MD2789 Rough sleeping - Life off the Streets extensions and COVID-19

1.1 During 2019/20, 10,726 people were seen sleeping rough in London - more than double the number in 2010/11. Of these, 66 per cent were new to the streets, 52 per cent were non-UK nationals, and 30 per cent were from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Around three-quarters had one or more support needs, with 47 per cent having a need related to mental health, 39 per cent to alcohol, and 39 per cent to drugs.

1.2 Since 2016, the Mayor has coordinated efforts through his Life off the Streets taskforce to identify, implement, lobby for and monitor the effectiveness of interventions to tackle rough sleeping. In his London Housing Strategy published in 2018, the Mayor set out his aim that there should be a sustainable route off the streets for every rough sleeper in London. In June 2018, he published his Rough Sleeping Plan of Action which outlines the steps that need to be taken by City Hall, the Government, and others to achieve this.

1.3 Since taking office, the Mayor has been expanding the pan-London rough sleeping services which the GLA funds and commissions. These services collectively form his Life off the Streets programme. They are services for people with experience, or at risk, of sleeping rough, or initiatives to tackle rough sleeping, that cannot or would not be provided at a London borough level, as they are pan-London, or multi-borough, in their remit.

1.4 In March 2020, the GLA, in partnership with boroughs, charities, the NHS and businesses, pioneered Everyone In – the initiative to ensure that rough sleepers at risk of COVID-19 were safely accommodated during the pandemic. To date, over 8,000 rough sleepers have been provided with emergency accommodation and support across London, including over 2,200 in GLA-procured hotels. At the peak, the GLA had 14 hotels with capacity for around 1,400 people.

1.5 This rapid and comprehensive response has kept the rates of COVID-19 infection among London’s rough sleepers far below that seen in other world cities, and is estimated to have prevented many infections, hospital admissions and deaths (see section 2.4 below).

1.6 As the first period of lockdown eased, the phase of the operation to secure and move people at risk into hotels scaled down, and the GLA and boroughs moved into the next steps phase. This meant implementing the Mayor’s ‘In For Good’ principle - providing an offer of support to everyone in the hotels so that no-one needs to return to rough sleeping when they leave and winding down some of the hotels. As at 8 February, 3,738 people in the capital had positively moved on, including 864 from the GLA-procured hotels.

1.7 However, the continuing pandemic, the onset of winter and the lack of move-on options for many of those currently in the hotels means that accommodation will still be needed for many months to come. As at 8 February, 3,562 rough sleepers were accommodated in hotels and other emergency accommodation in the capital, including over 1,000 in GLA-procured hotels.

Life off the Streets programme

1.8 A budget of £33.8m for the services that form the Mayor’s Life off the Streets programme was approved for the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2020 (see MD1532). A further £8.275m was approved in October 2020 (MD2620) to enable the core services to operate for a further year, to 31 March 2021.

1.9 There are currently seven services under contract, with annual values ranging from £210,000 to £3.8m. The contracts for these core services are for three years, with two extensions of a year exercisable at the discretion of the GLA. The first of these two one-year extensions was approved in MD1532 and the second in MD2620.

1.10 It is proposed that the GLA further extends the seven contracts with the providers of the GLA’s core rough sleeping services – Thames Reach and St Mungo’s. These services are No Second Night Out (NSNO) (St Mungo’s) and Routes Home (St Mungo’s) (for which a two-year extension is sought) and Clearing House (St Mungo’s), the two Tenancy Sustainment Teams (TSTs) (St Mungo’s and Thames Reach), London Street Rescue (LSR) (Thames Reach) and CHAIN (St Mungo’s) (for which a one-year extension is sought). Approval is sought for an exemption from the requirements of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code in relation to these proposed contract extensions with St Mungo’s and Thames Reach. There is a clear rationale for this exemption, in compliance with section 10 the Contracts and Funding Code, as the urgent nature of the COVID-19 emergency response work has delayed the reprocurement exercise, and the contract extension is a continuation of existing work.

1.11 The reason for a two-year rather than one-year extension for No Second Night Out and Routes Home is that both services will need a major review of their delivery model, in light of COVID-19 and the likely long-term need to avoid communal sleeping spaces. These were a feature of both services, though both have had temporary adaptations during the pandemic to ensure they are COVID-safe. Moreover, the recommissioning of the Routes Home service will also need to respond to the post-Brexit environment and the new immigration system. The impact of these changes on rough sleeping will only become clearer over the coming year. Extending the contracts will provide better value for money than procuring services competitively for one or two years only. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency response for rough sleepers means that neither the GLA nor current or potential future service providers would have the capacity to undertake or participate in major reprocurement exercises for all six of the core rough sleeping services in the short term. Reprocurement will instead be carried out both during 2021/22 and 2022/23.

1.12 The CHAIN, Clearing House, London Street Rescue and TST services are to be recommissioned first, with the procurement taking place during 2021/22, and the new contracts commencing on 1 April 2022. A full recommissioning exercise, including competitive tender, will be undertaken to ensure that the new contracts deliver value for money and high-quality service provision. This recommissioning work is included in this approval as the tender will need to be advertised shortly after the Mayoral election in May. Therefore, officers in the Rough Sleeping and Procurement teams must start preparatory work as soon as possible. These services are pivotal to the Mayor’s Life off the Streets programme and the recommissioning provides an opportunity to make sure they are best designed to service the changing characteristics of rough sleeping in London and modelled around current best practice.

1.13 Authority to award the contracts for the above services following the competitive procurement exercise, and to approve any extension of the contract to be procured beyond the initial term (for up to a further three years) is delegated to the Executive Director – Housing and Land, in consultation with the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development. Contracts will be awarded in Q3 2021/22 (that is, during the next Mayoral term) and only with consultation with the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, so this decision does not pre-empt decisions for the next Mayor.

1.14 In recent years, the Mayor has secured Government Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) funding to enhance and expand his Life off the Streets programme (approved via MD2657 in 2020/21). Most recently, £6.15m of RSI funding has been allocated to the GLA for the first quarter of 2021/22, with the remainder of the year’s funding being allocated later in the year following a co-production process with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. This first quarter’s RSI funding will be used to continue a range of services that were RSI-funded in 2020/21, including continuing until 30 June 2021 the hotels and associated support and services procured by the GLA as part of the rough sleeping COVID-19 response (see below). Approval is sought to receive and expend the RSI and Protect Plus funding.

1.15 There are also a number of rough sleeping initiatives receiving GLA grant-funding in 2020/21: the Rapid Response Team, the Equipping Shelters Project, the Homeless Health Peer Advocacy service, the Welfare to Wellbeing programme for veterans, the shelter for LGBT+ homeless people and StreetLink (see paragraph 2.42 to 2.63). Approval is sought for this grant-funding to continue for a further year. The grant funding for the Welfare to Wellbeing programme for veterans came to an end on 30 September 2020. Therefore, approval is sough for 18 months of funding in this instance (1 October 2020 to 31 March 2022).

Everyone In

1.16 The Mayor has so far approved £43.54m of funding for the GLA’s Everyone In COVID-19 rough sleeping response. This comprises:

• £10.55m (via MD2627): £9m from the first tranche of the Government’s COVID-19 emergency funding for local authorities, plus £1.05m of reprioritised GLA funding diverted from existing budgets and £0.5m of MHCLG funding diverted from other GLA rough sleeping services;

• £18.18m (via MD2671): £7.18m from the second tranche of Government COVID-19 emergency funding for local authorities, an initial allocation of £9m from the Government’s Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP) (from a national pot of £105m), £1m of MHCLG funding received by the GLA from the Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) fund and £1m of reprioritised GLA funding diverted from existing budgets; and

• £14.81m (via MD2740): a further allocation of £10m from NSAP, £4.2m from the Protect Programme, £0.14m from the Government’s Cold Weather Fund and £0.47m from the Government’s Suspension of the Derogation fund.

1.17 Some of the RSI funding for the first quarter of 2021/22 is earmarked for the GLA’s rough sleeping COVID-19 response. In addition, the Mayor has secured £0.512m of Government Protect Plus funding, to provide additional hotel spaces for rough sleepers during this winter. It is proposed that an element of the RSI funding and the Protect Plus funding is expended to enable the Mayor to retain the current hotel provision until the end of June, and continue to offer accommodation during the pandemic where there is a risk to life or while support is necessary to assess individuals’ entitlements.

1.18 Of the £9.91m which is to be expended on the COVID-19 response accommodation and related services in the first quarter of 2021/22, £5.02m is from the RSI funding outlined in this approval and the remaining £4.89m is funds previously received from MHCLG for Rough Sleeping Initiative (and approved via MD2481 and MD2657), the Rapid Rehousing Pathway (approved via MD2515) and COVID response (approved MD2740).

1.19 Authority is delegated to the Executive Director of Housing and Land to approve the allocation of monies within the £9.91m expenditure on hotels and related services for the COVID-19 rough sleeping response for 2021/22.

Funding profile

1.20 The table below sets out the proposed spend for which approval is being sought.

1.21 Details of the services and initiatives in the above table are set out in section 2.

2.1 The Mayor’s Life off the Streets programme focuses on achieving the Mayor’s vision for everyone sleeping rough to have a sustainable route away from the streets. The programme is underpinned by the following overarching priorities set out in the pan-London Rough Sleeping Commissioning Framework 2017.

To work with boroughs and partners:

• to minimise the flow of new rough sleepers onto the streets;

• to ensure that no-one new to the streets sleeps rough for a second night;

• to ensure that no-one lives on the streets of London; and

• to ensure that no-one returns to the streets of London.

2.2 A key performance indicator for the Mayor is that at least 85 per cent of rough sleepers using his Life off the Streets services do not return to the street.

2.3 The key objective of the Mayor’s Everyone In rough sleeping COVID-19 response is to protect those at risk of COVID-19, thus reducing infections, hospital admissions and deaths. The proposals in this paper will enable to the GLA to support at least 1,000 rough sleepers at risk of COVID19 between 1 April and 30 June, by enabling them to self-isolate and otherwise follow Government guidance around COVID-19.

2.4 It is not possible to accurately predict the number of infections, hospital admissions and deaths that will be prevented as a result of the funding in this Mayoral Decision. However, information about the estimated impact of the measures to date provides an indication of potential outcomes:

• a recent article in the Lancet estimated that the Everyone In measures might have avoided 21,092 infections, 266 deaths, 1,164 hospital admissions, and 338 ICU admissions nationally among the homeless population in the first wave of the pandemic. On the basis that about a third of the emergency accommodation provided was in London, it is estimated that the response potentially avoided around 7,000 infections, 90 deaths and 390 hospital and 115 ICU admissions in the capital; and

• London’s ‘Everyone In’ response has helped keep infection rates amongst the homeless population lower than in many other world cities. There were six Covid-19 related deaths in the capital among people who were homeless up to the end of June 2020. This compares with, for example, New York City, where 86 homeless people had died of Covid-19 by the end of May 2020, and 104 by mid-October 2020. In San Francisco, where communal night shelters remained in operation, the COVID-19 infection rate was 66% compared to 3-4% in London.

2.5 A further objective of the response is to support rough sleepers to move on and rebuild their lives. As at 8 February 2021, 869 of the c2,200 rough sleepers accommodated in the GLA-procured hotels since March 2020 have been supported to positively move on. The Mayor’s charity partners working with hotel guests will continue to apply the ‘In For Good’ in all the hotels, supporting people to positively move on. However, options for some non-UK nationals, who form a large proportion of those in the hotels, are currently very limited. This is because many are ineligible for welfare support, including help with housing costs. The Mayor is continuing to lobby the Government for the policy changes and funding needed to increase the options for this group. However, in the absence of these options, it is likely that many will still require emergency accommodation post-30 June 2021, and further Government funding will therefore be needed to ensure that they do not return to the streets.

2.6 Further details of individual Life off the Streets services and initiatives are set out below.

Core Life off the Streets services

No Second Night Out

2.7 NSNO supports people who are seen sleeping rough for the first time. They are supported to access the service by outreach teams. Once at a hub they spend time with specialist staff who will establish their current situation and the best options available to them. The NSNO team then make people an offer of help based on their specific circumstances and needs, as well as supporting them to take up that offer.

Contract extension

2.8 The NSNO contract was awarded to St Mungo’s and entered into following an OJEU procurement exercise to identify the provider. The contract began in April 2017. The initial NSNO contract value was £14.72m over four years (£3.68m per annum) and approved by MD2031. MD2620 approved expenditure of £3.85m for the GLA to exercise its contractual option to extend the contract for its final year, to 31 March 2021. MD2657 approved a number of variations to the contract, funded from the Government’s RSI, to 31 March 2021.

2.9 This MD seeks approval for expenditure of £8.48m for the GLA to extend the contract for two further years, in addition to the variations approved in MD2481 and MD2657 (see below).

Expansion of service

2.10 In 2019/20 and 2020/21, the GLA used funding secured from the Government to expand the NSNO service to include a floating hub, two additional staging post and a private rented sector access team.

2.11 The two additional staging posts have provided extra places to stay for those people who had visited NSNO and were awaiting a longer-term offer. During the Covid-19 emergency response, they have also provided vital additional accommodation for people for whom a stay in a hotel was not a suitable option.

2.12 The private rented sector access works with people from NSNO hubs and Staging Posts, and also people referred by outreach teams, for whom PRS Accommodation is their most suitable route out of rough sleeping. The team and also provides pre-tenancy training and support to set-up their home to people moving into PRS housing. During the pandemic, in addition to working with NSNO, the team has supported many people from the Covid-19 response hotels to move into PRS accommodation.

2.13 The NSNO service is also pivotal in delivering pan-London Severe Weather Emergency beds when temperatures in London drop to freezing. The Mayor has significantly improved SWEP in the capital during his time in office, including changing the policy so SWEP was triggered on any single night of freezing temperatures (previously only activated on three consecutive nights) and championing the ‘In for Good’ principle that no one should be asked to leave SWEP accommodation until there is a plan in place to end their rough sleeping. These improvements significantly increased the amount of pan-London SWEP accommodation which NSNO needed to provide and since the winter of 2018/19, additional funding has been provided to enable the service to do this.

2.14 There is a clear case for extending these enhancements to the service and the £8.48m expenditure approved by this MD for NSNO includes £0.79m spending to:

• continue to the additional Staging Posts between 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021, at a cost of £0.31m, providing 51 bed spaces for people who have slept rough;

• continue the specialist PRS Access team between 1 April and 30 June 2021, at a cost of £0.09m;

• continue to provide an expanded SWEP accommodation offer during freezing temperatures at a cost of up to £0.39m until 31 March 2022.

Routes Home

2.15 Routes Home assists non-UK national rough sleepers with support needs to find a route away from the streets. It helps them to access necessary advice (such as immigration advice), establish their status and entitlements, and access accommodation and work in the UK. If, following advice and support, the individual decides voluntarily to return to their home country, they are supported in accessing accommodation and support there. The service provides a minimum of 12 bed spaces as part of its core contract.

Contract extension

2.16 The Routes Home contract was entered following an OJEU procurement exercise to identify a provider. The contract began in April 2016. Its initial contract value was £3m over five years (£0.6m a year) plus the option to extend for a further period of one year. MD2620 approved expenditure of £0.6m for the GLA to exercise its contractual option to extend the contract for one year, to 31 March 2021. MD2657 approved a number of variations to the contract, funded from the Government’s RSI, to 31 March 2021.

2.17 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £1.26m for the GLA to extend the contract for two further years, including the variations approved in MD2657 until June 2021 (see below).

Expansion of service

2.18 In 2019/20 and 2020/2021, the GLA used funding secured from the Government to expand the Routes Home staffing team, the level of immigration advice and accommodation options, including the provision of three additional bed spaces.

2.19 This MD approves pending of £0.06m to continue this work for the first quarter of 2021/2022, to fund:

• two members of staff to work in and alongside the NSNO floating hubs with EEA nationals who need assistance to access their entitlements, or want to return to their home country;

• three additional bed spaces to accommodate non-UK nationals whilst this support is being delivered; and

• work with non-UK nationals who need support and advice regarding immigration.

2.20 The current provider has the technical expertise to provide this service. If this additional provision were commissioned by competitive tender, the project would be significantly delayed. Furthermore, this would increase the risk of two contractors working with the same client group, which would be inefficient and costly due to duplication of services. The changes above will result in a variation of contract to capture additional investment of £55k. The proposed variation is for services included within the scope of the original contract.

London Street Rescue

2.21 LSR is an outreach service helping people sleeping on the streets in London boroughs where there is not a locally commissioned outreach service. LSR outreach workers typically go out at night alongside volunteers to make contact with people sleeping rough and carry out casework and advocacy during the day.

2.22 The GLA’s LSR contract with Thames Reach was entered following an OJEU procurement exercise to identify a provider. The contract began in April 2016. Its original value was £3.194m over five years. MD2620 approved expenditure of £0.64m for the GLA to exercise its contractual option to extend the contract for one year, to 31 March 2021, and to extend a variation to the contract, to 31 March 2021, for the night transport outreach team, at a cost of £0.25m.

2.23 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.79m for the GLA to extend the contract for a further year, including the night transport outreach variation at a cost of £0.15m.

Clearing House

2.24 The Clearing House stock comprises over 3,700 homes ring-fenced for people who have slept rough in London. There is a turnover of approx. 250 tenancies in the stock each year, with new tenants coming predominately from hostels or directly from the streets. People are referred to these properties via the Clearing House team which processes referrals and allocates the properties.

2.25 The Clearing House contract with St Mungo’s was entered into following an OJEU advertised tender. The contract began in April 2016, for an initial period of three years, with an option for the GLA to extend by up to a further two years, resulting in a maximum potential length of five years. The initial contract value for Clearing House was £1.05m over five years (£0.21m per annum). MD2620 approved expenditure of £0.21m for the GLA to exercise its contractual option to extend the contract to 31 March 2021.

2.26 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.23m for the GLA to extend the contract for a further year, including the variation below to support the work of the PRS TST service.

Extension of service

2.27 In 2019/20 and 2020/2021, the GLA used funding secured from the Government to expand the Clearing House service to support the TST PRS service (see below). This involves managing and processing referrals, data collection and reporting for the TST PRS service. As the TST PRS service will continue during the first quarter of 2021/2022, the support of the Clearing House service is also required to continue.

2.28 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.02m to continue this work for the first quarter of 2021/2022.

Tenancy Sustainment Teams (TSTs)

2.29 People in Clearing House accommodation receive support from TSTs, of which there are currently two – one in north London, and the other in south London. Since April 2016, the TSTs have been provided by St Mungo’s (TST North) and Thames Reach (TST South). The current providers have the technical expertise to provide this support.

Contract extension

2.30 The TST contracts were entered following an OJEU competitive tender process and commenced on 1 April 2016. For TST North (St Mungo’s), the initial contract value was £6.05m over five years (£1.21m a year) and for TST South (Thames Reach) £6m over five years (£1.2m a year). Each contract included an option, which allowed the GLA to extend the contract for a further period of one year. MD2620 approved expenditure of £1.21m for the GLA to exercise its existing options to extend the contracts with St Mungo’s and with Thames Reach for one year, to 31 March 2021. It also approved expenditure of £0.144m (£0.129m for St Mungo’s TST North and £0.015m for Thames Reach TST South) to expand the work of the Tenancy Sustainment Teams for 12 months, to 31 March 2021, to enable support to non-UK nationals living in Clearing House homes. MD2657 approved a number of variations to the contract, funded from the Government’s RSI, to 31 March 2021.

2.31 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £2.64m for the GLA to extend the St Mungo’s and Thames Reach contracts, (£1.33m for St Mungo’s (TST North) and £1.31m for Thames Reach (TST South)), for a further year, including the above-mentioned TST PRS variation until 30 June 2021 (see below).

Extension of service

2.32 In 2019/20 and 2020/2021, the GLA used funding secured from the Government to expand the work of the Tenancy Sustainment Teams to support former rough sleepers in PRS accommodation.

2.33 The support that people in Clearing House accommodation receive is not generally available to former rough sleepers who move into the private rented sector (PRS) or some other types of accommodation. There is clearly a gap in this provision – one which has increased in recent years as councils have had to decommission floating support services as a result of budget cuts. This why the work of the TSTs was expanded.

2.34 There is a clear case for extending the support for people in PRS accommodation and the £2.64m expenditure approved by this MD for the TSTs includes £0.23m to continue this expansion between 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021.

CHAIN

2.35 The CHAIN database collects and contains data on those who are found rough sleeping in London. It enables the providers of rough sleeping services to record interventions and monitor outcomes and represents the most detailed and comprehensive source of information about rough sleeping in London.

2.36 The GLA’s CHAIN contract with St Mungo’s was entered following an OJEU procurement process and commenced on 1 April 2016. The initial contract value was £1.1m over five years (£0.21m a year) plus an option to extend the contract for a further period of one year. MD2620 approved expenditure of £0.21m for the GLA to exercise its contractual option to extend the contract for one year, to 31 March 2021. It also approved expenditure of £0.172m to expand CHAIN in 2019/20 and 2020/21. This expansion enhanced CHAIN with additional staffing to support maintenance and development of the CHAIN database and analysis of data associated with the other expanded Life off the Streets services. MD2627 approved a number of variations to the contract, funded from the Government’s RSI, to 31 March 2021.

2.37 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.29m for the GLA to extend the St Mungo’s contract, including the core contract of £0.21m and a continuation of the above variation (£0.077m in 2021/22), for a further year.

Recommissioning of core Life Off the Streets services

2.38 As outlined in paragraph 1.12 , the CHAIN, Clearing House, London Street Rescue and TST services will be reprocured during 2021/22, with new contracts to commence on 1 April 2022. In compliance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code, this will be an open, competitive procurement process.

2.39 The services will be procured on three-year contracts, with an option to extend for up to a further three years (at one-year intervals). The total annual budget for the four services is £4.1m, meaning expenditure of £12.3m over the initial three-year contract period.

2.40 As there is currently no GLA budget set beyond March 2023, the contracts will include annual break clauses, which will allow the GLA to unilaterally end these agreements without any financial penalty. The possibility of early termination will be clearly outlined in the tender documents and throughout the procurement process.

2.41 Authority to award the contracts for the above services following the competitive procurement exercise, and to approve any extension of the contract to be procured beyond the initial term (for up to a further three years) is delegated to the Executive Director – Housing and Land, in consultation with the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development,. Contracts will be awarded in Q3 2021/22 and only with consultation with the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, so this decision does not pre-empt decisions for the next Mayor.

Grant-funded services

Rapid Response Team – Thames Reach

2.42 The Rapid Response Team has been operating since 2019/20 to pilot an outreach response across London to respond to all StreetLink referrals. By focusing on StreetLink referrals, this service frees up local outreach teams and the Mayor’s London Street Rescue (LSR) service to focus on those living on the streets. It operates across 24 London boroughs and was able to provide an immediate route away from the street for over 500 people in its first two quarters of operation.

2.43 The Mayor approved (see MD2481) the grant funding of Thames Reach to provide this service to third parties and MD2620 approved expenditure of up to £0.063m to extend the service by a further 12 months, to 31 March 2021.

2.44 The intention is to competitively procure this service in the future. However, timescales and the impacts of the rough sleeping COVID-19 response make this impossible in the short-term. Furthermore, for a short-term grant funding agreement, there are no other providers able to provide this service at the scale required immediately.

2.45 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.71m to continue grant-funding this service for the first 37 weeks of 2021/22 to 16 December 2021. During 2021, 0.02m of this funding will be spent on undertaking an evaluation of the service so far.

Equipping Shelters Project – Housing Justice

2.46 The Equipping Shelters Project has been operating since 2018/19. The project, delivered by Housing Justice, works with and supports faith and community-based winter night shelters in London. The aims of the service have been to increase the capacity of the shelter network, to improve the quality and consistency of service provided, to improve data collection, and to increase positive outcomes for guests of the shelters.

2.47 The Mayor approved £0.45m to continue this work during 2020/21 (see MD2657).

2.48 During 2020/21 the work of the ESP team has changed in response to the COVID19 pandemic. The service was instrumental in the GLA’s work of decanting all shared accommodation spaces in London during March and April 2020, and since that time the ESP has supported shelter projects to adapt and continue to provide vital support to people sleeping rough in a COVID-secure manner.

2.49 The need for on-going engagement with, and support of, faith and community-based shelter projects will continue during 2021/22 as further COVID-19 developments emerge and the flow of new people to the streets continues.

2.50 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.41m, including £0.11m of RSI funding, to continue grant-funding this service during 2021/22.

StreetLink – Homeless Link

2.51 The Mayor contributes grant funding to the national StreetLink service (see MD1532 and DD2471). Other funders are the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Homeless Link, and the Welsh Government. The service enables members of the public to connect people sleeping rough with the local services that can support them. Its aims are to:

• promote public awareness of what people should do if they see someone sleeping rough;

• provide a referral line and digital applications to enable members of the public to take action on rough sleeping;

• link rough sleepers into local support services, so that they can be supported off the street;

• provide data and evidence to enable the MHCLG to hold local authorities and their partners to account for how they respond to meeting the needs of rough sleepers; and

• provide a 24-hour London-specific website and telephone line to enable the public to pass on details of rough sleepers to an appropriate service, and for rough sleepers to contact StreetLink directly, at any time of day and night.

2.52 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.09m to continue grant-funding this service during 2021/22.

Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Support Service (HHPA) - Groundswell

2.53 HHPA enables homeless people to address health issues – helping people by making services more accessible through the support of volunteers with experience of homelessness. Work is focused on rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping, people living in hostels and those using day centres.

2.54 The GLA has grant funded Groundswell to provide this unique service to third parties. Since 2012, it has supported 1,700 people to access healthcare. The current provider has the technical expertise and is the only provider that could mobilise immediately.

2.55 MD2620 approved grant funding of £0.04m for 2020/21 to enable HHPA to be rolled out across all inner-London boroughs, embedding existing projects and piloting new models through partnerships with Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Public Health England and local authorities. Groundswell has focus on two new strands of work through this continued investment by developing a gender-informed programme and enhancing the training offered to local authority-commissioned supported housing projects to better support residents to look after their health.

2.56 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.05m to continue grant-funding this service during 2021/22.

Welfare to Wellbeing – Veterans Aid

2.57 In 2017, Veterans Aid was awarded £182,824 of Mayoral grant funding towards its Welfare to Wellbeing project over a three-year period (via MD2214). It was subsequently awarded grant funding of £92,020 to further enhance the service during the final 18 months of this funding period (DD2397).

2.58 The previous grant funding period for the Welfare to Wellbeing project came to an end in September 2020. This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.93m to continue grant-funding this service through to the end of 2020/21 (£0.03m) and throughout 2021/22 (£0.06m).

2.59 The objectives of the Welfare to Wellbeing project are to:

• offer an immediate route off the streets for every UK veteran in need and a bespoke, structured pathway into independent living;

• assist every homeless veteran in London whose plight is brought to its attention, with a view to eradicating rough sleeping in London’s ex-service community, where possible by prevention and where not by immediate, practical intervention; and

• ensure that all UK veterans who are sleeping rough or at immediate risk of sleeping rough are able to access Veterans Aid specialist support, through established referral pathways and partnership agreements with London’s outreach teams and other homelessness services.

2.60 The grant funding will enable a further 150 veterans who are homeless or at significant risk of homelessness to be supported into sustainable accommodation, with a target that 90 per cent do not return to rough sleeping.

LGBTIQ+ Shelter and Community Centre – Stonewall Housing and the Outside Project

2.61 Stonewall Housing and the Outside Project were grant funded £50,000 in the second round of the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Innovation Fund (RSIF) to help develop and test methods of a safe shelter accommodation and community centre for homeless LGBT+ people. Grant funding of £104,000 was subsequently approved (via DD2381) for a further year.

2.62 This Mayoral Decision seeks approval for expenditure of £0.104m to continue grant-funding this service during 2021/22.

2.63 The project offers both a daytime refuge and social space for LGBT+ people at risk of homelessness via their community centre whilst also providing overnight shelter accommodation for more vulnerable clients. It delivers holistic case work and support relating to housing and employment. To date the project has supported 120 service users, accommodating 94 people in their night shelter. 62 per cent of people who accessed the night shelter have since been supported into secure move-on accommodation, preventing homelessness for a relatively hidden, hard to reach group. The Stonewall Housing and Outside Project’s Community Centre and Shelter is the first and only homeless shelter of this kind in the UK and an absence in service provision for a group proven to be at risk of homelessness, would leave this group without access to essential specialist accommodation and support.

3.1 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).

3.2 Of those seen rough sleeping in 2019/20:

• 52 per cent were non-UK nationals;

• 6 per cent were from Gypsy/Romany/Traveller communities;

• 47 per cent had a mental health need;

• 17 per cent were women;

• most of those seen rough sleeping (59 per cent) were in the 26-45 age group;

• eight per cent were under 26 years old;

• 11 per cent were over 55; and

• one person was under 18.

3.3 Those with protected characteristics of race and disability are over-represented among rough sleepers; as the client group for these services is people with a history of sleeping rough the proposals in this paper are likely to have positive impacts on BAME Londoners and those with disabilities. As the majority of people sleeping rough are men, more men than women are likely to access these services. However, the services will provide personalised, specialist support for women and non-binary people which meets the needs of these groups.

Key risks and issues

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1 See paragraph 1.2 above.

Impact assessments and consultations

4.2 The current shape and nature of Life off the Streets services and projects was developed in partnership with the Mayor’s Life Off the Streets taskforce, informed by in-depth consultation with stakeholders from London boroughs, voluntary sector providers and the wider homelessness sector.

4.3 The GLA is working in close partnership with London boroughs, health, charities and the Government on its and London’s wider rough sleeping COVID response, including through the multi-agency Rough Sleeping Strategic Group.

Conflicts of interest

4.4 There are no known conflicts of interest for those involved in the drafting or clearance of this report.

5.1 This decision requests approval to receive funding of £6.66m from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - £6.15m of RSI funding and £0.51m of Protect Plus funding.

5.2 This decision also requests approval to expend funding of £37.35m between 2020/21, and 2024/25, as follows:

5.3 The MHCLG funding column total of £10.88m will be met by a combination of the £6.66m to be received from MHCLG and the balance of £4.22m from the Rough Sleeping reprofiled budget.

5.4 The GLA column total of £26.47m will be funded from within the Rough Sleeping Commissioning budget for 2021/22 and 2022/23.

5.5 The recommissioning of the services to be reprocured is included in this decision as it will commence soon and requires the inclusion of a three-year contract as set by procurement. The contract will include explicit break clauses in the later years.

5.6 Funding in future years will be subject to the annual budget setting process.

Powers to undertake the requested actions

6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to 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 Authority’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

6.2 In taking the decisions requested of him, 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 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 foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic 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 The terms of all agreements entered into and commitments made in respect of the various projects described in this report must not have the effect of fettering the discretion of any successor administration, considering in particular the London elections taking place in May 2021. To that end, all agreements must include, inter alia, appropriate break clauses.

Extension of existing contracts

6.4 As officers have set out in paragraphs 1.10 to 1.12 above, the response, which was required to deal with the effects of COVID-19 on rough sleepers, interrupted procurements of new contracts for the GLA’s rough sleeping services. In light of this, decision 1 seeks approval of the extension of the following contracts between the Authority and St Mungo’s: Routes Home; CHAIN, Clearing House and Tenancy Sustainment Team (North); and the following contracts between the Authority and Thames Reach: London Street Rescue and Tenancy Sustainment Team (South). The extensions will allow the services to continue to run, whilst procurements of new contracts are undertaken.

6.5 Each contract was procured in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the “Regulations”). Therefore, modifications of each contract must be undertaken in accordance with the Regulations. Regulation 72(1)(c) allows for the modification of contracts where the need for the modification was brought about by circumstances which a diligent public authority could not have seen; the modification does not alter the overall nature of the contract; and any increase in price does not exceed 50 percent of the original contract.

6.6 To that end, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic may be viewed as an event that the Authority could not have reasonably foreseen. Furthermore, as set out at paragraphs 2.15 to 2.37 above, in the case of each contract, the services to be provided during the proposed extensions are the same as those that were provided under the original contract. To that end, they do not alter the overall nature of the contract. Finally, in each case, the value of the extension is less than 50 percent of the original contract. Accordingly, the proposed extensions may be viewed as falling within the Regulations. Officers are reminded of the need for the Authority to publish a contract modification notice in relation to each of the contracts listed at paragraph 6.4 above.

6.7 In decision 2, officers have requested exemptions from the contracts and funding code in respect of each of the extensions to the contracts listed in decision 1. Section 10 of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code (the “Code”) provides that an exemption may be granted in the case of an unforeseen situation. The COVID-19 pandemic may be viewed as just such a situation. It exerted unprecedented pressure on the Authority’s rough sleeping services and caused corresponding delays to the Authority’s rough sleeping procurement programme. In light of this, the Mayor may approve the exemption in the case of each contract in decision 1 if he be so minded.

Receipt by the Authority of funding

6.8 In decision 5, officers are seeking approval for the Authority to receive funds from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Rough Sleeper Initiative and Protect Plus funding streams. Officers are reminded to ensure that the Authority comply with any conditions imposed upon the expenditure of the funding.

Procurement

6.9 In decisions 3, 4 and 6a, b, c and f, officers have sought approval to undertake and procurements and enter into agreements follow the said procurements. Officers are reminded of the requirements to undertake each procurement in accordance with the Code and to ensure that an appropriate contract be put in place between the Authority and the relevant service provider, before the commencement of the services.

Funding from the Authority to third parties

6.10 Decisions 6d and 6e request approval for the provision by the Authority of grant funding to third parties. Section 12 of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code sets out the requirements governing the Authority’s provision of grants to third parties. Officers have set out at paragraphs 2.42 to 2.63 how they propose to meet those requirements in relation to each of the grants. Finally, officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement be put in place between the Authority and the grant recipients before any part of the funding be paid over and, in the case of existing grant agreements, that appropriate variations be put in place.

6.11 Further legal comments are included in part 2 of this decision form.