MD3077 London Office of Technology and Innovation – Renewal of grant funding and delivery of Get Online London

1.1.    This Mayoral Decision (MD) seeks approval from the Mayor for the GLA’s award of additional grant funding to London Councils, as a contribution to the costs of the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) – London's local government digital innovation community. MD2373 approved the original grant (running from mid-2019 to 31 March 2021). This MD outlined the business case and rationale for LOTI, and its proposed scope and funding model; and included its initial business plan. 

1.2.    This MD also seeks approval to support LOTI in delivering Get Online London, the city’s first digital inclusion service, which will deliver digital access for all Londoners with three core elements, comprising access to: mobile data; digital skills; and the right device Londoners need to get online. 
Contribution to costs

1.3.    LOTI will continue to be funded by a combination of direct funding from the GLA and London Councils; and to be supported by membership fees. LOTI had 15 borough members when it launched in 2019; it now has 24. This has enabled LOTI to grow from a very small organisation, with the staff count increasing from three to eight, and to work in more areas. 

1.4.    LOTI has set out its fourth year (2023) business plan. Following discussions with its members, including the GLA, LOTI proposes to focus activity in four areas: 

•    People – supporting recruitment into the local government sector for technology, digital and data roles; continuously increasing and supporting the pool of talent; arranging high-quality training; and maintaining networks and communities of practice. 
•    Technology – working with techUK to match boroughs to the best suppliers; funding cybersecurity pilot initiatives; and focusing on the environment and ‘smart city’ investments to help achieve London’s net-zero goals.
•    Data – LOTI is working with the City Intelligence Unit (CIU) on the Data for London platform and data-sharing strategy. As part of this, LOTI helped to create London’s first pan-city lead for Information Governance (IG), who will help upskill IG staff and standardise and embed best practice across the capital. LOTI team members will also offer advice on data ethics; and support pan-London data projects that can demonstrate improvements to services and outcomes for residents. 
•    Methods – bringing together directors of adult social care with digital, data and innovation professionals to pilot new approaches; promote best practice in digital engagement; and design and roll out London’s first ever digital inclusion service, Get Online London. 

1.5.    The business plan also sets out other potential projects on its ‘backlog’ of member requests. 

1.6.    LOTI’s budget plan, covering the proposed period of the GLA’s grant, is set out at Appendix A.

1.7.    This MD seeks approval of GLA expenditure of up to £100k for financial year 2022-23; and up to £100k per year from 2023-24 to 2024-25 (around 10 per cent of London Councils’ LOTI running costs per year), by way of the award of grant funding to London Councils as a contribution to LOTI’s costs. An incumbent administration cannot unduly fetter the discretion of a successor administration; and so it is proposed that the funding agreement proceed on the basis of the GLA’s provision of funding in the years 2022-23 to 2024-25, with an option exercisable at the GLA’s sole discretion to cease the provision of funding on notice.

Get Online London

1.8.    The Lloyds Consumer Digital Index estimates that 270,000 Londoners have no access to the internet at all. A further 2m are estimated to have very limited use – this includes, for example, those that can get online but have difficulty accessing online forms or internet banking. 

1.9.    Following the launch of the Digital Access for All mission, the Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme (DIIP) was approved in June 2021, to be delivered by LOTI. This was funded for two years, from the Devices and Data budget, in the GLA budgets for 2021-22 and 2022-23. The objectives of this programme were to research, design and test a minimum access package. 

1.10.    Since launching the DIIP in June 2021, LOTI has worked with public, third and private-sector organisations to design and deliver projects that aim to tackle digital exclusion in London. The programme used innovation methods to discover, design, develop and scale initiatives that support digitally excluded Londoners who had been left particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outcomes included the following:

•    LOTI has delivered a better understanding of causes and types of digital exclusion. The digital exclusion map, bank of digital exclusion personas, and in-depth research on the causes and available programmes, give those developing digital inclusion programmes the tools they need to best target their approach. Boroughs and voluntary partners are using these in their programmes including Brent, Barnet, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark and Westminster.
•    LOTI has reduced the barriers for partners to recycle their devices for digital inclusion. The device upcycling research has helped to shape the digital inclusion service, and to support partners (boroughs and corporates) in overcoming barriers to upcycling devices.
•    LOTI has provided a new way to provide support for those with dementia to access digital services. The pilot with the Helix Centre co-designed and piloted new ways to provide dementia support; and produced an online toolkit and training for boroughs to use. Boroughs involved in this project included Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster, Lewisham, Newham and Ealing.

1.11.    These outcomes suggested a way forward to provide sustainable support to Londoners who are digitally excluded, and did so earlier than expected. Building on their findings from the DIIP, LOTI developed a partnership with Good Things Foundation (GTF) to begin delivering a digital inclusion service. Rather than wait until the end of the DIIP, and acting in consultation with the Digital Exclusion Taskforce and the Chief Digital Officer, LOTI used the second year of funding to start to deliver the partnership.

1.12.    In June 2022, LOTI and the Mayor launched a partnership with GTF, conducting a pilot to develop a city-wide, holistic digital inclusion service. The service will seek to support Londoners with three core elements, comprising access to: mobile data; digital skills; and the right device Londoners need to get online. The pilot agreed a target of supporting 75,000 Londoners over a three-year period. 

1.13.    The pilot builds on GTF’s experience of supporting digitally excluded people with free data sim cards as part of the Data Bank, and with access to their Online Centres Network for training, in order to create a new London Device Bank that will refurbish and distribute donated devices. The service’s operating model relies on voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to distribute the data and devices to digitally excluded people in the communities they serve, and provide referrals for training opportunities.

1.14.    The DIIP has £1.362m of GLA funds allocated via the Devices and Data budget. LOTI used £545,000 of the DIIP funds to fund one year of the digital inclusion service pilot. LOTI and GTF have been seeking partners, including sponsors, and using existing borough-led initiatives to deliver the second and third years of the pilot. LOTI and the Mayor are committed to tackling digital exclusion in London, and to reaching the 75,000 target, but it would likely take significantly longer without funding from the GLA.

1.15.    Recognising the urgent need for this service, per the Recovery programme, this MD seeks approval of GLA expenditure totalling £1.2m across the course of the programme, to be funded from two sources The sum of £700,000 across the programme will be GLA expenditure from the Devices and Data budget, subject to agreement of the Mayor’s budget for 2023-24 and 2024-25. Currently this is profiled as £400,000 in 2023-24 and £300,000 in 2024-25. It is requested that this is amended to £123,000 in 2023-24 and £577,000 in 2024-25 to match the planned profile of spend for this programme. In addition, £500,000 which is currently allocated in the draft 2023-24 budget for sub-regional digital connectivity champions will be reallocated towards this programme. This has been made possible by changes in the profile of funding needed for these sub-regional roles. However, this is a one-off reallocation and funding from 2024-25 onwards for the sub-regional roles will continue to be required.

1.16.    This funding will be used to deliver the following:

1.17.    The pilot will develop a service that continues beyond June 2025 without additional GLA funding. This is being done by working with GTF, which is delivering digital inclusion programmes nationally. LOTI is committed to sustaining the signposting portal indefinitely, which will be the public-facing element of the service for Londoners. By running the programme for three years LOTI and GTF will: 

•    meet the urgent digital exclusion needs of Londoners
•    understand what is required to deliver the pan-London service 
•    develop options for making the service sustainable in the long term. 

1.18.    This sustainability research will work to: secure key partnerships with commercial organisations and public-sector partners, who can support the service by donating devices to the programme; and develop the self-sustaining financial model for the device bank. This model proposes that a portion of donated devices are refurbished and sold to fund the ongoing costs of the service.
 

Objectives

2.1.    Since its inception LOTI has formally set out its vision (“a future where London borough councils are among the most effective digitally-enabled public sector organisations, achieving their best for London’s residents”) and mission (“help borough councils work together to unlock the power of digital and data innovation to improve the way they operate and the services and outcomes they deliver for Londoners”).

2.2.    LOTI has set out its medium-term objectives, up to 2025, as follows: 

•    digital and data innovation will be considered a normal and essential part of conversations about tackling the capital’s major policy and service challenges
•    boroughs will be able to easily access all the digital, data, tech and innovation talent they need from a diverse and skilled workforce
•    boroughs will have the knowledge, processes and relationships needed to procure, create and deploy the best technology solutions to achieve their goals
•    boroughs will be able to join up, analyse and act upon their data, and that of other organisations, to drive improvements in decisions, services and outcomes
•    boroughs will be confident users of a broad range of innovation methods; and have the support to apply them to improve or radically reform their services.

2.3.    When the original grant for LOTI was agreed, there was an intention to draft an evaluation plan for LOTI with guidance from GLA Economics. The idea was to make an interim impact evaluation of LOTI in mid-2021 that would identify the key metrics to monitor; this in turn would facilitate ongoing performance management. The plans for implementing that evaluation were postponed due to disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. The LOTI team met with the GLA Economics team in January 2023 to plan a robust evaluation, due to take place in the first half of 2023.

2.4.    Since the original MD, LOTI’s measurable inputs, outputs and outcomes have included:

•    growing the membership from 11 to 24 boroughs, and the team from three to eight people
•    producing more than 50 guides, toolkits and templates, created and shared to benefit all boroughs
•    securing more than £300,000 in additional funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
•    running more than 30 projects, including two award-winning projects on digital inclusion
•    designing the first ever pan-London digital inclusion service
•    appointing the capital’s first Pan-London IG Lead and Data Ethicist to provide hands-on support for London’s data-sharing needs
•    hiring 104 digital apprentices to build the talent pipeline
•    producing more than 180 blogs, weeknotes and articles as part of its commitment to working in the open and sharing knowledge
•    hosting major events on net zero, digital inclusion and social care; and bringing together digital and data teams with leaders in each field to design and develop new solutions.

2.5.    The overall objective for the London Recovery Digital Access for All mission is: “Every Londoner to have access to good connectivity, basic digital skills and the device or support they need to be online by 2025.” The delivery of LOTI’s Get Online London service aligns with this objective by working towards the following outcomes: 

•    reduce the number of Londoners who are digitally excluded
•    provide support for up to 75,000 people over three years 
•    provide offline Londoners with upcycled devices
•    provide free or low-cost mobile connectivity
•    making people aware of basic skills education courses available to them.

2.6.    As set out in paragraph 1.17, through this three-year pilot of the Get Online London service LOTI will:
•    meet the urgent digital exclusion needs of Londoners
•    understand what is required to deliver the pan-London service

•    develop options for making the service sustainable in the long term. 
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, as well as to advance equality of opportunity between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not. 

3.2.    There will be continuing opportunities for the GLA to meet its equality duties through its regular interaction with the LOTI and its influence over its business plans. Specific projects developed in this programme will undergo individual assessments to ensure the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010 is complied with. Any potential negative equalities impacts will be identified and relevant mitigations considered.

3.3.    Reducing digital exclusion is a foundational step in supporting London’s communities; improving access to services; and narrowing social, economic and health inequalities. Older age, disabilities, learning difficulties, ethnic origin, location, culture and language, and low income are also important factors, as per the following findings:

•    If you are poor, you have less chance of being online. The higher your income, the more likely you are to have online access. In a recent survey, only 51 per cent of households earning between £6,000 and £10,000 per annum had home internet access. The figure for households with an income of £40,001 and over is 99 per cent (ONS, 2019).
•    In 2017, 56 per cent of adult internet non-users were disabled. Yet disabled adults only make up 22 per cent of the UK population (Family Resources Survey 2016-17). In 2017, among internet non-users aged 16-24, some 60 per cent were disabled.
•    Ofcom estimates that between 1.14m and 1.78m UK children (9 per cent) lack access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home – and more than 880,000 live in a household with only a mobile internet connection.
•    In a recent survey, 55 per cent of London’s civil society organisations reported an increase in demand for digital connectivity from those they support under lockdown.

3.4.    The Get Online London project is being supported as it is designed to positively impact London by reducing the digital divide faced by Londoners. It is doing so in partnership with London boroughs, the VCS and industry. 
 

Key risks in the set-up and delivery of LOTI

Key Risks for Get Online London (aka London Digital Inclusion Service)

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1.    LOTI’s activities align with the objectives of Mayoral strategies and priorities, including the following.

4.2.    Mayoral Strategies: By driving collaboration across London in technology, digital and data services, LOTI will help to realise the seven Mayoral statutory strategies: transport; the environment; health inequalities; housing, culture; economic development; and the London Plan. The Economic Development Strategy specifically supported the establishment of LOTI, co-funded by the Mayor and London Councils.

4.3.    Data for London: LOTI supported the creation of the Data for London Advisory Board that will oversee the creation of the first London Data Strategy. Critical to the success of the data strategy will be the identification of more, and more useful, data collaborations across organisational boundaries – spotting where data unique to different organisations may yield insights, service improvements, and the creation of new data services entirely, for the benefit of Londoners. LOTI’s focus on data collaborations between boroughs is consistent with this approach. 

4.4.    Digital Access for All: One of the key missions identified as part of London Recovery programme is the Digital Access for All mission: “Every Londoner to have access to good connectivity, basic digital skills and the device or support they need to be online by 2025.”

4.5.    Adult Education Budget: The Mayor has also secured the delegation of the Adult Education Budget and has pledged to offer ‘Basic Digital Skills for Londoners’ to help equip people who have low or no digital skills with the tools they need to cope with increased digitisation.

Consultations and impact assessments

4.6.    LOTI’s business plan is informed by continuous interactions with all LOTI members. Every month, representatives from each member organisation gather for an ‘all-member’ session, where projects and LOTI’s strategic priorities are discussed. The LOTI team has a weekly meeting with the GLA to ensure its work is aligned with the objectives set out in the grant agreements and that LOTI is supporting the GLA’s needs. The Director of LOTI meets with each member on a regular basis to understand their needs. LOTI works in the open, sharing early ideas for new projects and encouraging feedback and input from members and partner organisations.

Data protection impact assessments

4.7.    The decision itself does not have any data protection implications. However, some of LOTI’s projects may continue to have important data protection considerations.

4.8.    The LOTI staff team, engaged by London Councils, will need to ensure that Data Protection Impact Assessments continue to be undertaken when needed, in line with the advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office, and with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

4.9.    There are no conflicts of interest to declare for anyone involved in either the drafting or clearance of this decision form.
 

5.1.    Approval is being sought for the following separate grant awards to LOTI: 

•    expenditure of up to £100,000 per year, from 2022-23 to 2024-25, as contribution to London Councils’ costs in running the LOTI
•    expenditure of up to £1,200,000 (£623,000 in 2023-24; and £577,000 in 2024-25) to deliver Get Online London, London’s first digital inclusion service
•    reprofiling of the Data & Devices budget to match the above expenditure profile.

5.2.    The phasing of the separate grant programmes and the funding sources is summarised in the table below:

5.3.    The funding for the annual £100,000 running-cost grant is held within the City Intelligence Unit; and the Get Online London grant of up to £1.2m is held within the Air Quality, Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity Unit. The budget provision for 2023-24 has been included in the indicative budget plans for 2023-24 onwards. The formal grant agreements will only be entered into upon conclusion and approval of the Authority’s budget-setting process for 2023-24, which is currently under way. 

5.4.    The funding for the Get London Online programme, totalling £1.2m across the course of the programme, is to be funded from two sources, subject to agreement of the Mayor’s budget for 2023-24 and 2024-25. The sum of £500,000 is within the draft 2023-24 budget. The remaining £700,000 across the programme is GLA expenditure from the Devices and Data budget. Currently this is profiled as £400,000 in 2023-24 and £300,000 in 2024-25. It is requested that this is amended to £123,000 in 2023-24 and £577,000 in 2024-25 to match the planned profile of spend for this programme. 

5.5.    It should be noted that this proposal would constitute a pre-existing commitment against these budgets, in particular those beyond 2023-24. To mitigate any risk of the grant programme not being sufficiently resourced in future years to cover costs following the budget-setting process, the grant agreements will include the usual break clauses that could potentially be exercised if required. 

5.6.    Any changes to this proposal will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision-making process. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made. 
 

6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:
•    the proposals in respect of which the Mayor’s approval is sought fall within the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, as they may be considered facilitative of and conducive to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation in Greater London

•    in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers, have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
o    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
o    consider how the proposals will promote the health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
o    consult with the 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, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it (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.    Sections 1 and 2, above, indicate that the proposed contribution of funding amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for works, supplies or services. Officers must ensure that:

•    funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities, and in manner that affords value for money, in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code
•    an appropriate funding agreement/variation of the current funding agreement with LOTI (as applicable) is put in place between, and executed by, the GLA and London Councils before any commitment to fund is made.

6.4.    No reliance should be placed on, nor commitments made in reliance of, any funds forming part of budgets until they have been approved. 

6.5.    In addition, to the extent that the proposals in respect of which decisions are sought involve the making of commitments that 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 the discretion of any successor administration, considering in particular the London elections taking place in May 2024. Accordingly, officers must ensure that all agreements that involve making such commitments include a GLA right to terminate at any point for convenience (at no cost to the GLA), and that all such agreements are managed in such a manner; and any deliverables, milestones and/or output requirements are structured so as to mitigate risks of the GLA incurring abortive expenditure (which might be reasonably be taken to fetter, practically, the exercise of such discretion).
 

Delivery approach

7.1.    Currently, the GLA and LOTI meet regularly to discuss projects of mutual interest. They also formally review LOTI’s activity twice per annum, prior to agreeing to the continuation of grant payments in accordance with MDs. We propose that this approach continues in future. LOTI will maintain regular dialogue with its members, as set out at 4.6, above.

Core LOTI Funding

7.2.    LOTI will see through delivery of their year 4 strategy, which runs until 15 July 2023. This covers their work on the areas of people, technology, data and innovation methods, with a thematic focus on net zero, digital inclusion and social care. 

7.3.    LOTI will work with the GLA and London Councils to design and finalise the strategy for year 5.

7.4.    LOTI will onboard the latest member of the team, - a talent and skills manager, in March 2023.

Get Online London

7.5.    LOTI will launch a website landing page for the Get Online London service.

7.6.    Pending confirmation of GLA funding, LOTI will finalise the delivery plans with GTF.

7.7.    LOTI will host a digital inclusion conference in May or June 2023 to promote the Get Online London service.