Key information
Decision type: Director
Reference code: DD2156
Date signed:
Decision by: Martin Clarke, Executive Director of Resources
Executive summary
Team London is the Mayor’s programme to encourage volunteering in the capital, supporting the Mayor’s aims of improving social integration, reducing barriers to social mobility and engaging effectively with London’s communities.
Team London Young Ambassadors (TLYA) programme is the Mayor’s volunteering programme in primary and secondary schools. The programme encourages and supports young people to tackle local issues through the development of social action projects, thus promoting active citizenship.
Young Ambassadors have improved their school and communities through projects addressing key Mayoral priorities such as environment, homelessness, health and well-being and community integration.
The TLYA programme started in 2013 and has engaged 2,100 schools, with 90,000 pupils actively volunteering in their local community.
Decision
That the Executive Director of Communities and Intelligence approves:
1. Expenditure of up to £90,000 as a contribution to the costs of Free the Children’s continuing the delivery of its TLYA project (which aligns with the aims of the GLA’s TLYA programme) for a further four months from September 2017 until 31 December 2017; and
2. A related extension of the existing funding agreement with Free the Children from 28 September 2017 until 26 January 2018.
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
1.1 Team London is the Mayor of London’s volunteering programme for London. The unit also supports the resilience of the voluntary sector. The overarching objectives are to support and promote active citizenship and ensure that the unit contributes to London being a City for All Londoners. All of our initiatives focus on convening the public sector, private sector and civil society for the good of London’s communities, and ensure that life skills are shared and developed through volunteering.
1.2 In September 2013 Team London launched Team London Young Ambassadors (TLYA), the Mayor’s volunteering programme for schools.
1.3 The Team London Young Ambassadors programme inspired young people to get involved with volunteering and social action via inspiration assemblies, skills-based workshops and motivational youth summits.
1.4 To date 2,100 schools across London have joined the programme engaging 90,000 pupils and reaching over 400,000 young Londoners.
1.5 This additional money will fund existing funding recipient “Free The Children” to continue to deliver its TLYA project in schools from 28 September 2017 – 31 December 2017. This will give Team London schools the opportunity to continue developing social action projects with the support of WE and Team London during these four months.
1.6 Of the proposed £90,000 expenditure, up to £10,000 will be awarded to schools as small grants These small grants will be available to TLYA schools. Schools will be awarded funding following a pitch to a judging panel. The funding will be used to deliver a social action project in their local community.
1.7 Funding for Team London, and TLYA has been approved by the Mayor and Executive Director – Communities and Intelligence and Assistant Director – Team London under cover of decisions MD1526, MD1177, MD1304, MD1341, MD1526, MD1661, DD1124 and ADD373.
2 Objectives and expected outcomes
2.1 Objectives:
2 The objective is to allow the continuation of the existing programme. This programme will give schools additional funding to deliver meaningful social action projects which will benefit the community.
Team London will fund up to 10 small grants in the period of September 2017 to December 2017. These projects will allow additional showcasing of the programme and support schools to have an even greater impact in their local communities.
The target audience is schools and their pupils. Schools will also be encouraged to link with local community organisations and other Team London schools.
2.2 Outcomes
o 10 schools will be awarded small grants of up to £1,000 to develop social action projects that have an even greater impact on their local community.
o Bespoke Team London resources to support schools with their social action projects.
o Ongoing support for existing 2,100 Young Ambassador schools.
o 420 Young Ambassador schools developing new social action projects and/or actively building on existing social action projects with the support of Delivery Partner.
o 50 visits to schools that have previously had an engagement visit, but level of activity has decreased in the last year. These schools will receive a visit to better support the development of social action projects. Moving them from ‘moderately engaged’ to ‘highly engaged’. Out of these 50 visits, 20 visits will be made to SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) schools and/or PRUs (Pupil Referral Units) and 30 in mainstream schools.
o Support with the completion of the London Curriculum Citizenship module.
Team London volunteering projects aim to ensure that all Londoners can access volunteering opportunities and indeed by doing so support other Londoners equally throughout the city.
3.1 Our projects particularly promote equal life chances: reducing barriers to social mobility, demonstrating improvements in social integration and effective community engagement. This involves working with young people, under-represented and disconnected Londoners to connect them, through volunteering, with education, training and the world of work.
3.2 Our work also embraces London’s diversity by connecting Londoners from a variety of demographical and geographical backgrounds together in support of commons causes. Our Team London Young Ambassadors programme allows us to reach some of the youngest citizens in the capital and enshrine in them the Team London values from a young age.
4.1 Links to strategies and Strategic Plan
The Team London Young Ambassador programme is a cross-cutting initiative which links to a number of Strategic Plan ambitions, including:
• Investing in young Londoners;
• Improving Londoners’ quality of life
• Making volunteering accessible to all
• Working with communities and civil society groups across London to encourage active participation in community and civic life. That means supporting Londoners of all ages to volunteer and to take action to improve our city.
• Encouraging more Londoners to get involved in volunteering for, and connecting with, others in their community
• Building strong partnerships between the private sector, public and voluntary agencies
• Pro-business: supporting CSR and philanthropy objectives in London
• Supporting events that encourage Londoners to get involved in Volunteering Inspiring young people to foster valuable life skills by becoming active citizens in their local area, and bringing communities together in a way that is now more important than ever
4.2 Impact assessments and Consultation
The Team London business plan presents the overall programme vision which includes priorities areas of social integration, social mobility and community engagement.
There is an established Advisory Board for Team London to ensure we have the voice of all relevant
parties shaping the future of the programme to ensure it is relevant, efficient and delivering the best
volunteering related outcomes for young Londoners.
Contained within this programme are monitoring and evaluation systems which will inform the future of the programme past January 2018.
4.3 Risk
5.1 The GLA’s contribution of £90,000 for this proposal currently sits within the Team London Young Ambassadors (Schools) element of the budget.
5.2 Approval is being sought to extend the existing funding agreement with Free the Children from 28 September 2017 until 31st December 2017.
6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Director concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within its statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of social development in 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:
6.1.1 pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
6.1.2 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
6.1.3 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 Section 1 of this report indicates that the expenditure proposed amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in a manner which affords value for money in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.
6.4 Officers must also ensure that a variation of the current Free the Children funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and Free the Children before any commitment to continue to fund is made.
Signed decision document
DD2156 Team London Young Ambassadors (signed) PDF