MD2680 Communities and Social Policy Programme Budget 2020-21

This decision form concerns approvals of expenditure of £1.852m in 2020/21 to deliver key elements of the Mayor’s Social Integration Strategy All of Us; The Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Inclusive London; and the Mayor’s London Food Strategy. This decision form also covers the delivery of the Mayor’s community engagement programme and the GLA Social Evidence Base.

The activity described in this decision will build on work carried out in 2019/20 and approved by the following related decisions: MD2461 (Communities and Social Policy programme budget); DD2342 (GLA London Food Programme 2019-20); MD2546 (Specialist Civil Society Infrastructure Programme); and DD2481 (Social Integration short term delivery of key programmes).

In some areas, noted in section 2, further work is needed to develop the detail of programmes and initiatives being delivered during 2020-21, ensuring that they reflect the needs of London’s recovery from Covid-19 and in the context of changes to the available budget through the recent budget repurposing exercise. In these cases, the Mayor is being asked to approve the spending envelope of a given programme of work, with detailed delivery plans to be approved by senior officers under delegation and through decision forms (DD or ADDs). To support this, the Mayor is also being asked to delegate to the Executive Director approval of expenditure proposals amounting to greater than £150k, where these are in line with the programme outlined below.

Strategic framework

The 2020/21 work programme is informed by relevant Mayoral strategies and the priorities for London’s Recovery Programme, which has highlighted the importance of this work to London’s response to Covid-19. In particular, the work of the GLA’s Communities and Social Policy Unit is central to the recovery programme’s work to: improve skills and employment; strengthen civil society; tackle hardship and poverty; and to address the inequalities that drove the impact of Covid-19.

The Mayor’s Social Integration Strategy All of Us defines social integration as the extent to which people positively interact and connect with others who are different to themselves. It is influenced by the level of equality between people, the nature of their relationships, and their degree of participation in the communities in which they live. The programme of work to implement this strategy focuses on:

• relationships – promoting shared experiences;
• participation – supporting Londoners to be active citizens; and
• equality – tackling barriers and inequalities that can limit social integration.

The Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Inclusive London sets out the steps the Mayor will take to make London a fair and more equal city, working across the GLA group. The GLA’s Equality and Fairness programme has two key elements:

• Economic Fairness - interventions to address some of the causes and effects of poverty and unfairness, with a particular emphasis on low income Londoners (see also MD 2296 – Economic Fairness Programme); and
• Mainstreaming Equality - working with colleagues across the GLA (and the GLA Group) to ensure the organisation’s work actively identifies and reduces inequalities in London, including by engaging with key stakeholders.

The Mayor’s Community Engagement programme ensures that communities have a voice at City Hall and can be involved in shaping the decisions that affect their lives. The programme aims to tackle inequalities in voice and power, including by delivering a Civil Society Leadership Programme and a Civil Society Action Plan.

The Mayor’s London Food Strategy complements the full range of Mayoral strategies and outlines the Mayor’s vision for how to make food better in London for everyone. The Mayor, supported by the London Food Board and working with public and private partners across the food and public health sectors, will work to deliver the strategy. It aims to help all Londoners, London boroughs and other partners to adapt the city’s food system to meet the challenges which lie ahead.

The GLA Social Evidence Base is developing and collating robust evidence across a range of social policy issues to ensure that GLA policies and programmes are based on the best available evidence, and that their impact can be effectively monitored and evaluated.

Section 2 below sets out details of the above programmes broken down into the four areas of work. For projects which involve grants and/or procurement, standard funding agreements and project management plans will be put in place with external partners. As noted in Section 6, procurement will be conducted in accordance with GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.

Social integration

This MD seeks Mayoral approval of expenditure of £1.129m in 2020/21, supporting delivery of the Mayor’s Social Integration programme, to:

• deliver initiatives that promote social integration through building relationships between people from different backgrounds, encouraging active participation in community and civic life, and tackling barriers and inequalities that can limit social integration;
• deliver initiatives targeted at Londoners who face specific barriers to integration, including support for European Londoners, young black men through the Workforce Integration Network (WIN) and strategic leadership to improve coordination of and access to independent immigration advice and support; and
• influence national government to change policies that can limit social integration in London, including immigration policy.

Of the above amount, £1.037m will be subject to further approval of detailed expenditure plans.

MD2628 already approves receipt and expenditure of Home Office Grant funding to the London Strategic Migration Partnership and match funding for ESOL capacity in 2020/21. DD2481 already approves initial expenditure on key social integration programmes in 2020/21.

Equality and fairness

This MD seeks Mayoral approval for expenditure of £238k in 2020/21 to support the delivery of the Mayor’s programmes focused on poverty, welfare and financial wellbeing; food; and equality, diversity and inclusion. These seek to:

• deliver initiatives to support low-income Londoners through commissioned research, partnership working with public and civil society partners, and the provision of information and other initiatives aimed at raising awareness of rights and entitlements;
• deliver initiatives to promote access to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food through the implementation of the Mayor’s Food Strategy, commissioned research, and grant funding to food charities; and
• promote equality, diversity and inclusion within the GLA through the implementation of the Mayor’s EDI Strategy and partnership working with partner organisations in civil society.

Of the above amount, £30k will be subject to further approval of detailed expenditure plans.

DD2480 already approves expenditure on elements of Equality and Fairness and Food programmes in 2020-21. MD2546 already approves a contribution allowing grant recipients from the GLA’s civil society ‘Roots Fund’. DD2342 approves expenditure on grant funding for Good Food Retail Projects in 2019-20.

Community engagement

This MD seeks Mayoral approval of £435k to support the delivery of the Mayor’s Community Engagement programme. This programme seeks to:

• develop the whole GLA’s capacity to engage in meaningful ways with Londoners; 
• deliver the Civic London Programme, including Civic Futures and Civil Society Roots; and
• support the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement to deepen their understanding of London’s communities and strengthen their connections with a range of communities and the voluntary sector. 

Of the above amounts, £250k will be subject to further approval of detailed expenditure plans.

Social evidence base

This MD seeks Mayoral approval of £50k to support the delivery of the Social Evidence Work Programme. In 2020/21, this programme seeks to deliver an understanding of the impact of disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on all groups with protected characteristics to fill in evidence gaps left by national analysis and provide recommendations for the Mayor to tackle inequality in London. It will support:

• completion and publication of the Social Integration Toolkit to make it easier for external organisations to measure the social integration impacts of their programmes;
• development of new measures of inequality and social outcomes to support policy development and monitoring of London’s Recovery from Covid-19 and direct resources to where they are most needed;
• publication of an updated Evidence Base to support wider Equality, Diversity and Inclusion actions and updated measures of Economic Fairness to support the work detailed above; and
• further commissioned research to support Recovery from Covid-19 as required.

Expenditure approvals already in place: ADD2449 / ADD 2452: DAR – Design of Social Integration Toolkit.

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). Equality is a key driver of the Communities and Social Policy Unit’s programme. The work within the programme is specifically targeted at advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations between people who have protected characteristics and those who do not .

Specifically, the Communities and Social Policy Unit helps to ensure the GLA fulfils the PSED through the publication and implementation of two strategies – Inclusive London, the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and All of Us, his Social Integration Strategy. In this way, the decisions for which approval is sought in this MD – particularly those which relate to the implementation of Inclusive London – are fundamental to providing the resources and processes necessary for the GLA to fulfil its statutory obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

In addition, the programme of work for which this MD seeks approval is made up of a number of individual projects and workstreams that will themselves contribute to the fulfilment of the equality objectives set out in Inclusive London.

The Social Integration programme explicitly contributes to the Mayor’s equality objective to “work with others to address the inequalities and barriers that limit some Londoners’ ability to build strong relationships and be active citizens” (Objective 35).

The decision requested by this MD also builds on the initial work of the Workforce Integration Network to address underrepresentation in London’s workforce and will contribute to the Mayor’s equality objective to work with others so that “as many Londoners as possible can participate in, and benefit from employment opportunities in London” (Objective 19). This objective is underpinned by evidence of the wide range of groups – including disabled people, young black men, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, veterans, carers, care leavers, mothers, older Londoners and homeless people – that are under-represented in the workforce.

The Equality and Fairness (including Food) programme contains a workstream of specific activities fundamental to the implementation of Inclusive London, including publishing the Mayor’s Annual Equality Report, engaging with organisations representing equality groups through the EDI Advisory Group, and supporting specific initiatives identified through the process of implementing the Strategy, or by the EDI Advisory Group.

The Community Engagement programme directly delivers the strategic community engagement objectives set out in Inclusive London which are: “to develop stronger relationships with disadvantaged and excluded communities in London so that we can develop policy and projects that are better informed by the lived experience of Londoners” and “to work with London’s civil society organisations to strengthen London’s diverse voluntary and community sector”.

The events programme for which authorisation is sought through this MD will bring a wide range of diverse communities into City Hall. The decisions for which authorisation is sought will also help to bring more marginalised community voices into the policy development process and will build capability within civil society.

This MD also seeks approval for the Social Evidence Base programme which will deliver improved data and research on a wide range of GLA priorities identified through the All of Us Social Integration Strategy. It will also directly contribute to the regular updating of the evidence base that underpins Inclusive London and which provides more detailed data than has previously been available on individual groups, including those sharing protected characteristics. It will build on the Survey of Londoners produced in 2019 which was the largest survey focusing on Londoners’ experiences of social integration, equality, diversity and inclusion, economic fairness and food security to be done to date.

Risk register

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

This work links to Mayoral strategies and priorities are provided in detail in section 1 of this MD.

Work proposed within this decision which relates to other areas of GLA work, including the Early Years Hubs, the Skills Strategy, the London Violence Reduction Unit, Culture and Creative Industries, Team London and Sports programmes, Environment, Housing, Regeneration and Planning, and Economic Fairness will be coordinated with the relevant officers from other GLA units and the Violence Reduction Unit.

Approval is sought for expenditure of up to £1,852k on the 2020/21 Communities & Social Policy Work Programme. A detailed breakdown is as follows:

The total cost for the 2020/21 work programme is £1,852k. Of this amount, £1,467k will be funded from the 2020/21 Communities & Social Policy programme budget; £320k will be funded by internal budget transfers (£220k from the Skills and Employment Unit towards the Workforce Integration Network programme under the Social Integration Workstream; £50k from the Team London Unit towards the Civic Futures Programme under the Community Engagement Workstream; and £50k from the Team London Unit towards the Civil Society Roots Programme under the Community Engagement Workstream); £65k will be funded by external income (as referenced in paragraph 2.8, MOPAC will transfer £100k in 2020/21 towards the Civil Society Roots programme. The expenditure profile of this income is £65k in 2020/21and £35k in 2021/22).

The GLA (acting by the Mayor) has the power under section 30 of the GLA Act 1999 to do anything that furthers the promotion of its “general purposes” which are promoting economic development and wealth creation in Greater London and promoting its environmental improvement and its social development. When implementing the Mayor’s strategies and exercising the GLA’s general powers to develop the programmes projects and other initiatives mentioned in this form the Mayor must:

• 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, reduce health inequalities between persons and contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom and the mitigation of or adaptation to climate change; and
• consider consulting with appropriate bodies as appropriate.

The Communities and Social Policy Unit’s programmes, projects and other initiatives for which budgetary approval is sought by this form, and the giving of that approval by the Mayor, are in principle consistent with the GLA’s statutory functions and its discharge of those duties. They should however be carefully considered by officers as the individual projects and activities are developed, implemented and monitored.

The Mayor is prevented by section 31(3) of the GLA Act 1999 from incurring expenditure under section 30 in doing anything that could be done by Transport for London (other than housing and regeneration), the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime or the London Fire Commissioner or incur expenditure in providing any educational or social or health services that could be provided by a London Borough or other public body. These restrictions will need to be considered in particular in relation to how any funds transferred from MOPAC are spent by the GLA in the exercise of its statutory functions. (These latter restrictions do not cover expenditure in relation to sponsoring Academy schools or facilitating their sponsorship, or the provision of services or facilities for promoting improvements in or protecting public health). Further, the Mayor is not prevented from incurring expenditure in co-operating with, facilitating or co-ordinating the activities of a London Borough Council, TfL, MOPAC, LFC or other public body.

Officers must ensure that they are content that the GLA can comply with any conditions to which any externally sourced funding is subject.

Where works, services or supplies are required to deliver the programmes projects and other initiatives detailed in section 2 above they must be procured by Transport for London Procurement who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance 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 any of the services.

Officers have indicated above that the GLA intends to award grant funding to third parties to deliver programmes, projects and other that align with the objectives and outcomes detailed above. Officers must ensure any funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in manner which affords value for money 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 a recipient before any commitment to fund is made.

The above report indicates that fixed-term members of staff will be recruited to help deliver the programmes etc. detailed above. Officers must ensure such recruitment is in line with GLA’s HR protocols including obtaining permission from the Head of Paid Services as appropriate, and that contracts appropriate for fixed term appointments are entered into.