Countering Violent Extremism - Shared Endeavour Fund Call 2

This decision seeks Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) approval to spend £400,000 to run Call 2 of the Shared Endeavour Fund so that projects that counter racism, hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation continue to be delivered across London against the backdrop of continued heightened threat.

Call 2 will support projects led by civil society groups, the very best placed to deliver this work, to:

• Strengthen communities against racism, hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation.

• Encourage more Londoners to stand up to racism, hate and intolerance.

• Improve the safeguarding of vulnerable Londoners from radicalisation.

To support the administration of this call, in line with value for money consideration, this decision is also seeking approval to spend up to £80,000 (which includes a provision to cover a fund allocation which includes matched funding) to procure a provider who will oversee, deliver and administer the small grants across London as has been successful for Call 1 of the fund.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve spending of £400,000 of the Countering Violent Extremism Programme budget on pan-London small grants to be launched in 2020/21.

2. Approve the procurement to source an organisation who will oversee, deliver and administer the grants process across London. This contract will be up to the value of £80,000 (dependent on match funded additional monies) and will span financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22.

3. To delegate approval to award the contract to the CEO or Director of Strategy, subject to receiving assurance that the process has been conducted in compliance with procurement regulations. The approval will span financial years 2020/21, 2021/22 with 12-month extension options

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC

1. Introduction and background

1.1. Standing together against hatred, intolerance and extremism is a priority in the Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan 2017-2021, which committed to implementing measures to strengthen work against hate crime and prevent vulnerable people in London from being radicalised.

1.2. Between 2018 and 2019 the Mayor’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programme delivered the most comprehensive city-wide engagement ever in this policy area. It found that the majority of Londoners look to the Mayor for leadership in countering hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation.

1.3. A key finding of the report was that City Hall should deliver a grants programme (which stands aside from existing Government countering extremism strategies) to civil society groups delivering projects which directly counter extremism, offer positive alternatives to vile ideologies and encourage others to stand up to hate and intolerance.

1.4. In January 2020 the Mayor’s CVE Programme partnered with Google.org to launch the Shared Endeavour Fund, an £800,000 small grants programme supporting more than 30 projects across London.

1.5. This fund is supporting vital projects which counter racism, hate and intolerance (mitigating the risk of hateful attitudes resulting in hate crime perpetrations), raise awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation, encourage more Londoners to stand up to hate and signpost pathways to wear help and support can be sought in relation to radicalisation concerns.

1.6. Projects work across the spectrum of harms driven by extremism including racism, hate crime and radicalisation. Projects have multiple themes including awareness raising, sports-based delivery, strategic communications campaigns and arts & drama. Direct beneficiaries are represented across a wide cohort spectrum including delivery in primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, community centres and youth clubs. Projects are distinct and complimentary to Government funded activity. Many groups who are unwilling to work with the Government, local authorities or the Police are willing to work with MOPAC and City Hall.

1.7. Call 1 was oversubscribed by more than 100% with a total funding request of £1.7m.

1.8. Due to COVID 19 implications Call 1 of the fund fell slightly behind schedule due to necessary adaptations made in light of unprecedented challenges. However, as of December 2021, over 255 workshops had been delivered to more than 8000 direct participants, and the digital reach has exceeded 435,000 indirect participants.

1.9. Furthermore, project visits and mid project reporting has already evidenced the success of the projects. All projects will complete by the end of March 2021 and an independent evaluation, conducted by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, is underway. Learning from this evaluation will be available for consideration during the moderation period for Call 2.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The threat of terrorism and violent extremism is ever present. In November 2020, the national terrorism threat level for the UK was raised to ‘SEVERE’. Home Office statistics show a 10% rise in Prevent referrals from 2018/19 to 2019/20, and London had the second highest number of referrals adopted as a Channel case (the multi-agency panel which provides support to individuals deemed ay risk of being drawn into terrorism).

2.2. All experts and authorities are in agreement that the risk of extremism has increased during the pandemic period. Extremists have sought to exploit these uncertain times by blaming minority groups, promoting conspiracy theories and promoting divisive messages in what currently is and will likely continue to be a tough economic climate.

2.3. The Government’s Commission for Countering Extremism has identified that “the short and long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could create conditions conductive for extremism”, and that “delivering events, campaigns and projects based on inclusion, shared values and community cohesion…are vital to help build resilience to extremism and prevent extremists from gaining a foothold”.

2.4. The continuation of the Shared Endeavour Fund into 2021/22 would ensure ongoing leadership from the Mayor and MOPAC in this policy area by supporting civil society groups to deliver innovative and impactful projects to help Londoners stand up to racism, hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation. This is particularly important at a time of great need and against the backdrop of arguably limited intervention from the Government (who kept their Building a Stronger Britain Together programme inactive during this financial year with no published intention to reactive this scheme).

2.5. The Mayor’s CVE programme will continue to seek match funding from private organisation to increase the money available for this grant programme but will proceed to deliver the Shared Endeavour Fund with £400,000 from existing MOPAC budgets whether this can be obtained or not.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The total budget requirement for this work is £480,000. This will be funded from within the existing CVE programme budget for 2020/21 and 2021/22.

3.2. The intention is to award up to £80,000 to procure a fund manager to administer and manage the fund on MOPAC’s behalf. This figure takes into account potential match funding of the total grant from a private partner. If match funding is not obtained, the maximum budget for the grant management will be £40,000.

3.3. The fund manager will be contracted across two financial years, 2020/21 and 2021/22. Up to £40,000 will be provided to the fund manager in financial year 2020/21, with up to £40,000 provided in financial year 2021/22 to be funded from 2020/21 carry-forward into 201/22 subject approval at year-end.

3.4. £400,000 will be awarded as grants and this total sum will be provided to the chosen fund manager in the financial year 2020/21. The fund manager will oversee a competitive process for Shared Endeavour Fund 2 projects and will enter into individual grant agreements with the successful applicants.

3.5. All final decision-making regarding recommendations to award individual grant awards will be retained by MOPAC.

3.6. MOPAC will put in place mechanisms, and provisions within the contract, to ensure that the fund manager provides suitable and appropriate assurance to MOPAC regarding its effective and robust management arrangements for the grant fund amount for which it will be responsible.

3.7. Successful applicants to the Shared Endeavour Fund 2 grant will deliver their projects across financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22

3.8. The chosen fund manager will release the grants to successful applicants over the course of the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Section 3(6) of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (‘PRSRA’) provides that MOPAC must secure the maintenance of the Metropolitan Police force and secure that the Metropolitan Police force is efficient and effective. Paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 to the PRSRA provides that MOPAC may do anything which is facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the exercise of its functions. Furthermore, MOPAC has powers under section 143 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to commissioning services and grants that will contribute to securing crime and disorder in London. The proposed expenditure is consistent with MOPAC’s functions under section 3(6) of the PRSRA and section 143 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

4.2 Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve:

4.2.1 Approve bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding; and/or where appropriate a strategy for grant giving; and

4.2.2 the strategy for the award of individual grants and/ or the award of all individual grants whether to secure or contribute to securing crime reduction in London or for other purposes.

4.3 Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the DMPC has deleted authority to approve the procurement strategy, requests to go out to tender, and contract award on behalf of MOPAC for revenue and capital expenditure of under £500,000.

4.4 Officers must ensure they comply with the Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations and must ensure that appropriate contractual documentation is put in place before the commencement of the services with the Fund Manager.

5. Commercial Comments

5.1. This decision is seeking DMPC approval to commence a procurement exercise as per the Grants & Programme Services Specification Framework Agreement.

5.2. The Mayor’s CVE programme team has developed robust monitoring processes and systems to ensure delivery is on schedule and tracked to meet agreed targets and outcomes and, ensure MOPAC achieves value for money. This was evidenced through the first iteration of the Shared Endeavour Fund in 20/19/20. Evaluation of the grants will be included in the contracts.

5.3. MOPAC will run an open and competitive procurement process sending out an Invitation To Tender (ITT) to a minimum of 4 suppliers to commission the required grant management functions and lead to the award of contract to the successful bidder.

5.4. This process will be conducted in line with MOPAC’s Contract Regulations 2018 and the contract awards will be signed off in line with MOPAC’s internal governance arrangements and the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. A public health approach is rooted in good multi-agency working and close working with communities, focused on prevention, and informed by the systematic use of evidence.

6.2. The programme report, ‘A Shared Endeavour’, recognised that the first line of defence in tackling racism, hate, intolerance and extremism is London’s diverse communities, but they are often under resourced to stand up and challenge extremism. The Shared Endeavour Fund 2 will provide an opportunity to continue this community-based, preventative work.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. MOPAC will adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

8.2. The chosen providers will be required to have due regard to the protected characteristics of the people and communities relevant to this piece of work. MOPAC will work with the successful providers to ensure their approaches to delivering this work are done within all equality legislation.

9. Background/supporting papers

None.