MD3322 Supporting and Inspiring Young Londoners programme – Holiday Hope mobilisation phase

1.1.    Holiday Hope is a core mayoral delivery priority within the proposed Supporting and Inspiring Young Londoners (SIYL) programme. There are no previous approvals directly related to this programme. 
1.2.    The summer holidays (and holiday periods in general) pose significant challenges for young Londoners – particularly around safety, access to positive opportunities, and food insecurity. 
1.3.    The Holiday Hope programme provides an ambitious response to this issue from the Mayor. It will connect and strengthen high-quality holiday activity across London. Built on a foundation of existing and effective City Hall delivery, the Holiday Hope programme will connect existing City Hall holiday provision with key partner delivery, to create a new and integrated programme. Holiday Hope will increase young people’s access to youth spaces, positive opportunities and food during the challenging holiday period.
1.4.    This first phase of Holiday Hope (December 2024 to June 2025) will include both direct delivery for young people; and development of a new project and partnership approach, to ensure the programme can be enhanced and scaled over subsequent years. 
1.5.    This grant award to the Mayor’s Fund for London (MFL) is a one-off contribution to the costs of its existing Kitchen Social project – the aims of which align with the GLA’s Holiday Hope programme.  Kitchen Social will use unique MFL’s experience and expertise to: deliver positive opportunities for young people during the holiday period; and engage collaboratively with community partners. This will allow vital holiday delivery and development work to continue, whilst investment plans for the 2025 summer holiday, and beyond, are finalised.
1.6.    It is proposed, in line with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code, that the MFL should be awarded a grant for the following reasons:
•    The GLA is not the direct or indirect beneficiary of the support being delivered. The direct beneficiaries will be networks of community organisations across London, and the young people and communities they support. 
•    The MFL is separate from the GLA. It does not form part of, nor is it related to, the GLA Group. It has proven capacity to engage with wider and alternative funding opportunities (including access to match funding and in-kind resources) that could contribute significantly towards improved outcomes for young people in the holiday period; and that the GLA would be ineligible to source. 
•    The MFL is vastly experienced and has been delivering positive opportunities in the holiday period for many years. This new award is directly aligned to the MFL’s existing Kitchen Social project, which provides increased access to skills and positive opportunities for young people. Last year alone, the MFL provided over 15,000 upskilling opportunities across 32 boroughs.
•    The MFL can be considered unique in its ability to deliver this project, at scale, during holiday periods. It has a significant network of over 600 youth and community organisations and partners that can be rapidly scaled; it also has proven delivery experience at significant scale across London. 
1.7.    This award also aligns with the strategic priority set out in the Mayor’s SIYL mandate, to work in partnership to better achieve outcomes for young Londoners.
1.8.    This is a one-off grant; any future key decisions regarding Holiday Hope will follow new decision processes.
 

2.1.    We know that the summer holidays (and holiday periods in general) pose significant challenges for young Londoners – particularly around safety, food insecurity and access to positive opportunities. In response, Holiday Hope will connect and strengthen high-quality holiday activity across London, with the ultimate aim of increasing young people’s access to youth spaces, positive opportunities and food during the challenging holiday period. Delivery will focus on the most disadvantaged young people. 
2.2.    The objectives of this first phase of Holiday Hope (December 2024 – June 2025) include both direct delivery for young people; and development of a new project and partnership approach, to ensure the programme can continue to be enhanced and scaled over subsequent years. Delivery will be overseen and convened through the new Holiday Hope Delivery Board. 
2.3.    All Holiday Hope delivery will contribute directly to the overarching target that 250,000 young people have access to positive opportunities during this current Mayoral term. 
2.4.    Through this grant award, the MFL will provide a range of activities through its existing structures and programming, which are directly aligned to the GLA Holiday Hope programme. Through this grant the MFL will become a key partner in supporting and delivering the Holiday Hope programme. Delivery activities will include: 
•    direct funding for community grassroots organisations to deliver meaningful holiday opportunities
•    commissioning targeted support through expert partners
•    engaging potential funders and new partners to enable extra resources 
•    partnership building with employers to increase employment opportunities for young Londoners.
2.5.    It should be noted that, whilst food is a common and important component of summer delivery (for example, as a hook to encourage a young person to attend an event), the focus of delivery through this grant is on increased access to positive opportunities. 
2.6.    It is expected that over 1,000 young Londoners will directly benefit from increased positive opportunities because of this award to the MFL. 
2.7.    The outcomes achieved through increased access to positive opportunities vary depending on each young person’s needs and the delivery model applied. However, they commonly include: reported increases in mental wellbeing; increased confidence; improved relationships; and positive employment or training outcomes. 
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as a public authority the Mayor must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act; and to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. 
3.2.    Activity and programmes within Holiday Hope will provide support to disadvantaged children and young people. This includes young people with protected characteristics, and those who are more vulnerable. Examples of disadvantaged groups that the Holiday Hope programme will particularly focus on include: young people with special educational needs and disabilities; young refugees and asylum seekers; young people with a social worker; young care leavers; and those who are risk of exclusion, or who have been excluded, from school or college. Careful consideration will be given to ensuring appropriate accessibility for the widest range of young people. This will include targeted engagement, where this is considered supportive. Young people’s voices and co-production will be used in planning, development and delivery to maximise effectiveness.
3.3.    London is home to more than 2m children and young people aged up to 19. It has the highest rate of child poverty in England (after housing costs are taken into account), with rates expected to increase in coming years. Poorer children are more likely to underachieve at school; be unemployed; and have lower incomes. Poverty is significantly worse in Black-Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families; and more than 50 per cent of families with a disabled child live at the margins of poverty. This has all been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. 
3.4.    Young Londoners have lost tens of millions of pounds in funding for youth services since 2011. Informal, non-statutory services have an important preventative role to play. Getting good support to young people in their teenage years is vital – especially to support the most disadvantaged young people. Youth services are vital to young people who have been left behind or marginalised. These enable them to reach their potential; and play a valuable role in helping these young people avoid being sucked into crime. Data on knife crime from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime demonstrates that young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are over-represented as both victims and perpetrators. In both cases, they are overwhelmingly male, with many and complex vulnerabilities.
 

Key risks and issues
4.1.    The key risks are identified in the table below: 

4.2.    Holiday Hope activity directly supports mayoral strategy and delivery ambitions set out in the SIYL mandate and forthcoming delivery plan.

Subsidy control
4.3.    The proposed grant funding to the MFL has been considered against subsidy control requirements. The objective of the proposed funding is to respond to the increased and unequal needs faced by young people during the holiday period. The proposed funding is considered a proportionate response, as it will enable the MFL to provide food, skills training and positive opportunities through youth and community groups across London. 
4.4.    The subsidy will support the provider to identify and engage with alternative and additional external funding modes. It will also help build infrastructure capacity and capability for the wider youth and community sector. This will directly inform and shape future programmes of change. There is no alternative route, within this period, for the GLA to support the Holiday Hope objectives. As discussed above, the MFL can be considered unique in its ability to deliver this project at scale, during holiday periods. This is because it holds a significant network of over 600 youth and community organisations and partners that can be rapidly scaled.
 

5.1.    This Decision seeks approval for the expenditure of £300,000, in grant funding, to the MFL, as a contribution to the costs of delivering its Kitchen Social project – the aims of which align closely with the GLA’s Holiday Hope programme.
5.2.    £240,000 will be paid to MFL in 2024-25 financial year and the remaining £60,000 will be paid on delivery completion in 2025-26 financial year.
5.3.    The £300,000 expenditure will be funded from the Health, Children and Young Londoners Unit’s programme budgets across 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years. £280,000 will be funded from the Health, Children and Young Londoners Mission Development programme budget and the remaining £20,000 from the Health Core budget. 
5.4.    There is sufficient budget to meet this expenditure of £240,000 in the 2024-25 financial year.
5.5.    Funding for the next financial year will be subject to the annual budget setting process and is subject to change. The expenditure of £60,000 in 2025-26 financial year is assumed to be affordable and can be confirmed when the budget is formally approved in March 2025.
5.6.    Contracts that commit the GLA to expenditure in future years must be subject to appropriate break clauses.
 

6.1.    The foregoing paragraphs of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further, or that are facilitative of, or conductive or incidental to, the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or improvement of the environment, 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:
•    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 UK
•    consult with appropriate bodies.
6.3.    In taking the decisions requested, as noted in paragraph 3 above, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 – namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; and advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment) and persons who do not. To this end, the Mayor should have particular regard to paragraph 3 (above) of this report.
6.4.    The decisions requested of the Mayor indicate that the proposed funding amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payments for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly; transparently; and in accordance with the GLA’s equalities, and with the requirements of section 12 of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.
6.5.    Furthermore, officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between, and executed by, the GLA and the recipient before any commitment to fund is made, and before any funding is paid to the recipient.
Subsidy control
6.6.    The Subsidy Control Act 2022 requires that grant funding complies with its subsidy control principles. The officers have set out, at paragraphs 4.3 to 4.4 (above), how the proposed grant complies with those principles.
6.7.    Given that the proposed grant exceeds £100,000, the officers are reminded to register the grant on the Department for Business and Trade’s Transparency Database.
 

7.1.    Grant delivery will be considered by the Holiday Hope Programme Board as set out in timeline below:

7.2.    Wider GLA Holiday Hope planning and associated actions are also in development. These will be reported to the SIYL programme board.