MD2414 Team London Website Discovery & Development

Volunteering and social action are key themes in multiple Mayoral strategies. They are building blocks for social integration and contribute to the culture, skills, social integration, Good Work Standard and health inequalities strategies.

Improving social integration means supporting greater participation and enabling Londoners to play an active role in their communities. Being an active citizen includes a wide range of activities, including volunteering.

Team London hosts two volunteer recruitment websites. This project will integrate the functionality currently provided within the Team London https://volunteerteam.london.gov.uk/ and Speed Volunteering https://speedvolunteer.london.gov.uk/ microsites into the overall London.gov.uk site. This will create a consistent and harmonious digital presence as well as improving and streamlining the related user journeys. Most importantly it will mean the users coming to London.gov.uk for other purposes will be exposed to volunteering opportunities, potentially driving new volunteers, and conversely, volunteers will be exposed to the wider work of the Mayor and London Assembly.

To increase volunteering numbers, a more sophisticated volunteering recruitment website is required. The objective of this work is to create a best in sector volunteer recruitment tool which will increase volunteering and social action across London.

Volunteering and social action can provide many opportunities for Londoners to connect with others from diverse backgrounds. It can support belonging and community by bringing people together around a common cause. It can also help people gain new skills, knowledge and experience, including the ability to lead teams and create change. The Mayor wants all Londoners to access volunteering opportunities in their communities. This new Team London site will enable this.

The Team London microsite is being redeveloped in D8 code and brought into London.gov.uk in line with other Mayoral external microsites including Talk London and Healthy Early Years.

The services required were procured competitively in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and a contract was awarded to Zoocha in this regard (approval being provided under cover of MD2295 as per section 1.8 below).

The Mayor approved expenditure of £123,000 for a new Team London volunteer recruitment microsite based on an initial quote (under cover of MD2295). After the scoping stage of the new website development, it was determined that a further £65,000 is required to complete phase one of the development. The scope was refined to better align the service with the Local Government Digital Service Standard including additional discovery work, user research and accessibility assurance. Therefore, we now request approval for additional expenditure of £65,000 and the related variation of the GLA’s contract with Zoocha.

At the end of phase one we will better understand user needs and the requirements and associated spend for phase two. All costs will be covered within the existing 2019/20 Website and Awareness budget of £100,000. Approval for this 19/20 expenditure is being sought separately via MD2426, which covers the Team London and Community Sport 19/20 Work Plan.

Zoocha, until the end of phase 1 in July 2019, will:

• Scope, plan and deliver discovery research and create:

 High level personas for each user group;
 Epics and user stories;
 Success/acceptance criteria for each user story;
 Descriptions of features and concepts from the co-design workshops;

• User Journey maps describing the journey from the users’ perspective;

• Build Team London on a D8 platform and integrate it into the main GLA website which is also built in D8;

• Provide a full analysis of the functionality currently provided, as well as the functionality needed for the immediate future;

• Produce the integration plan and technical solutions for all functionality required;

• Complete the development work to incorporate user testing;

• Support GLA staff in the release of new code into the production environment;

• Standardise any new estate features using Composer; and

• Provide support to GLA team and knowledge transfer.

This new microsite is expected to increase applications for volunteer roles on new Team London by 10,000 per year.

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.

A key goal of Team London is to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. The new website will assist us in targeting Londoners from more diverse and deprived backgrounds who might experience significant barriers to participating in social action and volunteering otherwise. It will do this by adhering to Government Digital Service guidelines. All Team London Small Grant funders will be required to list their volunteering roles on the new website which will increase engagement by harder to reach audiences. In addition, we will be working with recruitment partners to improve the diversity of our Team London Ambassador programme who will apply via the site.

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.

The work for the website is already underway, with a development partner having been selected via a procurement process. This process and the redevelopment is being project managed by the TG team with input from Design, Digital and Marketing. The development is running to an agreed schedule following the procurement process. There is a risk that milestones may not be achieved. This is mitigated by the current (albeit less functional) Team London microsite remaining in use until the new site is ready.

The additional expenditure of £65,000 will be funded from the 2018-19 Website and Awareness Programme budget within the Team London and Sport Unit.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

- the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the statutory powers of the GLA to do such things as may be considered to further, and or be facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the furthering of, the promotion of social development in Greater London; and

- in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers 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.

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.

Should the Mayor be minded to make the decisions sought officers must ensure that the GLA’s contract with Zoocha is varied in accordance with the provisions of same before any commitment is made to the provision of the services to which the additional charges relate.