MD2623 COVID-19: Voluntary and community sector emergency support fund

The voluntary and community sector and civil society play a vital role in supporting Londoners, particularly vulnerable and low-income Londoners. This is in multiple ways, working with all age groups and all sectors, including food poverty, housing, legal advice, youth services, domestic violence charities and many more. Funding can be precarious and organisations do not have substantial reserves.

We have now entered a period of unprecedented demand for the services of these organisations, combined with a loss of resources available to the sector. The Mayor wishes to join with other funders and partners across London to provide emergency support funding to the sector at this time. In order to do this the Mayor will commit up to £5m to the Emergency Support Fund, from GLA reserves. This funding will be released in tranches of £1m, according the levels of need and applications from the sector. The funding will be paid over to the Corporation of London to hold on behalf of City Bridge Trust . London Funders, the membership network for funders and investors of London’s civil society, will administer this funding on behalf of the combined group of funders.

The objectives of the fund are to provide support to the voluntary and community sector at this time of increased need and drastically reduced resources.

Evidence of need

Information gathered from surveys over the past two weeks, carried out by London Funders and from London Plus, shows the following headline results and emerging need:

• cashflow – organisations are seeing threats to their income from individuals (due to the cancellation of fundraising activities ), from charged-for services (such as venue hire and ticketed events being cancelled), and from contracts (payment by results services have been financed from other sources, but the “results” (such as on employability) may not be achieved in the expected timeframe

• maintaining services – organisations are already experiencing challenges in continuing to deliver core services (20% had already experienced staff or volunteer absence, for example through self-isolation ), and are anticipating increased costs due to covering sickness or other leave or providing additional expenses for volunteers (for example on childcare if schools and other facilities are closed)

• adapting services – organisations are anticipating or seeing increases in demand (from telephone helplines linked to mental health, through to those providing emergency food), and are needing to deliver their services in new and often more expensive ways (moving to one-to-one outreach rather than group activities, or needing to buy-in support or resources that were previously donated, particularly in the case of food projects ); and

• developing new services – organisations are needing to deliver new versions of services, or work in partnership in new ways (for example combining a befriending service that reaches isolated older people with a foodbank to ensure food can reach them during self-isolation), as well as deliver entirely new offers (for example to the children and youth sectors if schools close and/or policy changes impact on younger people ).

Alongside these headline areas of need, there are also concerning areas of feedback from specific sectors – such as the concerns of the domestic abuse sector about the impact on people who are self-isolating in dangerous settings. We also need to ensure any response addresses the needs of grassroots organisations and networks which may not be as strongly engaged with formal structures, including the emerging mutual aid groups at local level, so that resources flow appropriately and that communities are protected.
Responding to the need

From the initial assessment of need we believe there are three core areas of focus for funders which will act as the headlines for this fund:

• sector sustainability – core/unrestricted funding that enables organisations to survive through the difficult period in terms of ensuring a core income, or rapidly redeploy resources to meet needs as they emerge;

• delivering differently – funding to enable groups to adapt their activities to continue to deliver their core services in different ways, maintaining their reach and support to vulnerable communities, including covering staffing costs associated with this; and

• increasing and innovating – funding to groups that are able to expand their services with target communities, including in partnership with others, to address emerging needs; and providing space for groups to come up with more innovative solutions to delivering in response to community need in the coming months.

In summary, this would include:

• intelligence and insight – London Funders would continue to liaise with other sector bodies and community groups on behalf of funders to gather and share insight about how the situation is developing, to inform funding programmes and responses;

• fund design – funders joining the collaboration would be asked to provide staff support to design each element of the funding response (e.g. fund criteria, eligibility, guidance), ideally drawing on their areas of expertise and interest;

• application process – London Funders has refreshed the online portal that was used for Grenfell, which can act as a single entry-point to the funder collaboration by publishing guidance and providing a single application form for organisations to complete;

• funding decisions – funders joining the collaboration will be asked to provide staff support to review, assess and approve the applications that were received through the portal, bringing the benefit of their expertise and insight of organisations and sectors applying (as with the fund design, we will try to match funders to areas of interest);

• monitoring and evaluation – a common evaluation framework and reporting mechanism will be developed for grants given via the fund and reporting will be available which will show which groups have been funded and what funding outcomes and impacts there are; and

• ongoing development – London Funders would work with the funders in the partnership to capture learning as it emerges from the groups they are funding, and provide an overview role in terms of feedback, learning and emerging needs so that the process of funding can evolve over the period we are covering.

Throughout the process the group would seek to embed the learning from “The Possible Not The Perfect”, a report London Funders commissioned via the Institute for Voluntary Action Research in terms of building on the relationships and expertise they have with the communities and organisations they fund, whilst bringing the speed and efficiency of a collaborative response that ensures we also reduce pressure on the frontline organisations responding to the crisis.

Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must have ‘due regard’ of the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; and

• advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Community and voluntary sector and civil society organisations support vulnerable and low-income Londoners and Londoners with protected characteristics. All of these groups are particularly vulnerable to the economic and health impacts of COVID-19. They are more likely to be in employment that comes under the “gig” economy (for example short term contracts, freelance work) and so less likely to receive sick pay and other benefits. It will also be more difficult for them to access child care if schools shut down and many will rely on grandparents to provide support which will no longer be available due to risk. This will result in increased vulnerability to eviction from private rented housing. Equally older people already at risk of loneliness and/or social isolation will be even more isolated as self-isolation regimes are required due to their vulnerability.

This emergency support fund will aim to support the voluntary and community and civil society organisations providing vital services to these vulnerable Londoners and those living with protected characteristics. This fund is a very much needed resource in London at this time.

Key risks and issues

Mayoral strategies and priorities

The Mayor in his statement of 16^th March stated “ This is going to be an immensely challenging time for millions of Londoners – and we will all have to look out for our most vulnerable family members, friends and neighbours – but London has faced immense challenges before and always come through them by staying united- as we must do now.”

This emergency support fund will provide a much-needed source of support to voluntary and community and civil society organisations supporting hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Londoners.

Impact assessment and consultations

As stated earlier in the decision, this proposal is based on evidence that has been gathered by London Funders and London Plus over the last two weeks as Coronavirus has begun to impact heavily on Londoners. It also takes into account government and NHS guidance about the likely length of time (at least 12 weeks) in which there will be significant impact on the way that London and Londoners go about their everyday lives.

This decision requests approval for expenditure of up to £5m towards the Emergency Support Fund. The Emergency Support Fund is a collaboration fund between City Bridge Trust, London Funders and other funders across London to provide urgent financial support for the voluntary and community sector. An initial £1m can be incurred on the approval of the Executive Director of Communities and Skills. Expenditure between £1m and £5m needs the additional approval of the Chief of Staff and the Executive Director of Resources.

These funds will be transferred to the Corporation of London, to hold on behalf of the City Bridge Trust and is the GLA’s contribution towards the Emergency Support Fund. The GLA funding will be match funded from other donors. The total funding will be administered by London Funders.

This expenditure will be funded by the Team London and Community Sport Unit budget in the first instance and the Business Rates Reserve will be used as necessary thereafter. All necessary budget adjustments will be made.

The expenditure is anticipated to be incurred in 2020-21.

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 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.

The Mayor may delegate authority to GLA officers to exercise the powers of the GLA as proposed, pursuant to section 38 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999, should he so wish.

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 Mayoral decision form.

Should the Mayor be minded to make the decisions sought officers should ensure that:

• a legally binding agreement is entered into with the Corporation of the City of London governing the use of the GLA funding (and to the degree applicable the securing and consistent use of match funding) before any commitment is made to the provision of the same;

• to the extent the GLA is reliant upon any third-party funding, legally binding commitments are secured from such funders before any such reliance is placed upon the same; and

• as officers have indicated that the expenditure concerns the award of grant funding rather than the purchase of works/goods/services, the funding is administered in fair and transparent manner in accordance with the requirements of the GLA's Contracts and Funding Code.