MD2710 Delivering the Community Action Fund 2020-2022

1.1. Social, civic and cultural spaces, resources and networks of support bind us together. They are vital to London’s successful recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing us to collaborate and look after one another. This infrastructure is suffering from a recovery focused on immediate economic necessity, with a public wary of and/or limited in social contact. As such, COVID-19 has presented a significant challenge to social integration, active citizenship and cultural exchange all of which are at the heart of strong communities, thriving high streets and healthy public life.

1.2. The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have not been felt equally across London’s geography and our diverse communities. Lower income and ethnically diverse communities have been hardest hit. These are the communities that rely most on social and cultural infrastructure for support in times of crisis. These are also the communities that stand to benefit most from investment that supports grass-roots responses and related capacity-building.

1.3. We have already seen an incredible local response to the crisis from across London. From new networks of mutual aid to examples of business and community supporting one another, innovative solutions to the crisis can be found within local communities, when they are given the opportunity to contribute. The Mayor’s strategies for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Social Integration are clear about the way that participation can increase opportunities to build more meaningful relationships within communities and tackle inequalities. Giving communities agency to participate in the recovery response through community-led activity can help ensure funding and its impact reaches those most affected.

1.4. A new public awareness of the merits of a ‘city of short distances’ and hyper-local prosperity can be an important building block for longer-term social, cultural and economic sustainability. There is an opportunity to strengthen the resilience of our high streets and town centres to future shocks through a fund that can support a wide range of local stakeholders, from volunteers to social entrepreneurs in identifying relevant responses and innovations that can lead a responsive recovery in their own communities.

1.5. Responding to opportunities to innovate will require flexible, timely and collaborative funding approaches that bring people together, build capacity and draw in wider resources to get things done quickly.

1.6. A Community Action Fund, building on experience and insights from the Crowdfund London and Culture Seeds programmes, can meet this challenge and respond effectively to the crisis to support communities to transition, recover and “build back better.” It will utilise crowdfunding to support communities to connect and better leverage a blend of public, private and philanthropic funding. Communities will be empowered to deliver projects to improve neighbourhood spaces, promote social integration, develop skills or capacity, promote grass-roots arts and culture and support high street economies to thrive.

1.7. Small (£500-£5,000) and medium (£5,000-£50,000) grants will be available to individuals and both informal and formal community groups including; mutual aid groups, tenants and resident associations, social enterprises, arts and cultural organisations and charities for projects that strengthen social and cultural networks, improve high streets and public spaces, and promote the growth of London’s social economy.

1.8. The fund will utilise the pre-procured and proven technology platform for Crowdfund London, which invites citizens to propose ideas that benefit their community by creating a project campaign page on the online platform (Spacehive) seeking local backers, crowdfunding and Mayoral Support. The GLA offers funding and support as match towards the best ideas. This approach delivers efficiencies by using existing contract at no additional management cost, with two tier process designed and ready to go.

1.9. The opportunity will be promoted with an accompanying support offer to help grassroots organisations to form and apply, shape their ideas into deliverable proposals and structure an effective Crowdfunding campaign. This support will aim to maximise participation from groups with limited experience or those typically at a disadvantage in traditional grant programmes for community projects.

1.10. The model promotes active citizenship and community-led delivery of recovery solutions enabling us to harness new ideas and engage communities at a hyper local level. Crowdfunding gives groups a mechanism to engage, collaborate and secure support, resources or skills from across the community, broadening a sense of ownership over projects and range of beneficiaries. It will maximise the impact of GLA grants whilst helping to reduce risks in delivery which becomes a shared endeavour. This can aid the long-term sustainability of projects.

1.11. A ‘twin tier’ approach to the application process allows for light-touch grant-making at the smaller tier, alongside more in-depth processes at the medium tier, introducing flexibility within the same platform architecture.

Grant funding projects and their campaigns

2.1. The Community Action Fund is a £500,000 fund to support local community-led recovery responses and local innovation, with particular attention to the London Recovery Board’s ‘High Streets for All’ and ‘Building Strong Communities’ Missions.

2.2. A budget of £500,000, entirely revenue, will support projects through pledges to their project campaigns, hosted on technology platform Spacehive. Pledges will be announced with close consideration of communication constraints arising from the pre-election period.

2.3. Funding will seek to support innovative and inclusive community-led projects across the city in line with the London Recovery Board’s ‘Building Strong Communities’ and ‘High Streets for All’ objectives as well as the Mayor’s Good Growth objectives. All projects considered should deliver primarily on one of the three goals linked to the ‘High Streets for All’ recovery mission, including:

• equitable access to social infrastructure - supporting grass-roots social and cultural organisations, individuals and projects promoting social integration, active citizenship, including volunteering, cultural spaces and exchange, and improved health and wellbeing;

• growing a social economy - testing meanwhile uses for vacant and underused spaces on high streets; establishing new open access resources or facilities such as community kitchens, cafes, workshops; cultural and creative enterprise; addressing new neighbourhood workspace needs; employing innovative models of local asset ownership or governance; and

• a public welcome - making streets safer and more sociable by testing tactical urbanism, and locally led strategies to accommodate social distancing and healthy streets, such as creating neighbourhood pocket parks, new walking routes, installing outdoor seating or spill-out space; small-scale cultural projects; initiating small-scale greening and growing projects; outdoor performances or workshops; adapting public squares to accommodate a wider variety of local or meanwhile activities

2.4. Aligned with the ‘Building Strong Communities’ mission they will demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:

• respond to a local challenge or opportunity in a creative way;

• represent local interests and priorities;

• involve local people in planning and designing the project;

• give local people lasting skills and opportunities;

• celebrate and strengthen the special character of their area;

• bring an economic, cultural or social benefit to the community;

• demonstrate strong local support and backing; and

• make everyone in the community feel welcome and involved.

2.5. The criteria for support will include requiring evidence of local backing, and applications from informal groups will require a letter of reference from an established and legally constituted local organisation. Tier 2 funding criteria will require groups to be sufficiently constituted and representative, with a shared bank account.

2.6. Projects will be evaluated with the following weighting:

• project description (40%);

• project plan/deliverability (20%);

• impact and legacy (20%); and

• strength of local support & collaboration (20%).

2.7. The crowdfunding platform partner(s) will provide an evaluation of each project’s crowdfunding campaign to support our own assessment of project description, plan and impact.

2.8. Alongside scored criteria, project shortlisting and moderation will seek to ensure a balance of geographic spread, type of applicant and recovery needs are met, including how proposals align with areas disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and will include consideration of how projects meet the aims and objectives of both the High Streets for All and Building Strong Communities missions, as per the criteria above.

2.9. It is anticipated that between 40 and 50 projects could be funded in total, with project completion for all by the end of 2022. If spend earmarked for marketing and outreach activities is not achieved, the remainder will be rolled into the overall pot available to support project grants. Project funds granted (in total) will not exceed £500,000.

2.10. It is expected that to access the medium scale pledge associated with Tier 2, projects would require a larger capital investment, propose a high-quality response with transformative potential and demonstrate more than one of the core criteria for support. They should also demonstrate strong local backing and show a clear link to the aims and objectives of both the High Streets for All and the Building Strong Communities missions, as per the criteria above.

Governance and decision-making

2.11. Appraisal processes for Tier 1 and Tier 2 will be managed between Culture and Creative Industries (CCI Unit) and Regeneration units. At Tier 1, the CCI Unit will coordinate an internal moderation and decision panel, including relevant teams from across the organisation, shortlist applications and recommend pledge amounts. The Regeneration Team will lead the projects appraisal process at Tier 2, followed by an internal moderation process confirming recommended pledge amounts. Appraisal at both tiers will be undertaken with the involvement and input from relevant teams across the GLA, including the Communities and Social Policy Unit and Team London, and those leading the Building Strong Communities mission.

2.12. Decisions on individual pledge awards will be taken in line with the general delegation and signatory permission provisions in ‘Mayoral Decision-Making in the GLA’ by the Head of Regeneration, in consultation with the Assistant Director of Culture and Creative Industries and the Assistant Director of Team London (Volunteering) and Sport. This decision panel will approve all recommended Mayoral Pledges and a formal paper will be taken to the Deputy Mayor of Planning, Regeneration and Skills, the Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement, and Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, for their views. The recommendations will assume that the highest scoring applications receive a Mayoral Pledge; however, alongside these scored criteria, applications will be reviewed to ensure a fair balance of geographical spread and that recovery needs are met.

2.13. The value of the pledge will be determined by a consistent methodology to ensure catalytic impact to the campaign, value for money and the economic capacity of the supportive community; whilst reflecting a proportionate response to the complexity of the project and the strength of fit with our objectives. A formal public announcement detailing Mayoral Pledges awarded to specific projects will be made at the time that these pledges are registered on the Crowdfunding partner(s) platform, making it clear that any award of grant funding will remain subject to the project in question achieving its full funding target (Tier 2) and entry into and execution by the recipient of a grant funding agreement clarifying the GLA’s standard funding conditions and the specific terms of our pledge.

Funding arrangements

2.14. Mayoral Pledges will be made at the start of project campaigns, provided they have gathered a recommended minimum of 30-50 backers at Tier 2, and a recommended level of 10-20 backers at Tier 1. Backers can include those making financial pledges or otherwise supporting the project through ‘likes’ or in-kind offers of support. This early support role provides momentum and confidence of groups to fundraise their match commitment (required at Tier 2). Our initial commitment will be subject to each recipient reaching their own crowdfunding target and entering into a funding agreement with the GLA to secure their pledge.

2.15. The Mayor will pledge up to 100% of project costs at Tier 1, to a maximum pledge of £5,000 (though project costs can be higher) and make a maximum pledge of £50,000 at Tier 2. The Mayoral pledge will not exceed 75% of project value at Tier 2 and will typically represent less than 50%.

2.16. With small-scale, community-led projects of this nature, the GLA’s normal payment in arrears model can cause significant risk to project delivery and cash flow. This potentially excludes communities that cannot finance their project up front using crowd match alone. It also hinders our ability to act swiftly and respond to dynamic situations typical of crisis such as the COVID-19 response.

2.17. The precedent of forward funding community-led projects to a value of £10,000 was established by the Crowdfund London programme in DD 2225. This was proposed to give flexibility to the GLA’s typical payment in arrears model, which can cause significant risk to project delivery when organisations do not have existing funds required to begin delivery whilst operating a sustainable cash-flow.

2.18. Building on and furthering this precedent, the Community Action Fund proposes 100% of Mayoral pledges are released as forward funding at Tier 1.

2.19. As per forward funding precedent and process established by DD 2225, Tier 2 projects will be eligible to draw down forward funding in the following tranches:

• the first £10,000 forward funded upon satisfactory completion of due diligence and receipt of a signed grant agreement. Evidence of spend would be required in arrears; and

• for pledges of more than £10,000, payment of the remaining balance in arrears following a claim with sufficient evidence of expenditure.

2.20. The Head of Regeneration, together with GLA Finance team, will agree a list of forward funding arrangements for each round. These will be subject to clear expectations associated with our pledge and will be ratified in the funding agreement, which will be drafted to incorporate the above principles.

Monitoring

2.21. Tier 1 projects will not be required to submit quarterly monitoring forms.

2.22. Tier 2 projects will be required to report quarterly on progress.

2.23. All projects receiving Mayoral pledges will be required to complete a project closure form to record their experience, outputs and lessons learnt.

Outputs and outcomes

2.24. A concerted focus will be placed on applications being received from a broad range of groups; both in constitution and diversity of community. The following core outputs will be targeted:

• attendance at programme support events from a cohort representative of the diversity of London’s communities with promotion targeted to specifically engage under-represented groups;

• a minimum of 50 organisations supported through the programme with the diversity of applicants (and the communities they represent) monitored and used to inform decision making to ensure funding reaches the communities that need it most;

• equity of projects supported across North, South, East and West London;

• 50% of the grant recipients receiving GLA funding for the first time;

• 25% of the grant recipients will have previously received less than £5,000 from any form of public funding; and

• up to £250,000 match funding from a blend of boroughs, philanthropic and private sources, based on past match levels in Crowdfund London and Culture Seeds, two comparable community-led funding programmes.

2.25. Further monitoring will be undertaken on the programme to account for beneficiaries, such as number of volunteering opportunities created, including those new to volunteering, campaign backers, individuals attending events and workshops, physical events, performances or exhibits held; economic measures such as new organisations or social enterprises created/supported, new jobs, work placements or apprenticeships created; as well as public realm-related measures such as vacant or repurposed buildings, green space or public realm enhanced. Where possible, this information will seek to detail the diversity of beneficiaries. The monitoring will also be linked to the cross-cutting principles around engaging with and involving London’s diverse communities that underpin the Recovery Missions. See section 3 for additional details on equalities monitoring.

2.26. The following types of project could be expected, based on comparable programmes:

• supporting grass-roots social and cultural organisations and projects such as inter-generational arts or heritage projects, co-design and creation of public artworks, or setting-up a community choir;

• making streets safer and more sociable including testing of tactical urbanism strategies to accommodate social distancing and healthy streets, such as creating neighbourhood pocket parks, improving new walking routes, installing outdoor seating or spill-out space;

• improving access and quality of public spaces including local green spaces, such as initiating small-scale greening and growing projects, or improving public squares to accommodate a wider variety of activities;

• testing innovative new uses for vacant and underused spaces around high streets such as shared and open access resources or facilities such as community kitchens, cafes, workshops, tool libraries; and

• addressing new neighbourhood workspace needs or supporting opportunities for local organisations to own and manage local assets or set up Community Land Trusts, Community Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).

Programme support and development

2.27. A budget of up to £35,000 revenue funding will support externally commissioned marketing, outreach activities and evaluation activities complementary to the overall review of impact on recovery activities. These may include advertising and marketing assets, workshops and the production of other support materials that enhance engagement with, and quality, of applicants. Any underspend associated with support and development may go towards grant-making for the programme.

2.28. These activities will be commissioned in accordance with the procurement process set out in the GLA Contracts and Funding code.

3.1. We will monitor the diversity of applicants (and the communities they represent – i.e. the intended beneficiaries) for a Mayoral Pledge and seek to create a balanced investment strategy considering type of organisation, type of project and project location as set out in paragraphs 2.4-2.8. Spacehive will be responsible for gathering upfront information on applicants including by not limited to, organisation type, ethnicity data, prior access to public funding. Information will also be collected on attendees at workshops and events. Any marketing activity will seek to reach a representative spread of Londoners with particular focus on under-represented groups.

3.2. Application questions have been designed to address inequality and inclusion backgrounds, and request organisations to upload their own Diversity and Equalities policies (Tier 2 only).

3.3. All projects will be developed and delivered in compliance with relevant Codes of Practice and in line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. As a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not. To meet the above, the GLA will ensure that the following issues have been considered:

i) project proposals: All proposals will be open and accessible to all, and community groups will be reminded that their projects are required to take appropriate steps to minimise disadvantages suffered by people who share a protected characteristic: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, sex, religion or belief, sexual orientation;

ii) documents and publications: all documents produced in an accessible way, complying with Mayor of London branding guidelines, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018; and

iii) events: all events will be open to all and, where possible, will encourage people who share a protected characteristic to participate in any activity in which their participation is disproportionately low.

3.4. As a condition of GLA Funding Agreements, projects will be required to meet the Public Sector Equality Duty. Our agreements reference the GLA’s Child Policy and Protection Procedures. In recognition of the fact we will be contracting with non-public bodies, we will continue to develop guidance to support these organisations to deliver against the Public Sector Equality Duty. Due diligence will be undertaken by Locality (partners to Spacehive) at Tier 1, while GLA Finance will conduct due diligence on all Tier 2 projects we propose to fund.

3.5 The programme delivers on the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, namely the Strategic Objective of supporting effective ways to involve communities in the development of their neighbourhoods and the wider city, with particular interest in the role of older people, disabled people, parents, BAME groups, deprived neighbourhoods and faith communities by, for example, promoting usage and ownership of public spaces by underrepresented communities.

3.6 The Community Action Fund will lower barriers to entry to small-scale grant funding that supports a wide range of groups to bring about positive change in their area. Tier 1 in particular will encourage younger, smaller organisations and informal groups to apply for public funding for the first time. This will be achieved by eliminating match fund requirements, requiring lower numbers of project backers, introducing digital contracting, and releasing 100% of small grants as Forward Funding. Barriers to entry have been lowered at Tier 2 by facilitating up to £10,000 of Forward Funding to ease cashflow.

3.7 To enhance general accessibility to the programme, a bespoke self-assessment tool that has been developed for applicants available on the Spacehive website, to help guide groups as to their eligibility.

Key risks and issues

Third party digital contracting:

4.1. A new process has been developed to enable easier contracting for Tier 1 applicants. This will involve Spacehive, the technology platform used by the GLA, hosting the GLA’s general Terms and Conditions on its website, which are agreed to digitally by applicants. Risks include applicants not being fully aware of the fact they are entering into a contract with the GLA, or not being fully aware of their contractual obligations.

4.2. Appropriate mitigating steps to risks posed by the above approach include:

• the T&Cs being shared with applicants only at the point in which the GLA is ready to make a pledge;

• proposed pledge amounts confirmed by Head of Regeneration and approved by Deputy Mayors as set out in section 2.12;

• pledge offers will only be made to projects only after appraisals are complete and the GLA has indicated to Spacehive what projects (and amounts) it wishes to pledge to applicants;

• offers will be sent by email as well as appear in the Spacehive project dashboard visible to applicants. The Project Delivery Manager clicks on the link either in the email or in the project dashboard and digitally agrees to accept the T&Cs and therefore accepts the pledge;

• the offer makes clear that the third party is entering into a funding agreement with the GLA (therefore, providing the GLA with actionable rights against a third party in breach);

• Spacehive will continue to enter into their own agreement with each project applicant/Project Delivery Manager separately to the GLA; and

• the GLA’s current contract is amended so that Spacehive must: (a) make clear that applicants accepting the GLA terms that their application may not necessarily be successful and will only be entitled to such funding as they are notified in writing by Spacehive; (b) only issue such notifications where confirmed in writing to it by the GLA; (c) any sums paid to Spacehive in respect of this element of the scheme are held on trust for the GLA, must not be used for any other purpose than making payments to the third parties remaining compliant with the GLA terms and must be accounted for separately; (d) report to the GLA periodically in terms of funded project monitoring and closure; and (e) take all reasonable steps to pursue third party recipients in breach and recover, unspent sums.

4.3. Due to larger grant amounts, contracts for Tier 2 will be developed ‘offline’ between recipients and their allocated Area Officers in the Regeneration Team, in line with current GLA contracting approaches.

Delivery:

4.4. Whilst delivery capacity of community groups forms part of the evaluation process, and the scale of these projects is often reasonably modest, working with local community groups presents some risk in projects being delivered on time and on budget. Officers will ensure that appropriate GLA Funding Agreements are put in place between (and executed by) the GLA and recipient before any commitment to fund is made.

4.5. In a situation where a project cannot continue, the Regeneration Team will assist to close the project in a controlled manner and ensure the community of backers are reimbursed where appropriate via our platform partner(s).

4.6. In the case of non-delivery, Spacehive undertakes all reasonable actions to secure any unspent funds and redistribute to backers, as reflected in existing Policy which states that any substantial variation to project delivery allows Spacehive to instruct the Project Delivery Manager to terminate delivery of the project and refund any unspent funding to backers.

Forward funding:

4.7. It is proposed that Tier 1 applicants receive 100% forward funding, whereas at Tier 2, up to £10,000 will be released in forward funding, with the remainder drawn down in arrears.

4.8. When forward funding small community organisations, there is a risk that they will not spend GLA funding on products or services agreed via the funding agreement. We will set out our expectations and the risks to them of non-compliance. In extreme circumstances the GLA can claw back funding if the recipient does not use the funding as agreed.

4.9. Appropriate mitigating steps to risks posed by the above approach include the GLA works with partners to ensure:

• due diligence is conducted for this Tier, to include assessment of planning and site permissions; proof of group bank account; credit check of group and project lead; proof of in-kind & pre-campaign donations; quotes for cost items; contingency allowance and conflict of interests;

• applicants not representing an organisation are asked to upload letters of reference from trusted, formal organisations, such as anchor institutions in their area to vouch for their identity and project; and

• applicants are required by T&Cs to upload evidence of expenditure in arrears.

4.10. Forward funding for medium grants at Tier 2 will be managed by Area Officers within the GLA Regeneration Team, as per existing protocols set out in paragraph 2.19 The funding agreements signed with the GLA for medium grants (Tier 2) will associate agreed outputs directly with identified spend. Projects will be advised to produce accurate cost forecasts and consider building in some element of contingency. Guidance has been developed to help applicants with their budgeting.

4.11. Additional mitigation of this issue will come through the flexibility that crowdfunding will allow –projects sourcing some element of funding ‘from the crowd’ can utilise that funding more flexibly.

4.12. We will also take a pragmatic approach to revising elements of the project that we agree to fund, as required, to support delivery of maximum value in outputs and outcomes. However, if a project overspends against its initial projection, there will be an expectation that the cost must be borne by the recipient.

Crowdfunding targets and underspend:

4.13. Tier 1 projects have the option of raising match funding via the Spacehive platform, but it is not a requirement. Once Mayoral Pledges are made, projects at Tier 2 will need to continue crowdfunding until they hit their target. The nature of crowdfunding means that some projects may not reach their funding target. Steps can be taken to anticipate the likelihood of this scenario through discussions with the platform partner(s), and we will be able to estimate and manage our exposure to underspend. In many cases, the platform partner(s) is well placed to provide support to those projects most at risk.

4.14. If some projects fail to reach their crowdfunding targets, and the projects no longer proceed, it is proposed that this funding is rolled over to back projects in future rounds of the programme or support and development activities and/or other recovery activity focused on Building Strong Communities as appropriate.

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.15. The Fund delivers on the Recovery Mission of ‘Building Strong Communities’ by supporting Londoners to lead the recovery in their own communities through a focus on hyperlocal, community-led activities, and co-production with a priority on working with and through the Londoners affected by the pandemic; additionally it contributes to A Strong Civil Society by supporting Londoners to build and maintain relationships and be active citizens, and by enhancing the ability of London’s communities to meet future shocks.

4.16. Also aligned with the recovery objectives and outcomes of the High Streets for All mission, this funding will work across GLA policy areas to deliver:

• equitable access to social infrastructure – providing, securing or improving shared resources;

• growing a social economy – supporting social enterprise and securing local social value; and

• a public welcome – creating high quality streets and public spaces that community and business.

4.17. The initiative will contribute to delivery of ambitions in the following Mayoral strategies or priorities:

• London Plan – contributing to Good Growth and building strong, inclusive communities by involving citizens directly in the future development of the city;

• Economic Development Strategy – supporting innovation and creating opportunities for all Londoners to develop new skills. Delivering projects that help communities to directly share in the opportunities created by investment and change;

• Social Integration Strategy – promoting active citizenship and community cohesion by enabling citizens to propose, deliver and manage sustainable projects that matter to them. Often this will secure or formalise vital social infrastructure being lost across the city;

• Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy – by encouraging communities to come together and collaborate around shared objectives with agency to steward change;

• Culture for all Londoners – supports the Love London priority by funding projects that support more people to experience and create culture of their doorstep;

• Smart London – through the use of new technology and alternative financing to support innovation and participation in public life; and

• Environment – through projects that create new green spaces or greening of public spaces.

4.18. There are no conflicts of interest to note, for anyone involved in the drafting or clearance of this MD.

5.1. Approval is being sought for expenditure of £500,000 to deliver the Community Action Fund that will deliver a small-to-medium grant programme offering immediate support to communities to deliver locally led recovery solutions to the coronavirus pandemic (as detailed within this report), including the delegations to the Head of Regeneration in consultation with Head of Culture, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills and other relevant Deputy Mayors, for individual grant awards and pledges.

5.2. The £500,000 investment into this programme will be funded from the GLA’s Recovery Fund created as part of the repurposed 2020/21 budget as approved by MD2666, specifically the ‘Building Strong Communities’ element of the fund. The expenditure is expected to take place over two financial years. This is to account for the timing of approval within the financial year 2020/21, alongside longer lead in times required for entering into grant agreements at the Tier 2 stage. The profile of expenditure noted below is indicative at this stage and the budget not spent in the current financial year will be reprofiled into 2021/22 to fund the commitments made on the programme.

5.3. Forward funding precedent set by the Crowdfund London programme (DD 2225) has established that up to £10,000 is deemed by the organisation to represent an acceptable level of risk. No more than £10,000 will be released as forward funding at either Tier of the programme.

5.4. As a portion of the grants will be awarded upfront, appropriate safeguarding checks will be in place to alleviate financial risk to the Authority’s funds, namely incorporating suitable evidence of expenditure within funding agreements and carrying out financial appraisals on successful applicants, as outlined above.

6.1. The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the GLA’s exercise of its general 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 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:

6.1.1 pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

6.1.2 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

6.1.3 consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2. 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.

6.3. Section 1 of this report indicates that part of the expenditure for which approval is sought will concern the:

6.3.1 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 equality policy, State Aid rules and in manner which affords value for money in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place and executed by the GLA and the recipient before any commitment to funding is made; and

6.3.2 payment for services. Officers must ensure that the services are procured in liaison with TfL procurement and in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code an appropriate contract for services is put in place and executed by the GLA and the provider before commencement of the services.