MD3352 Mayor’s Stewarding Academy and Phase One hub extensions

1.1    The Mayor’s Skills Academies (MSA) programme formerly known as the Mayor’s Academies Programme, was originally approved under cover of MD2846 in 2021, with a further decision relating to the MSA hubs and linked Adult Education Budget (AEB), now Adult Skills Fund (ASF), funding approval under MD2919. Subsequent additional non-AEB funding was later approved under Director Decision DD2590. The GLA funding provides staffing resource to facilitate partnerships of skills providers, employers and other skills and employment sector stakeholders to deliver new and improved training programmes to address sectoral skills gaps and support for Londoners to enter good work. 

1.2    Phase One MSA delivery focussed on sectors facing significant vacancies and/or presenting significant growth potential: creative, digital, green, health, social care and hospitality sectors, Hubs were subsequently extended under MD3296  for six months to September 2025. The Mayor approved a contribution of £750,000 from the ASF to extend the Phase One hub delivery to September 2025 (under MD3357).

1.3    Work remains ongoing on the development of proposals for the next iteration of the MSA programme that delivers the objectives of an employer-led inclusive talent system. This will build on the success of the original programme and will be informed by the evaluation findings and feedback from programme partners and stakeholders. Additional time is needed to develop the successor programme (see paragraph 2.9 below), so the funding request of £1.161 million is made to extend Phase One to March 2026. 

1.4    The GLA is also committed to working with the Premier League and the English Football League (EFL) to support football club workers by raising standards in the sector and supporting them in career progression through the establishment of a stewarding skills academy.

1.5    The GLA is entering a Memorandum of Understanding with the Premier League which revolves around four pillars:

•    establishing a Stewarding Academy (following the MSA model) to further professionalise the stewarding industry in London, generating applicable learnings for Premier League events nationally, and for London’s wider events industry

•    supporting the international expansion of Premier League games, reinforcing London’s status as a global sporting leader

•    reducing incidents of abuse and hate at football matches and beyond, ensuring a positive, safe environment for all fans

•    support London Premier League clubs in achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

1.6    The Premier League has agreed to provide funding of up to £655,000 over three financial years (2025-26 to 2027-28) as contribution to the costs of delivering a Stewarding Academy. The GLA proposes to provide £600,000.

1.7    The proposals align with the London Growth Plan, published in February 2025, which outlined London’s aim to grow London’s economy to improve the lives of all Londoners, drive London’s green transition and support prosperity in London and across the country. It recognised the importance of events and other experiences as one of London’s key strengths, and outlined that a shortage of skilled workers is one of the biggest constraints to holding back London’s growth. In addition, it highlighted that a major drive of inequality and poverty is lack of opportunities leading to low skills, low economic participation and pay that does not cover living costs. This is particularly acute for Londoners from certain communities.

1.8    The Growth Plan includes an Inclusive Talent Strategy which sets out London’s ambition to unify the capital’s disparate careers, skills and employment services, transforming them into a single Inclusive Talent System whose delivery is truly employer-led. The Inclusive Talent System will:

•    provide high-quality careers advice, relevant training, tailored employment support and appropriate work experience for young people, especially those facing the greatest barriers to good work

•    offer similar support to adults, particularly those groups underrepresented in the labour market or the economically inactive

•    operate a ‘no wrong door’ approach, ensuring Londoners can access support regardless of their location or point of entry into the system

•    enhance data sharing and collaboration between the skills, careers and employment elements, enabling a more agile and coordinated response to economic shifts and evolving workforce needs.
 

Stewarding Academy

2.1    A London Stewarding Academy leverages the Premier League's national investment in stewarding reforms. This London-based pilot aims to build on the SQUAD Hub, a new centralised continuous professional development (CPD) platform created by the Premier League to further professionalise stewarding and safety management across the football sector. By raising industry standards for stewarding training the Premier League hopes to raise the quality of training provision delivery across the sector. This will help to create a local model for recruitment, training, and career progression for stewards and safety managers that can be replicated across the UK. The hub aims to attract more people into safety management careers and ensure a safe, secure positive spectator experience across London. The learning from the pilot may be applied by the Premier League across the country.  

2.2    The objectives of the London Stewarding Academy pilot are to explore mechanisms:

•    raising the profile of stewarding and improving training quality for stewards in Premier League events
•    making stewarding more attractive and retaining talent with more training, better conditions and clearer progression pathways
•    for community-based recruitment of stewards for London football clubs and improving the representation of women and Londoners of all backgrounds in stewarding
•    improving the quality of stewarding and crowd management for other large events in London to improve public safety and quality of service
•    developing industry standards for stewarding training and rolling out new Level Two and Level Three training materials developed by the Premier League.

2.3    The London Stewarding Academy will aim to create a sustainable career pathway for stewards, ensuring that the profession offers decent work, clear career progress and recognition for excellence. The Academy will focus on creating a new standard where stewarding is seen as a viable and respected career, underpinned by fair pay (in line with the London Living Wage) and safe working conditions. To achieve this aim, the Stewarding Academy will need to develop a partnership of employers, including London-based Premier League and EFL clubs as well as other stewarding employers, such as music venues.

2.4    Based on the existing MSA model, the GLA will procure an organisation to host a coordination team and manage a network of strategic partners which align with the delivery of Stewarding Academy objectives. The partnership is expected to include London-based Premier League and EFL clubs, the Premier League, the GLA, training providers and community-based organisations with a view to achieving the objectives outlined above. 

2.5    Hub training providers in the partnership will be identified by their ability to deliver high quality training. It is likely that the provider will need to utilise their existing ASF allocations and employer training budgets, in the first instance.  

2.6    Further work to develop expected outcomes is required however it is expected that the Stewarding Academy will pilot delivery of the following over the 2025-26 to 2027-28 financial years:

•    engaging up to 5,000 stewards across London, providing Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) around training and career pathways
•    supporting up to 1,500 new stewards with a focus on engaging economically inactive residents
•    building a hub partnership, to include a selection of London-based Premier League, EFL clubs and over the longer term, other employers
•    developing a set of new industry-recognised stewarding training standards
•    improving career pathways for stewards, including London Living Wage (LLW) minimum pay standards
•    assembling an Academy Steering Group of key partners to maintain oversight and drive delivery; partners to include the GLA, Premier League, and club representatives, community organisations, and training providers 
•    appointing a Sector Learning Group or similar including non-London based Premier League clubs, music and other event owners, and academic partners to help identify and document learning and apply it to the wider event management sector as well as rolling out findings to Premier League clubs outside of London.

2.7    The GLA will evaluate the success of the pilot through a series of outputs and outcomes which will include measuring any increase in trained Londoners entering the stewarding sector and securing ‘good work’ .  It is anticipated that the GLA and Premier League will identify ways of sustaining the work beyond the lifetime of GLA/Premier League funding.

Phase One hubs

2.8    The key outcome target is supporting Londoners into 11,880 ‘good work’ employment outcomes across the priority sectors over the lifetime of the programme. By the end of Q2 2024-25 (most recent reporting period to date) it has achieved over 15,860 good work outcomes. Extending hub funding will enable this work to continue over an extended period to the end of 2025-26.

2.9    The development of the successor programme to the MSA will build on the success of the original programme and be informed by the evaluation findings and feedback from programme partners and stakeholders. It also needs to align with the priorities of the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), the London Growth Plan and the forthcoming Inclusive Talent Strategy.

2.10    This wider strategic framework outlined above, means the successor hub model needs to be redesigned with a more ambitious structure to support the Mayor’s aim of creating a unified, employer-led inclusive talent system that brings together skills, employment support and careers provision to create diverse talent pipelines for employers, particularly in sectors key to its economic growth.  

2.11    The current round of hub funding is due to end in September 2025, leaving insufficient time to develop and procure a successor programme which responds to the ambition of systems change across skills, employment and careers provision. A funding request of £1.808 million is therefore made to extend existing hub delivery to March 2026. This will provide continuity to established employer-training provider partnerships whilst development and procurement of the successor programme is underway. It will also ensure that good practice learnt over the past three years is not lost ahead of the new programme going live in April 2026.

Spending proposals 

Stewarding Academy

2.12    The GLA intends to incur expenditure on the Stewarding Academy hub costs (with a value of up to £1 million) between 2025-26 and 2027-28, including costs of the recruitment of a core team to deliver the objectives of the hub.

2.13    Approval for the award of GLA funding of up to £600,000 over three years (up to £200,000 per year from 2025-26) is sought (as part of the ‘Supporting Londoners to Benefit from Growth’ programme) to fund the costs of delivering the Stewarding Academy including staffing resource, research, community engagement, and administrative costs. The Premier League will match-fund the programme, contributing up to £655,000.  

2.14    The current spending proposal for the Stewarding Academy is detailed below. However, some movement between budget lines is likely, the details of which will depend on the extent to which key tasks are administered by the hub lead.  

Table 1

*Premier League contribution by year to be determined, to a value of up to £655k.  Annual budgets might need to be adjusted to reflect this.

Phase One hubs

2.15    The most recent MSA budget, approved under cover of MD3296 totalled £16.475 million, allowing the Phase One hubs to run until September 2025.

2.16    Table 2 (below) sets out the revised whole programme forecast and actual spend to date, allowing for Phase One hub delivery to continue to March 2026, at a cost of £3.872 million plus £320,000 for GLA staff to administer the programme and £49,770 for delivery of the final evaluation. Slippage in delivery has resulted in forecast spend moving between years. This budget includes £200,000 related to the Stewarding Academy for 2025-26. 

Table 2

2.17    Subject to approval, a core budget of £4.012 million for 2025-26 and an indicative budget of £4.008 million for 2026-27 has been allocated for the MSA programme, as set out in the GLA: Mayor Budget 2024-25. Allocation of the second phase of the skills academies and staffing to administer this delivery will be detailed in a subsequent Mayoral Decision.  

2.18    The Mayor approved £750,000 from the ASF for 2025-26 academic year to support delivery of the hub programme in the 2025-26 financial year (under MD3357).  

2.19    This decision proposes the delegation of authority to each of the Assistant Directors – Skills and Employment to make all non-ASF programme-level decisions (either independently or together) relating to the Stewarding Academy in line with local management arrangements and without the need for a further decision form. This may include changes to budget scope based on the developing partnership arrangements between the GLA and the Premier League. This will enable the efficient approval of grant and contract awards for this project which is necessitated by the short timeframe to get into delivery.

3.1    Section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010 provides that, in the exercise of their functions, public authorities 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    Relevant protected characteristics are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

3.3    The phase one hubs were aimed at supporting learners from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities; learners without basic skills; learners with special needs or disabilities; lone parents; and low-paid learners as well as young people; newly unemployed people; people with caring responsibilities; people at risk of redundancy; and Londoners with the most complex needs, such as disabled Londoners and the long-term unemployed. The GLA consulted on the equalities impact of these changes with key sector representatives, and will closely monitor, review, and evaluate their impact. These priority groups will continue to be supported throughout the hub extension period, however any new groups emerging from the Growth Plan will be incorporated.

3.4    The Stewarding Academy will target Londoners, including young Londoners not in education, employment or training as well as Londoners not in work or in low paid employment in order to support them into the experience economy. The pilot will work to address underrepresentation in the sector by supporting pathways into learning for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities; women and learners with special needs and/or disabilities.  The Academy will also begin to tackle inequalities in the experience of working stewards from Black, Asian and minority ethnic or female backgrounds, who currently report a more negative experience of working than their White and/or male counterparts. The programme will work on improving work standards and perception of the profession, as well as strengthening the safeguarding element of the training to tackle these inequalities.

3.5    An Equality Impact Assessment is underway for phase two of the MSA. This will respond to     underserved Londoners highlighted in the Growth Plan and Inclusive Talent Strategy. 
 

Links to Mayoral strategies

4.1    The GLA is committed to working with the Premier League and the English Football League on developing a skills academy for those working with football clubs in London, giving these important workers a route to career progression and raising standards in the sector.

4.2    The Stewarding Academy is proposed as a key intervention as part of three of the proposed programmes being established by the Mayor:  

•    Supporting Londoners to Benefit from Growth: supporting Londoners’ access to good work opportunities within the sports and major events sector and ensuring the sector has the skills it needs to thrive

•    Supporting and Inspiring Young London: young Londoners, particularly those not currently in employment, education or training (NEET), will be one of the groups targeted by the hub as part of the drive to train up to 1.5k new stewards, helping to diversify the workforce

•    Boosting London’s Growth Sectors: creating the conditions for growth sectors to thrive and supporting city wide coordination across the experience economy to address sectoral needs.

4.3    The programme also aims to support implementation of the London Growth Plan by seeking to ensure London’s economy and businesses have the skills needed to grow, allowing Londoners to benefit from economic expansion by securing well paid and sustainable employment. The London Growth Plan stresses the ambition for London to continue to attract major sporting events that attract both large domestic and international audiences.  London will continue to position itself as the global capital of sport and the destination of choice for major business and cultural events.

4.4    The MSA programme plays a key role supporting objective eight of the Mayor’s Equality Diversity & Inclusion Strategy. This aims to help Londoners at risk of marginalisation in the labour market to get the skills and support they need to secure good quality jobs. It also supports objective nine – ensuring London’s workforce reflects its population at all levels and in all sectors by ensuring all Londoners can upskill to access the opportunities for good work in in London’s priority sectors. The Stewarding Academy pilot will work to address underrepresentation in the sector by supporting pathways into learning for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities; women, young Londoners and learners with special needs and/or disabilities. In addition, it will begin to tackle inequalities in the experience of working stewards from Black, Asian and minority ethnic or female backgrounds, who currently report a more negative experience of working than their White and/or male counterparts.  

Risks arising/mitigation

4.5    Key risks and mitigation measures are outlined below. This may be refined following further stakeholder engagement.

Conflicts of interest

4.6    There are no conflicts of interest from those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form.

Subsidy control

4.7    The Subsidy Control Act 2022 requires that grant funding comply with its subsidy control principles. Officers have assessed the proposed extension of the hub funding and are satisfied that the proposals align with the seven subsidy control principles as set out below.

4.8    The proposed extension of funding pursues specific policy objectives, enabling jobs and skills key interventions, aligning with the overarching policy objectives set out in the London Growth Plan and the forthcoming Inclusive Talent Strategy. It also directly responds to the Department for Education (DfE) funded London Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP):

•    The proposed extension of funding is proportionate to the specific policy objectives and covers staffing costs and other direct costs related to the delivery of the project. The beneficiaries act as a conduit of the benefits of the subsidy, which flows through them to support end beneficiaries, Londoners, to achieve good work employment outcomes.

•    No direct benefit accrues to the hub funding recipients as no profit is allowable under the terms of the grants and so the subsidies’ beneficial effects outweigh any negative effects. Jobs and skills support is not a statutory obligation and therefore without the extended funding the activity would not continue to take place.

•    The project would not be pursued in the absence of the subsidy, leading to the policy objectives not being achieved and support not being delivered. The proposals have been designed specifically to achieve the respective policy objective and as such there is a low risk of the subsidy producing negative effects on competition or investment within the United Kingdom. 

5.1    Approval is sought for the following:

•    the receipt of up to £655,000 from the Premier League as part of their partnership commitment to the Stewarding Academy delivery over three financial years from 2025-26 to 2027-28

•    the total expenditure of up to £1.255 million for the delivery of the Stewarding Academy from 2025-26 to 2027-28 financial years made up of £600,000 GLA budget and £655,000 Premier League funding. Breakdown across financial years is shown in table one above

•    six-month extension funding of the wider MSA Phase One programme for a total of £2.14 million covering both grants and management and administration (funding includes the ASF contribution of £750,000 for the 2025-26 academic year and the remaining £1.39 million funded from the MSA programme budget).

5.2    The expenditure of £600,000 across 2025-26 to 2027-28 financial years and £1.39 million in 2025-26 financial year will be funded from the MSA programme GLA budget and the expenditure of £750,000 in 2025-26 financial year will be funded from the ASF. There is sufficient funding to cover this expenditure and it is in the appropriate budget profile as outlined in this decision document.

5.3    Funding for future financial years will be subject to the annual budget setting process and is subject to change. The expenditure of £1.99 million from the MSA budget and £750,000 from the ASF is planned in the budget and will be confirmed as part of the budget setting process.

5.4    Any contracts that commit the GLA in future years are subject to appropriate break clauses.
 

6.1    Under section 30 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the Act) the GLA may do anything that it considers will further one or more of its principal purposes, which are promoting: economic development and wealth creation in Greater London; social development in Greater London; and the improvement of the environment in Greater London.

6.2        In determining whether to exercise its power to further one or more of its principal purposes, the GLA is required to consider the effect this may have on the remaining purpose or purposes — in so far as that is practicable — and, over a period of time, to secure a reasonable balance between furthering each of its principal purposes.

6.3        Section 33 of the Act requires the GLA to make appropriate arrangements with a view to securing that, in the exercise of its general power, there is due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people. The GLA is also subject to the public sector equality duty imposed by section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the exercise of its functions (see section 3 above).

6.4        Section 34 of the Act enables the GLA to do anything that is incidental to the exercise of its functions, including its general powers under section 30. 

6.5    Sections 1 to 4, above, concern the award of grant funding by the GLA. Officers must ensure that such grant funding is distributed fairly and transparently. 

6.6        The Subsidy Control Act 2022 requires that grant funding comply with its subsidy control principles.  Subject to section 6.8(c) below, officers have set out at section 4 above how the proposed grant complies with those principles. 

6.7        Any function exercisable by the Mayor on behalf of the GLA may also be exercised by an officer of the GLA albeit subject to any conditions, which the Mayor sees fit to impose. To this end, the Mayor may make the requested delegation to each of the Assistant Directors of Skills & Employment if he so chooses.

6.8    If the Mayor makes the decisions sought officers must ensure: 

(a)    no reliance is placed upon: (i) Premier League funding until a legally binding commitment has been secured in that regard and officers are satisfied that they can comply with any Premier League funding conditions; or (ii) any future years’ funding until the related budgets are definitively approved and, in any event that the relevant agreements contain termination for convenience rights in favour of the GLA

(b)    that GLA grant-funding agreement(s) with the current MSA Phase One hub recipients are varied to reflect the proposed extension and award of additional funding before any commitment to provide the additional funding is made

(c)    as the proposed additional funding exceeds £100,000, that the grants are registered on the Department for Business and Trade’s Transparency Database

(c)     to the extent that expenditure on the London Stewarding Academy programme concerns: 

i.    the purchase of services, suppliers or works they are procured in liaison with TfL Procurement in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code and appropriate contract documentation is put in place between and executed by the GLA and contractors before commencement of those services   

ii.    the award of grant funding, such award is made fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities requirements and with the requirements of GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code and funding agreements are put in place between and executed by the GLA and recipients before any commitment to fund is made

(d)    if applicable all GLA staffing matters are conducted and approvals sought in accordance with the GLA’Ss HR protocols

(e)    any decisions made concerning ASF funding are made fully in accordance with the delegation to the Mayor of AEB functions from the Secretary of State for Education, noting in particular that the usual power of delegation by the Mayor is not available in respect of the delegated ASF functions.