ADD335 Well London: Further reallocation of underspend

1.1 Well London is a programme of community engagement and development aimed at increasing levels of mental well-being, healthy eating, and physical activity and empowering local communities in deprived neighbourhoods in London. Nearly all project delivery finished at the end of March with an underspend of approximately £32,000.

1.2 In June 2015, under cover of AD303, Assistant Director’s approval was given for the reallocation of funding amounting to £31,000. Of this reallocation, it was not possible to utilise the £15,000 allocated to the University of East London (UEL) for a new Well London website by the deadline agreed. The website work is going ahead but will be funded by UEL.

1.3 In addition, a further underspend of around £7,000 has been identified due to a delay in volunteer training by the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) in the new Well London areas in Haringey. This brings the total remaining underspend to approximately £23,000.

1.4 Assistant Director’s approval is required to reallocate funding amounting to £16,850 to the University of East London (UEL) for expenditure on community engagement work in the new Well London areas in Haringey that took place between April – June 2015. The Big Lottery has agreed to funding being used for this purpose.

1.5 UEL has provided community engagement work in other Well London areas which has been commissioned by the GLA and funded by the Lottery. LB Haringey had previously been asked to cover these costs as the GLA did not expect to have sufficient Lottery funding available to cover them. By using Lottery funding for this expenditure, it will enable - and LB Haringey has committed - the borough to cover the costs of delayed volunteer training by the RSPH and to put additional resource into themed project activity.

2.1 The reallocation of £16,850 to the University of East London will fund the Community Engagement, Assessment, Design (CEAD) process which took place in new Well London areas in Haringey between April and June 2015 as follows:

2.2 CEAD is a comprehensive process for community and stakeholder engagement in needs assessment and design of local Well London programmes. This approach ensures that local programme of local activities is responsive to each community’s needs as identified by the communities themselves. The CEAD process took place in each target neighbourhood at the beginning of each phase of the Well London programme.

2.3 In Haringey the CEAD process was delivered for the three new Phase 3 neighbourhoods: Love Lane, Northumberland Park and the Stellar/Lindales area. This included:

• Door step surveys in each area. The two smaller areas had 100% of doors knocked, the larger area had 80% knocked
• Six Community Cafés and two Community Action Workshops.

In all, 200 residents filled in the door step survey, although considerably more had conversations. 118 residents attended the community cafés, and 135 residents and other stakeholders attended the two Community Action Workshops. 17 people were also trained in door-step survey techniques. These included local residents, staff and volunteers from local organisations, and some UEL student volunteers.

Three detailed reports were produced from this process:

• Community Action Workshop Reports for the ‘Northumberland Park, Stellar House and the Lindales’ area
• Community Action Report for the ‘Love Lane’ area
• Programme Initiation Document for the overall Tottenham Well London Programme

3.1 Well London directly tackles health inequalities by taking place in some of the capital’s most deprived areas. The programme advances equality of opportunity by fostering good relations between people from different generations, backgrounds and cultures.

3.2 Well London takes appropriate steps to reach everyone who could benefit from the programme and this is monitored on a quarterly basis by the Big Lottery.

a) key risks and issues
The key risk is that funding is not spent by end of June which is the deadline set by the Big Lottery Fund. However, the proposals set out in this paper should ensure that nearly all the funding is spent by this date.

b) links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
The Well London programme engages with key areas identified by the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy and addresses three important determinants of poor health; (i) poor diet; (ii) lack of physical activity; and (iii) poor mental well-being. In addition Well London achieves wider social benefits that contribute to a range of other mayoral strategies and priorities including Equal Life Chances for All (2012) and the 2020 vision. Well London supports the GLA’s related duties to promote equalities and sustainable development.

c) impact assessments and consultations.
Consultation has taken place with the Big Lottery Fund on the best way of reallocating the underspend. For the approval requested in this ADD it is not considered appropriate or necessary to carry out any further external consultation within the meaning of section 32 of the Greater London Authority Act.

5.1 In MD1206, the Mayor approved receipt of a further award from the Big Lottery Fund of £1.8m to expand and continue the phase 2 Well London programme to 2015. Subsequent approvals, (DD1244, ADD256 & ADD303) reallocated under-spends that had accrued during the programme delivery. Approval is now being sought to reallocate a further £16,850 from under-spends detailed within the main body of this report, specifically to the University of East London to cover community engagement work in the new Well London areas in Haringey.

5.2 In relation to the budget provision, the costs will be funded from Big Lottery income, the receipt of which was approved by MD1206 for phase 2 of the Well London Programme (2013-15). 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.

5.3 The Health & Communities Unit (Communities & Intelligence Directorate) will be responsible for managing the Well London Programme and ensuring that all activity and expenditure complies with the Authority’s Financial Regulations, Contracts & Funding Code and Funding Agreement Toolkit.