CD142 Employment and Skills Hub branding exercise

Park Royal is recognised as the UK's most productive and London's largest industrial estate. It is home to over 1,700 businesses varying in a range of sectors and employs 40,000 employees and generates £2.1bn in GVA to the UK economy. It is also home to 2,000 residents.

Despite this, the immediate area ranks in the 20 per cent most deprived areas in the country and scores poorly across a number of socio-economic indicators.

To help address these issues, and to capture the regenerative benefits flowing from HS2 and Crossrail, OPDC is working with the LB Ealing, LB Brent, LB Hammersmith & Fulham, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and West London College to establish an Employment and Skills Hub in Old Oak and Park Royal. The key aims are to:

a. Help people in the three local boroughs get the skills they need to access current, and future employment opportunities, which include: current jobs in the industrial estate (roughly 4,000 a year); 65,000 end user jobs (jobs created through completed schemes/developments, etc. over the next 30 years); thousands of construction sector jobs created by HS2 and associated regeneration.

b. Provide business support and recruitment services to local businesses.

The Employment and Skills Hub Delivery Board (made up of all delivery partners) has recommended creating a memorable and distinctive brand for the Park Royal Hub so that it has its own clear identity and a coherent and recognisable image to support its promotion.

This work will be undertaken by consultants, following a competitive procurement process (Discussed in Section 7 of this paper).

The consultants will be required to involve all delivery partners in the creation of an inspiring and memorable brand name, logo, tagline and other brand assets.

The branding design should be inspired by the area and the opportunities it presents. It will be approved by the Hub's Delivery Board.

Outputs

The commission will include the following outputs:

• An inception document which captures the requirements of the commission set by OPDC and partners (as clarified in the inception meetings) and the approach that the appointed consultants will take to deliver the outputs;
• At least two workshop sessions with OPDC and partners to gather ideas and discuss brand options;
• An inspiring and memorable name, logo, tagline and other brand assets (as agreed) with draft options for discussion;
• An associated font and colour palette for brand assets, with different draft options for discussion;
• A design/style guide for use of brand assets;
• A set of different design styles that allow for the brand assets to be included in a range of media; including flyers, posters and different social media platforms;
• The creation of templates in various formats, i.e.. letterheads, PowerPoint presentation, flyers, posters,etc.

Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the OPDC is subject to the public sector equality duty and must have 'due regard' to the need to:

(i) eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;

(ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and

(iii) foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do.

Protected characteristics under section 149 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.

Suppliers who will be invited to tender will be chosen with London, including SMEs to ensure that smaller companies are given the opportunity to submit a proposal.

Consideration has also been made for SMEs who are located within the OPDC area. This provides opportunities for companies who may not be included with the TfL Frameworks and would otherwise be overlooked. Including local suppliers in the tendering process helps gather expertise and familiarity of the area with which the Corporations is trying to engage with.

The partners who are engaged in the delivery of the Employment and Skills Hub represent different parts of the opportunity area. Including these partners, particularly the three boroughs, within the planned workshops enables collaboration and ensures that the needs of individuals who reside in those boroughs are heard.

Risks and Issues

Risk 1 - Conflicts or confusion with OPDC's (including In The Making branding) or partners' branding.

Mitigation - Socialise branding exercise with colleagues and external stakeholders to test for conflicts or confusion.

Risk 2 - Delivery partners and other stakeholders may disagree or dislike the proposed designs. Disagreements may affect the timing of the completion of the project.

Mitigation - Include partners, stakeholders and OPDC Comms in the development of branding assets. SMT will review and sign-off branding assets at key stages in its development.

Risk 3 - The scope and budget may creep during the project. During the project, additional inclusions may be identified which will result in a variation to the scope and an increase in budget.

Mitigation - Fortnightly review meetings with the consultants and client have been requested within the scope.

Stakeholders

The branding exercise will require input from internal and external stakeholders. Stakeholders will be invited to join steering or working groups or contribute through workshops or consultation events. Stakeholders will include:

Links to OPDC strategies

This project is in alignment with OPDC's objective of boosting economic growth and increasing the supply of jobs through the delivery of skills initiatives and opportunities.

It is also linked to the Park Royal programme, specifically the Employment and Skills area, for which this provides a workstream for.

Expenditure of up to £15,000 for the procurement and appointment of consultants will be met from the 2020/21 Employment and Skills budget which sits within the Delivery directorate. The consultants will need to be procured in line with the Corporations' Contracts and Funding Code.

Should the deliverables slip into future years, expenditure will need to be met from existing budgets.

Further expenditure is subject to the Corporation's decision-making process.

Legal comments are not required as the amount is less than £50,000.

Board paper for meeting on Thursday 30 January 2020 - Item 8 - Employment and Skills Programme

Boad paper for meeting on 24 June 2020 - Item 8 - Employment and Skills Hub