MD3187 UK Shared Prosperity Fund People and Skills grant awards and the London Careers Hubs

On extension of London’s Careers Hubs to August 2025
1.1.    Under cover of Mayoral Decision (MD)2796, the Mayor established four Careers Hubs in London in September 2021, with a delivery completion date of August 2024. The Careers Hubs are delivered by Local London Partnership, the South London Partnership, Education Development Trust and Reed in Partnership. A Careers Hub is a group of secondary schools, Further Education (FE) colleges, Alternative Provision and Special Schools in a dedicated geographical area that work together to deliver high quality careers education for all students. 
1.2.    Careers Hubs improve social mobility and equalities for young people when progressing from education to work and have proven to significantly increase the effectiveness of careers provision in schools and colleges and improve the life chances of young people.
1.3.    From 2021 to August 2023, the London Careers Hubs were jointly funded by the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) and the European Social Fund (ESF), with GLA core funding replacing ESF in the 2023-24 academic year (as confirmed in MD2796) to ensure continuation of the hubs following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
1.4.    Under cover of MD3058, the Mayor approved the receipt of £144.5m of United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funding for the period from April 2022 to March 2025. £38.12m is being invested in the UKSPF People and Skills investment priority of the approved UKSPF Investment Plan for London, which will help reduce the barriers some Londoners face to entering employment and support them to move into jobs and education.
1.5.    The Careers Programme is a key strand of delivery in the People and Skills investment priority and the London Careers Hubs have been allocated £1.369m of UKSPF funding. The Investment Plan states: 
“The GLA plans to continue support for London’s careers programme using the UKSPF, following the end of ESF and government support so that careers education and work experience remain at the heart of young Londoners’ education. The provision would continue to work with education providers, employers and young people; and would support the delivery of 4,000 work experience and other employer engagements with students, to ensure they have a better understanding of employer expectations and can make better decisions about careers.”
1.6.    The Mayor approved funding for three academic years, to 31 August 2024 (MD2796). The actual grant awards for the Careers Hubs were offered for two academic years (September 2021 to August 2023), but there was the intention to extend these agreements for one year after the end of the ESF programme, subject to CEC and GLA funding being available . 
1.7.    The above approval (MD2796) had already confirmed a budget of £807,000 of GLA funding to match fund CEC investment in the Careers Hubs in the 2023-24 financial year and the CEC Careers Hubs funding of £2.3m has now been confirmed for the 2023-24 academic year. Therefore, in September 2023, variations to the existing Grant Agreements for all four Careers Hubs were issued to extend delivery and funding to 31 August 2024. 
1.8.    This decision seeks to confirm match funding for the continuation of the London Careers Hubs using the UKSPF in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years (2024-25 financial year), and to confirm use of the additional £522,000 of GLA funding for the Careers Hubs which is currently planned in the GLA budget for 2025-26 to enable the Hubs to continue delivery for the whole of the 2024-25 academic year, up to August 2025 (subject to the caveats at paragraph 6.3). 
1.9.    Of the £1.369m of UKSPF funding allocated to support the Careers Hubs in the 2024-25 financial year, it is anticipated that £495,000 will be used in the 2023-24 academic year, with the remaining £874,000 being used in the 2024-25 academic year as set out in table three in Appendix A.
1.10.    Under this MD, the Careers Hubs would be extended and funded for a further academic year (1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025), with funding from the CEC, UKSPF and GLA as follows (and as set out by financial and academic years in tables two and three in Appendix A):
•    up to £522,000 of GLA funding currently approved under MD2796 for the financial year 2024 25
•    up to a further £522,000 of GLA funding which is already planned in the GLA’s budget for 2025 26 but was not specified in MD2796 , would be confirmed for use in the 2025-26 financial year
•    up to £874,000 of UKSPF funding will be allocated to deliver the Careers Hubs in the 2024-25 academic year
•    CEC grant funding of up to £2.5m for the 2024-25 academic year (subject to confirmation by the CEC in May 2024).
1.11.    Compared to the total funding approved under MD2796, that for the Careers Hubs programme has increased from £11.11m to £13.99m. This reflects the £522,000 of GLA funding in the 2025-26 budget, the expected receipt of an additional year of funding for the full academic year of 2024-25 from the CEC, and access to UKSPF funding. No additional GLA funding is being requested beyond what is currently in the GLA’s budget. 
1.12.    Any future requests for an increase in GLA funding for the programme, for example to enable the programme to continue beyond the 2024-25 academic year, would be the subject of a new MD in accordance with the GLA’s decision-making processes.
1.13.    From the overall programme budget of £13.99m, funding of approximately £50,000 is set aside for a programme evaluation to be undertaken in the 2024-25 financial year, to inform any decision about future funding for the academic year 2025-26 and beyond. 
On approval of any additional UKSPF People and Skills funding attributed to Careers Hubs; and grant awards for the UKSPF Support for Young Londoners programme
1.14.    In accordance with the UKSPF Investment Plan, a further £11.75m of UKSPF People and Skills funding is being awarded through a competitive grant award process to support young Londoners. Funding awards to successful bidders will be made in accordance with the scoring and assessment process set out in the prospectus.
1.15.    The government has stipulated that the UKSPF People and Skills funding must be spent by 31 March 2025. The Support for Young Londoners projects must start delivering from the beginning of April 2024 if programme objectives are to be met in this short delivery window. Therefore, awards need to be approved and made and grant agreements need to be executed before the end of March 2024. Based on the number of bids the GLA has received, the assessment of bids cannot be completed before January 2024, leaving only a short window for grant award approval steps to be completed and grant agreements to be issued and executed.
1.16.    The Mayor delegated authority to grant approval for the award of UKSPF funding to Assistant Director level (to an unlimited value, unless the award is novel, contentious or repercussive) under MD3058. It is therefore proposed that the Assistant Director(s) for Skills & Employment will exercise this delegation through internal Skills & Employment Unit governance processes, including a record in writing via a Grant Award Recommendation briefing, without the need for a further decision form, in order to remain within the tight timeframe to secure approval of the funding awards and enter into grant agreements before the end of March 2024.
1.17.    In accordance with the UKSPF Investment Plan, to ensure robust assurance processes and transparency in the decision-making process, views on the overall strategic fit and deliverability of the projects which are being recommended for UKSPF People and Skills funding will be sought from the Skills for Londoners (SfL) Board, which has oversight of the People & Skills investment priority, before final approval by the Assistant Director, Skills and Employment. In line with the Mayor's commitment to openness and transparency, the agenda and minutes of SfL Board meetings are published on the GLA website (unless they are considered exempt from publication under the Freedom of Information Act). In addition, a list of successful funding awards will be published on the GLA website once all grant agreements have been signed.
1.18.    If an offer of a grant award is turned down by an applicant, an offer would be made to the next highest scoring applicant subject to recommendations by the strategic moderation panel, budget availability and the outcome of financial due diligence checks, as set out in the prospectus. 

Extension of London’s Careers Hubs to August 2025
2.1.    London’s four Careers Hubs bring together secondary schools, Further Education (FE) colleges, Alternative Provision, Special Schools and apprenticeship providers in a sub-region, together with employers, to collaborate on the development and delivery of high-quality careers education for all students. The Hubs aim to improve social mobility and equalities for young people progressing from education to work. They have been proven to significantly increase the effectiveness of careers provision in schools and colleges and improve the life chances of young people. 
2.2.    The government requires all schools and colleges to work towards achievement of the eight Gatsby Benchmarks  of good careers guidance. The Careers Hubs offer school and college careers leaders and senior leadership teams the support they need to develop their careers programme in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks. This includes: training for careers leaders, sharing digital tools and resources, providing local labour market insights, and bringing employers, educators and providers together to collaborate on best practice. Evidence shows that schools and colleges which are engaged with Careers Hubs do significantly better against the Gatsby Benchmarks. 
2.3.    A report published by the CEC in 2021 evidenced a clear and positive link between achievement of the Gatsby Benchmarks and the likelihood of a student being in education, employment or training (EET) after Year 11.  Based on data from about 2,400 schools, each benchmark achieved by a school increased the likelihood of a student being EET, with evidence of a 9.7 per cent decline in the proportion of students who were NEET post-16 in schools that met all eight Gatsby Benchmarks. The decline was twice as great at 20.1 per cent in the schools with the most disadvantaged students. 
2.4.    There is also evidence that Careers Hubs widen students’ awareness of career options and pathways. Evidence published by the CEC shows that there is a greater level of student exposure to employers and workplaces where schools are inside a Hub rather than outside the Hub network. Nearly three in five schools and colleges in Hubs were found to run work experience compared to around a third (35 per cent) outside the Hub network, while nearly two thirds of schools and colleges in Hubs were learning about careers direct from the jobs market, compared with only three in 10 outside the Hub network.  The 2023 CEC report, Ready for the Future, showed that sustained engagement with Careers Hubs leads to wider and more intensive employer engagement, giving more students the chance to hear from a wider range of local sectors.
2.5.    Within London, the Careers Hubs have made good progress over the last two years and there has been an increase in the number of Gatsby Benchmarks that have been achieved over the duration of the project so far. For example, the number of education institutions achieving Gatsby Benchmark 5 (student encounters with employers and employees) has increased from 51 per cent to 65 per cent from 2021 to 2023. Similarly, the number of education institutions achieving Gatsby Benchmark 6 (students having experiences of workplaces) has increased from 37 per cent to 54 per cent over that period.
2.6.    The Department for Education’s Skills for Jobs White Paper, published in January 2021, confirmed the government’s intention to continue to support Careers Hubs, extending “support that is proven to accelerate progress against the Gatsby benchmarks”.
2.7.    London’s Careers Hubs aim to directly support at least 700 education institutions across the city, including all those with the highest proportion of students on Free School Meals and in areas of deprivation. A key priority for the London Hubs in 2023-24, which will be further developed in 2024-25, is to develop targeted interventions to support economically disadvantaged young Londoners, and students who face other barriers to participation, to make effective transitions to positive destinations. 80 per cent of schools engaged with a Hub will be matched to an Enterprise Adviser to support them to make links with employers and, in 2023-24, all Hubs will undertake at least one initiative to improve the ability of young people in their area to take up Apprenticeship and Technical Education (ATE) pathways under the CEC’s ATE Framework. Other schools and students will indirectly benefit through the dissemination of good practice beyond the Hub network.
2.8.    Careers Hubs are strategic capacity building projects. Building relationships with schools and colleges is time consuming, and changes in the organisations delivering the Hubs could jeopardise the continuation and potential positive impact of these relationships before they are sufficiently developed to sustain momentum. Rather than running a new grant award process for delivery for the 2024-25 academic year alone, an extension to existing grant agreements is therefore viewed as necessary to capture the benefits of work to date.
2.9.    If necessary, for example if CEC funding for the 2024-25 academic year is less than anticipated, future Careers Hubs programme activities may need to be revised to be in line with the available funding and these revised activities would be approved via the Skills and Employment internal governance processes (the Skills for Londoners Programmes Board).
2.10.    In addition to the growth and extension of the existing Careers Hubs, the GLA will also remove some requirements that were needed for ESF but which are not required beyond the lifetime of that programme as anticipated in the original published project requirements (see footnote one above). 

The Assistant Director(s) for Skills & Employment exercising the existing delegation conferred by MD3058 to approve grant awards for the UKSPF Support for Young Londoners programme, without the need for a further decision form.
2.11.    The approval for the Assistant Director(s) for Skills & Employment to award the grants to successful applicants for the UKSPF People and Skills Support for Young Londoners programme without the need for a further decision form, will enable officers to make these grant awards within the tight window to enter into grant agreements before the end of March 2024, enabling a full year’s delivery, commencing from April 2024 and maximising the support that can be provided to young Londoners through the UKSPF.
 

3.1.    Section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010 provides that, in the exercise of their functions, public authorities, of whom the Mayor is one, must have due regard to the need to: 
•    eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010 
•    advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it 
•    foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. 
3.2.    Protected characteristics under section 4 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sex orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being “relevant” protected characteristics). 
3.3.    The UKSPF People and Skills intervention priority aims to reduce levels of economic inactivity and move those furthest from the labour market closer to employment through investment in bespoke employment support tailored to local needs. This includes improving employment outcomes for specific communities who face labour market barriers, ensuring that all interventions are inclusive. Research shows that when young people spend time not in employment, education or training (NEET) this can have a detrimental effect on their physical and mental health, and increase the likelihood of unemployment, low wages, or a low quality of work throughout their life.  
3.4.    The GLA’s UKSPF People and Skills Support for Young Londoners programme aims to support young Londoners who are NEET, or at risk of becoming NEET, ensuring through the Careers Hubs and other activity outlined in this paper, that all young people, including those with protected characteristics, have access to quality careers education and are better equipped to avoid becoming or staying NEET. 
3.5.    The GLA requires all applicants for UKSPF funding to have an equalities policy and to explain in their applications how they will ensure the requirements of the Equality Act are met, including how they will monitor implementation of their policy. Consideration of the responses received from applicants forms part of the bid assessment process. As described in MD2796, the same requirements were applied to the applications for the Careers Hubs. 
3.6.    We have worked with cross-sector organisations to ensure our pool of around 600 Enterprise Advisers (EAs)   for the Careers Hubs are from diverse backgrounds, therefore fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. Information on London EA applicants over the four Careers Hubs in the first year of the programme shows that the Hubs have performed well against their equalities targets, with between: 
•    51 per cent and 63 per cent being women
•    30 per cent and 51 per cent of EAs being from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds
•    four per cent and 10 per cent of EAs identifying as LGBT+
•    four per cent and 13 per cent of EAs considering themselves to have a disability.
3.7.    An Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) will be completed for the UKSPF People and Skills programme in February/March 2024. By this time a clearer picture will be available of the specific target groups that will be supported at a local level through the proposed grant awards and the EqIA will consider how the GLA might mitigate any gaps in support through UKSPF or other programmes. The EqIA will be presented to the Skills for Londoners Programmes Board for review and feedback.
 

Links to Mayoral Strategies and priorities
4.1.    The Skills Roadmap for London (January 2022) sets the direction of travel for adult education and skills in London over the Mayoral term and beyond. Actions in support of the Skills Roadmap aim to help Londoners to access good jobs and to lead happier, healthier lives. UKSPF funding under the People and Skills priority will follow the approach set out in the Skills Roadmap, in particular seeking to ensure provision is locally relevant, makes an impact, and is accessible to all. 
4.2.    No Wrong Door is a key element in the London Partnership Board’s mission to help Londoners into good work. No Wrong Door Integration Hubs support better integration of services, foster local partnerships and help to develop referral pathways between organisations supporting Londoners to access skills and employment. Organisations applying for Support for Young Londoners funding are asked to demonstrate in their application how they will work with other local organisations and partnerships, including the Integration Hub in their area. 
4.3.    The Building a Fairer City Action Plan (London Councils/Mayor of London, 2022) sets out an innovative, partner-driven shift in London’s work to tackle deep-seated inequalities. It focuses on solutions and actions that London Partnership Board members can take on as employers, service providers and influencers. It also seeks to build a broader coalition across public, private, voluntary or charity sectors – one that is committed to targeted and sustained action to create striking, positive, and enduring change. UKSPF People and Skills funding will be used in line with this plan to address inequalities, and support diversity and inclusion.
4.4.    The priorities for how UKSPF is delivered in London are based on the shared priorities of the London Recovery Board’s Economic Recovery Framework. This framework, agreed in 2021, identifies the need to restore confidence in the city, provide targeted support to London’s most vulnerable communities, and rebuild the city’s economy and society. The broad activities permitted under UKSPF investment priorities support the framework and pillars. 

Consideration of the Subsidy Control Act (SCA)
4.5.    The SCA applies to subsidies defined as activity which concerns financial or other assistance given by a public authority which:
•    confers an economic advantage upon one or more enterprise
•    is specific and benefits one or more enterprises over other enterprises in respect of the production of goods or services
•    could have, an effect on competition or investment in the UK or affect trade or investment between the UK and a country outside the UK.
4.6.    The recipients of Careers Hubs funding might be considered to be enterprises in that the funded activity involves the provision of services for which there is competition. The original funding was however, awarded following an advertised, competitive process. The application materials also provided expressly that additional funding may be made available to successful applicants (subject to budget availability). SCA guidance suggests where funding opportunities are competed openly it is less likely that the award of funding will be considered to provide an economic advantage. Further, officers are of the view that the award of additional funding is not distortive of competition on any market for the funded services because it does not render the current funding agreements materially different in character or scope from those initially concluded, introduce new conditions or change the economic balance of the agreements in favour of the recipients. Officers do not consider therefore, that the proposed further awards constitute subsidies for the purpose of the SCA. 
4.7.    The change in the source of match funding has no direct impact on the Hub delivery organisations. The scope of the programme remains the same, that is, supporting schools in London to improve their careers offers to students. The government has issued minimal guidance and requirements to the GLA, as Lead Authority, with regard to the management and monitoring requirements of projects funded through UKSPF and the Hubs will continue to deliver against the CEC KPIs.

Risks and mitigations
4.8.    In July 2022, the GLA submitted its UKSPF Investment Plan for London to HM Government and approval was granted on 5 December 2022. The Investment Plan states that: 
“The GLA will select projects using a combination of competitive bidding, direct allocations to London boroughs, direct allocations to Mayoral agencies such as London & Partners, and procurement for contracts where relevant. This approach will achieve the best possible outcomes for London, its 32 boroughs and the City of London Corporation.”
4.9.    As explained in paragraph 2.8 above, rather than running a new competitive grant award process for delivery for the 2024-25 academic year alone, the UKSPF funding for this additional year will be awarded to the existing Careers Hubs. The Hubs are delivering to expectations, with good progress being made as described in paragraph 2.5 above and the decision to extend the existing Hubs aims to enable the Hubs to build upon and consolidate the momentum and relationships that have been established over the past two years. The existing Hubs were established through an open and competitive grant award process and their grant agreements will be extended and grown to reflect the additional year of delivery. 
4.10.    A risk was identified that the government might consider that this was not permitted by a strict interpretation of the wording in the Investment Plan. The GLA, acting as Lead Local Authority for UKSPF in London, have informed the government that, given the short timeframe for delivery, some funds will be distributed directly to existing grant-funded organisations, rather than awarded through a new competitive bidding round. No objections to this approach have been raised by the government.
4.11.    The CEC receives annual funding agreements from the government. CEC funding for the next academic year is not confirmed until spring each year and is subject to continuation of government funding to CEC. CEC funding for the London Careers Hubs for the 2024-25 academic year will therefore not be confirmed before spring 2024. The CEC has provided £3.2m funding for the London Careers Hubs across the two previous academic years and has indicated funding will be available for the GLA for the 2024-25 academic year, however there is a risk that the funding will be reduced and also a risk that it will not be available if CEC funding is cut, albeit the latter risk is very low. Use of the UKSPF and GLA funds requested through this MD will therefore be subject to funding for the 2024-25 academic year being confirmed by the CEC. 
4.12.    Should the CEC award less grant funding than currently anticipated, officers will review the funding available from both CEC and UKSPF. If there are underspends in other areas of the UKSPF People and Skills programme, these may be made available to fill any shortfall in CEC funding. It is proposed that any additional UKSPF People and Skills funding attributed to the Careers Hubs in the 2024-25 financial year would be approved by the Assistant Director for Skills and Employment through internal governance processes and a record in writing, without the need for a further Decision form.
4.13.    Given the short 12-month delivery timeframe for UKSPF People and Skills funding, there is a risk that the delivery targets in the UKSPF Investment Plan will not be met if projects are not able to deliver from 1 April 2024. Under this MD, the Assistant Director(s) for Skills & Employment would exercise their delegation to award UKSPF grants without the need for a further decision form, to minimise the length of time between conclusion of the bid assessment process and confirmation of grant awards. In addition, through the grant award application assessment process which includes a question on deliverability, officers will seek to ensure projects have a realistic delivery profile, with realistic targets.
Conflicts of interest
4.14.    There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of the decision.

5.1.    Approval is sought for:
•    The use of up to £1.369m of UKSPF People & Skills funding to extend and grow the London Careers Hubs to the end of the 2024-25 academic year. This is planned to be spent in the period April 2024 to March 2025
•    the use of £522,000 already planned in the 2025-26 budget to deliver the 2024-25 academic year, subject to the GLA’s budgetary approval process.
5.2.    Under the cover of MD3058, the Mayor approved the receipt of £144.5m of United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funding for the period from April 2022 to March 2025. £38.12m is being invested in the UKSPF People and Skills investment priority of the approved UKSPF Investment Plan for London. 
5.3.    The Careers Programme comprises a key strand of delivery in the People and Skills investment priority and the London Careers Hubs have been allocated £1.369m of UKSPF funding.
5.4.    Of the £1.369m of UKSPF funding allocated to support the Careers Hubs in the 2024-25 financial year, it is anticipated that £495,000 will be used in the 2023-24 academic year (April – August 2024), with the remaining £874,000 being used in the 2024-25 academic year (September 2024 - March 2025) as set out in table three in Appendix A. This is contained within the 2024-25 financial year.
5.5.    The expenditure of £522,000 in 2025-26 financial year will be funded from the Careers Hubs programme budget.
5.6.    Funding for future financial years is subject to the annual budget setting process and is subject to change.
5.7.    Contracts that commit the GLA in future years are subject to appropriate break clauses.
 

6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the statutory powers of the GLA to do such things as may be considered to be facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic and social development in Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
•    consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
•    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 (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.    If the Mayor makes the decisions sought officers must ensure that:
•    no reliance is placed on any third-party funding until after legally binding commitments are in place in this regard and they are content that the GLA can comply with the conditions of that funding or GLA funding (in respect of which future budgets have not been approved)
•    the award of Careers Hub funding is documented in advance of any commitment to fund by way of the execution by the GLA and recipients of funding agreements or variations of current funding agreements (as applicable) which incorporate all UKSPF and CEC conditions required to enable the GLA’s compliance with its own obligations 
•    the award of further UKSPF People and Skills funding is conducted strictly in accordance with a Competitive Grant Award process managed by the GLA UKSPF People and Skills Team which meets all of the GLA’s UKSPF obligations and UKSPF funding agreements are put in place and executed by the successful applicants and the GLA before any commitment to fund is made.
6.4.    As the proposals in respect of which decisions are sought involve the making of commitments which extend beyond the current mayoral term, officers must ensure that the terms of all agreements entered into in respect of the expenditure do not have the effect of fettering discretion of any successor administration, considering in particular the London elections taking place in May 2024. Accordingly, officers must ensure that all agreements which involve making such commitments include a GLA right to terminate at any point for convenience (at no cost to the GLA), are managed in such a manner, and any deliverables come up milestones and or outputs requirements are structured so as to mitigate risk of the GLA incurring abortive expenditure (which might be reasonably taken to fetter, practically, the exercise of such discretion).
 

Appendix A: Comparison between existing budget and sources of funding approved under MD2796 and the new programme budget and funding sources.