MD2591 Team London and Community Sport 2020-21

Team London & Community Sport is the unit within the GLA which delivers the Mayor’s community sport, volunteering and social action programmes.

The Team London & Community Sport unit has two main programmes of work: Team London, which focuses on volunteering and social action to support and promote active citizenship, social integration, social mobility and community engagement for Londoners; and Community Sport – supporting sport and physical activity for improved health and wellbeing amongst Londoners, and for fairer, better connected, more inclusive communities, using the power of sport to improve social integration.

Team London

Team London’s work will continue to focus on using volunteering and social action to support and promote active citizenship, social integration, social mobility and community engagement for Londoners. The programme also supports the resilience of the London voluntary and community sector.

To date, Team London has engaged 122,000 volunteers, 50,000 young people and over 2,100 schools, and currently works with 4,911 charities.

The Team London programme helps deliver the Mayor’s priorities to work with communities and civil society groups across London to encourage active participation in community and civic life, supporting Londoners of all ages to volunteer and take action to improve London. The team is building strong partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors, enabling Londoners to have access to the skills they need and contributing to the corporate social responsibility objectives of London’s businesses. The team has a focus on reducing the barriers to volunteering and social action, ensuring that all Londoners can benefit from the wellbeing, employability and social integration benefits of participation. Volunteering and social action are key enablers in multiple mayoral strategies including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Health Inequalities and Social Integration.

Team London is the London delivery agent for the Careers and Enterprise Company in the London Enterprise Advisor Network. Team London has also secured matched funding from the #Iwill/Step Up to Serve campaign administered by the National Lottery to deliver youth social action programmes.

Much of the work in 20/21 will continue to build on the success of previous years. Programmes such as Team London Ambassadors will continue to support British visitors to London and overseas tourists alike. The Team London Young Ambassadors will continue connecting young Londoners with their communities through social action. Delivery of grant funded projects relating to the original programme (2017-20) of #Iwill/Thrive London grants will continue and reach completion this year.
Community Sport – Sport Unites

The Community Sport programme is focused on delivering the aims and objectives of the Mayor’s statutory strategy, Sport for All of Us. This strategy for sport and physical activity is primarily delivered via the Sport Unites programme. Sport Unites will provide funding and support for individuals and organisations across London that use, or wish to use, sport and physical activity as a means of (i) improving social integration and (ii) increasing participation in sport to enhance Londoners’ physical and mental health and wellbeing. The Community Sport programme also contributes to mayoral strategies including Health Inequalities and Social Integration.

Sport Unites also funds ‘enabling’ activity to provide additional support to initiatives funded under the other themes of Sport Unites, to include: training and support for the paid and volunteer community sport workforce; investment in ‘sport tech’ to help address physical barriers to physical activity in London in innovative ways; providing guidance and leadership to the sector on sport for social integration, helping all those involved learn from what works, and what does not; and conducting robust monitoring and evaluation, as well as building the capacity of those we fund to improve their capability and confidence in providing evidence of their impact.

The Community Sport work programme contributes to Mayoral priorities in addressing five key strategic social issues: physical inactivity, mental health, serious youth violence, social isolation, and social mixing. In tackling these issues the GLA works closely with external partners such as London Sport, Comic Relief, and Laureus Sport for Good.

Approvals sought

This MD seeks approval for total expenditure as follows;

a) in 2020/21 of up to £1,649,000 at a net cost to the GLA of £1,539,000 (provided that £110,000 of external funding can be secured). Expenditure exceeding £1,539,000 will only be committed/incurred if such external funding is secured;

b) in 2021/22 of up to £434,000 at a net cost to the GLA of £251,000 (provided that £183,000 of external funding can be secured - expenditure exceeding £251,000 will only be committed/incurred if such external funding is secured); and

c) in 2022/23 of up to £397,000 at a net cost to the GLA of £215,000 (provided that £182,000 of external funding can be secured - expenditure exceeding £215,000 will only be committed/incurred if such external funding is secured).

Approval for expenditure in 21/22 and 22/23 is being sought in this MD to support a three-year application for external match funding.

In some areas where work programmes are still developing, detailed expenditure and delivery plans will be set out in an Assistant Director Decision/Director Decision for approval by the Assistant Director/Executive Director. Details of all delegated decisions being requested, totalling £186,000 in this financial year are set out in the detail of Table 2.3 onwards.

Projects with existing approvals are not referenced in the sections that follow. However, where additional expenditure is being requested, past approvals and the total expenditure level are referenced for completeness.

1. The programme funding will contribute to the following:

1. 2. The context, outcomes and allocation of funding is detailed in the table below:

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must have ‘due regard’ of the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; and

• Advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Equal opportunities are enshrined within Team London and Community Sport’s programmes. Team London and Community Sport’s projects aim to ensure that all Londoners can access volunteering, sport and physical activity opportunities and indeed by doing so support other Londoners equally throughout the city.

These projects particularly promote equal life chances, reducing barriers to social mobility and demonstrating improvements in social integration and effective community engagement. This will involve working with young people and under-represented and disconnected Londoners to connect them, through volunteering, sport and physical activity initiatives, with education, training and the world of work.

Team London has commissioned research to look at the barriers and challenges involved in getting Londoners to participate in volunteering. This is to support work on Reward and Recognition and to ensure that volunteering and social action programmes are structured in a way that is as appealing and accessible as possible. The Survey Of Londoners showed that volunteering and social action participation improves social integration, and so increasing accessibility of programmes will improve rates of social integration experienced by volunteers.

Programmes such as Young London Inspired or Team London Young Ambassadors will specifically target young people with protected characteristics. A key goal of these programmes is to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. In particular they will target young Londoners from more diverse and deprived backgrounds who might experience significant barriers to participating in social action and volunteering, look at how to overcome these barriers and motivate and reward young people in ways that support them to grow.

The work also embraces London’s diversity and fosters good relations by connecting Londoners from a variety of backgrounds together in support of commons causes.

Team London has tasked itself with growing the numbers of volunteers from multiple backgrounds and communities in the capital, and with enabling young people from diverse and deprived backgrounds and protected characteristics to become involved in volunteering and social action.

Team London and Community Sport programmes will provide flexibility to those who have specific needs such as a disability or special educational needs, by ensuring that any content and delivery is adapted to meet different needs and where required, support equipment will be made available. Physical access to learning will be considered and arrangements will be made where required.

Key Risks and Issues

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

The Team London and Community Sport 2020/21 work programme contributes to the implementation and delivery of multiple statutory and non-statutory strategies. The work can be categorised at a high level as follows:

Participation and building of relationships between Londoners

• Working with communities and civil society groups across London to encourage active participation in community and civic life. That means supporting Londoners of all ages to volunteer and to take action to improve the city, this links to the recommendations in the Culture Strategy and the Sport and Physical activity Strategy;

• Encouraging more Londoners to get involved in volunteering for, and connecting with, others in their community, supporting the aims and objectives of the Social Integration strategy, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and the Health Inequality Strategy;

• Inspiring young people to foster valuable life skills by becoming active citizens in their local area, and bringing communities together in a way that is now more important than ever, building on the recommendations in the Skills Strategy;

• Supporting #LondonIsOpen; welcoming tourists, enhancing major events.

Equality of Opportunity

• Aligning with the Economic Development Strategy and Local Industrial Strategy for London by helping to improve the health of Londoners, building strong partnerships between the private sector, public and voluntary agencies; pro-business: supporting Corporate Social Responsibility and philanthropy objectives in London;

• Providing increased opportunities for low-income Londoners, and helping prepare young people for employment through community sports initiatives and the work of youth organisations as well as by using business volunteers to improve young Londoners opportunities to engage with the job market and the world of work;

• Helping reduce health inequalities by working with Sport Unites in all aspects of programme delivery, working with Healthy Schools London; taking actions to support children achieve and maintain a healthy weight, with focused support for communities with high childhood obesity rates; and supporting initiatives to help people engage with each other, build skills, create new networks and take part in locally led activity, linking to the Health Inequalities Strategy;

• Providing non-medical, community-based activities that people could be referred to for improved health and wellbeing (social prescribing); and

• Working with community organisations, the grassroots sport sector, London Sport and other strategic partners to ensure that diversity, inclusion and social integration are important principles of the new sport programme and strategy.

Impact Assessments and consultations

Relevant groups and stakeholders are consulted when undertaking any new programmes e.g. holding a stakeholder engagement event with 50 sector representatives in January 2019 and another event for over 50 sector representatives in February 2020 to inform the development of volunteers’ week grants and capacity building offer. The team also work closely with London Plus, the Council for Voluntary Sector Directors network and the Volunteer Centre Network to test ideas and ensure that the needs of the sector are met.

There is an established Advisory Board for Team London to ensure that the voice of all relevant parties is involved in shaping the future of the programme to ensure it is relevant, efficient and delivering the best volunteering-related outcomes for Londoners. There is currently a review of membership and role with stakeholders taking place in order to ensure it remains as relevant as possible. This includes consideration of how community sport stakeholders can get more directly involved and the most appropriate ways of doing this.

The Mayor’s strategy for sport was subject to a three month consultation exercise with stakeholder organisations and the public. The Sport Team also commissioned a series of independently facilitated workshops to consult community organisations about key issues raised in the draft strategy and plans to address them. More than 100 organisations responded, and the strategy was revised in light of their comments.

It is a key principle of the Sport Unites programme that local communities will be empowered to shape and influence investment decisions and priorities. The programme works with a wide range of people, groups and organisations, often in partnership. It offers different types and sizes of grants, including those which help organisations build capacity by developing their workforce; easy-to-access small grants to support local grassroots providers, and larger ones for longer projects. All grants are subject to robust assessment, with monitoring and evaluation conducted at all levels from project to programme. A key outcome for the programme will be understanding what works, what doesn’t, and why – to help shape investment decisions (both current and future).

Conflict of interest

Due consideration has been given to any conflict of interest (that may arise) and none have been found to exist.

Approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £2.005m on the Team London and Community Sport work programme covering three financial years. The profile for this expenditure is as follows; £1.539m in 2020-21, £0.251m in 2021-22, and £0.215m in 2022-23.

​​​​​​​The £2.005m will be funded from the Team London and Community Sport Unit budget (including £450,000 sourced from the £25m allocated to build on the Young Londoners Fund) as per the profile. Further breakdown is in the below table (please note that no Social Integration line is included due to the approval of this category of GLA expenditure under cover of existing decisions).

​​​​​​​Approval is also being sought for receipt and expenditure of £0.475m in external funding and match funding grant. The profile for this income and related expenditure is as follows; £0.110m in 2020-21, £0.183m in 2021-22, and £0.182m in 2022-23. Further breakdown is in the below table.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Future year’s budgets are indicative and still subject to the GLA’s annual budget setting process.

Paragraphs 1 to 2 of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conductive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and 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; and
• consult with appropriate bodies.

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 between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and 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.

Any services required must be procured by Transport for London Commercial who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in line with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the services.

Officers must ensure any grant funding being provided to third parties as set out in Section 2 is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in a manner which affords value for money and in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and the recipient before any commitment to fund is made.

Officers must ensure that any sponsorship sought is in accordance with the sponsorship policy and appropriate sponsorship agreements are put in between and executed by the GLA and sponsor(s) before any reliance is placed on the sponsorship income and/benefits in kind.