MD2699 Open Doors London

Open Doors London is a school holiday and afterschool programme of sport-based interventions and associated mentoring to support disengaged young Londoners who require positive engagement opportunities and enhanced diversion from anti-social behaviour. Funding for this programme (currently contained within the MOPAC 20/21 budget) was approved by Deputy Mayor for Policing & Crime decision PCD 821, and subject to the Mayor’s decision to authorise the transfer of funds to the GLA, would allow for the GLA Sport Team to manage the grant due to their specialist knowledge and because the nature of the programme’s activities fall within the GLA’s statutory remit to further the promotion of social development through support and engagement activities for young Londoners.

The GLA Sport Team are best-placed to manage the grant due to their community sport expertise and work using sport to support at-risk young Londoners via the Young Londoners Fund.

The Open Doors programme utilises school facilities to deliver sport interventions with the intention of creating an ‘activity hub’ and safe space for the young people to attend. This is particularly needed due to the impact of COVID-19 on young people.

It is proposed that £160,000 of grant funding be awarded to Sported Foundation who (as the lead organisation), alongside ukactive, will manage the funding and expenditure to all sub-delivery organisations.

The Open Doors London delivery model was first piloted by ukactive through the GLA’s 2019 ‘Summer Activity Fund’ and has since been further extended. Sported Foundation, with their large membership of local community sport delivery organisations, are uniquely placed to expand the reach of Open Doors across London.

Delivery will take place within schools in Brent, Newham, Croydon and Lambeth. These boroughs were identified through ukactive mapping the following indicators: childhood obesity statistics, child poverty, free school meals, inactivity, exclusion rates per borough, food bank usage per borough. The level of need in these boroughs, combined with ukactive and Sported Foundation school and community sport organisation links, led to them being identified as the best initial areas to benefit from the Open Doors London programme.

Open Doors London will use sport to re-engage the most vulnerable young people, targeting those in or at risk of being in selected PRUs/AP units. Young people will be identified through priority needs mapping and referrals through the participating schools and local community sport organisations. Young people will be offered a programme of multisport activities and associated mentoring and support services during school holidays contributing to positive school engagement and improved attendance. Activities will be delivered using participating school facilities and led by local community sport organisations. All delivery sessions will be designed to meet ukactive’s established COVID-19 Safe Operating Framework for Schools and incorporate learnings from the Mayor’s ‘socially distanced sport pilot’ published in a practitioner’s toolkit.

The programme will re-engage young people most at-risk of exclusion through a programme of sport intervention activities and mentoring during school holidays.

Objectives:

• support circa. 10-15 local community sport organisations across four school sites initially in Brent, Croydon, Lambeth and Newham;
• engage approximately 800 young people; and
• establish best practice guidance around the use of school facilities to provide safe and positive ‘activity hub’ spaces for local community sport organisations to deliver engagement programmes to vulnerable young people. These may inform potential future projects and will support advocacy for schools opening facilities in the holidays.

The outcomes have been selected using the Sport Unites Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework. The young people will:

• increase their participation in organised physical activities and sport;
• receive high quality instruction, support and guidance;
• receive enhanced social support;
• establish new social interaction and social networks;
• increase their wellbeing; and
• improve their school attendance.

For the delivering community sport organisations, the programme will:

• improve capacity for their community sport workforce to deliver effective engagement during and post-COVID-19;
• increase knowledge and learning dissemination for organisations to develop and enhance their programmes; and
• develop new networks and connections between schools and local community sport organisations.

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

Young people with certain protected characteristics are disproportionately excluded from school. In terms of the rates of pupils with one or more fixed-period exclusion, the rates were highest among Black pupils and lowest among Asian pupils. Pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) make up 33.5% of permanent exclusions despite only being 15.9% of the student population.

Croydon’s (one of the four beneficiary boroughs) Vulnerable Adolescent Review found that exclusion from school was a common factor in the most vulnerable young people in the borough. All of those excluded from primary school went on to be involved in the criminal justice system. Exclusion from school is one of several adverse childhood experiences which can increase the likelihood of being involved in or affected by violence in later life.

Reducing the number of children and young people excluded from education is integral to the Open Doors London delivery model and we will work with schools and local community organisations within each borough to specifically target the most vulnerable young people at risk of being permanently excluded from education.

Key risks and issues

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

This programme of work links to Mayor’s ‘Sport for all of us’ sport strategy and forms part of the Mayor’s community sport investment programme, Sport Unites (approved under MD2244).Open Doors London aligns with the Mayor’s vision for community sport in London, and the use of sport to improve social outcomes for young Londoners. The programme also supports the Mayor’s work to improve the capacity of the workforce and community sport sector.

Monitoring, evidence and learning from the Open Doors London programme will contribute to the wider Sport Unites evaluation.

Conflict of interest

Due consideration has been given to any potential conflicts of interest, with none identified.

Approval is being sought for the receipt of £160,000 from MOPAC (Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) as contribution towards the Open Doors London programme.

Approval is also being sought for expenditure of £160,000 in grant funding for Sported Foundation to deliver the Open Doors London programme.

The income and expenditure will be contained and managed by the 2020/21 Sport Unites programme held within the Team London & Community Sport Unit.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the Mayor fall within the statutory powers of the Authority in section 30(1) of the GLA Act 1999 to further the promotion of, and/or to do anything which is facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the promotion of, social development within Greater London. In exercising those powers, the Mayor must:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons, and will contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
(c) consider whether any consultation is appropriate, including with: London Boroughs; voluntary bodies some or all of whose activities benefit the whole or part of Greater London; bodies which represent the interests of different racial, ethnic or national groups in Greater London; bodies which represent the interests of different religious groups in Greater London; and bodies which represent the interests of persons carrying on business in Greater London.

The powers of the Authority in section 30(1) of the GLA Act 1999 cannot be used by the Authority to incur expenditure in doing anything which may be done by MOPAC (save to the extent that the Authority is incurring expenditure in co-operating with, or facilitating or coordinating the activities of, MOPAC). MOPAC’s statutory functions extend to activities whose objectives are connected, directly or indirectly, with crime and disorder reduction and funds authorised under this decision cannot be incurred by the GLA for that purpose.

In taking the decisions requested of him, 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 persons who do not share it 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). The Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report when making this decision, pursuant to his statutory equalities obligations.

Pursuant to section 121 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999, MOPAC may, with the Mayor’s consent, pay to the Authority a grant towards meeting revenue expenditure in connection with the discharge of the Authority’s functions. No conditions may be placed on the Authority’s use of the grant other than that it be used: (a) for revenue expenditure only; and (b) in connection with the discharge of the Authority’s functions.

Officers must ensure that the proposed grant funding to Sported Foundation be distributed in accordance with the requirements of section 12 of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code. Furthermore, no funding should be paid by the Authority to Sported Foundation until such time as the GLA and Sported Foundation have entered into a written funding agreement.