MD3033 Building Strong Communities mission 2022-23

1.1 The Building Strong Communities mission (BSC) works towards the Mayor’s pledge that by 2025, all Londoners will have access to a community hub ensuring they can volunteer, get support and build strong community networks. The expenditure set out within this Decision will be used to meet the objectives of the BSC mission – to work with and through partners to strengthen the building blocks for strong community hubs in all areas of London, namely by:

i. providing opportunities for those delivering community work to connect and share practice

ii. improving opportunities for Londoners to support each other through volunteering

iii. enhancing opportunities for Londoners to influence local, regional & national decision making

iv. ensuring that community spaces at risk of closure (especially those that serve minority groups) are supported to stay open

v. sustaining organisations that tackle inequalities and other societal problems.

1.2 Six challenges have been set out that the BSC mission will work towards:

i. understand how sturdy the building blocks, for strong communities, are within different parts of London

ii. enable those delivering community work to connect and share practice

iii. enhance opportunities for Londoners to volunteer

iv. improve opportunities for Londoners to influence local, regional, and national decision-making

v. ensure that inclusive community spaces and activities are available in most parts of London

vi. sustain organisations that tackle inequalities and other social issues.

1.3 MD2726 approved expenditure of up to £375,000 in 2020-21 for initial BSC projects. Those projects included mutual aid and hyperlocal volunteering support, support for social enterprise and community business, and the Mayor of London Volunteering Awards 2020 to recognise charities’ role in supporting communities through Covid-19 and to provide resource to support their volunteer involvement. MD2854 approved expenditure of up to £1,988,000 in 2021-22 and 2022-23 for work that included the Civic Strength Index, Civil Society Roots, support for civil society infrastructure organisations, volunteer recognition, Team London Ambassadors and Major Events volunteers, and the BSC grant programme.

1.4 This Decision requests approval for expenditure of up to £205,000 for projects delivering the objectives of the BSC mission, as set out in section two. It also requests approval for the receipt of £915,000 from MOPAC and GLA expenditure to this value for projects delivering sporting, physical activity, and youth social action activities for young Londoners and delegates authority to the Assistant Director, Civil Society and Sport to approve detailed expenditure plans to this value via an Assistant Director Decision form.

2.1 A budget of £30,000 will be used to enable sharing community practice, to enable those delivering community work to connect and share practice through the creation of an online hub and/or tool, with funds granted to a successful bidder following a competitive process. This project will work with partners to develop an online resource sharing opportunity to develop information sharing, strengthen sector support and disseminate good practice based on the learning outcomes following the Festival of Ideas. It will be combined with further exploration to identify additional areas of support that would benefit pan London civil society provision and how best to meet the needs of Londoners.  This work will deliver the BSC objectives of ‘providing opportunities for those delivering community work to connect and share practice’, as well as ‘improving opportunities for Londoners to support each other through volunteering’.

2.2 A budget of £28,000 will create a campaign to promote volunteering. Working in collaboration with the London Strategic Volunteering Group, the Mayor of London is supporting the development of a social media campaign to raise awareness of volunteering across the city and highlight the value of volunteers to the functioning life of London. Funds will be granted to a successful bidder following a competitive process. This campaign will celebrate the achievements of volunteers, enabling the Mayor of London to thank and encourage the volunteers of London and deliver the BSC objective of ‘improving opportunities for Londoners to support each other through volunteering’.

2.3 The Civil Society team has delivered an annual Team London Ambassador (Visitor Welcome) volunteering programme every summer since 2012, providing accessible and rewarding volunteering opportunities and contributing to London’s reputation as a welcoming city. This programme extends though out the year to include volunteering for major sporting and cultural events and supporting strategic partnerships (e.g. Formula E) to promote the city as a global destination. In addition, the programme provides resilience volunteers to London; in the past, it has deployed volunteers to Grenfell and the NHS Nightingale at the Excel Centre. This programme continues to be a Mayoral priority in the context of ‘Let’s Do London’ and other work to support the return of international and domestic tourists to London, as well as to mobilise volunteers – at short notice – to support city-wide resilience efforts.  

2.4 2022 has seen the return of the full Visitor Welcome programme with some 450 volunteers deployed across London over the summer/autumn period. The programme has been designed to: support the recovery of London’s tourism industry and align with the “Let’s Do London” Campaign. Following the success of the Euro volunteering programme there is a continued focus on making our volunteering accessible to all Londoners and we continue to develop strategies to deploy and support under-represented groups in particular young people. Team London will continue to work with partners in the NHS to provide volunteers from the Ambassador and Major Events programme to support the delivery of the Covid vaccination centres as required.

2.5 To enhance opportunities for all Londoners to support each other and their city through volunteering, a budget of £39,000 will be used for programme delivery costs. This covers essentials such as risk assessments, full volunteer expenses to ensure the programme is accessible, training events including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Dementia-friendly awareness training and customer service specific training and materials and uniform. £46,000 will support programme management, an accessibility fund (to cover British Sign Language interpreters/taxis/additional transport) to reduce barriers to participation, temporary staff, a specialist volunteer management system. These programme requirements will be procured in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding code. These resources are also being used for the major events programme, through which volunteers support events such as the London Marathon and the New Year’s Eve fireworks, as well as for the deployment of volunteers who support London when incidents require. This programme will deliver the BSC objective of ‘improving opportunities for Londoners to support each other through volunteering’.

2.6 London Funders is the sole membership network for London’s funders and social investors. Membership provides access to a wide portfolio of expertise and resources, including vital opportunities to network and collaborate with 170+ London-based funders across the public, private and social sectors. London Funders oversaw the coordination of the London Community Response (LCR) and is currently convening the work on the Collaborative Action for Recovery.  The payment of £32,000 funds corporate GLA membership, and allows engagement by teams across the GLA including Culture, Children and Young Londoners, Health, Communities and Social Policy, MOPAC and Civil Society and Sport. London Funders are the only organisation of their type, therefore a Single Source Request will be used to procure this membership. The expertise, resource and opportunities gained through membership helps the GLA work towards all six of the BSC targets.

2.7 A budget of £30,000 will be used to support the GLA’s role in convening the voluntary, community and funding sectors, leading debate and help shaping change. As the focus of the LCR moves from crisis response to recovery there was a collective ambition to build on the learning and focus on future collaboration to support London’s recovery, which led to the development of the cross organisational Collaborative Action for Recovery (CAR). The GLA is also, through the GLA Group Collaboration Board, looking at its own approach to grant giving. This budget will be used for related programme development costs, which will be procured in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding code.

2.8 Subject to the Mayor’s decision to consent to the grant of £915,000 from MOPAC, MOPAC will transfer funds of £915,000 to the GLA. The Mayor is being asked to approve the expenditure to the value of £915,000 to deliver sporting, physical activity and youth social action activities for young Londoners. This will allow the Civil Society and Sport team at the GLA to deliver projects to improve young Londoners physical and mental wellbeing, safety, and educational and employment outcomes. This budget will be used to fund initiatives supporting educational transition (e.g. from primary to secondary school) for most disadvantaged young Londoners to improve resilience, wellbeing, and educational outcomes in line with the New Deal for Young People mission. This will include after-school and holiday activities, with a focus on diversionary sporting activities, and supporting the Mayor’s Sport and Serious Youth Violence Steering Group which convenes community organisations using sport to tackle serious youth violence and crime, and young people from these organisations. The GLA Sport team are best placed to manage this work due to their community sport expertise, and work using sport to support at-risk young Londoners via the Young Londoners Fund. These activities fall within the GLA’s statutory remit to further the promotion of social development through support and engagement activities for young Londoners

2.9 This Decision also requests permission for the Mayor to delegate authority to the Assistant Director, Civil Society and Sport to approve detailed expenditure plans to the value of £915,000 via an Assistant Director Decision form.

3.1 Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must have ‘due regard’ to the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; and advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

3.2 The BSC mission recognises the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on London’s diverse communities. It embraces London’s diversity and fosters good relations by bringing Londoners from a variety of backgrounds together in support of common causes, amplifying their voices and allowing them to play an active role in recovery from Covid-19. By promoting and championing volunteering and social action programmes, this will increase the opportunities for Londoners to play an active role in their communities. A recurring theme amongst the programmes set out within this decision is equity – that these programmes are designed to provide means that will advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, acknowledges that support requirements may differ between groups, and provides that support.

3.3 The Civil Society and Sport team previously commissioned research to look at the barriers and challenges involved in enabling Londoners to participate in volunteering. This was to ensure that volunteering and social action programmes are structured in a way that is as appealing and accessible as possible. The programme to support inclusive volunteering will build on this research to strengthen good practice in involving diverse communities in volunteering; and, thus, ensure that volunteering is open to all. The 2019 Survey of Londoners showed that volunteering and social action participation improves social integration. As such, increasing accessibility of programmes will improve rates of social integration experienced by volunteers. 

3.4 Projects will improve wellbeing, decrease social isolation and build relationships between Londoners. They will have a specific focus on groups disproportionately impacted by the pandemic; on hidden loneliness within London’s diverse communities; and approaches to remove the barriers to connection for these groups. The programme will encourage people from protected groups to participate in public life, thus fostering good relationships between those who share protected characteristics and those who do not. The equalities implications associated with decisions about individual projects will be kept under review.

Key risks and issues

4.1 This work aligns with statutory and Mayoral strategies by:  

i. Enhancing how Londoners work together, outside of statutory delivered services, to overcome inequalities & other societal problems. This means improving opportunities for Londoners to volunteer and for communities to connect and share practice. This links to the Mayor of London’s priorities of getting London back on its feet and creating opportunities for young people, as well as the Mayor’s Building a Fairer London Plan.

ii. Enhancing the ability of Londoners to influence the state to ensure that public policies and services meet their needs. This means improving opportunities for Londoners to influence local, regional and national decision-making and supporting organisations dedicated to tackling inequalities and other societal problems. This supports the Mayor’s work to make London a fairer and more equitable city and the aims and objectives set out in the London Recovery Board’s Structural Inequalities plan.

iii. Inspiring young people to foster valuable life skills by becoming active citizens in their local area, and bringing communities together in a way that is now more important than ever, building on the recommendations in the skills strategy. 

iv. Deploying volunteers to roles in visitor welcome to support the work of the “Let’s Do London” campaign, thus contributing to the recovery of London’s tourism industry and its global reputation as a welcoming city and links to the Mayor’s priority of getting London back on its feet and creating opportunities for young people.

Conflict of interest 

4.2 Due consideration has been given to any conflict of interest (that may arise), including from those involved in the drafting and/or clearance of this decision form. None have been found to exist.

5.1 Approval is being sought for receipt of £915,000 grant funding from Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to deliver sporting, physical activity, and youth social action activities for young Londoners. Detailed expenditure plans will be approved via future decisions (under delegated authority to the Assistant Director for Civil Society and Sport).

5.2 Approval is also being sought for expenditure of £205,000 to support the Building Strong Communities Mission and programmes as detailed within this decision and summarised below.

5.3 The expenditure of £205,000 will be funded by the following programme budgets; Volunteering & Resilience (£28,000), Visitor Welcome (£85,000) and Civil Society (£92,000).

5.4. This is in line with the budget allocations for 2022-23 financial year.

6.1 The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concerning expenditure relating to projects within the Building Strong Communities (BSC) recovery mission budget fall within the GLA’s general statutory power in section 30 (1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (“the GLA Act”) to do such things considered to further, or that are facilitative of, or conductive or incidental to, the promotion of social development in Greater London.

6.2 In implementing the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers should comply with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:

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

ii. 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

iii. consult with appropriate bodies.

6.3 The powers of the GLA in section 30 (1) of the GLA Act 1999 cannot be used by the GLA to incur expenditure in doing anything which may be done by MOPAC (save to the extent that the Authority is incurring expenditure in co-operating with, or facilitating or coordinating the activities of, MOPAC). MOPAC’s statutory functions extend to activities whose objectives are connected, directly or indirectly with crime and disorder reduction and funds authorised under this decision cannot be incurred by the GLA for that purpose.

6.4 In taking the decisions requested 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; to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sex, 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.

6.5 Pursuant to section 121 of the GLA Act, MOPAC may, with the Mayor’s consent, pay to the Authority a grant towards meeting revenue expenditure in connection with the Authority’s functions. No limitations may be placed on the Authority’s use of the grant and it must it be used: (a) for revenue expenditure only; and (b) in connection with the discharge of the Authority’s functions.

6.6 Section 1 of this report indicates that part of the sought budget will amount to the provision of funding and not for the payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly; transparently; in accordance with the GLA’s equality policy and subsidy control rules; and in a manner that 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.