MD3223 Migration Programme

1.1.    This decision form seeks approval for expenditure of £750,000 of GLA budget for 2024-25, and approval for a further £360,000 for 2025-26 (subject to the annual budget-setting processes), to build capacity of the immigration advice sector, so that migrant Londoners have access to the appropriate advice, support and information needed to thrive. It further seeks approval of income up to £388,000, and expenditure of the same, to support the delivery of the London Strategic Migration Partnership (LSMP).
1.2.    This programme supports the overarching vision that all Londoners can thrive, irrespective of their background or immigration status. It is underpinned by the Mayor’s Social Integration Strategy, and therefore aims to: promote equality between Londoners; promote meaningful participation; and support building relationships across difference. To deliver on this, the work has been split into four core strands: investing in the immigration advice and support sector; improving the resilience of the sector; convening and improving the coordination of services across London; and improving understanding of core issues across London, so that services can better meet the needs of migrant Londoners. Many of this year’s proposed programmes continue the previous year’s work; these have already been approved under MD3118. 
Investing in immigration advice and support 
1.3.    The first strand of this decision seeks £327,000 of GLA budget for 2024-25 to ensure migrant Londoners can obtain reliable and accessible information, advice and support. This includes: 
•    investing in organisations so they become qualified to give immigration advice – thus addressing a gap, at source, for good-quality, qualified immigration advice in London
•    providing previously grant-funded organisations with support in accessing new funding to meet the needs of newly arrived and historically under-served migrant communities
•    maintaining a hub of information to help migrant Londoners understand their rights and entitlements
•    strategically funding immigration advice and the provision of support across London. 
1.4.    This decision also seeks approval for expenditure of £80,000 of GLA budget for 2025-26 to continue these programmes, subject to the annual budget-setting process. Further approvals will be sought for the programme for 2025-26, and future years as appropriate.
Investing in services that improve the resilience of the migrant advice and support sector
1.5.    In response to acute pressures on the migrant sector, this second strand focuses on improved resilience to support sustainable practice, and build specialism within the sector, through a period of fast-paced change and crisis management. This decision seeks expenditure of £264,000 of GLA budget for 2024-25 to continue building capacity and specialism to meet complex advice needs, including:
•    training on the immigration needs of children in care
•    supporting members of the Windrush generation
•    continuing advice and training to combat migrant exploitation in the workplace
•    contributing to the development budget for the migration team
•    continuing a project focused on improving mental health support across the sector, with a particular focus on equity-led organisations that face high risk of burn-out and re-traumatisation in their work.
1.6.    This decision also seeks approval of expenditure of £150,000 of GLA budget for 2025-26 to continue these programmes, subject to the annual budget-setting process. Further approvals will be sought for the programme for 2025-26, and future years as appropriate.
Convening and improving coordination of services across London
1.7.    The third strand of this decision seeks approval for the receipt of £388,000 income, and expenditure of the same, from the Home Office in support of the LSMP’s work (see MD3118). The purposes of the LSMP, which has existed for more than a decade, are to: provide strategic programme and policy coordination on migration; and, through working with partners, reduce the barriers that London’s migrant and refugee communities face in accessing services.
1.8.    The Home Office grant for 2024-25 will: cover the staff costs needed to support the LSMP and projects that further the delivery of its business plan; develop London’s approach to supporting resettled refugees; coordinate ESOL for resettled refugees; and support the delivery of appropriate asylum accommodation and support in London. 
Improving understanding on core issues
1.9.    This fourth strand works to develop a better understanding of core issues through evaluation, research and the development of practices that enable migrant voices to be heard. This decision seeks approval for expenditure of £109,000 of GLA budget for 2024-25 to: continue a robust evaluation of our core programmes to better evidence the impact and need for this work; and continue the work of the Migrant Londoners’ Board, to enable the views of migrant Londoners to be heard in relation to policies and programmes that affect them (see MD3118). In light of still-growing referrals of victims of modern slavery into the National Referral Mechanism,  this decision also seeks approval of expenditure of £50,000 to undertake research into support mechanisms for migrant victims of modern slavery in London.
1.10.    Further, this decision seeks approval of expenditure of £130,000 of GLA budget for 2025-26 to continue these programmes, subject to the annual budget-setting process. Further approvals will be sought for the programme for 2025-26, and future years as appropriate.
 

Investing in immigration advice and support 
Context and purpose
2.1.    Research supported by the Mayor of London has found that demand for immigration advice far outstrips supply in the capital. For legal aid work, the research concluded there was capacity for just over 10,000 immigration and asylum cases per year. For cases not eligible for legal aid, capacity is limited to 4,000-4,500 cases each year. However, annual demand is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. 
2.2.    Responding to this need, the GLA has worked with funders and civil society stakeholders to ensure immigration advice is prioritised alongside other forms of social welfare advice. Immigration advice-related work funded by the Mayor of London over the past four years has focused on developing capacity to identify and support people with immigration needs. This includes scaling up the capacity of local authorities’ migrant rights organisations’ legal advice and representation providers; and communities, to meet Londoners’ immigration needs.
2.3.    This work contributes towards a strategic vision where all Londoners can thrive, irrespective of their immigration status, by making access to settlement and citizenship easier for all Londoners in need. It aligns with the ambitions set out in All of Us: the Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration; and the Recovery Mission to provide a robust safety net to Londoners.
2.4.    Following the success of the European Londoners Hub (see DD2239 and DD2277), the Mayor invested in the development of the Migrant Londoners Hub (see MD2831, MD2973 and MD3118). This is a resource to welcome newly arrived migrants; and support Londoners with immigration needs by providing them with information about their rights and entitlements. 
2.5.    A review was conducted of the Hub’s content, and user testing of the site was undertaken with a group of target users to identify and suggest improvements to its design, content and usability. In 2023 a translation plug-in was added to the site, ensuring it is now accessible in over 100 languages. The Hub was also featured in the London For Everyone mayoral campaign, ensuring significant reach to Londoners seeking support for immigration needs. 
2.6.    In the context of immigration advice, Refugee Action’s Frontline Immigration Advice Project (FIAP) has, since 2016, supported organisations working with migrants. It helps them to provide high-quality immigration advice, by training advisers; to develop their advice models; and to register with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC). FIAP also provides ongoing support and continuous professional development to advisers and organisations enrolled in the programme. Refugee Action is the only organisation in the UK delivering this model. Its successful outcomes have led the London Funders strategy for immigration advice in London (to which the GLA has contributed) to highlight FIAP as an easily scalable model if additional funding is invested. The GLA has invested in this model’s expansion in London for two years (see MD2973 and MD3118). In this way, the GLA has addressed a critical systemic gap, at the grassroots of the advice sector, for newly qualified organisations – especially those that are equity-led. 
2.7.    In seven years FIAP has supported more than 200 organisations across the UK (40 per cent of which are in London); and trained 1,300 students, with a 70 per cent pass rate in OISC assessments. A total of 52 organisations have been supported, 22 of which have become accredited to provide more complex immigration advice and casework.
Delivery method and impact
2.8.    We are seeking approval for expenditure of £80,000 to further develop and maintain the Migrant Londoners Hub. This decision also seeks approval for expenditure of £10,000 to continue providing the Hub’s map of services.
2.9.    This is the next tranche of funding approved under MD3118. We will continue to:
•    prioritise accessibility and readability of the Hub’s content, including copyediting capacity, and potential for multimedia modes of communications
•    work with our commissioned partner to review both the legal content and accessibility of the Hub’s content (with the option to extend up until March 2026, subject to future budget approvals) to ensure its consistency and accuracy. This accuracy is especially crucial for migrant Londoners in light of frequent changes in immigration law and policy. 
2.10.    Funding will also contribute towards dissemination of information, including through social media; stakeholders; and the community engagement team and migration team programmes.
2.11.    The Migrant Londoners Hub aims to:
•    act as a trusted resource for migrant Londoners to access quality information about their rights and entitlements, and where to access safe and qualified advice and support
•    encourage migrant Londoners to identify their immigration needs; and take steps to secure and maintain their status
•    inform local authorities, GPs, police and other professionals about their duties and responsibilities towards migrant Londoners, to improve service delivery and help increase trust and confidence in these services
•    strengthen the Mayor’s messages of welcome and belonging towards migrant Londoners, including new-arrival communities
•    include targeted information for Londoners most in need of support to understand their rights and entitlements, including the Windrush Generation and new arrivals from Hong Kong, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
2.12.    To ensure continuity of support the Hub offers, we also seek approval of expenditure of £80,000 for 2025-26 to maintain and further develop the Hub’s resources for migrant Londoners.
2.13.    This decision also seeks approval to provide funding of £196,000 for FIAP, led by Refugee Action, to expand access to free high-quality immigration advice in London. 
2.14.    This continues the work delivered by Refugee Action over the past two years (see MD2973 and MD3118). It will allow FIAP to maintain its support to London organisations to develop, increase and strengthen their immigration advice services. The project targets frontline organisations, and those providing advice and casework in languages other than English. This prevents language from acting as a barrier to accessing free and quality immigration advice; and strengthens capacity among migrant and community organisations.
2.15.    Subsidy control implications are discussed at paragraph 4.4, below. 
2.16.    Approval is sought for expenditure of £25,000 to enable us to provide end-of-project funding to recipients of the Migrant Advice and Support Fund (see MD2973 and MD3118). These organisations have received 12 months of funding, enabling provision of specialist advice and/or holistic support to migrant Londoners, including European Londoners, Hongkongers and the Windrush Generation. Grants enable the GLA to respond in a coordinated way to humanitarian crises, including helping those impacted by the invasion of Ukraine and wider pressures within the asylum system. These grants have supported a resilient and inclusive advice sector to meet the dynamic needs of migrant Londoners.
2.17.    At the close of this Fund, we seek approval to fund improved fundraising capacity within these organisations, to support them accessing continued funding to enable the continued provision of their services. This is in line with our commitment to a sustainable, responsible approach to funding that supports the long-term legacy and impact of the Migrant Advice and Support Fund.
2.18.    In recent years, immigration legislation has changed in substantial and fast-paced ways, creating need for increased and reactive immigration advice funding (e.g. the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the 2023 Illegal Migration Act). A substantial proportion of the changes authorised by the Illegal Migration Act have not yet been brought into force, and will require specific capacity investment in the coming year. Approval of £16,000 expenditure is sought to enable us to provide strategic and reactive advice funding in response to current and upcoming changes in the advice sector. 
2.19.    Below is a breakdown of the funds for the spending proposals. All funding for 2024-25 and 2025-26 is subject to the annual budget-setting process.

Table 1:

Investing in services that improve the resilience of the sector 
Context and purpose 
2.20.    In response to acute capacity and policy challenges across the migration sector, this strand of work has been developed to improve resilience through strategic training programmes. This enables the development of durable partnerships; and improves mental health support available to frontline services.
2.21.    The GLA’s Children in Care with Immigration Needs programme (see MD2973 and MD3118) was developed and implemented in partnership with three London local authorities. As part of the programme, Coram Children’s Legal Centre continues to deliver pan-London training to local authorities, ensuring children in care across London are supported through early intervention and appropriate referrals. 
2.22.    Across the migration sector there is widespread recognition of the vicarious mental health impact of supporting migrant communities. In a Refugee Action survey from June 2022, 76 per cent of organisations reported their current status of staff wellbeing as ‘surviving’.  Relevant factors include the increased risk of vicarious trauma; the impact of longer work hours; inexperienced practitioners taking on high-stress cases due to lack of capacity across the sector;  increased burnout rates; and high staff turnover across a systemically underfunded sector.
2.23.    Due to urgent need, the sector’s work is structured in response to crisis; and delivered at a fast pace in response to humanitarian emergencies, crisis-managing urgent cases and cyclical applications for short-term funding. While mental health support is increasingly offered to migrant Londoners, rarely do organisations have the capacity, funding or expertise to also support staff wellbeing. 
2.24.    Migrant workers are disproportionately represented in low-paid, precarious and informal work. Many face additional vulnerabilities including exclusion from statutory services; language barriers; limited support networks; and a lack of knowledge about labour rights or where to access support. Migrant workers with new categories of immigration status – such as those with status via the Hong Kong BNO scheme, the EU Settlement Scheme or the Seasonal Worker scheme – face vulnerabilities accessing their rights and proving their status. Migrants also face challenges accessing advice and support that adequately covers the intersection between their immigration status and other rights and entitlements, including their employment rights. For some, reporting poor working conditions and challenging an employer could put them at risk of losing their visas and becoming undocumented. 
2.25.    In his manifesto, the Mayor committed to: challenge unscrupulous employment practices; demand high employment standards; and help Londoners to access support on employment rights and other social advice via the London Recovery Board.
2.26.    Building on these commitments, and on the GLA’s longstanding collaboration with the Citizenship and Integration Initiative, in April 2022 the Social Integration team welcomed two part-time civil society secondees. Their role is to coordinate and strengthen the Mayor’s work to protect the rights of migrant workers in London. They were joined in September 2023 by a third secondee. The secondees have worked closely with other teams at the GLA and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to ensure coordination across intersecting briefs.
2.27.    Over the past year, a training programme on employment rights for migrant Londoners has been commissioned, to create a bespoke training and supervision programme for migrant and community organisations. This will help such organisations identify employment issues, and provide advice and casework pertaining to employment rights. The programme (approved under MD2973 and MD3118) aims to improve access to advice and support needs to migrant workers in London who are at risk, or have experience, of labour exploitation through a commissioned programme. 
Delivery method and impact
2.28.    Building on year one of the labour rights training programme, approval of expenditure of £130,000 is sought to continue building capacity; and strengthening referral pathways and collaboration between the migrant and employment rights sectors. This will enable us to better identify and support migrants facing labour abuse and exploitation. This is the next tranche of funding approved under MD3118.
2.29.    This work will be shaped by the civil society secondees in collaboration with migrant and community organisations, employment advisers, caseworkers and solicitors. It will be developed in close collaboration with researchers to ensure future work is developed from a strong evidence base. It will also build on the GLA’s and MOPAC’s ongoing activity, including Advice in Community Settings; the Employment Rights Hub; and work to prevent and tackle modern slavery. A further £130,000 is sought for 2025-26 to ensure this work is embedded across workstreams.
2.30.    This decision seeks approval for expenditure of £10,000 to commission a pan-London resource for local authorities to access training and learning tools. This will enable them to build their capacity to identify and support children and young people in care with immigration and citizenship needs. This is a development from the work delivered in previous years, with a more detailed brief that includes the impact of new and upcoming immigration legislation that significantly alters the delivery need (see DD2492, MD2973 and MD3118). 
2.31.    The Mayor has a long-standing commitment to support Windrush communities in London. This work recognises the chronic lack of funding available to Black-led organisations,  and the fear that hostile-environment measures have created, that combine to prevent the Windrush generation from accessing support. We seek approval of £10,000 of community resilience investment into cross-generational work, bringing together the Windrush generation and their descendants, while supporting Windrush elders in their remaining years. 
2.32.    Responding to the urgent need to develop large-scale support systems and resources to support the wellbeing of migration practitioners, approval is sought for £110,000 to continue the implementation of the Migration Sector Wellbeing and Resilience Project. This is the next tranche of funding approved under MD3118. 
2.33.    This programme is being designed in consultation with the recipients of the Migrant Advice and Support Fund. These include organisations representing new-arrival communities and historically under-served communities including Deaf communities, LGBTQI+ migrants and Windrush families. As practitioners in this field, they are the experts on what wellbeing means. Their insight will then be structured, by wellbeing experts, into a coherent programme, testing and developing good practice with frontline migration workers.
2.34.    Approval is sought for expenditure of £4,000 to provide capacity building and staffing contingency for the Migration team.
2.35.    Below is a breakdown of the funds for the spending proposals. All funding is subject to the annual budget-setting process.

Table 2:

Convening and improving coordination
Context and purpose 
2.36.    The purpose of the LSMP is to provide a strategic leadership, advisory, coordination and development function for migration and integration in London. The LSMP brings together cross-sector partners to look at migration issues of strategic importance to London. It supports local delivery of refugee resettlement programmes; the coordination of ESOL provision; and the delivery of appropriate asylum accommodation and support in London. Its remit includes data and demographics on migration and supporting integration. The work of the LSMP is informed by the Mayor’s Migrant and Refugee Advisory Panel (MRAP), a network of organisations that support migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum, as well as other advisory groups and subgroups. The LSMP will ensure its work supports the Mayor’s priorities and GLA policies and activities.
2.37.    The funding covers staffing costs for longstanding posts. It is externally funded via grant income from the Home Office, with some additional costs being met by the GLA.
Delivery method and impact
2.38.    The LSMP budget provides for core staffing of the team. This includes six positions (5.5 FTE funded by the LSMP budget and 0.5 matched by GLA Robust Safety Net) to oversee the LSMP governance (including sub-groups and task-and-finish groups) and the work programmes attached to these boards, as required by our grant agreement with the Home Office. Three of these positions are permanent, recognising the long-standing nature of the LSMP. The other three are fixed-term positions, and are intended to be extended – provided that approval can be obtained through the Establishment Control process. The work includes refugee resettlement; coordination of ESOL; asylum accommodation and support; and various other strands of work at the request of the Board’s chair and partners. The LSMP carries out a lot of reactive work, including humanitarian crisis management through its ‘core group’ of senior leaders in London.
2.39.    This funding will also see the contribution towards aligned programmes that further the LSMP’s aims. This could include commissioning research and consultancy; funding projects that pilot ways of working and meet identified gaps in London; and continuing and embedding learning from the Asylum Welcome Programme.

Table 3:

Improving understanding on core issues
2.40.    The current policy context shows that ever-more victims of modern slavery are being referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).  There has been a concurrent decrease in protection available for victims of trafficking, following the Illegal Migration Act. While these structures are available for British nationals, they are also avenues of protection for migrant victims of trafficking or modern slavery; but, in this regard, are becoming increasingly difficult to access. Sectoral experts have characterised the NRM as “at breaking point”, resulting in the present situation where “survivors, already victims of severe human rights violations, are unable to be referred to the NRM and access support. Without being identified and provided support, survivors are at real risk of further harm and abuse, including treatment that amounts to slavery” . In this current state of crisis, is important to harness expertise across London; and develop an evidence-based response that ensures all Londoners, regardless of immigration status, can access protection from modern slavery or trafficking in our city.
2.41.    In the context of existing programmes, both the labour rights training, and the migrant advice and support fund, were flagship programmes that tested new approaches to the acute crisis faced by migrant Londoners. They helped build the sector’s capacity to support under-served communities.
2.42.    The flexibility in eligibility criteria of the migrant advice and support grant programme allowed us to fund a breadth of projects, in response to the urgent needs identified by community organisations. By encouraging partnership applications, we aimed to promote lasting collaboration across the advice sector for the betterment of migrant groups. The intersection of migrant and employment rights is an under-served area without structured trainings in place to tackle the acute vulnerability migrant workers encounter, particularly within the context of the hostile environment. As a pilot training, it is important to measure the impact of this approach to support exploratory conversations with funders around routes to scale this model.
2.43.    While the Mayor recognises that “London draws huge strength from the contribution of migrants who choose to make the city their home”,  under hostile-environment policies migrant Londoners face exclusion from full participation in our city. Limited access to housing, work, and ESOL, and difficulty in opening a bank account and attaining citizenship, are just some of the barriers confronting people seeking asylum, refugees and people with insecure immigration status. These barriers prevent them from contributing to the communities in which they live. Hostile-environment policies – such as increased immigration checks and delegated Home Office enforcement across civil society and local government – also create fear of statutory bodies within migrant communities. This is an obstacle in migrant Londoners engaging with the GLA. 
2.44.    At present, while working to ensure all migrant Londoners can thrive irrespective of their immigration status, the GLA works in consultation with civil society, local authorities and central government (notably via forums such as MRAP and the LSMP). However, until the recent creation of the Migrant Londoners’ Board, there was no tailored process in place for migrant Londoners to be consulted on projects and policies that impact them. 
Delivery method 
2.45.    To develop an evidence-based London response to access to protection from victims of modern slavery, a two-year research programme is proposed. The Migration team will work with sectoral experts and colleagues in MOPAC to gather evidence and draft a pilot programme at London level. We seek approval of expenditure of £50,000 for 2024-25, and £50,000 for 2025-26, to deliver this research project and implement a modern slavery protection pilot for London.
2.46.    A two-year, detailed evaluation of labour rights training and the Migrant Advice Support Fund is under way. This will enable the GLA to learn from the needs and approach of supported community organisations (see MD 3118). We seek approval of £59,000 for 2024-25 to finish this evaluation. This is the next tranche of funding approved under MD3118.
2.47.    Through the Migrant Londoners’ Board, the establishment of a lived experience panel will enable Londoners to be consulted on planned work; to have a safe space to raise key issues of importance to their communities; to network; and to develop a trusted relationship with the GLA. 
2.48.    This Migrant Londoners’ Board will be delivered by a commissioned community engagement partner. This partner will draw on existing GLA connections to community organisations, and thematic lived experience groups, to build an advisory panel of migrant Londoners. This programme aligns with All of Us: the Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration across two policy priorities: tackling barriers and inequalities; and increasing democratic participation by tackling inequalities in voice and power. It recognises that migrant Londoners are the experts on the barriers they face; structured consultation and co-design with migrant Londoners will build stronger and more relevant GLA migration programmes. We will particularly look to engage with historically under-served and racialised communities, including Windrush families, Deaf and disabled migrants, and LGBTQI+ Londoners, alongside new-arrival communities.
2.49.    We have commissioned a community engagement partner to promote the inclusion of migrant voices in our work, through the creation, recruitment and co-design of the Migrant Londoners’ Board. With the first three months of the programme under way, we seek approval of £50,000 for the next 12 months of the Board. This is the next tranche of funding approved under MD3118. We recognise that co-design and the community engagement process require time for a strong relationship and trust to be developed. To enable the Board’s long-term planning approach, we also seek approval of expenditure of £80,000 for 2025-26. 
2.50.    Below is a breakdown of the funds for the spending proposals. All funding is subject to the annual budget-setting process.

Table 4:

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must have ‘due regard’ of the Public Sector Equality Duty – that is, the need to:
•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
•    advance equality of opportunity
•    foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.
3.2.    Equality, integration and inclusion are the drivers behind these programmes. They support the delivery of All of Us: the Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration; and the Recovery Missions to enable access to ‘good work’ and a ‘robust safety net’. These programmes also help address challenges highlighted in other missions, including commitments to support young people and to build stronger communities. All these programmes seek to tackle the inequalities that pose barriers to Londoners with insecure immigration status. These barriers stop such Londoners from fully participating in their communities. The related work of these programmes includes improving access to immigration advice.
3.3.    The work to improve access to immigration and employment advice, and support services, and to improve accessibility of information to migrant Londoners, will reduce uncertainty and discrimination facing migrant groups. This includes challenges such as feeling unwelcome; discrimination; hate crime; difficulty renting private property and gaining employment; discriminatory treatment stemming from confusion about entitlements to services; and resulting mental health problems.
3.4.    Insecure immigration status often interacts with other forms of marginalisation, such as poverty, disability and racism. Many of London’s migrant communities are also ethnic minorities, and are impacted by barriers in accessing housing, secure healthcare and other entitlements. The impact of insecure immigration status does not solely affect the life chances of migrants themselves, but also their British family members such as children and other dependants.
3.5.    Migrant groups are also significantly represented among the low-paid workers who have been at the forefront of London’s COVID-19 response, or who have been impacted by poverty exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. For instance, those affected by the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition are often from a Black or other minority background, and often struggle with issues such as poverty, the impact of disability, or domestic violence.
3.6.    Creating opportunities for migrant Londoners to access good-quality advice and support, and for this advice to be embedded in settings where they can access it more easily, will help them to enforce their rights and entitlements. This programme creates more possibilities for migrant Londoners to flourish within their communities by ensuring that their basic rights are secured. Poor access to services and social connections has a particularly deleterious impact on people seeking asylum with additional protected characteristics. For example, our partners believe that people in the asylum system who identify as LGBTQ+ experience disproportionate isolation and victimisation.
3.7.    Any commissioning processes will ask potential partners to demonstrate how their projects are inclusive of a diverse group; and actively work to eliminate discrimination on the basis of the nine characteristics protected in the Equality Act 2010. To ensure the highest standards of equality, diversity and inclusion are upheld, the GLA will use outreach and engagement approaches to target activities at particular groups that are less able to engage, or that face greater barriers to engagement. This will  enable them to participate, while ensuring that activities are open and accessible to all Londoners.
3.8.    The guidance and resources are produced in accordance with best practice for accessible communications. The production of materials in multiple languages will support Londoners with limited English; and improve access to users with low reading comprehension. Grant programmes will focus on improving access to vulnerable or excluded groups.
 

Key risks and issues

Conflicts of interest
4.1.    There are no conflicts of interest to note for any of the officers involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form. The team administering these projects includes secondees from, and trustees of, several relevant organisations. Appropriate mitigations will be put in place throughout all tendering and grant programmes to remove relevant officials from a decision-making role regarding funding where any conflict does arise. This applies to GLA officers and those funded to deliver work on our behalf.
Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
4.2.    This work links to All of Us: the Mayor’s Strategy for Social Integration, including confronting barriers and discrimination faced by migrants and refugees, and supporting Londoners with insecure immigration status to access their legal rights to citizenship and residence. It also supports the delivery of the recovery missions to enable access to ‘good work’ and a ‘robust safety net’.
Consultation and impact assessment
4.3.    The focus of this work, developing the capacity of the immigration advice sector, has been built on extensive research and engagement with organisations from the migrant-rights sector, and people with lived experience of the immigration system; and desk research on capacity to inform our decisions as a funder.
Subsidy control
4.4.    As set out and approved in MD2973 and MD3118, the GLA is of the view that this grant amounts to a subsidy for the purposes of the Subsidy Control Act 2022, as it does not confer and economic advantage on Refugee Action, which is a registered charity. As described at paragraph 2.6, above, Refugee Action is the only organisation in the UK delivering this model of both training and holistic support to advisers and organisations. In addition, a large proportion of the sum will be used to cover the costs of participating organisations to ensure that: their staff are supported to engage in the training; and they can maintain their services. The amount directly used by Refugee Action for administration and recruitment to support the programme will be less than £50,000 per annum. This is a local programme, specific to London, and will not affect competition and investment within the UK, or between the UK and a country outside it. 
 

5.1.    Approval is sought for:
•    the expenditure of £750,000 from the Migration Support budget in 2024-25 to deliver work to support migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum in London
•    the expenditure of £360,000 from the Migration Support budget in 2025-26 to continue these programmes.
5.2.    This expenditure is detailed below: 

5.3.    Further approval is sought for the receipt of up to £388,000 of grant funding from the Home Office in 2024-25 financial year, and expenditure of the same, up to £388,000 in 2024-25 financial year, to meet costs related to the delivery of the LSMP.
5.4.    Any underspend on the £388,000 funding from the Home Office in 2024-25 financial year is to be returned to the Home Office.
5.5.    Funding for future financial years is subject to the annual budget-setting process, and may change. The expenditure of £750,000 for the Migration Programme in 2024-25, and £360,000 in 2025-26, is assumed to be affordable. This can only be confirmed when the budget allocation is formally approved as part of the annual budget-setting and approval process.
5.6.    Contracts that commit the GLA in future years are subject to appropriate break clauses.
 

Power to make the requested decisions
6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers; and fall within the GLA’s statutory power to do such things considered to further, or that are facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the promotion of social development 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:
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
•    consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
•    consult with 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; to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation) and persons who do not share it; and to foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic 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.
Procurement
6.3.    This decision seeks approval for expenditure of £750,000 and £360,000 respectively for the migration programme in 2024-25. Officers are reminded to comply with the requirements of the Contracts and Funding Code when they procure services or suppliers in furtherance of the various work streams within the migration programme, or when award grant funding. Furthermore, officers are reminded to put in place appropriate contracts and grant agreements between the GLA and the relevant service providers and/or recipients.
Receipt of funding
6.4.    The third decision requests approval for the GLA to receive grant funding of up to £388,000 from the Home Office in relation to the LSMP. Officers are reminded to ensure that the GLA complies with any conditions placed upon the grant funding by the Home Office.
Grant funding
6.5.    Inter alia, this first decision seeks approval for the GLA to provide up to £196,000 grant funding to Refugee Action for its FIAP. The proposed funding may be viewed as a conditional gift rather than a contract for services. Officers are reminded to put in place an appropriate grant agreement between the GLA and Refugee Action before any tranche of the grant funding is paid.
    Subsidy control 
6.6.    Grant funding is considered to be a subsidy only if it meets each limb of the four-limbed test set out in the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Officers have explained at paragraph 4.4, above, that the proposed grant funding does not meet all the limbs of the four-limbed test.
 

7.1.    All commissioned services will be procured competitively in accordance with Contracts and Funding Code. The following table outlines estimated delivery dates for this programme: