MD2510 Young Londoners Fund: Allocation of funding

The Mayor’s £45m Young Londoners Fund (YLF) helps children and young people fulfil their potential, particularly those who are at risk of getting caught up in crime. The fund supports a range of education, sport, cultural and other activities for young people aged 10 to 21 . MD2265 approved £45m for the delivery of the Young Londoners Fund:

• £30m of funding for projects driven by local community needs through two open grant rounds; and
• £15m funding to scale up existing projects funded from the Greater London Authority (GLA) that are already supporting young Londoners.

In May 2018 Round 1 of the YLF opened for applications. The fund was hugely popular, and we received over 450 applications requesting a total of over £122m of funding. In Round 1 we awarded £15m for 105 projects in local communities. These projects plan to support over 45,000 young people from October 2018 – December 2021. From October 2018 – March 2019 over 6,600 young people had participated in YLF activities.

Round 2 of the YLF was launched for applications in May 2019. We plan to award a further £15m of grants for projects in local communities in Round 2. These projects will deliver over three years from October 2019 – December 2022.

Of the £15m GLA scale-up funding MD2265 allocated £10.4m as follows:

• £6.78m to provide funding to the following GLA projects: Sport Unites, Stepping Stones, HeadStart Action, Young London Inspired, Mental Health First Aid in Schools, and Impact for Youth projects; and
• £3.615m to MOPAC to provide additional funding to the Knife Crime Community Seeds, London Gang Exit, and Major Trauma Centre and A&E Youth Work projects, and to support communications to help prevent knife crime.

MD2265 approved the allocation of £800,000 to the Impact for Youth Programme from the YLF budget to provide capacity building support to local organisations to generate and deliver grassroots projects funded by the YLF. This also included the active participation of young people in the YLF programme.

MD2265 also gave approval for receipt of additional funding from other funders of youth activities should it be forthcoming.

This MD seeks approval for the expenditure of £2.3m from the £15m to scale up existing projects as below:

• £1,425,000 for Round 2 of the YLF community driven projects that will deliver from October 2019 – December 2022;
• £500,000 for the London Gang Exit (LGE) programme, led by MOPAC, to extend delivery of the existing programme to 2020-2021, originally approved under Policing & Crime Decision 211 (£1m) and extended under MD2265 (£1m); and
• £375,000 to be allocated to Mental Health First Aid training to be extended to youth work professionals.

This MD also seeks approval for the receipt of £325,000 income for the Impact for Youth programme as follows:

• £300,000 from City Bridge Trust (March 2019 – December 2021) - to match fund the YLF Local Networks which provide local capacity building and capability support for organisations funded by the YLF or those applying for funding in Round 2 of the YLF; and
• £25,000 from MOPAC (April 2019 – March 2020) – for training and capacity building support for the youth Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE). The transfer of £25,000 from MOPAC to the GLA requires the giving of Mayoral consent under section 121 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the “GLA Act”) to the making of revenue grants between the GLA and the Functional Bodies is one of the specified areas set out in the Mayoral Decision-Making Document that is reserved to the Mayor.

The YLF supports children and young people (aged 10 to 21) across London, through a range of innovative and proven delivery models.

​​​​​​​To do this, the YLF aims to:

• Provide aspirational and positive activities to help support young people to make positive choices and reach their potential;
• Give new options to children and young people most at risk of taking the wrong path and help to prevent them getting involved in violence and criminal activity; and
• Improve coordination and capacity of London’s youth offer so more children and young people can access youth services and activities.

Details of the GLA and MOPAC programmes and amounts being approved for additional funding through this MD are set out below:

Young Londoners Fund Round 2

​​​​​​​Round 2 of the Young Londoners Fund closed for applications on 12 July 2019. We have received over 550 applications requesting more than £90m of investment for £15m of available funding.

​​​​​​​Central government funding cuts have led to huge reductions to youth services which provide essential safe spaces and positive activities for young people, especially those that are most vulnerable.

Investing an additional £1.425m in Round 2 projects will enable us to fund projects that will reach more young people over the next three years. For example, £1.425m equates to approximately 15 small grants (up to £90k); or 9 medium grants (up to £150k) over three years (from October 2019 – December 2022).

Grants will be awarded by the GLA to successful applicants and these will be monitored and evaluated as part of the YLF round 2 process and will be managed by the GLA Education & Youth Team.

LGE (Formerly London Gang Exit)

LGE is commissioned by MOPAC and commenced delivery in February 2016. The programme offers a holistic service to young people tackling each of the key drivers of involvement in serious youth or group violence; including mental health support, employment support, family support, housing advocacy and specialist support for girls and women.

The young people accessing support from LGE are generally being (or have been) exposed to drugs, violence, weapons, exploitation and other criminal activities, and this includes traumas such as being subjected to or witnessing murders, robberies, stabbings, shootings, or grooming.

Since October 2017, 221 young people have been referred to the programme and 82 of these have completed the programme. Evaluation to date indicates reductions in general offending and violent offending as well as a reduction in victimisation after LGE interventions.

The additional £500,000 funding will fund an additional 12 months of delivery (and could see in excess of 140 young people accepted onto the programme, and over 40 completing interventions).

The additional funding will be transferred from GLA to MOPAC by way of revenue grant under s 121 of the GLA Act; MOPAC will continue to manage the contract extension, project monitoring and evaluation of the current LGE programme.

The making of the s 121 revenue grant requires the giving of Mayoral consent, a decision which is reserved to the Mayor under the Mayoral Decision-Making Document.

Mental Health First Aid Training

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) teaches professionals such as teachers, youth workers and community workers how to spot mental health concerns in young people and guide them towards the support they need.

Further GLA funding will extend training from state-funded schools and further education colleges to other places and institutions that have regular contact with young Londoners such as youth clubs, universities, independent and faith schools, and faith communities. We anticipate that an additional 1,000 people will receive training.

The additional funding will be transferred to the GLA Health Team Thrive London programme who will manage the grants (awarded by the GLA), monitoring and evaluation of the current programme.

Receipt of Income for YLF Impact for Youth Programme

The £300,000 income from City Bridge Trust (2018/19 – 2021/22) will be used to match fund the YLF Local Networks which are jointly funded by the GLA. The networks are 12 local organisations that deliver capacity and capability support to youth organisations delivering YLF projects to ensure they are co-ordinated locally, are sustainable beyond the GLA funding period and to support organisations that are applying for Round 2 of the YLF. Each network has been awarded with a grant from the GLA between £82,000 - £180,000 (depending on the size of the locality it covers) from 2018/19 – 2021/22. A grant agreement is in place between City Bridge Trust and the GLA which was signed in February 2019, with the first £120,000 instalment of funding received in March 2019.

The £25,000 income from MOPAC will be used to ensure that the youth Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE) are better equipped to apply for funding to provide a range of specialised, local and tailored services for victims of crime who would not otherwise have sought or received support. Activities will be aligned to the YLF Local Networks and will include (but are not limited to) development support (e.g. developing consortia and partnerships), training and other venue costs, training materials, training staff and volunteers. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) will be put in place between MOPAC and the GLA to monitor this work.

Under s149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), as a public authority the Mayor must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act; and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

In London over two million children and young people aged 0-19 face an unequal start in life and the population is growing. London has the highest rate of child poverty in England (after housing costs are taken into account) and rates are expected to increase in coming years. Poorer children are more likely to underachieve at school, be unemployed and have lower incomes. Poverty is significantly worse in Black-Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families, and more than 50 per cent of families with a disabled child live at the margins of poverty.

Young Londoners have lost tens of millions of pounds in funding for youth services since 2011. Informal, non-statutory services have an important preventative role to play. Getting good support to young people in their teenage years is vital – especially to support the most disadvantaged young people. Youth services are vital to young people who have been left behind or marginalised. This enables them to reach their potential and play a valuable role in helping them avoid being sucked into crime. MOPAC’s data on knife crime demonstrates that BAME young people are over-represented as both victims and perpetrators and are overwhelmingly male with many and complex vulnerabilities.

1. Key risks and issues

2. Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

The YLF aligns with the Mayor’s priority to reduce serious youth violence in London. The YLF directly supports the work of the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit to address the root causes of violent crime by improving young people’s resilience, aspiration and ambition and preventative solutions to tackling violence and knife crime. It also supports MOPAC’s Knife Crime Prevention Strategy.

The YLF also contributes to other key Mayoral strategies, for example the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which includes an objective to help reduce the disproportionate impact of crime on children and young people, who are at risk of becoming either victims or perpetrators of crime, and the London Health Inequalities Strategy which includes objectives to ensure every London child has a healthy start in life and whose wellbeing is nurtured and supported through the Mayor’s Thrive London Programme.

3. Impact assessments and consultations

The YLF was established to address the impact of the huge budget cuts to the youth sector in London. We have also consulted with young people directly through the Peer Outreach Team and the Young Londoner’s Participation Network (of several hundred youth service providers in London) and our existing Young Londoners Fund projects. We have been working closely with the Community Engagement Team and the Violence Reduction Unit to liaise with local communities to address their needs and ensure they are able to access YLF funding and projects.

Young people are also central to mobilising the Young Londoners Fund and we have involved young people at all stages to ensure we are funding projects that young people want and need. Young people have been involved in the promotion of the YLF, over 150 young people scored Round 1 YLF projects and young people will be involved in the monitoring and evaluation of projects.

Through the YLF Impact for youth Programme we have funded YLF Local Networks across London which provide capacity building and capability support to those organisations that receive YLF funding and those that were looking to apply to Round 2. These Networks have been key to ensuring the Young Londoners Funding is accessible to local grass roots organisations.

Approval is being sought for expenditure of £2.3m as additional grant funding towards, Young Londoners Fund Round 2 (£1.425m); MOPAC for the LGE programme (£500k); and Mental Health First Aid- training to the youth sector (£375k).

The above expenditure of £2.3m will be profiled over the following four financial years; 2019-20 (£671k), 2020-21 (£956k), 2021-22 (£452k) and 2022-23 (£221k). This will be contained within the previously approved £45m Young Londoners Fund under MD2265.

Approval is also requested for the receipt and expenditure of £325k in match funding from City Bridge Trust (£300k), and MOPAC (£25k) contributing towards the Young Londoners Fund Impact for Youth programme, to be profiled over three financial years as follows: 2018-19 (£120k), 2019-20 (£125k) and 2020-21 (£80k).

Under s 30 of the GLA Act 1999 the Mayor may do anything, including incurring expenditure, to further the promotion of economic development, wealth creation and environmental and social improvement.

The further funding of the Mental Health First Aid Training to extend this youth clubs, universities, independent and faith schools, and faith communities described in this MD falls within the scope of the Mayor’s powers under section 30. Section 31(5A) specifically permits the Mayor to incur expenditure, including by way of grant, under his s 30 powers concerned with the provision of services or facilities for improving or protecting public health.

Section 121 of the GLA Act provides that the GLA or a functional body may, with the consent of the Mayor, pay to the GLA or to another functional body grants towards meeting the revenue expenditure incurred or to be incurred by the recipient for the purposes of, or in connection with, the discharge of that body’s functions.

Approval is sought for the making of the following revenue grants under s 121:

• £25,000 from MOPAC to the GLA to be earmarked for the purposes of for training and capacity building support for youth voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations within the Youth Impact Programme (see paras 1.8 and 2.7 above); and
• £5000,000 from GLA to MOPAC to be earmarked for the purposes of delivering the LGE programme (see para 2.5 above).

The earmarking of grants by the recipient bodies does not involve the organisation giving it making the grant subject to any limitation in respect of the expenditure for which it may be applied.