DD2265 Research to improve citizen engagement with volunteeering

In MD2295 (Team London work programme 2018-2019) approval was given for expenditure of up to £457,000 for work on reward and recognition and incentivisation of volunteering for Londoners. This work will ensure that more Londoners can benefit from volunteering and social action activity, particularly those who are currently less likely to access these opportunities. The MD included expenditure on research, scoping and temporary staffing capacity within the team, subject to further detail/approvals of particular elements.

Further to this, approval is sought within this decision to:

• Commission an external delivery partner to carry out research and scoping work to make recommendations about future commissioning direction and opportunities. Then; influenced by and shaped by these recommendations;
• Work with community partners to trial different approaches to initiating or increasing involvement from previously uninvolved groups; and
• Recruit additional temporary staff resource within Team London to coordinate the community partner work and liaise with others to explore joint learning opportunities and create resources to develop best practice and case study sharing, working with other cities to highlight opportunities and provide thought leadership from a city-led perspective.

Team London have already supported a pilot programme run by v. inspired, an organisation who support young people in taking up social action and volunteering activities. This pilot looks at the reward and recognition of volunteering and social action activity for young people. The programme seeks to understand motivations and behaviours related to volunteering, enabling us to increase volunteering levels amongst those who have not previously volunteered and particularly target those from more deprived backgrounds, and from groups currently less likely to volunteer. Whilst this work has been a valuable first step we are not locked into continuing the partnership.

The pilot programme with v inspired followed an initial period of desk research and scoping carried out by Team London to assess existing offers in the “market”. It became clear at that time (January 2017) that there were no providers at that time able to offer a product that provided us with the data and evidence base that we were looking for to understand more about volunteering behaviour. There was activity at borough level but this was largely local discount schemes at that time. We therefore partnered with v inspired, as they were launching their own activity to increase volunteering uptake. This work is still in its early stages, but has contributed towards the Team London Reward and Recognition learning, which we will now take to the next stage through this work.

We have also carried out preliminary research, both internally with the Intelligence team and externally commissioned, to gain qualitative insights into current volunteering practice and attitudes within London. Approval for this activity was given in ADD2182, covering market research, testing and branding options, and testing to explore attitudes and behaviours towards volunteering and social action in the 20+ age group. These insights will also be taken to the next stage of the programme.

We will now work with an external delivery partner to examine our new evidence base, look at the scoping work already carried out, explore international best practice and make recommendations about future commissioning. This delivery partner will be procured using a competitive process. A mini competition exercise will be completed to ensure that a suitable delivery partner, who offers good value for money is sourced. We are now better aware of the barriers faced by Londoners around volunteering and social action. We need to consider how we tackle these barriers and how this work can contribute to overall Mayoral priorities. The external delivery partner will take a fresh approach to looking at the issue and adopt a broader view. Previously we looked at existing schemes within London, such as value-you and Spice Time credits. These schemes did not collect data on behaviours or activity in the way that we wanted. However, there are cities that are using recognition and other citizen data type projects to do a whole variety of things, including access to cultural activity (e.g. the Paris card) as well as encourage volunteering (Jerusalem) or take part in decision making (Helsinki and Bologna). Our delivery partner will look at best practice from other cities and provide us with insight about potential models that could be developed in the London context.

We will test some practical approaches to working with community partners and civil society infrastructure organisations so that we can assess the most effective ways in which both universal and group-specific volunteering and social action can be delivered, maintained and enhanced for Londoners. This will be through piloting a series of short-term experimental approaches, working with a variety of community partners across London, trialling different approaches and targeting different cohorts. The work of our external delivery partner will give us a framework to assess what activity to pilot and what to test.

We will bring in additional temporary resource within Team London to coordinate the community partner work and liaise with others to ensure joint learning and opportunities and resources to create best practice and case study sharing. This role will also include working with other cities to highlight opportunities and provide thought leadership from a city-led perspective.

Volunteering and social action is a key ingredient in multiple Mayoral Strategies. It is a key building block for social integration and contributes to the culture, skills and health inequalities strategies. To deliver against strategic objectives a more sophisticated understanding of current practice and potential innovation is required. The objective of this work is to move us towards this improved understanding and pilot new ways of working. The desired outcome is to increase volunteering and social action in general across London and an increase from groups who are not currently engaged.

The external delivery partner will, between August and October 2018:

• Carry out desk research on current volunteering levels and activity, building on the preliminary analysis done by the Intelligence team.
• Do a market scanning exercise to look at current volunteering offers, both provided by traditional and non-traditional infrastructure organisations, and the data that is collected and tracked by these offers. This will include looking at any emerging offers such as the growing increase of volunteering and social action practice being embedded into shared workplaces and/or the use of digital infrastructure.
• Consider the current infrastructure provision across London. There is a variety of various levels of borough and sub-regional support for volunteering, and recommendations will be made about the most effective ways for the GLA to support infrastructure organisations, including the newly established London hub (London Plus). Recommendations might include resourcing volunteer centres to trial different approaches to volunteering activity, volunteer engagement and behaviour change.
• Identify cities who are using volunteering, social action and citizen participation to deliver wider priorities, preparing at least 4 detailed case studies of these cities.
• Develop a framework for a practical testing programme with community-based organisations.
• Prepare a final report and recommendations about next steps.

Depending on the testing framework developed, between November 2018 and January 2019
we will work with community partners (which could include volunteer centres, councils for voluntary service, London Plus and/or other partners) and trial different approaches to increasing involvement or obtaining involvement from previously uninvolved groups. The trials will involve trying out short-term practical interventions and measuring results. The format of these trials will be informed by our research, but may include working with the three volunteer centres in the Big Half boroughs in London to activate previously inactive Londoners, working with a CVS to target a cohort with a low volunteer participation rate, working with a digital volunteer offer to see how recruitment can be managed or increased, or working with London Plus to trial an approach to corporate partners. We may also explore teaming up with a London borough (such as Lewisham) who have now improved their offer. Our goal would be to expand and improve their reward and recognition, including looking at how to work in partnership to devise better and more scalable data.

The additional temporary resource will coordinate the community partner work during this period and/or liaise with other partners and stakeholders to explore joint learning and opportunities and resources to work on best practice and case study sharing, working with other cities to highlight opportunities and provide thought leadership from a city-led perspective.

Under s149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as a public authority the Mayor must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act; and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The pilot with v inspired and the additional research and scoping work that we have carried out concludes that motivations and barriers to volunteering and social action differ according to variables such as life stage, age, class and levels of education attainment. The Mayor has stated in his Social Integration Strategy “All of Us” that volunteering and social action are a key way of achieving stronger and more diverse social networks and are key building blocks in creating a healthier, safer and fairer cit. We wish to design and deliver programmes that will 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,

In a recent poll (May 2018) 75% of Londoners polled say that volunteering is good for meeting people not like them. However only 7% of Londoners say they already volunteer and the Community Life Survey shows that Londoners have the second lowest rates of volunteering in the country. Our recent polling and the Community Life Survey shows that those who volunteer are more likely to be older and better educated. This implies that there are barriers to participation which are affecting other groups. A specific objective of this work is to enable more equal participation. This will contribute towards fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

A current risk is that we do not have sufficient data or an evidence base to make meaningful changes to our offer and ensure that a product or approach is developed which is diverse and varied enough to appeal to all Londoners and targeted groups. The research that we did previously and this additional work will help us make commissioning decisions that are better informed and therefore more likely to be effective.

Another risk is that whatever is recommended to ‘shift the dial’ on volunteering participation rates is not deliverable as the scale of investment required is too great. By looking at several models of delivery and investigating what options are open to us we wish to develop proposals that are replicable and scalable and could be used and/or invested in by other funders if we are able to prove their benefits.

A potential risk is that we will not find a suitable organisation to carry out the work. The contract will be awarded via a competitive process which allow us to compare offers from different providers. We will draw on the experience of other departments within the GLA such as the Social Integration Team and the Intelligence Unit to understand the market and to shape the specification.

Impact assessment and consultation

Team London consult relevant groups and stakeholders when undertaking any new programmes. As mentioned previously we scoped out existing reward and recognition programmes across London and have carried out qualitative research about groups with low participation rates, explored young people’s attitudes and approaches to volunteering and social action, and are using a test and learn approach so that we can adapt and learn as we go.

The total expenditure of £115,000 will be funded from the 2018-19 Reward and Recognition Programme budget with Team London and Sport Unit.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the proposals in respect of which the Director’s approval is sought concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, and may be considered to fall within the GLA’s powers to do such things as are facilitative of or conducive to the fulfilment of its principal purposes, namely, promoting economic development and wealth creation, social development, and the improvement of the environment, all in Greater London, and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• Pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
• 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
• 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 (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Director should have regarding to section 3 of this report.

To the extent that officers are procuring the services of an external delivery partner as indicated in section 1, the services required must be procured by Transport for London Commercial who will determine the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code. Officers have indicated in section 1 that the services will be procured by way of competition, which will be managed by TfL Commercial. Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder and the GLA before the commencement of the services.

To the extent that any of the expenditure is to be used for staffing costs, for example of the temporary resource noted in section 1.2 above, officers must ensure that they comply with all GLA HR policies and protocols (including HoPs approvals if applicable) in this regard.