DD2389 Delivery of the Good Growth Fund and LEAP engagement & outreach

The Good Growth Fund (GGF) is an overarching regeneration programme delivered through the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP). It provides funding, expert regeneration advice, design support and knowledge sharing opportunities to a broad range of public, private and third-sector organisations to support their projects to deliver against three strategic themes: Empowering People, Making Better Paces and Growing Prosperity.

The Good Growth Fund supports innovative, best practice regeneration activities, that enable:

- Londoners to actively participate in their local community and have a say in how their city is shaped;
- delivery of co-ordinated place-based strategies that help to accommodate growth in a way that works with the physical character of London’s many places; and
- diverse and accessible local economies – from our high streets and town centres to industrial areas – to realise their full potential making London a place of opportunity for all.

In September 2019, a further £20m will be made available to bids. The Good Growth Fund prospectus states that in making funding decisions, the way applications map across stated priorities and London’s communities will be assessed, in order to deliver a balanced programme of exemplary projects.

The Mayor of London and LEAP approved up to £6.088 million revenue expenditure for costs to support applicants in the development of their project proposals and to provide for associated operational expenditure and programme support costs to enable the delivery of the programme. This includes:

- Communications and engagement - to support a communications strategy for the lifetime of the programme to maximise outreach and to maximise shared learning and impact through the dissemination of results; to include support for events and publications.

The Good Growth Fund aims to deliver a balanced programme – by proactively supporting under represented themes, actions, places or communities. Across Round 1 and 2 of the Good Growth Fund, we have delivered a consistent programme of outreach activity which has resulted in a higher quality of applications. This is a direct reflection of the efforts to reach a broader range of applicants and share information in an accessible and useful way.

To ensure this is achieved across all of LEAP’s funded programmes and priorities, and that we can showcase investment and successes, a total of £300,000 had been indicatively allocated at a programme level to support a communications strategy and engagement plan for the lifetime of the programme.

This report seeks approval for a recommended allocation of up to £100,000 to support outreach and engagement activities, and any associated printing and publication costs in order to have strong, coherent and consistent messaging that links all the Mayor’s work to stimulate and promote creativity and innovation in the inclusive regeneration of London.

The LEAP Board endorsed a set of strategic messaging directions at its June 2019 meeting. The LEAP Programme Board approved this expenditure via the urgency procedure in August 2019. The engagement and outreach activities proposed in this paper will align with these refreshed directions and take into account Board member feedback on engaging with potential applicants and champions.

Activity is planned to support delivery of the Good Growth Fund and LEAP funded programmes and priorities. The 2019 – 2021 programme will support the delivery of outreach and engagement activities and any associated programme and LEAP funded materials. This will ensure strong, coherent and consistent messaging is delivered that links all of LEAP’s work to stimulate and promote creativity and innovation in the inclusive regeneration of London.

This decision will primarily be utilised across planned Good Growth Fund engagement and outreach activities and is also intended to cover jointly developed and funded pieces of work and priorities where there is an existing LEAP approval in place to cover such work under the Good Growth Fund.

The Good Growth Fund communication strategy will be delivered through planned and targeted engagement and outreach activities. This will be monitored through ongoing evaluation and is expected to achieve the following outcomes:

- Create greater awareness of the Good Growth Funding opportunity among a wide range of potential applicants.
- Improve and increase understanding of LEAP’s work, funding and support available and showcase investment across London.
- Support project partners and key stakeholders to better understand LEAP and communicate key strategic messaging.
- See an increase in numbers of people attending workshops and engagement events as part of LEAP funded programmes and priorities, alongside a broad geographic spread and increased diversity.
- See an increase in the number, type and quality of proposals to LEAP funded activities and programmes.
- Better communicate LEAP programme and project successes to highlight LEAP’s work to deliver ‘good growth’ for London – supporting a strong, prosperous and inclusive city.

Outputs:

Outreach and promotions:

- Develop and deliver a mix of digital and print collateral to support the Good Growth Fund and LEAP funded priorities.
- Use existing, owned channels to address a wide range of audiences and stakeholders.
- Utilise a variety of digital platforms and media engagement pathways to promote LEAP funded programmes and initiatives.
- Aim to harness the Mayor’s convening power via a variety of social media channels to maximise outreach and enable shared learning and impact through the dissemination of results.

Outreach and engagement:

- Enable the procurement of consultation services in support of planned outreach and engagement for the Good Growth Fund and LEAP funded programmes including events and workshops. We aim to attract a wider range of applications from groups currently underrepresented in LEAP-funded initiatives and will map our outreach programme accordingly. Activity will be monitored, evaluated and adapted in order to develop a clearer understanding of engagement impact that can be adjusted to focus any future activity. This will ensure wide and diverse engagement with the Good Growth Fund, and Mayoral and LEAP funded programmes and activities.

Output Targets:

- At least 6 and up to 10 outreach and engagement events, including two large-scale public events (up to £54,000 revenue to cover venue, logistics, facilitation and associated resources)
- Production of print collateral, commissioning of promotional material including photography and videography, and delivery of a minimum of two publications (up to £28,000 revenue)
- Showcase investment through the development of a case study archive and delivering associated outreach strategies to communicate our impact to a wider public audience, promote best practice amongst stakeholders and inspire new audiences to engage with the work of LEAP (up to £18,000 revenue)

Delivery will be monitored through evaluation of the wider social impact of the programme of activity through:

- analysis of reach though owned digital channels
- post-event evaluation and attendee monitoring which will ensure engagement activities address the deficit of engagement in certain communities and/or areas of the city
- analysis of audience and applicant representation on LEAP funded programmes and activities
- case studies and success stories, which will utilise a range of mediums including, photography, film, publications and exhibition(s)

To the extent that it is proposed that expenditure is incurred on the procurement of works, services or supplies, we will ensure that the works, services or supplies are procured in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of any works, services or supplies.

To date, across two funding rounds, we have delivered a consistent programme of engagement and outreach activity which has resulted in a higher quality of applications with greater diversity in the physical location and socioeconomic factors for different communities. This is a direct reflection of the efforts to reach a broader range of applicants and share information in an accessible and useful way.

The proposed outreach and engagement plan was developed with the ambition of minimising disadvantages to all protected characteristic groups within society and ensuring that all, regardless of background, have access to equal opportunities. Through the delivery of preceding engagement and outreach activities this decision was formed to ensure a rich and wholly diverse audience is identified in order to help us to guarantee best value for money when allocating funds. This will ensure our funds continue to inspire good outcomes across London, which has value and influence beyond our funding streams, and that we engage with an audience which reflects London’s diverse citizens.

Engagement will take place across a wide group of stakeholders and will consider different participant needs and tools in utilising engagement. The visual language of any print material produced will consider different audiences and provide accessible and inclusive information.

We will monitor the diversity of attendees at events and workshops and seek to develop our network and audience database to include different type of organisations and a wide geographic spread. The programme of activity will be developed and delivered in compliance with relevant Codes of Practice and in line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. As public authority, the Mayor and the GLA must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act comprise age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (the duty in respect of this last characteristic is to eliminate unlawful discrimination only).

Failure to engage with expanded and diverse audiences could limit the range of applicants applying to LEAP funded programmes and impact negatively on perceptions of the programme. We will work with the GLA External Relations team to promote any new opportunities and highlight successes. We will target our outreach at locations and channels which are known to connect with these target audiences.

A change of Mayoral administration may impact on LEAP’s identity and any planned activity. We will ensure that any material produced is flexible and adaptable.

The engagement and outreach programme of activity will look at who participates and engages with the Good Growth Fund and LEAP funded programmes and how we could support more diverse participation.

There are no known conflicts of interest for anyone involved in the drafting and approval of this decision, and for anyone designing and developing the proposed outreach and engagement activities.

Approval is sought for expenditure of up to £100,000 to support the development and delivery of outreach and engagement activities for the Good Growth Fund and wider LEAP priorities.

The expenditure will be funded from the Good Growth Fund budget for 2019 – 2021.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the activity in respect of which approval is sought may be considered to be facilitative of and conducive to the exercise of the GLA’s general powers to undertake such activity as may be considered to promote economic development and wealth creation in Greater London and 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.

To the extent that expenditure:

(a) amounts to the provision of grant funding as a contribution to related third party project costs and not a payment for services to be provided, officers must ensure that the proposed funding is disbursed in a fair and transparent manner in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and a funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and any proposed recipient(s) before any commitment to provide the funding is made; and

(b) is to be incurred on the procurement of works, services or supplies, officers must ensure that the works, services or supplies are procured in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of any works, services or supplies.

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.

As noted at section 4.2 above, officers must ensure that any agreements entered into in respect of the programme are on terms which do not fetter the discretion of the Mayor, taking into account of the GLA elections being held prior in May 2020.