DD2262 MedTech London

Working with the South East Health Technologies Alliance (SEHTA), the GLA established the MedTech London programme in 2015 to support the growth needs of over 300 medical device, diagnostics and digital health sector SMEs operating in London.

MedTech London has been funded to date from the Growing Places Fund, and the Development, Enterprise & Environment ‘Core’ budget. £50,000 was approved by the London Economic Action Partnership to set up and deliver the programme (2015-16: MD 1561) plus an additional £24,500 was released to continue the programme for 2017-18 (ref AD2127).

This DD seeks approval for an additional £30,000 to be released to continue the MedTech London programme, supporting the growth needs of over 300 London based medical device, diagnostics and digital health sector SMEs. This is processed as a Director Decision as the aggregated expenditure across all years of the programme takes this project over the £50,000 threshold for an ADD.

The payment is made to SEHTA as a contractor, and their fees are charged at what is, in effect a subsidised rate, SEHTA’s costs being shared with SEHTA itself and industry partners. The GLA’s contract with SEHTA was procured on the basis that it would last for one year but with the option of extending it for further 12 month periods not exceeding a three years in total (as per AD2127).

This decision concerns therefore, expenditure to be incurred on the extended provision of services by SEHTA under a competitively procured contract.

MedTech London has built up a community of over 300 MedTech firms operating in London, and is raising the visibility and championing the sector through an established programme of annual events, publications and awards to celebrate success; facilitating networking and link ups though events including the annual conference; and supporting SME development and growth through business development and access to NHS surgeries. The programme is also expanding into new markets – including support to link start-ups with corporate and local authority markets, London’s university base to enable R&D collaboration opportunities, and work to explore opportunities for the cross fertilisation of innovation across different sectors (working with the Knowledge Transfer Network).

The continued provision of services by SEHTA proposed will enable MedTech London to support the growth needs of over 300 medical device, diagnostics and digital health sector SMEs operating in London through:

o Management of the programme
o Publishing the annual MedTech London Review & Directory to promote the strengths of the sector and maximise opportunities for business to business collaboration
o The MedTech London Conference at City Hall (a networking event for 100 SMEs and the wider ecosystem to maximise networking across the sector)
o Expanding the pilot of the MedTech Connect programme (originally described in AD2127 as BigB2SME)– which connects MedTech SMEs to multinational health technology companies to set up innovation pilots, collaborations, new products and services– into new markets, such as local authorities, and R&D collaborations (reaching out to over 90 SMEs, and enabling new relationships and collaborations)
o The Mayor of London MedTech Business Awards across five categories (Innovation, Start Up, Export Achievement, Partnership with the NHS, and Outstanding Achievement) to promote MedTech innovation
o A partnership event with the Knowledge Transfer Network, working with SMEs from sectors outside of life sciences to explore opportunities for the cross fertilisation of innovation (minimum 60 SMEs)
o Business surgeries, including on access to market and business planning to support SME development and growth (minimum10 firms receiving support)

The GLA will ensure that when SEHTA is planning and delivering its programme of activities, that it adheres to the requirements of the Equality Act to demonstrate that that it is making financial decisions in a fair, transparent and accountable way, considering the needs and the rights of different protected groups. This will be achieved through assessing the impact that changes to programmes of work could have on people with different protected characteristics, where appropriate.

The GLA recognises when commissioning services, that assessing the impact on equality of proposed changes to policies, procedures and practices is not just something that the law requires, it is a positive opportunity to ensure that better decisions are made based on robust evidence.

The GLA has compiled a comprehensive collation of a wide range of evidence by policy area for the protected characteristics identified in the Equality Act the GLA’s ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Evidence Base’. The Evidence Base identifies that young women are less likely to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) at A-level. Within the STEM subjects, variations between young men and women can be seen. Girls have a stronger focus on biological sciences whilst boys have a stronger preference towards mathematics and physics.

To address these trends, SEHTA will reach out to and promote underrepresented groups, in particular female MedTech entrepreneurs, through its communications activities and at MedTech London-facilitated/hosted events to help address the current underrepresentation of women in the STEM sector.

In addition SEHTA will ensure its events are targeted to a wide range of MedTech stakeholders and are fully accessible to deaf and disabled people.

SEHTA will also ensure equality is incorporated through the organisation’s staff recruitment and selection processes.

Life sciences is highlighted as an important growth sector in the Mayor’s manifesto and in the draft Economic Development Strategy. The MedTech London programme will support the delivery of the following Mayoral priorities:

• engaging and partnering with London’s business base
• supporting innovative tech solutions
• supporting SME growth
• championing London’s investment opportunities
• managing the implications of Brexit.

MedTech London will help to ‘take tech to the next level’ through supporting innovative solutions to healthcare challenges, and help to meet the Mayoral commitment to improve London’s health.

SEHTA will also provide an interim and final report of all deliverables, with payment dependent upon delivery of time bound milestones. Feedback sheets are also available at business events and they will gather feedback from the SME community to ensure the programme continues to meet their needs.

Key risks include:

• Project is viewed as a top down Government led project: mitigation is to ensure SME membership on the steering group and encourage SMEs to take greater leadership in the project
• Delay in delivery of outputs: the consultant has a consistent track record of on time delivery, whilst the project will be managed to ensure any potential delay is effectively managed to minimise impact on outcomes
• Insufficient SME demand: the design of the project has been based on research and feedback from London’s SME base, budget for comms and marketing has been increased

The proposed payment to the South-East Health Technologies Alliance of up to £30,000 will be funded from the Development, Enterprise & Environment Minor Programme budget and profiled equally during the 2018-19 & 2019-20 financial-year (£15,000 each year).

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 the statutory powers of the GLA to do such things as may be considered to further, and or be facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the furthering of, the promotion of wealth creation and economic 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:

(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.

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 and foster good relations 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 (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Officers must ensure that the proposed extension of the GLA’s contract with SEHTA is recorded in accordance with the relevant provisions of that contract, the applicable deliverables, milestone dates and payment arrangements being reflected in the applicable extension documentation.