DD1440 Team London SkillUP Programme

1.1 Built on the success of volunteering at London 2012, Team London is a Mayoral initiative to promote volunteering across the capital and to encourage Londoners to ‘go local and do something great for their city’. Team London is working to build the next generation of volunteers, connecting young people with their communities and giving them the skills, networks and experiences they need to find work, and to bring together business and the third sector to increase impact across the capital.

1.2 Team London’s new Skill-UP programme brings together business and charities through gifting time and support to enable charity professionals from London based charities to gain the skills and support they need to develop individually and thus grow the impact of their charity. Champion businesses from different sectors will work with Team London to shape training boot camps for staff from small charities and provide mentors to support individuals as they put their learning into practice. The project will be delivered in the form of workshops for charity and third sector professionals which will be delivered by corporate professionals from relevant business fields. The workshops will include modules on financial management, HR and staff management and the use of social media as a means to promote and market organisations. The workshops will either be held at City Hall or at the offices of partner businesses who are supporting the programme.

1.3 To best analyse the needs of London’s small charity sector, Team London conducted a comprehensive study of the capital’s non-profits. To fully understand the problem, Team London undertook the following:

• 2 in-depth, formal focus groups with CEOs/senior staff of charities and business. One focus
group was held at City Hall and one at the 639 centre in Tottenham.
• Ad hoc focus groups on third sector staff who attended City Hall for various Team London
meetings over the period of the research.
• An electronic survey of all organisations registered on the Team London website. We
received 50 responses.
• A review of the relevant literature that analysed the skills gaps of small charities.

2.1 With small teams and often limited resources, both charities and their employees are often required to multi-task across multiple areas of expertise for example Operations, HR and Communications or Finance. It would be very difficult for these employees to have the necessary skills in all of these areas and thus there is a need for external support, advice and training.

2.2 Research by the FSI has shown that skills gaps represent a major barrier for small charities, with lack of funding for training and development cited as the main reason for the perceived skills gaps. Some specific examples include 43 percent of those with responsibility for HR indicating that they need some upskilling in the latest HR laws and practices and 50 percent of respondents indicating that there was a need for improvement in website development and utilising social media. Smaller charities often struggle to connect with business to be able to share their expertise, they do not have the contacts to ask, and sometimes do not know what to ask for.

2.3 After conducting a detailed skills gap analysis of charities and third sector organisations, Team London aims to partner with business champions to deliver workshops in the following business areas:

• Strategy and Business planning
• Finance
• Human Resources
• Marketing & Communications
• Stakeholder Management

2.4 In particular, charities outlined that they would require support in the following areas:

- Strategy and Business Planning:

• Driving efficiency in the charitable sector.
• Writing an effective strategy.
• Writing an engaging business plan.
• Managing growth – getting the balance right between growth of programmes and staff recruitment.

- Finance and Reporting:

• Effective financial forecasting.
• Effective bid writing and understanding the importance of full cost recovery.
• Improving skills on Impact reporting, measurement and evaluation.
• Financial management of projects and contract readiness.

- Human Resources:

• Creating/improving recruitment systems.
• Performance management and Learning and Development skills to better identify staff performance and training needs.
• Retention of staff; how to retain staff when there is no upward movement within the charity, how to prioritise training needs with finite resources in a time-precious environment.

- Marketing & Communications

• Branding and marketing your organisation.
• Creating a compelling annual report.
• Understanding how to use social media and technology.
• Developing internal and external communications plan.

- Stakeholder/external relationships

• Managing a successful relationship with your Board.
• Developing good networking skills and successfully maintaining a peer network.
• Identifying appropriate corporates and developing a successful corporate pitch.
• Managing a collaborative partnership; eg corporate sponsor.

2.5 It is expected that each work shop will have up to 40 attendees or delegates from small charities and third sector organisations within London. Pre and post workshops surveys will also be completed by attendees in order to accurately gauge the impact and success of the workshops and to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshops. Delegates will also be given handbooks and guidance notes for each workshop that they will be able to refer to in their day to day business activities.

3.1 The Skill-UP project is specifically aimed at employees of small charity and third-sector organisations, although any employees of such organisations are able to apply to attend any of the Skill-UP workshops.

3.2 All workshops will be fully accessible for attendees, with all materials covered during the sessions being handed out to delegates after the workshops. Post workshop support will also be available through Team London business champions, with Team London Officers also able to assist delegates.

4.1 The project links The Mayor’s vision 2020 (working with businesses to create/ support work opportunities for young people and support volunteering).

4.2 Team London will survey delegates at the start and end of each workshop to ensure that the topics
covered during the sessions are relevant and useful. This will also enable Team London to accurately
gauge the increase in knowledge of the attendees, and give an insight into the effectiveness of the
sessions.

5.1 The value in-kind that the GLA will receive for support on the Skill-UP programme during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years totals £146,000 as per the table below. In return for the Value In Kind (VIK), project partners and sponsors will receive marketing and publicity services from the GLA for which the monetary value is equivalent of the deliverables that it is receiving, thus resulting in VAT charges on both sides. Consequently, the GLA and all the project partners / sponsors should supply VAT only invoices to ensure VAT is correctly accounted for.

5.2 The total VIK contributions are detailed below:

6.1 Sections 1-5 of this report indicate that:

6.1.1 the proposals in respect of which the Director’s approval is sought may be considered to fall within the GLA’s powers to do such things as are facilitative of or conducive to the promotion of social development and economic improvement in Greater London;

6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:

(a) Pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) 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; and
(c) Consult with the appropriate bodies.