MD2660 Education and Youth Programme 2020-21 update

The GLA Education and Youth programme supports children and young people from the early years to age 24 years old. From early years to employment, it is often the poorest children who miss out. The team is working across the capital to help ensure that all children and young people can access London’s opportunities.

Over the medium to long-term, the programme will contribute to the following outcomes for London and Londoners to:

• improve access to and the quality of early education so that children have better outcomes and childcare is not a barrier to work;
• tackle persistent education challenges to help all children and young people succeed;
• use the capital’s businesses, and cultural and scientific institutions, to inspire all children and support them with their next steps;
• help children and young people, particularly those at risk of getting caught up in crime, to make positive choices; and
• increase the involvement of young people in the decisions that shape the capital, making their decisions count, inspire others, and improve how we all live in the city.

The GLA’s Education and Youth programme is supporting children and young people through a number of programmes which have already been approved. This MD sets out proposals for the following additional activities to be approved:

Continuation of the Getting Ahead London school leadership development programme for the 2020/21 school year

Getting Ahead London helps create the capital’s next generation of senior leaders and headteachers. It has been designed to build the talent pool of great headteachers to lead London schools, and is proving a successful approach. The need for a Getting Ahead London programme was identified by the London Teaching Schools Council and other educational and borough stakeholders. The Getting Ahead London Network has been growing since 2016 with participants and coaches coming from across the capital. Participation in Getting Ahead London provides much needed opportunities for school leaders to connect, share expertise and learn from each other in the unprecedented circumstances following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Effective quality school leadership has never been more important. The programme has been adapted to support schools middle and senior management to overcome the challenges teachers and students are facing following school closure to most pupils due to Covid-19 and their re-opening, and it continues to make progress in supporting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) teachers into leadership positions. It supports our priorities to raise attainment, especially amongst children most affected by Covid-19, through creating role models and helping teachers who will benefit from a network of very experienced coaches.

Engaging BAME leaders has been a particular focus of the programme. Over 40 per cent of participants on Getting Ahead London have been from a non-White British background. Funding for 2020/21 provides an opportunity to focus even more on increasing BAME participation, and with complementary plans (including our work to review and refresh units of the Mayor’s London Curriculum to provide teachers with the tools and confidence to explore topics like racism, colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade) supports the development of a diverse and confident school leadership community for London.

Since launching in 2016, Getting Ahead London has supported 250 leaders, across every London borough. 50 per cent of the participants from the first 3 years of Getting Ahead London have had a promotion, with 30 per cent being appointed as a headteacher.

This decision will grant further funding to Challenge Partners to deliver the 2020/21 programme. Challenge Partners is an educational charity delivering a range of programmes focused on school improvement. They aim to reduce educational inequality and improve the life chances of all children. Challenge Partners was formed to spread the success of the London Challenge, which transformed the performance of schools and led to the development of Teaching Schools.

Continuing grant arrangements with Challenge Partners will allow for retention of the existing (and ready recruitment of any additional) high-level coaches. It builds on the year-on-year refinement of scheme elements through programme evaluation and utilises the Intellectual Property of the existing materials Challenge Partners developed with Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) in the pilot year. All milestones under the current grant agreement have been met and the programme has been successfully delivered by Challenge Partners each academic year since 2017. Please see paragraphs 2.1 to 2.10 for further information.

In order to receive the funding, Challenge Partners will submit a milestone timetable with clear delivery points (including process, numbers, outcomes and evaluation approach) at which funding can be released. Grant payments will only be made if there is clear evidence of the milestones being achieved.

Grant funding will be used by Challenge Partners to continue to provide operational delivery of the programme, ensuring that high quality coaches are recruited and trained; that termly plenary events are organised (where necessary online during the start of the Covid-19 recovery period) with high profile inspiring speakers; and that the core coaching programme is delivered successfully.

The current grant agreement does not currently cover delivery of Getting Ahead London in the 2020/21 school year. Executive Director approval will be obtained to vary the current agreement or enter into a new agreement in line with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.

Continuation of the Peer Outreach Workers Team programme for 2020 to 2021

The Mayor’s Peer Outreach Workers (POW) are a team of 30 young people aged 15 to 25. The POW team was set up in 2006 to represent the diverse life experiences of young Londoners. They provide valuable input from a young person’s perspective into decision making at City Hall, across the GLA Group and with other London agencies. The work of the POW team has helped shape City Hall policies, strategies and services in areas from culture and health, to regeneration, environment and transport. Their role is central to delivering the Mayor’s commitment to ensuring young Londoners’ voices and experiences are heard and shape policy at City Hall, especially the most vulnerable young people. Two thirds of the team are referred from targeted programmes such as Youth Offending Teams, Pupil Referral Units, leaving care and children in care, teenage parents, young carers, mental health projects, and the other third are not in education, employment or training (NEET). The POWs also encourage young people across London to play an active part in civic society.

Retrospective approval is required from April 2020. Mayoral approval was delayed from March 2020 as all pending Mayoral Decisions were reappraised following the escalation of the coronavirus pandemic. Senior approval was given to continue funding the POW Team from April 2020 in the absence of a mayoral decision. Since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been significant demand from City Hall colleagues and external organisations for youth engagement through the POW Team. Demand is forecast to continue to be high as young people take part in co-producing activity to help the capital recover from the impact of Covid-19.

The majority of expenditure is for POW time. Sessional POWs complete timesheets to record the hours that they work and then are paid hourly at the London Living Wage. To the extent that services are to be commissioned the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code will be followed. Please see paragraphs 2.11 to 2.19 for further information.

As part of its sustainability strategy the Peer Outreach programme has a process by which it charges external organisations or City Hall teams if POWs are undertaking a substantial project for either the external organisation or City Hall, for example the POWs management of young people scoring Young Londoners Fund applications. This decision includes approval for the receipt and expenditure of an estimated £10,000 of income received from other City Hall teams or external organisations to fund the time that POWs have spent on their projects. This is paid to POWs at an hourly rate and supports team management and administration costs.

The table below sets out past approvals for activity related to proposals in this MD. These approvals are historical and do not overlap with approvals in this decision document. The table shows related prior activity and section 2 will set out the new activity to be agreed.

Getting Ahead London 2020/21 academic year

The Getting Ahead London programme was initially piloted in 2016/17 by PwC working with Challenge Partners to help talented senior leaders to become future headteachers or principals of some of the most rewarding and challenging schools. Following a competitive invitation to bid process authorised by DD2106, Challenge Partners applied and were awarded funding to deliver Getting Ahead London in 2017/18. DD2234 and MD2442 approved grant funding for Challenge Partners to deliver in the 2018 and 2019 school years.

The programme is unique in its focus on continuing professional development through coaching, mentoring and work shadowing, placing participants in mixed primary and secondary trios (groups of three) and using the expertise within the profession of current top school leaders to inspire new leadership across schools.

There is a need to support education leaders who are at the frontline of the Covid-19 recovery and this programme provides a well-developed way to help schools further develop their agility and the skills they will need to reduce the attainment gap between their pupils. Schools are facing unprecedented challenges in the 2020-21 academic year, with attendant risks of losing current and potential school leaders due to the increased pressure on teachers following school closures, which would have long-term impacts. Prospective leaders as part of this programme will have access to a well-established network of schools, who have experience of evidence informed practice, and will support prospective leaders to think strategically about challenges such as the reopening of schools to more pupils and the targeting of resources to tackle the disadvantaged gap.

To help schools and teachers deal with the impact of school closures to most pupils during 2020 the programme will be adapted in the following ways:

• addressing key issues as part of the vision of school leadership: literacy (especially vocabulary and oral language), self-regulation / motivation, relationships, Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) and self-esteem and the enormous strains some disadvantaged families will be experiencing;
• pupil mental health: signposting to effective practice in mental health provision will form part of regular communication with coaches and participants;
• recruitment/retention: a new session for all participants will be added to focus on the challenges of recruiting new staff during this uncertain time. Many schools have implemented staff freezes which is impacting on progression within and movement of teachers between schools. Teacher mental health: participants will be part of a supportive group which will help their well- being and mental health, supplemented by theoretical models[1] of moving from the ‘CRASH’ to ‘COACH’ state as we recover from Covid-19;
• changes to assessment: schools and teachers are concerned about the impact of the cancellation of exams on students in Years 6, 11 and 13. Advice and support will be given to the participants on how they can help pupils who have concerns over the grades that they have been allocated or work they have missed. Students in year 10 and 12 in the 2019-20 academic year will need particular support as they have missed crucial teaching time before their GCSEs or A levels. There will also be discussion on teacher bias and the evidence that unconscious bias in teacher assessment could lead to the disproportionate under-prediction of disadvantaged students, particularly BAME students;
• Stepping into Leadership programme: Challenge Partners and London South Teaching School Alliance will bring together the two cohorts of participants to discuss and share common challenges for London teachers. Topics could include the importance of BAME role models and the disproportionate numbers of BAME students excluded from school;
• participant curriculum: there will be a new programme element on curriculum design. Under the government’s new headteacher standards there is a greater emphasis on headteachers being ‘leaders of learning’ and Getting Ahead London will therefore include a session on this for its senior leader cohort;
• alumni: A more substantive alumni package will be put in place for leaders that participated in the programme during 2019/20. This is in recognition of some sessions they lost due to Covid-19. The package will include catch up coaching to cover topics/gaps in knowledge where coaching could not take place in the normal way during school closure.

Coaching is scheduled to start in September 2020. Delivery methods can be adapted due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 for example, to use video conferencing and webinars where required.

We are proposing that Challenge Partners are grant funded to deliver the 2020/21 programme. 48 senior leaders and 48 middle leaders will be supported towards headship and senior leadership respectively in London schools. Challenge Partners will define the eligibility criteria in consultation with expert advisers from the education sector and the GLA; advertise and recruit participants and coaches; provide a stipend to the coaches; collect a contribution from the participants’ schools; plan and deliver termly plenary events with inspiring speakers; coordinate and quality assure the trios; coaching, mentoring and work shadowing; and undertake programme level evaluation. The new teacher cohorts will be recruited to the programme during July and August 2020 in order to take part from the new academic year in September 2020.

The 2020-21 GLA grant contribution to Getting Ahead London has reduced by over 25 per cent (£40,000) compared to previous years. Funding for the 2020-21 academic year gives the GLA and Challenge Partners time to explore alternative funding models and partners for future years. A future funding model could be funded by a combination of sponsorship and participant fees, with the GLA contributing a smaller proportion of funds. Challenge Partners have commissioned a fundraising consultant to seek further funding for programmes in 2021 and beyond.

Comprehensive research to inform the pilot year provided evidence of the growing shortage of headteachers and a wide recognition that more needs to be done to secure the leadership pool for outstanding, future school leaders. The report concluded that the leadership pool in London schools must be pro-actively nurtured to ensure that support and development opportunities are systematically available across the school system to talented teachers, middle and senior leaders. The quality of school leadership is an essential factor in driving good outcomes for pupils.

As well as the adaptations being taken to support schools following the Covid-19 pandemic closures to most pupils, the programme in 2020/21 will have five core objectives:

• identify potential – profile and encourage those talented people in the London education system who have the potential for school leadership roles. Our prior research showed that potential senior leaders and headteachers are not being supported to navigate the available training effectively and are ‘hesitant’ or lack confidence despite aspiration and talent;
• increase the diversity of leaders - the BAME diversity focus will be stepped up in how leadership is modelled to participants as well as how diverse the participant make up is. The programme will build on work undertaken in 2019-20 to increase the diversity of participants, coaches, and speakers at training events which resulted in 5 out of 10 speakers coming from BAME backgrounds. The programme will also create a bank of blogs and resources to support greater diversity, including approaches to the curriculum;
• encourage existing leaders – better equip and inspire senior leaders to become headteachers in London, and middle leaders to remain in London schools by supporting their career development to senior leadership. The scheme involves everything from coaching and formal training, to supporting teachers with job applications and networking events with the business sector;
• address gaps and bring innovation – there is a gap in system leadership training in relation to personalised mentoring and coaching which Getting Ahead London seeks to fill. The trios and cross-school phase (mixing primary and secondary teachers) approach is innovative and proving successful; and

• change the culture – support a wider culture change of talent management in London and England’s education system, drawing on the leadership experiences and inspiration from other sectors including health, culture and the private sector.

Outputs and outcomes

Decision:

Expenditure of up to £110,000 (£52,000 in 2020/21 and £58,000 in 2021/22) to grant fund Challenge Partners to continue to deliver the Getting Ahead London programme in the 2020/21 academic year.

Peer Outreach Workers Team programme

The GLA’s POW Team aims to ensure policy and programme activity is better aligned with the concerns and perspectives of children and young people whilst providing personal skills development opportunities for the young people involved.

At any one time, the POW Team of 30 young people aged 15 to 25 run or support up to fifteen projects. This activity delivers a range of youth led projects and provide models of good practice in delivery and outcomes. It may include piloting new approaches, leading focus groups, working with teams and organisations to improve their engagement with young people and evaluating bids for funding or programmes.

The POW Team manage and facilitate monthly meetings of the Lynk Up Crew, around 20 Mayoral young advisors aged 7 to 14. They act as an advisory group to the Mayor and teams across City Hall. They will work with external organisations to provide valuable insight into the issues affecting this age group. The group provides a safe space for them to make friends and to influence policies and strategies. Many have learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

The POW Team also runs the Young Londoners Participation Network (YLPN) of 400 organisations, which each financial quarter brings together 60 front-line practitioners working with children and young people from all over the capital.

The POW Team is engaging with approximately 3,000 young people each year through its outreach work. It works with many GLA teams, the wider GLA group (for example Transport for London and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) and partner agencies such as NHS London and Thrive LDN.

Core activities in the POW Team role are:

• engaging with City Hall teams to create bespoke young people’s engagement activities for the Mayor’s strategies and programmes;

• supporting, advising and guiding external organisations in their successful engagement with children and young people;

• offering advice and guidance to organisations establishing youth led programmes and youth boards;

• giving advice and guidance/workshops on child protection and safe from harm; and

• managing and delivering workshops, sessions and events for young Londoners and their respective organisations.

Supervision, training and management of the POW Team ensures that delivery provides quality outcomes. POWs are provided with specialist one-to-one support on well-being, information and guidance as well as regular development days.

Objectives are to:

• ensure young Londoners voices and experiences are heard and that they can shape City Hall policy;
• facilitate systematic and sustained young people engagement within City Hall and with key partners organisations; and

• provide personal skills development opportunity for young people in the POW team.

Outputs and outcomes

Decision

Expenditure of up to £70,000, which consists of £10,000 of external income receipts from organisations benefitting from Peer Outreach activity plus up to £60,000 of GLA funds towards the Peer Outreach activity in 2020/21 to support the GLA’s youth engagement work.

Under section 149 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.

London’s over two million children and young people aged 0-19 face an unequal start in life and this sector of the population is increasing. Overall London schools and pupils outperform other regions, but London still needs to do more to close the gap and raise attainment for the most disadvantaged pupils.

The Getting Ahead London and POW Team programmes will address the GLA’s Public Sector Equality Duty (as set out in paragraph 3.1) in relation to protected characteristics of age, ethnicity, disability, gender and religion by:

• continuing in the 2020/21 year of Getting Ahead London to ensure participants reflect the wider population and address under representation of women and BAME groups as senior leaders and headteachers in London (women comprised 69% and 77% of the cohorts in the last two years of the programme);
• aligning Getting Ahead London with the Mayor’s Teach London campaign work that includes the BAME teacher recruitment and retention project to be delivered by a grant with the north and south London teaching school alliances in 2020-21; and
• recruiting young Londoners from a wide range of backgrounds to the POW Team. The team was set up in 2006 to represent the diverse life experiences of young Londoners. Two-thirds of the team are referred from targeted programmes such as Youth Offending Teams, Pupil Referral Units, leaving care and children in care, teenage parents, young carers, mental health projects, and the other third are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

More widely across education and youth programmes, we are continuing to work with a wide range of external partners to encourage more women, girls and BAME people into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers, particularly through encouraging all education settings in London to sign up to Gender Action Schools Award.

Key risks

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

The programme supports several Mayoral strategies:

• the Economic Development Strategy, which cites a need to “break down gender stereotypes and address other inequalities; and lobby for sufficient funding to continue to improve outcomes for all pupils…”[1];
• the Mayor’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy includes objectives to: help understand which groups of children and young people are most likely to experience physical and mental health issues and help them to access treatment and support; work with schools, boroughs and London Councils to support higher levels of educational progress for the lowest attaining groups, and to reduce disparities in exclusions; and to work with London Councils, boroughs and childcare providers to support improved access to high quality, flexible early education and childcare for all; and
• aim one of the Health Inequalities Strategy is “Healthy Children – helping every London child to have a healthy start in life by supporting parents and carers, early years settings and schools.”

The Peer Outreach team impacts on a wide range of mayoral strategies through the support it provides officers across City Hall; for example to support activity within the Health Inequality Strategy on social prescribing and dementia champions or engagement with diverse young people to inform the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

Impact assessments and consultations

Getting Ahead London programme level evaluation each year has shown high completion rates and very strong participant reporting of increased confidence and skills to support career development. The programmes is well established and highly regarded in the sector:

• one participant said “I thought I wanted to be a head, but this programme has affirmed my enthusiasm and desire to become a headteacher. It has made me believe I can be who I really am and still be a headteacher”; and
• another commented that “the programme enabled me to gain the confidence to start applying for headships, something I would not have considered prior to joining this programme. It also gave me the opportunity to network with other senior leaders in London schools, to share experiences and to have in depth conversations about the impact of leadership on schools, in particular the impact on the lives of young people in London”.

Peter Matthews’ (visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education) updated paper published in Professional Development Today stated that “Getting Ahead London is now a well-established leadership development programme. It has a demonstrable effect in preparing leaders for headship and giving them the confidence and knowledge to take that major step". Programme success was attributed to "the response to needs expressed by leaders; the power of coaching three coachees together; the use of coaches who are themselves successful practising school coaching skills, the readiness of the coaches to be shadowed and generosity in sharing their time with aspiring school leaders; a clear moral purpose in growing leaders and furtherance of a London leader culture and identity."

In each of the first two years of the Getting Ahead London programme at least one quarter of participants were promoted to headship. A further 10% in each year received some other promotion. So far, 15% of the cohort who finished the programme in July 2019 have been promoted to headship and a further 19% have had a promotion. These are minimum figures based on data from those participants who remain in contact with Challenge Partners.

Getting Ahead London’s strong record on diversity led to Ofsted approaching the GLA to support their London pilot programme of a school BAME middle leader development programme, shadowing inspectors and supporting them into senior leadership. Its promotion to current and alumni Getting Ahead London participants helped them achieve 200 applications for 9 places. Oftsed is now promoting the GLA’s Stepping into Leadership programme for BAME middle leaders.

Recent work led by the GLA’s External Relations team to better understand how the GLA engages with Londoners, has highlighted the key role of the POW Team and the positive feedback from teams that have been supported by the POWs. Strong outcomes of POW work are evidenced in consistently highly positive feedback from many project leads. This is based on the engagement and enjoyment of involved young people, as well as the impact they have had on the development of policy or delivery.

Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £180,000 on the Education and Youth Programme covering two financial years. The profile for this expenditure is £122,000 in 2020-21 and £58,000 in 2021-22.

Of the total expenditure, £170,000 will be funded from the Education and Youth Unit programme budget and £10,000 from Income Receipts. Further breakdown is in the below table.

Sections 1 to 4 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, conductive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment, all in Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s 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 improve 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, as noted in section 3 above, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, 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 to foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Any services required must be procured by Transport for London Commercial who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in line with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the services.

Officers must ensure any grant funding being provided to third parties as set out in Section 2 and 3 are distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in a manner which affords value for money and in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and the recipient before any commitment to fund is made.

The approval for Peer Outreach activity is sought retrospectively, the reasons for which are set out at paragraph 1.14 of this report. Accordingly, the Mayor should take account of those reasons in considering whether to approve the recommendations of this report.