DD2316 Team London Volunteer Portal 2019-2022

Team London has successfully delivered an annual Team London Ambassador (Visitor Welcome) volunteering programme every summer since 2012, deploying 600 volunteers across nine locations for the six busiest weeks of the summer. Volunteer retention rates are very high with 65 per cent of volunteers starting with Team London in 2012.

In addition to the Ambassador Programme, Team London has worked with over 80 major sporting and cultural events since 2012 to support their volunteering programmes and brokering over 8,000 volunteering opportunities. In 2018 Team London worked with a wide range of events, such as Lumiere London, London Marathon, Ride London and the Shrouds of the Somme. Through this Major Events Programme, Team London is building an excellent reputation for volunteer delivery at major events across London.

Team London continues to recruit new volunteers to the programme and creates opportunities for young unemployed people to build their skills through the opportunities the programme offers. Volunteer and visitor satisfaction rates have remained continually high with volunteer and visitor satisfaction rates consistently above 90 per cent.

We have built strong relationships with our stakeholders throughout the years and they have seen the benefits of the programme with reduced queues to their ticket booths, fewer incidents with regards to lost children and pick pockets, and a strong focus on local activities and local businesses. These stakeholders include: Royal Parks, Heart of London BID, The Supreme Court, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Victoria and Albert Museum, Exhibition Road Cultural Group, Gatwick Airport, Historic Royal Palaces, Trafalgar Square Heritage Wardens. Our stakeholders are advocates for the programme and highly value the service the Ambassadors provide.

Team London successfully delivered the Runner Volunteer programme for the London 2017 Organising Committee, the largest event to come to the London Stadium since the London 2012 Games. The programme attracted over 15,000 applications, over 7,000 candidates were interviewed, and just over 4,000 volunteers were selected, trained and deployed to support the World Para Athletics Championships and the IAAF World Championships. In 2019/20 Team London will be delivering 2,000 volunteers for the Euro 2020 Citywide volunteering programme alongside making contingency plans for 1,500 volunteers to be deployed in the event of a major event taking place in London.

Expenditure of up to £705,000 towards planning, delivery and management of the Team London Ambassador programme (and events which fall within the Team London Major Events Programme) over 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 has already been approved under cover of MD2188. Expenditure for the Volunteer Portal was included within this. Subsequent to the approval of MD2188 additional projects have been allocated to Team London. Euro 2020 and other major events require a system with increased functionality, therefore additional funding to procure a new Volunteer Portal is required.

In particular, managing a major sporting event requires a separate Volunteer Portal in order to manage a unique recruitment and shift allocation process. As a consequence, we expect to pay fees for a Euro 2020 portal to run alongside the Team London Ambassador programme. Should it be possible (and better value for money), we would instead pay for the development of one portal and add the functionality to run separate programmes within it.

Objectives

We will continue to support ‘A Tourism Vision for London’ by executing a volunteer recruitment strategy in 2019 that encourages new volunteers to join the Euro 2020 volunteer programme, including focussing on the following groups:

• Young people between the ages of 18 – 24
• Disabled volunteers
• Volunteers with language skills specifically Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian and German, in line with the projected growth of tourists from these countries
• Ensuring that the volunteers reflect the diversity of London’s communities.

The Team London Ambassador Programme will continue to undertake new programmes which benefit Londoners and visitors alike, such as:

• Working with TfL to ensure that all major transport hubs have a volunteer presence to welcome visitors to London
• Increasing our registered volunteers on the volunteer management site to assist with emergency and last minute volunteer requirements in the city.

Team London’s Euro 2020 programme must manage the recruitment, training and shift patterns of 2000 volunteers, supply uniforms, pay expenses, and equip them to help tourists. In addition, we recognise the important role that the volunteers play and reward volunteers where appropriate.

The system will be procured (by TfL’s Commercial team) using a competitive process. A contract for services will be awarded to the supplier submitting the highest scoring bid.

Outcomes

Our overall outcome will be to engage more Londoners in giving back their time to support their city. This will ensure that #LondonIsOpen for all and the volunteer programme is representative of London’s communities.

Having a visual presence in some of London’s top tourist locations helps to support the local stakeholders in reducing petty crime in the area with regards to pick- pockets, and ticket touts.

By encouraging young people, disabled volunteers and volunteers with alternative language skills we are making the programme more inclusive and open to all.

Team London’s reputation within the major event sector is growing and we hope to encourage every event that comes to London to have some form of volunteering activity that will give back and engage the local community.

Visitors to the city for Euro 2020 will be greeted by a friendly exciting atmosphere fuelled by volunteer presence at major London attractions thus cementing London’s reputation on the global stage as a great place to host events.

The system will also contribute towards Team London’s capacity to respond to major events in London, namely the management of volunteers who will be deployed to support Londoners and visitors.

Equal opportunities are enshrined within Team London’s programmes. Team London volunteering projects aim to ensure that all Londoners can access volunteering opportunities. The programmes eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and indeed by doing so support other Londoners equally throughout the city.

Team London volunteer opportunities are open to all that apply, regardless of race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment. The programme is fully inclusive with regards to its selection process, training and deployment ensuring those who require additional support are supported throughout. Our 2018/19 recruitment was amended to ensure further uptake from volunteers with protected characteristics.

Our work also embraces London’s diversity by connecting Londoners from a variety of demographical and geographical backgrounds together in support of common causes and events. We are currently building more methods ensure greater applications from volunteers with protected characteristics.

Through having a volunteer portal for all volunteers to apply through a varied audience of Londoners have the opportunity to apply for volunteering roles and shifts on a level playing field.

We work with major events that support deprived areas of London, such as The Big Half which takes place in the boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. We support volunteer centres to recruit volunteers from the local area, which will create a new pool of active citizens and give some volunteers valuable experience to develop their life skills to use when starting a path towards employment, education or training.

Risks to the programme could include:

Approval is sought for expenditure of up to £115,000 towards a volunteer portal for the Team London Ambassador and Major Events Programme, with costs to be incurred over 3 financial years in 2019-20 (£50k), 2020-21 (£45k) and 2021-22 (£20k).

The 2019-20 costs will be funded the Visitor Welcome Programme budget with The Team London and Sport Unit.

Future years’ budgets are indicative and subject to the GLA’s annual budget setting process.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Director fall within the GLA’s 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. In formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’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 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 of this report.

Officers must ensure that the services required are procured in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code, by TfL Commercial who will determine the procurement strategy and that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the services.