experience, support and to build greater capacity for engagement. In 2017, we aim to explore the ways in which resources for groups with civic regeneration ideas can best be sourced and shared. This platform may take a variety of forms but should be provide a forum for; project creators to connect; exploring mentoring opportunities; incentivising support in some way; curating discussion threads around particular themes.
c) Evaluation – work undertaking by the GLA Intelligence team in 2016 has been invaluable in helping us understand the broad impacts of crowdfunded projects. It is important that this work continues to be built upon so that we can identify and evidence both the economic and social impact of many small project interventions and the power of civic led activity.
d) Future platform – this round of funding will be the last delivered under the current platform arrangement. Feasibility and market testing support will be required to ensure that future procurement meets the needs of City Hall’s programme.
The areas noted at sections 2.9(b), (c) and (d) above will be the subject of discrete commissions for which briefs will be developed and the appropriate procurement guidance followed with support from TfL Commercial. Approval is sought for programme support fund of £40,000 to deliver the activity above. A strategy will be developed which will consider how best to deliver this ambition across all London boroughs and in places that display a range of socio-economic conditions.
3.1 All projects will be developed and delivered in compliance with relevant Codes of Practice and in line with the requirements of the public sector equality duty to ensure that the following issues have been considered
i) Project Proposals: All proposals will be open and accessible to all and community groups will be reminded that their projects are required to take appropriate steps to minimise disadvantages suffered by people who share a protected characteristic. age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation
ii) Documents and publications: all documents produced will comply with Mayor of London branding guidelines
iii) Events: all events will be open to all and, where possible, will encourage people who share a protected characteristic to participate in any activity in which their participation is disproportionately low.
As a condition of funding agreements, projects will be required to meet the Public Sector Equality Duty and demonstrate this through reporting of progress. Additionally, we have also recently updated our agreements in reference to the GLA’s Child Policy and Protection Procedures. In recognition of the fact we will be contracting with non-public bodies, we will continue to develop guidance to support these organisations to deliver against the Public Sector Equality Duty.
3.2 Activities set out under ‘Programme support’ (2.7-2.9) will seek to address the equality and diversity of Londoners participating with the programme. This activity will aim to raise awareness and lower the barriers to entry. This activity will also seek to monitor those who back campaigns financially, and with support – to gain insight into their motives – and attempt to understand who is benefitting from the resulting projects and their sustainable legacy.
3.3 During the third round of the programme, and following on from close consultation with the Diversity and Social Policy team, we have amended the standard funding agreement we use for the Crowdfunding Programme to insert a new clause referring to the GLA’s Equalities Act and the responsibilities of our delivery partners to comply with it while delivering their respective projects. Additionally, we have also inserted a clause referring to the GLA’s Child Policy and Protection Procedures.
a) Key risks and issues
Delivery – Whilst delivery capacity has formed part of the evaluation process, and the scale of the projects is reasonably modest, working with local community groups presents some risk in projects being delivered on time. Officers will ensure that appropriate funding agreements are put in place between and executed by the GLA and recipient before any commitment to fund is made. Projects will report to us on a monthly basis to enable us to track progress, and we will encourage them to build in qualitative and quantitative data. We can now demonstrate a high success rate in project delivery, with 52 projects delivering successfully (or having delivered successfully) compared to 57 campaigns backed with Mayoral Pledges in the first rounds of the programme. The five projects that have not progressed to delivery were closed down in a controlled manner, following discussions with the Regeneration Team whereby all solutions to enable success were considered and a pragmatic decision was taken to minimise any impact. It is natural to expect some insurmountable obstacles but evidence so far suggests the risk of this is manageable and tolerable.
Capital and Revenue expenditure - Due to the unprecedented and experimental approach taken to solicit applications from the community and voluntary sector via the Spacehive Online platform there is a risk around the project applicant’s accurate and consistent assessment of capital and revenue spend. Steps have been taken to minimise this risk, through the appraisal process looking closely at project deliverables and costs to ensure they are realistic, but each project will have provided inconsistent assessments and some will inevitably be more accurate than others. Financial information has been provided to GLA finance team to review as part of our due diligence process. Additional mitigation of this issue will come through the flexibility that crowdfunding will allow – all projects will be required to source some element of funding ‘from the crowd’ which could be attributed more flexibly to either capital or revenue expenditure, when the time comes to enter into a funding agreement and finalise the project costs. If a project overspends, against its initial projection, the Spacehive Project Deliver Manager contract already states that this cost must be borne by the Project Deliver Manager. This will be mirrored in the funding agreement signed with the GLA, which will associate agreed outputs directly with identified spend. Projects will be advised to produce accurate cost forecasts and consider building in some element of contingency.
Outputs – Like all of our Regeneration programmes, the Crowdfunding Programme will contribute to our overriding aims to improve London’s places, help the prosperity of its businesses and economy and improve the quality of life of London’s people. The funding that we give these projects will go towards interventions that provide inclusive opportunities and demonstrate positive and attributable socio-economic outcomes. There is an inherent risk with the crowdfunding model that if we are too prescriptive with setting targets they will ultimately be wrong, as the specific details of projects can shift slightly as a result of the campaigns. All projects we choose to support will retain an inherent goal and vision and we will work closely with recipients of funding to identify quantifiable outputs and outcomes during the drafting of each funding agreement, which will enable us to speak positively about the tangible benefits of the programme. Furthermore, we will also encourage our delivery partners to build in ethnographic data where possible. Projects will report to us on a monthly basis to enable us to track progress . As detailed in paragraph 1.3 we have evidence of much additional social value attached to the process of citizens engaging with this opportunity and this offsets some of the risk associated with funding new or inexperienced groups.
Crowdfunding Targets and Underspend - Once pledges are made, and each project enters a period of crowdfunding, the nature of crowdfunding means that some projects may not reach their funding target. Steps have been taken to anticipate the likelihood of this scenario through discussions with Spacehive, and it is estimated that there is a risk to the value of around £60,000 for projects which may struggle to hit their targets. This risk is being mitigated by working with Spacehive to provide support to those projects most at risk. This will include guidance from Spacehive in developing and maintaining momentum for their campaigns, but also a GLA-led press, communications and social media strategy that will give projects the best possible exposure and chance to build on that exposure to boost their campaigns. If some projects fail to reach their crowdfunding targets, and the project no longer goes ahead, it is proposed that this funding is rolled over to back projects in future rounds of the programme, delivered over the four year timeframe of the Growth Deal.
b) links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
The Mayor has also pledged to make London a fairer, open and accessible city for all to live and prosper. Engaging civil society in London’s decision making and giving all the opportunity to champion, generate and delivery new ideas for London gives all Londoners a stake in the future development of their city and promotes active citizenship. Running a crowdfunding campaign gives local groups a focus to define a shared objective and follow a natural process of promoting and developing it. It allows for an idea to be shared publically and for others to demonstrate support.
Crowdsourcing ideas and crowdfunding delivery provides a new way to bring local communities together, through active citizenship, to help foster social integration and develop new connections, opportunities and networks of mutual support and collective ownership – building stronger and more resilient communities. The skills developed through proposing and delivering civic projects are significant and transferable, helping people in their work and personal life. The Crowdfunding Programme has been championed by the London Assembly’s Regeneration Committee as a vehicle for supporting sustainable regeneration programmes in London.
c) impact assessments and consultations.
The Crowdfunding Pilot programme follows a recommendation in ‘Open Ideas Platform: Research for a web-based ideas crowdsourcing platform’ commissioned by the Regeneration Team and delivered by the Future Cities Catapult. This work consulted key delivery teams within the GLA as to what they would find useful, and analysed the impact that this kind of tool could have on the way the GLA delivers public services.
The pilot initiative was the first step to explore and test these ideas and recommendations to shape a more formal future proposal.
The Opinion Research and Statistics team within GLA Intelligence were commissioned by GLA Regeneration, in 2016, to pioneer a methodology to assess the social impact of the programme so far. The emerging conclusions have influenced the ongoing development of the programme, as described by paragraphs 2.6 to 2.9 of this decision. The final report followed an initial discussion via the GLA’s Talk London platform which indicated that 80% of respondents felt engagement with development should involve more than just consultation.
In November 2016, the pilot programme was interrogated by the London Assembly Regeneration Committee. We await their recommendations but intend to embed them within detailed briefs and delivery within the scope of work set out in this decision.
5.1 The total cost of this proposal is £505,500, a combination of capital and revenue funding, summarised below:
Capital Revenue Total
Expenditure £ £ £
Crowdfunding Programme 364,000 81,500 445.500
Promotion & Development - 60,000 60,000
Total 364,000 141,500 505,500
5.2 With regards to the funding for this proposal; the capital element will be funded from the funds secured via the London Regeneration Fund, approved by MD1596. The revenue costs will be funded from the £1.433m budget provision allocated to support the delivery of LEP priorities, which is made up of a combination of LEP core funds and GPF revenue funding as approved by MD1561.
6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:
6.1.1 the decisions requested of the director concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion economic development and wealth creation in Greater London: and
6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is ought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) 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; and
(c) 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, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) 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 Officers have indicated in sections 1 and 2 (above) of this report that that the proposed contribution of up to £445,500 amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that:
6.3.1 the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in manner which affords value for money in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code; and
6.3.2 appropriate funding documentation is put in place between the GLA and recipients of such funding before any commitment to fund is made.
6.4 Section 4.1 the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code requires that the proposed services be procured via competitive tender or by calling off services from an accessible framework. Section 5 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code however, provides that exemptions from that requirement maybe approved where a supplier has had previous involvement in specific current project or a where there it involves continuation of existing work which cannot be separated from the new project. GLA officers have stated, at section 1 of this report that such circumstances exist in the proposed award of contract to Spacehive. Therefore, if satisfied with the content of this report, the director may approve the exemption and award of contract.
6.5 Officers must also ensure that:
6.5.1 any other services necessary for the delivery of the proposed marketing, communications and programme support activity are procured by Transport for London who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code; and
6.5.2 that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and signed by the GLA, Spacehive and any other suppliers before the commencement of the provision of such services required.
Signed decision document
DD2093 Civic Crowdfunding Programme Round 4