MD2392 Team London Cornerstone Fund contribution

London’s civil society is a key partner for City Hall in supporting communities, delivering services and making London the vibrant place that it is. In the Way Ahead report (the cross- sector report that looked at the future of infrastructure in London) looking at civil society and infrastructure in London was identified as a critical concept.

Civil society supports organisations contribute to a healthy community and voluntary sector by providing training, support and advocacy. Adequately resourced civil society support organisations play an important role in connecting the community and voluntary sector with the public and private sectors.

The Cornerstone Fund (The Fund) has been created to bring about systems change to build stronger, more resilient communities, by supporting collaboration and partnership approaches led by civil society in London. The fund will support initiatives to make better use of civil society assets and resources for the benefit of communities. It is supported by a group of aligned funders led by City Bridge Trust. The GLA contribution would demonstrate the Mayor’s commitment to and support for civil society in London. Civil society contributes to the resilience of London and to its social integration, both of which are key priorities for the Mayor

The Fund is supported by a group of aligned funders, led by the City Bridge Trust, including Trust for London, Big Lottery Fund and John Lyons Charity. For the first year of the Fund, the combined total contributed between all four funders is £3,085,000. The GLA’s proposed contribution is smaller than the contribution of other funders but would demonstrate the Mayor’s commitment to, and support of, civil society. Civil society organisations work on multiple outcomes that are connected with Mayoral priorities. These include equality and fairness and social integration. The Fund therefore has multiple points of relevance to Mayoral priorities. The Fund is the first time that funders across London have collaborated on supporting civil society infrastructure bodies.

The Fund is designed to give civil society organisations, by way of grant funding, the opportunity to work on collaborative and partnership approaches to encourage systems change.

There is a two-stage application process for organisations seeking grant funding from the Fund. After an initial expression of interest stage, selected applications are offered grants of up to £20k to enable them to develop a full proposal to help civil society, communities and the public sector make better use of civil society assets.

Once this development work has taken place then a full application is submitted by the organisation and then a decision made on whether further funding will be awarded. The amount(s) to be awarded will be determined once the development work is completed.

The Fund is seeking proposals from voluntary organisations delivering civil society support in the following areas:

• Partnership approaches that embed co-production and an asset-based approach to understanding and tackling a local or regional issue;
• Partnership approaches that put shared understanding and use of data from multiple sources at the heart of how they work, and/or which make more effective use of data as an evidence base;
• Partnership approaches that enable stronger voice and engagement in decision making by communities who are furthest from power, including the voice and engagement of those with lived experience;
• Partnership approaches across sectors, especially those that bring together civil society, business and/or the public sector, including health to respond to a need or opportunity that will benefit communities;
• Partnership approaches that strengthen relationships between specialist and generalist civil society infrastructure support;
• Partnership approaches that seek to make better use of civil society assets and resources, including digital resources, within regions of London, as opposed to individual borough level;
• Partnership approaches seeking to harness the silks and experience of ‘Generous Leaders’ for the benefit of London’s communities;
• Partnership approaches that seek to strengthen connections between regional, sub-regional and local civil society infrastructure support; and
• Partnership approaches that will help to embed local giving schemes and civil society infrastructure support at the heart of local communities.

Team London will enter into a Funding Agreement with City Bridge Trust to the value of £175,000. This grant can only be used for the purposes of the Cornerstone Fund and the GLA will be included in decision making about applications to the Fund (see below).

Objectives

The objective is that the Greater London Authority is able to participate in decision making and governance around the Cornerstone Fund.

The Greater London Authority will contribute £175,000 grant funding to the Fund in the form of a grant to City Bridge Trust. The group of aligned funders meet after each application round to discuss proposals. As a contributing funder the GLA would have a voting seat at these deliberation panels.

The City Bridge Trust have appointed Collaborate as a learning partner to the Fund. The GLA will work with Collaborate to share learning and to help build our understanding of the challenges, opportunities and impact of these systems change initiatives. The GLA will be invited to sit on the steering group for Collaborate.

Expected Outcomes

A strengthened London civil society that is better equipped to work in partnership in order to better support communities, and a stronger voice for communities furthest from power in decision making.

The Fund seeks to achieve the following outcomes:

• Community and voluntary groups are effectively supported to deliver their mission and goals;
• Improved use of civil society assets and resources;
• Those who experience a problem can play a key role in designing and delivering solutions;
• Improved access to and use of data and intelligence by all stakeholders informs service design and policy making;
• Londoners are able to campaign effectively;
• Londoners have increased voice and influence; and
• Improved collaboration between organisations and across sectors that deliver real change to systems.

Team London and the Communities and Social Policy team have a strategic objective to work with partners across London to strengthen civil society organisations operating in London. This links into our objective to support a strong and thriving civil society. The work to date has included; collaboration on the task and finish groups following The Way Ahead report, working with City Bridge Trust to design the Cornerstone Fund and shared discussions about support for infrastructure organisations. The Fund is the first time that funders across London have collaborated on supporting civil society infrastructure bodies.

From a strategic viewpoint it makes sense that the GLA should join the Fund and make a contribution. This will show commitment from the Mayor and also ensure that we continue to be involved in the development of future strategy and approaches to civil society infrastructure and systems work in London.

Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as public authorities, the Mayor and GLA are subject to a public-sector equality duty and must have ‘due regard’ to the need to (i) eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; (ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and (iii) foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being “relevant” protected characteristics).

City Bridge Trust carried out consultation work as part of its development of the Fund and this included hearing many views and gaining much input from civil society stakeholders and partners into the way the fund should work and the type of activities it should support. The Steering group which developed the criteria for the Cornerstone fund included representatives from pan-London equalities organisations which ensured that consideration of equalities and the need to ensure equal participation from all was taken into account when establishing the criteria for the fund. The Cornerstone development group (which included cross-sector partners and the GLA) carried out multiple consultations as part of all the stages of its work. These included open meetings, social media promotion and cross stakeholder work at all levels.

In the assessment criteria and design of the Fund (which the GLA helped define) all applications to the Fund are required to demonstrate how their collaboration will advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. Applicants are expected to:

• Involve London's diverse communities including excluded / discriminated against communities and their organisations;
• Ensure their projects or the funded activities are accessible and inclusive; and
• Reflect the priorities of excluded/discriminated against communities and champions the value these communities bring to London.

The GLA aims to support the development of a robust infrastructure for civil society in London. The Fund awards funding specifically to civil society support organisations as there is a lack of funding available to these organisations and a lack of resource available to enable them to work on new ideas and new ways of working. These organisations serve a vital role in working with and supporting multiple groups with protected characteristics. They link groups serving deprived areas of London in particular (which also include more Londoners with protected characteristics) to work more effectively.

Risks

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

Civil society in London is an asset, with thousands of groups from small unfunded activists to large organisations all helping London be vibrant and successful. The GLA as a regional body has a strategic role to ensure that civil society can be supported and can flourish. A key element of this is the operation of civil society infrastructure bodies who work across the many organisations in London to support them. Many infrastructure bodies offer opportunities for new and innovative approaches to be taken and for cross-sector partnership working to be improved. In particular, Mayoral priorities around social integration, social mobility and community engagement are all supported by a healthy civil society.

Impact Assessments and consultations

The Cornerstone development group (which included cross sector partners and the GLA) carried out multiple consultations as part of all the stages of its work. These included open meetings, social media promotion and cross stakeholder work at all levels. The steering group for the hub development is also cross sector and involves a wide range of participants. This includes representatives from equality organisations.

The proposed grant funding of up to £175,000 to ‘City Bridge Trust’ as a contribution to the Cornerstone Fund, will be funded from the 2018-19 Reward and Recognition Programme budget held with the Team London and Sport Unit.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

(a) the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling 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 economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment 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 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 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 Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Paragraph 1.7 above indicates that the contribution of £175,000 to City Bridge Trust amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in manner which affords value for money in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code.

Officers must also ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and City Bridge Trust before any commitment to fund is made.