Key information
Executive summary
In MD 1612 Team London requested approval of spend of £1.35 million for the two “Volunteering as a Route to Work” sub-programmes; namely 2work and Forces for Good. These programmes were to operate from 2016-19 to secure and sustain an employment, education or training (EET) outcome for 6 months or more and are part funded by ESF funds. The funding of the originally approved £1.35 million programme was as follows: £373,000 from the GLA; £675,000 from ESF; and up to £300,000 from corporate sponsorship.
This MD only relates to the 2work programme. It requests approval of a reduction in both the amount of funding committed by the GLA to the 2work programme and the number of outputs that will be achieved. Additionally, due to procurement timelines changing the two sub-programmes will now run into the financial year 2019-20.
The reduction in expenditure on the 2work sub-programme amounts to £60,000. This reduction in turn reduces the overall expenditure on the Volunteering as a Route to Work programme from £1.35 million to £1.29 million.
The sub-programme expenditure for 2work will be reduced from £944,000 to £884,000. This will be funded as follows: £240,000 from the GLA, £440,000 from ESF; and up to £204,000 from external sponsors and underwritten by the GLA.
Based on the ESF procurement guidelines the timetable for the 2work programme has been set and we need to be able to enter into contractual arrangements for 2work before we have completed the Veterans programme tendering process. For this reason we are separating out the 2work programme in governance terms and will request a separate decision for the Veterans programme once a preferred supplier for that programme has been selected.
Decision
The Mayor approves:
1. The reduction of the expenditure for the 2work sub-programme from £944,000 to £884,000. The new overall sub-programme budget will be funded as follows: £240,000 from the GLA, £440,000 from ESF; and up to £204,000 from external sponsors and underwritten by the GLA.
2. Expenditure of £81,000 in staff project support costs from the GLA’s programme budget
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
1.1 Team London is the Mayor’s volunteering and social action programme.
A successful Team London pilot demonstrated volunteering’s place as a way of developing life skills and as a route to achieving an individual’s potential. This successful pilot took place over a two year period and so in 2016 we bid for ESF and matched GLA funds in order to be able to expand the scale of the work and deliver a larger number of sustained outcomes into education, training and employment. We obtained approval for this programme and the match funding in MD 1612.
1.2 Our programme is split into working with two very different cohorts. This decision covers the first cohort, the 2work programme, which is young people not in employment, education or training, aged between 18-24. Our previous pilot work showed very positive outcomes in using volunteering opportunities as a key way of developing people’s strengths and confidence. There is high youth unemployment in certain boroughs and certain population groups. We wish to use a very targeted approach to work with young people from these boroughs and population groups. In this way we will use the programme and volunteering as a way of building skills and confidence, opening the young people’s minds to aspirations and opportunities and increase access to the work place, having a positive impact on social mobility.
1.3 The programme is being externally procured and we will be looking for delivery partners with expertise and innovative approaches that will have a contribution to make to the wider aspects of Team London as well as the responsibility for programme delivery and outcomes. A preferred supplier has now been selected and we wish to be able to enter into contractual arrangements with them.
1.4 Due to ESF guidelines about funding parameters there is now less funding available for match.
The new total will be £343k from the GLA, £643k from ESF and up to £300k from corporate funders (which is underwritten by the GLA as an ESF match requirement). For the 2work programme this translates into £884k spend in total, of which £240k is GLA, £204k is external match and £440k is ESF match.
1.5 We require a member of staff within Team London to lead on our ESF programmes, 2work and Veterans. This post is currently in place on a short term contract and we wish to extend the post so that it is co-terminus with the ESF programme. This expenditure of £162k over three years is included in our three year programme funding forecast. The amount that is attributable to the 2work programme is 50% of this or £81k over the three years.
1.6 This paper seeks to approve budget only. A Head of Paid Service Decision will be requested to create the necessary extension of the post.
1.7 When we went out to market for procurement we gave a range of suggested outcomes based on the pilot costs and asked prospective delivery partners to detail the outcomes they expect to be able to obtain with a breakdown of the methodology they will use, and the distance travelled for their target participants. The preferred supplier has submitted a bid that will work with 720 young people over the lifetime of the project and of these 350 young people will achieve sustained outcomes in education, training or employment. These young people will be from boroughs and demographic groups that have the greatest need, and we will be targeting them in order to ensure that we are working with the young people where this programme can have the greatest impact.
2.1 Objectives
(i) Increase social action in the London by a contribution of at least 6000 volunteering hours. Each young person on 2work will need to carry out at least 10 hours of volunteering activity.
(ii) Increase in the number of young people who have strong links with their local communities – strengthening social cohesion. By volunteering the participants will increase their sense of connection with their communities, their knowledge of local organisations and feel more part of their communities.
(iii) Increase in the number of young people who have a better understanding of their skills, strengths and qualities and so are able to make better informed decisions about education, training and employment opportunities. This should lead to a better uptake of these opportunities, helping provide social mobility outcomes.
(iv) To have independent evaluation carried out on the programme which highlights the most effective ways to achieve sustained outcomes and can evaluate the value add of the volunteering element of the programme, which makes it unique amongst other employability programmes.
2.2 Outcomes
• 350 young people aged between 18-24 will have sustained outcomes in employment, education or training.
• 600 young people will have completed employability training support and obtained basic skills qualifications.
• Over 6000 hours volunteering will be contributed by programme participants.
These expected outcomes have changed from the original MD and there are multiple reasons for this;-
• We will work with young people with more complex needs. A higher unit cost is needed and therefore the outcomes have reduced.
The initial pilot costs of 2work were much higher than the costs in the second pilot. (£3,508 per head as opposed to £1,428 per head). This was because the targeted young people in the second cohort did not have particularly complex support needs.
• Our response during procurement and the bid put in by our preferred supplier has demonstrated that outcome numbers of 350 are realistically achievable. This represents a cost of £2,382 per head.
The preferred delivery partner has been selected by competitive tender which will comply with all public sector equality duties requirements.
ESF requirements set out targets for participation in the programme from protected groups as follows;
• Participants with disabilities or health conditions 9%
• Participants from ethnic minorities 45%
Our preferred supplier has indicated that they expect to work with 60% participants from ethnic minorities and 11% of the participants will have disabilities.
In addition they have indicated that they will work with;
• Female participants 50%
• Participants that are lone parents 5%
• Participants that have basic skills needs 18%
As stated in the objectives and outcomes section, this programme fits with Mayoral priorities in the following way;
Increasing social action:
- I will work 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. (Manifesto)
Increasing social cohesion and community engagement;
- 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 (Manifesto)
Matching people with the employment, education and training that they need to help them match business needs;
- we also need to make sure we develop our home-grown skills to the utmost, and to build upon London’s educational success. With the powers and funding that I hope will finally be devolved to London, I will work to improve the skills system here, ensuring provision more closely matches the needs of businesses in our growth sectors, so that all Londoners can contribute fully and benefit from the opportunities that our world-class economy generates. (A city for all Londoners)
5.1 Approval is requested for expenditure of up to £884,000 on the 2work project under the Volunteering as a Route to Work Programme and a further £81,000 on project support staff. The GLA is being asked to provide funding of £240,000 over three years for the project and also fund the staff costs of £81,000. In addition the GLA is being asked to underwrite £204,000 of sponsorship income. The remaining £440,000 will be sourced through European Social Fund match funding. The spending profile is expected to be as follows:-
5.2 The GLA’s contribution will be funded from the Team London Volunteering to Work budget in 2017/18 and indicative future years' budgets (which are subject to approval as part of the GLA Budget Setting Process).
5.3 While it is expected that Team London will raise £204,000 in external funding over the three years, this will need to be underwritten by the GLA. In the event that budgeted external funding cannot be raised, the shortfall will have the first call on the Team London programme budget.
6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the mayor fall within the statutory powers of the GLA to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or 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 set out above how they 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.
6.2 In taking the decisions requested of him, the mayor 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 mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.
6.3 In order to extend the necessary post mentioned in section 1 above, a Head of Paid Service Decision must be sought.
Signed decision document
MD2111 2work Team London (signed) PDF