Shared Endeavour Fund Call 3

This Decision seeks approval from the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime to allocate £600,000 of the Countering Violent Extremism Programme budget to run Call 3 of the Shared Endeavour Fund. This fulfils a Mayoral Manifesto pledge to “provide even more grants” to community projects which counter racism, hate, intolerance, extremism, radicalisation and terrorism across London in 2022/23.

This Decision is also seeking delegated approval to spend up to £60,000 to procure the services of a provider who will oversee, deliver and administer the small grants across London, and up to £50,000 to procure the services of an independent evaluator to assess the impact of the funded projects.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve spending of £600,000 of the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Programme budget on pan-London small grants for civil society projects.

2. Delegate to the CEO approval for the procurement of the services of a supplier to oversee, deliver and administer the grant process across London. This contract will be up to the value of £60,000 with options to extend for future iterations of the fund.

3. Delegate to the CEO approval for the procurement of the services of a supplier to independently evaluate the efficacy of the funded projects. This contract will be up to the value of £50,000 with options to extend for future iterations of the fund, via contract variations.

4. Delegate to the CEO approval to award the above contracts subject to receiving assurances that the process has been conducted in compliance with MOPAC’s procurement rules and regulations. The approval will span financial years 2022/23 – 2023/24, with 24-month extension options.

5. Approve the carry forward of £710,000 from the CVE Programme 2021/22 budget into the 2022/23 budget to fund the grant portfolio, commissioned grant manager and independent evaluation.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Mayor’s Countering Violent Extremism programme found that the majority of Londoners look to the Mayor for leadership in countering hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation.

1.2. A key finding of the ‘A Shared Endeavour’ report was that City Hall should deliver a grants programme (which stands aside from existing Government countering extremism strategies) to civil society groups delivering projects which directly counter extremism, offer positive alternatives to vile ideologies and encourage others to stand up to hate and intolerance.

1.3. In 2020/21 the Mayor’s CVE Programme partnered with Google.org to deliver the Shared Endeavour Fund (SEF), an £800,000 small grants programme which supported more than 30 civil society projects across London and reached over 28,000 direct beneficiaries.

1.4. In 2021/22 the CVE programme increased City Hall’s investment to run Call 2 of the SEF (Decisions PCD 903 and PCD 1032 refer to this), with project delivery running from October 2021 to March 2022.

1.5. This fund has supported projects which counter racism, hate and intolerance (mitigating the risk of hateful attitudes resulting in hate crime perpetrations), raise awareness of the dangers of extremism and radicalisation, encourage more Londoners to stand up to hate and signpost pathways to where help and support can be sought in relation to radicalisation concerns.

1.6. SEF projects work across the spectrum of harms driven by extremism including racism, hate crime and radicalisation. Projects have multiple themes including awareness raising, sports-based delivery, strategic communications campaigns and arts & drama. Direct beneficiaries include primary and secondary school students, community and religious groups, practitioners and youth clubs. Projects are distinct and complementary to Government-funded activity.

1.7. Calls 1 and 2 of the SEF were both significantly oversubscribed (Call 1 by over 200% and Call 2 by 350%), with a total funding request of £1.7m for Call 1 and £1.4m for Call 2.

1.8. Violent extremism continues to be an enduring threat to Londoners. The UK threat level currently stands at SEVERE, meaning an attack is highly likely.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Terrorism remains a significant concern for Londoners and a priority for the Mayor. The threat from violent extremism has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, with social isolation and the spread of hateful and extremist online content creating a risk to those vulnerable to radicalisation.

2.2. The continuation of the Shared Endeavour Fund would ensure ongoing leadership from the Mayor and MOPAC in this policy area by supporting civil society groups to deliver innovative and impactful projects to help Londoners stand up to racism, hate, intolerance, extremism and radicalisation. This is particularly important against the backdrop of limited funding opportunities from central Government, with no indication that their ‘Building a Stronger Britain Together’ will open again for civil society projects.

2.3. In contrast, the Mayor committed in his 2021 election manifesto to providing even more grants to community projects through the Shared Endeavour Fund, delivering work to prevent Londoners being radicalised, and to support more Londoners to confidently stand up to hateful and extremist ideologies.

2.4. The Government’s Commission for Countering Extremism has previously identified that “the short and long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could create conditions conducive for extremism”, and that “delivering events, campaigns and projects based on inclusion, shared values and community cohesion…are vital to help build resilience to extremism and prevent extremists from gaining a foothold”.

2.5. The Mayor’s CVE programme will continue to seek match funding from private organisations to increase the money available for this grant programme but will plan to deliver the Shared Endeavour Fund in 2022/23 with £600,000 from existing MOPAC budgets, which is likely to attract a strong cohort of project proposals.

2.6. In order to administer the grants and carry out day-to-day management of the grantees, the CVE programme seek to procure the services of a contracted Grant Fund Manager, allocating up to £60,000 of the CVE programme core budget.

2.7. In addition, the CVE programme would seek to continue to evaluate the efficacy of the Fund by procuring the services of a contracted Independent Evaluator for the period of the grant activity, allocating up to £50,000 of the CVE programme core budget to this service.

2.8. Both Call 1 and Call 2 of the Shared Endeavour Fund have utilised contracted Grant Fund Managers and Independent Evaluators, and the CVE programme team would seek to continue this practice to provide additional capacity for management of the fund and to ensure independent assurance of impact the grant money is having on the strategic objectives of the programme.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The total budget requirement for this work totals £710,000. Of which: £600,000 is to fund the small grants programme, £60,000 to procure the Grant Fund Manager and £50,000 to procure an independent evaluator.

3.2. The £710,000 budget is currently within the 2021/22 CVE approved budget. The DMPC is requested in the Recommendations section above to approve the carry forward of £710,000 from the CVE 2021/22 budget into the 2022/23 budget.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Section 3(6) of the Police Reform and Responsibility Act 2011 (‘PRSRA’) provides that MOPAC must secure the maintenance of the Metropolitan Police force and secure that the Metropolitan Police force is efficient and effective. Paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 to the PRSRA provides that MOPAC may do anything which is facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the exercise of its functions. Furthermore, MOPAC has powers under section 143 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to commissioning services and grants that will contribute to securing crime and disorder reduction in London. The proposed expenditure is consistent with MOPAC’s functions under section 3(6) of the PRSRA and section 143 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.



4.2. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all offers made of grant funding and the award of all grants (including approval of strategy prior to award of grants).

4.3. Legal advice has not been sought for this Decision. The authority for the DMPC to approve this Decision is clear in the scheme of delegation and this Decision is not considered to be novel in nature nor contentious.

4.4. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.

4.5. The Mayor's Office for Policing Crime is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations"). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £181,302 or above will be procured in accordance with the Regulations.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. This Decision is seeking delegated DMPC approval to the MOPAC CEO to commence a procurement exercise for a contracted Grant Fund Manager and an Independent Fund Evaluator.

5.2. MOPAC will run an open and competitive procurement process sending out an Invitation To Tender (ITT) to a minimum of 4 potential suppliers to obtain the required grant management and independent evaluation functions and lead to the award of contracts to the successful bidder.

5.3. This process will be conducted in line with MOPAC’s Contract Regulations 2018 and the contract awards will be signed off in line with MOPAC’s internal governance arrangements and the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent.

5.4. The strategy for this procurement, including the value of these contracts, have been agreed with the MOPAC Procurement, Contracts and Grant Oversight Board and represent value for money, with neither contract exceeding 10% of the total fund allocation.

5.5. The contracts for these two providers will be for one year, with the option to extend for up to two further years, via contract variations.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. A public health approach is rooted in good multi-agency working and close working with communities, focused on prevention, and informed by the systematic use of evidence.  



6.2. The programme report, ‘A Shared Endeavour,’ recognised that the first line of defence in tackling racism, hate, intolerance and extremism is London’s diverse communities, but they are often under resourced to stand up and challenge extremism. The Shared Endeavour Fund Call 2 will provide an opportunity to continue this community-based, preventative work and an uplift in the budget will enable more projects to be funded for 2021/22.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

8.2. Challenging racism, hate, intolerance and extremist ideologies which champion supremacy and deny the rights of others sits at the very heart of the Shared Endeavour Fund and helps to protect ethnic and religious minorities alongside other protected characteristics. Many projects specifically seek to work with marginalised cohorts, who are often targeted by extremists, whilst also considering the intersectionality of ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality.

8.3. All successful applicants must support MOPAC and the GLA’s equality, diversity and inclusion practices and policies.

9. Background/supporting papers

9.1. None.