Leaders’ Committee

23 March 2021: 11:30

Virtual Meeting via ‘Teams’

Labour Group: Teams 10:00 Political Adviser: Vacant Conservative Group: Teams 10:00 (Political Adviser: 07591 389100) Liberal Democrat Group: Teams 10:00 (Political Adviser: 07858 924941)

Contact Officer: David Dent

Telephone and email: 020 7934 9753 [email protected]

Agenda item

1. Apologies for absence

2. Declarations of Interest*

3. Minutes of the Leaders’ Committee held on 9 February 2021

4. Covid-19 Response - Update

5. London Recovery and Renewal

6. Economic Update

7. Climate Change Strategy and Resource Transfer

8. Feedback from Joint Boards: • London Economic Action Partnership Board (LEAP) • Skills for Londoners Board (SfL) • London Health Board (LHB)

9. Minutes and summaries :- • Executive Minutes – 19 January 2021 • YPES Minutes – 28th January 2021 • Grants Executive Minutes – 10 February 2021 • GLEF Joint Minutes – 11 February 2021

*Declarations of Interests If you are present at a meeting of London Councils’ or any of its associated joint committees or their sub-committees and you have a disclosable pecuniary interest* relating to any business that is or will be considered at the meeting you must not:

• participate in any discussion of the business at the meeting, or if you become aware of your disclosable pecuniary interest during the meeting, participate further in any discussion of the business, or • participate in any vote taken on the matter at the meeting.

These prohibitions apply to any form of participation, including speaking as a member of the public.

It is a matter for each member to decide whether they should leave the room while an item that they have an interest in is being discussed. In arriving at a decision as to whether to leave the room they may wish to have regard to their home authority’s code of conduct and/or the Seven (Nolan) Principles of Public Life.

*as defined by the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012

London Councils

Minutes of the London Councils Leaders’ Committee held virtually on 9th February 2021

Cllr Georgia Gould chaired the meeting

Present: BARKING AND DAGENHAM Cllr Darren Rodwell BARNET Cllr Daniel Thomas BEXLEY Cllr Teresa O’Neill OBE BRENT Cllr Muhammed Butt BROMLEY Cllr Colin Smith CAMDEN Cllr Georgia Gould CROYDON Cllr Hamida Ali EALING Cllr Julian Bell ENFIELD Cllr Nesil Caliskan GREENWICH Cllr Danny Thorpe HACKNEY Mayor Philip Glanville HAMMERSMITH & FULHAM Cllr Sue Fennimore HARINGEY Cllr Joseph Ejiofor HARROW Cllr Graham Henson HAVERING Cllr Damian White HILLINGDON Cllr Ian Edwards HOUNSLOW Cllr Steve Curran ISLINGTON Cllr Richard Watts KENSINGTON & CHELSEA Cllr Elizabeth Campbell KINGSTON Cllr Caroline Kerr LAMBETH Cllr Jack Hopkins LEWISHAM Mayor Damien Egan MERTON Cllr Mark Allison NEWHAM Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz REDBRIDGE Cllr Jas Athwal RICHMOND UPON THAMES Cllr Gareth Roberts SOUTHWARK Cllr Kieron Williams SUTTON Cllr Ruth Dombey OBE TOWER HAMLETS Cllr Rachel Blake (Deputy) WALTHAM FOREST Cllr Clare Coghill WANDSWORTH Cllr Ravi Govindia WESTMINSTER Cllr Rachael Robathan CITY OF LONDON Ms Catherine McGuinness

Apologies:

HAVERING Cllr Damian White TOWER HAMLETS Mayor John Biggs

Officers of Transport for London, the London CIV and London Councils were in attendance.

The Chair welcomed Cllr Ian Edwards (Hillingdon) to his first Leaders’ Committee meeting.

1. Apologies for Absence and Announcement of Deputies The apologies and deputies listed above were noted.

2. Declarations of interest

Cllr Julian Bell declared an interest in that he was a member of the TfL Board. Councillor Govindia declared his membership of the London CIV Board.

3. Minutes of the Leaders’ Committee 8 December 2020

The minutes of the Leaders’ Committee meeting of 8 December 2020 were agreed as an accurate record.

4. TfL Commissioner – presentation

Andy Byford, Commissioner of Transport for London, was asked to address members, and made the following points:

• he valued TfL’s relationship with London boroughs and London Councils; • one of his main priorities was to lead TfL through and beyond COVID, noting the negative impact of the pandemic on TfL finances, levels of ridership and also the number of colleagues and contractors who had lost their life to the virus; • in response to COVID, TfL was now carrying out frequent and more visible cleaning of its vehicles, increased enforcement activity and maintaining social distancing by running as near to full services as possible; • in terms of finances, he noted that TfL’s annual income was 72% dependent on fares, and he was working on a long-term sustainable income stream which reduced the reliance on passenger income. In this area he asked for the assistance of boroughs to help make the case to Government alongside TfL; • any income proposals would be underpinned by TfL’s green agenda; • he was also committed to achieving the completion of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) without further slippage or recourse to public funds and had now assumed direct control of the project. He also reported that the Northern line extension would be opening later in 2021.

Members raised the following in response to the presentation:

• the importance of improving public transport in anticipation of the introduction of ULEZ in October 2021 was raised, as well as the need to look at transport links outside ULEZ, for example to support new housing; • there was a confidence deficit in using public transport following the impact of Covid and there needed to be effective messaging to rebuild this. There was also a role for employers as part of the publicity to provide COVID safe workplaces; • concern was expressed about the impact of the proposed boundary charge for boroughs on the edge of Greater London and the perceived lack of consultation with boroughs and businesses; • the continuing uncertainty around the position regarding over 60s and under 18s concessionary travel was still an issue; • when considering the issue of TfL achieving savings, issues of expenditure control and previous overruns on capital expenditure projects should be taken into account.

Mr Byford made the following responses to the issues raised:

• regarding ULEZ, it was acknowledged that to encourage greater use of public transport it needed to be clean and reliable, and cited the 24-7 availability of bus lanes as an example of such progress; • in terms of publicising safety, while the work to regularly deep clean services (resulting in zero identified incidences of the virus on public transport) would assist confidence, TfL was planning an extensive public relations campaign on this issue after the removal of lockdown restrictions; • it was confirmed that as part of a package of financial and environmental measures, TfL had been asked to look at the practicalities of the option of imposing a boundary charge; the scheme was at planning stage only; • TfL’s recently published financial sustainability plan detailed the sustainable funding solutions proposed; the aim was to be self-sustainable in terms of operating expenditure by 2023/24, although capital expenditure support would still be required;

• in terms of concessionary travel, while the continued financing of under 18s and over 60s travel had now been secured, the Mayor had recommended a precept on Council Tax, in part to meet the costs of that service; • TFL had previously saved over £1 billion off the cost base in the last four years, but in the financial sustainability plan had committed to a further £730 million savings.

Mayor Phil Glanville, in his capacity as Chair of the Transport and Environment Committee, confirmed that the issues raised at the meeting were regularly reviewed at TEC, and was pleased to see the support for concessionary transport schemes, which provided support to vulnerable Londoners. He agreed that London boroughs as place- makers and delivery partners were vital in lobbying for funding solutions and ensuring that there was equitable investment in London.

The Chair thanked the TfL Commissioner for his comments and for members’ input.

5. Update on the London Pensions CIV

Lord Kerslake and Mike O’Donnell, Chair and Chief Executive respectively of the London CIV, presented their annual report to members.

Lord Kerslake informed members that: • good progress had been made in the previous year, including growing the assets under management by £1.4 billion; • despite the pandemic, some new products had been developed; • excellent progress had been made on ESG and a Responsible Investment Reference Group had been established; • changes had been secured around the shareholder agreement which had allowed the CIV to apply for wider regulatory permissions; • the recommended governance changes required in the previous year’s review had been made in relation to Board membership; in addition, a diversity and inclusion policy had been agreed; • the process to appoint Lord Kerslake’s successor had commenced; • a one-year budget had been produced this year because of COVID uncertainties but a medium term plan would be issued later in the year.

Mr O’Donnell added that the CIV had:

• launched sustainable equity funds, exclusion products and renewables and were developing a Paris aligned version of the Global Active Equity Fund together with a passive low carbon fund. In addition of the five funds launched during the year, four of these are targeted on ESG criteria; • launched the London Fund in December; a number of boroughs were interested in investing in the second wave of the fund of which 80% of the investment would occur within London.

In response to a question about progress on Board diversity, Lord Kerslake confirmed that while good progress had been made regarding representation, he would consider setting a target for BAME Board makeup subject to looking at overall turnover statistics.

Regarding the sustainability elements of the pension portfolio, Mayor Glanville emphasised the requirement both to ensure that these aims were reflected in pensions leadership and to make London aware more widely of the work being done. In addition, Cllr Ruth Dombey, who sat on the Board of LPFA - who were in themselves concerned with ESG issues - felt that there was capacity to carry out some joint work with the London CIV to address any concerns expressed by London fund managers. Both suggestions were supported by Lord Kerslake, who added that two thirds of boroughs were now involved in responsible investment initiatives.

The Chair and members noted the report and thanked Lord Kerslake and Mike O’Donnell for their presentation. Members noted that Lord Kerslake was stepping down as Chair and was thanked for the work he had done to help establish the London CIV and to lead it through its first years of operation.

6. Covid-19 Update

The Chair summarised the key issues:

• the disproportionate impact of COVID during the second wave on Asian and black Londoners was the subject of further research by PHE; • lobbying in areas such as social isolation payments continued;. • there was also an area of concern regarding vaccination hesitancy in relation to BAME communities; local authorities had been working closely with the NHS around issues like data champions, data sharing agreements and multilingual phone lines; • boroughs had become prominent in the rollout of lateral flow testing, particularly in terms of Project Eagle and the new variants, and testing and tracing continued to be a critical role; • boroughs were considering the issues and challenges around the ‘re-opening’ of London.

Members made the following responses:

• there was a need to obtain data on those who were not taking up the vaccine to enable boroughs to work with residents; • the case needed to be made to Government to guarantee funding for boroughs in respect of all of the costs of establishing community, lateral flow testing; • regarding the co-ordination of borough reserve lists for vaccinations, joint working should be carried between boroughs and the NHS to ensure that capacity was maximised; • there was a requirement to tell a clear story about what has been done in London as a result of the pandemic and to show London how boroughs had made a difference.

Leaders’ Committee noted the report.

7. Local Government Finance Update

The interim director for Local Government, Finance and Improvement introduced the report, commenting that:

• since the report had been written, the final Local Government settlement had now been published;

• a rise in Core Spending Power of 4.3% was being projected by the Government; • the London Business Rates Pool would not continue in 2021/22, but a ‘shadow’ pool would be monitored pending any longer-term view about its future; • regarding the financial impact of the pandemic, the December survey returns, which had indicated a total impact of approximately £2.2 billion and funding gap of £500 million, had been reviewed in terms of the January 2021 returns; the £2.2 billion figure remained more or less unchanged, but the overall gap was now £350 million; • London Councils had made representations to Government in advance of the budget focusing on pandemic financial pressures; further lobbying would take place; • the ONS had been written to regarding the upcoming Census seeking further resources to deliver the Census safely, expressing concerns about data exclusion and asking for the deadline to be extended to maximise returns. It also sought assurance regarding the methodology of population projections.

In response to a question regarding the need to clarify the medium term financial strategy required to help boroughs formulate their 2022/23 budgets, there was an acknowledgment of the range of forthcoming reviews and London Councils had consistently pressed government to take a joined up approach that gave as much clarity and certainty as possible to inform future financial planning and budget setting.

Leaders’ Committee noted the report.

7. Feedback from Joint Boards

London Economic Action Partnership Board

The Chair reported that at the last meeting LEAP had discussed:

• the roadmap for re-opening London’s post pandemic economy; • the allocation of funding to support London’s economic recovery missions; • a LEAP endorsed joint venture between London’s co-investment fund and Beacon Capital to invest in London seed stage businesses.

Skills for Londoners Board

Cllr Coghill reported back on the most recent meeting of the Board, which was now jointly meeting with the Business Board, and which had considered:

• an update on the local skills report and the Skills for Jobs White Paper; • digital inclusion in the health sector; • the adult education budget road map; • the London Learner survey; • higher level skills.

London Crime Reduction Board (LCRB)

Cllr Athwal reported back on the most recent meeting of the Board, which had looked at: • disproportionality in policing and the wider criminal justice system; • an action plan and tracker covering work around the tackling of disproportionality in youth justice; • trends in violent crime and the preparations being made by the MPS for the easing of lockdown.

In response to a question concerning ‘Stop and Search’ policy within the MPS, Cllr Athwal agreed to raise the issue and report back to London Councils.

9. London Councils 2019/20 Annual Audit report and Statement of Accounts

The Director of Corporate Resources introduced the paper, informing members that:

• ordinarily the report would have been made to members in October, but because of COVID related delays in completing the external audit work, this had only recently been completed; • Grant Thornton had signed off all three sets of accounts on 8th January 2021 – no significant audit matters were raised;

• any lessons learned from the delays would be discussed at the March 2021 Audit Committee at which the external auditors would be present.

Leaders’ Committee noted the contents of the Annual Audit report for 2019/20.

10. Minutes and Summaries.

Leader's Committee agreed to note the minutes and summaries of:

• TEC Exec – 10 September • TEC AGM – 15 October 2020 • GLEF – 29 October 2020 • Executive – 10 November 2020 • Grants AGM – 11 November 2020 • TEC Executive – 19 November 2020

11. Urgency report: London Business Rates Pool

Leader’s Committee noted the decision taken under the urgency procedure in respect of the London Business Rates pool.

The Chair agreed to remove the press and public in that the following items were exempt from the Access to Information Regulations, and via Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (Section 3) in that the items related to the financial or business affairs of a particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Leaders

Covid-19 Response - Update Item no: 4

Report by: Doug Flight Job title: Strategic Lead

Date: 23 March 2021

Contact Officer: Doug Flight

Telephone: 07827 352 357 Email [email protected]

This report provides an overview of London local government’s continuing response to Covid-19; the framework for sub-regional and pan-London collaboration; and the current overview and governance arrangements.

A verbal update will be provided on key points from the most recent weekly meeting of the London Councils Pandemic Steering Committee on 16th March 2020.

Recommendations Leaders are asked to consider and comment on key issues in the update to help steer London local government’s continuing response to Covid-19.

Covid-19 Update

Background

1. London local government’s Covid-19 related work sits within a broader partnership response and has evolved through distinct phases to reflect the evolution of the pandemic as well as national and local policy responses.

2. The initial response was grounded in established ways of working that have been developed within the legal framework set out in the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and supplemented by locally initiated arrangements. The local government response was initially escalated in step with the stand-up of the formal inter-agency London Covid-19 Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) - with London local government representation represented through London Local Authority Gold.

3. London local government has continued to play a critical role in the Covid 19 response, developing its role with agility, to respond to new challenges, ranging from supporting vulnerable people, through engaging with communities, to supporting and targeting the vaccination programme- and more recently considering the issues which will arise when lockdown ends.

4. At every stage, boroughs, both Elected Members and staff, along with our voluntary groups and, indeed, our communities have risen to the challenges we have faced, striving to meet the pressing needs that have been presented throughout the various phases of the pandemic.

5. As the extent and duration of the pandemic became clearer, bespoke Covid-19 local authority co-ordination arrangements were introduced, to improve capacity and release the regular on-call Gold chief executive to respond to any other incidents which might occur. The arrangements relied on sub-regional working to provide improved strength and depth to the support for individual boroughs.

6. In the course of 2020, given the need to add a strategic focus on transition and planning London’s recovery and renewal, the following were established: • The London Transition Board – which is being re-convened for a limited period to manage London’s re-opening following the Lockdown. • The multi-agency London Recovery Board (LRB) - Co-Chaired by the Chair of London Councils together with the Mayor and our cross-party representation includes the Deputy Chair and Vice- Chairs of London Councils. The LRB was designed to plan and oversee the capital’s wider long-term economic and social recovery. There is more detail on the Board’s work in a subsequent report on today’s agenda. • The London Councils’ Pandemic Steering Committee was established by Leaders’ Committee in October 2020 to bring political oversight and leadership to the pan-borough response to this a long-running incident. • The Elected Officers also play a key part in the London Leaders Covid-19 Committee, along with the Mayor of London and senior resilience and public health officials.

7. The rhythm of the above meetings is currently being reviewed, as the focus moves from response, through a time-limited focus on reopening and towards recovery. This will in turn have an impact on the rhythm of the meetings convened by London Councils, including the Pandemic Steering Committee and briefing sessions for Leaders and chief executives..

8. The statutory London Resilience Forum has continued to meet on a quarterly basis to exercise its emergency planning responsibilities (Chair: Deputy Mayor Fiona Twycross; Deputy Chair: John Barradell, Chief Executive of the City of London). At its meeting on 25 February 2021, the Forum discussed the establishment of a Review of Chronic of Chronic Incident response arrangements, with a view to learning from the extended Covid 19 response and bringing back an initial report to the Forum’s meeting in June 2021.

Update on Current Issues

9. On the 22nd February 2021, national government announced a ‘Road Map’ out of lockdown which outlined the estimated easing of restrictions. As part of the ‘Road Map’ out of lockdown, schools formally began opening from the 8th March 2021 with the stepping down of further restrictions to be considered in stages over the coming months.

10. In the background, discussions continue between London partners and Government on: • Local -funding requirements • Influencing the broader national policy response, to underpin boroughs’ work to mitigate and adapt to evolving challenges in the best interest of London’s residents and businesses. • Managing local outbreaks through Contain and other control measures such as mass-testing and localised restrictions in order to limit the spread of local outbreaks. • Isolation support.

11. Recent meetings of the London Councils Pandemic Steering Committee discussed and considered key issues, including:

• Targeted Testing & the ‘Protect Programme’ In anticipation of the end of the national lockdown, testing has continued to be a priority for boroughs and resilience partners. The Steering Committee was briefed on scenarios for the wider testing programme including asymptomatic testing and community testing for both people that cannot work from home and school children returning to in person education. Leaders were sighted on both the possible benefits and limitations of asymptomatic testing, including how this may affect the number of ‘positive’ cases in London.

• Shielding. London local authorities and partners continue have continued to support vulnerable Londoners, including CEVs. Considering additional updates to the national Shielding Patient List from PHE and the NHS, this increased the total number of shielding Londoners from 326,190 to 668,860 at the end of February 2021.

• Outbreak Control and new variants A joint response to the emergence of the South African variant, titled Operation Eagle allowed local authorities in partnership with national government to help with testing and restrictions in order to limit community transmission.

• Local Government Elections and the Mayoral Elections The London Councils Pandemic Committee worked with partners to identify what was needed in order to carry out safe, fair and democratic elections this coming May.

• Homelessness London Councils and the London Housing Directors’ Group continue to work through the SCG’s structures and the Rough Sleeping Strategic Group in order to identify potential solutions to emerging issues around supporting rough sleepers, and to provide a forum for partnership working with the GLA, providers and health partners. There are around 300 people are still rough sleeping in London, the lowest numbers since we started recording the information weekly in May 2020. This is due to continuing hard work on the part of boroughs, the GLA and providers, and also due to the very cold weather this winter. The focus now is to ensure the nearly 4000 people still in emergency accommodation receive appropriate move on support. More than 4000 have already moved into more settled accommodation. This work is being undertaken closely with government, and we are keen to ensure long term strategic funding is brought forward to enable us to continue preventing and relieving homelessness.

• Resources to support young people’s understanding ( through schools)

London Councils has supported the development and dissemination to all London schools of a resource pack for Key Stages 2-4 educating children and young people which covers vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccine and misinformation. The objective is to develop an understanding of the issues around vaccination and young Londoner’s capacity to engage in discussions around vaccination. The resource pack was developed in a school in Hackney and has been promoted under the Keep London Safe banner.

• Vaccinations As part of the national roll out of the vaccination programme, London local government - alongside the NHS and other partners - have played a key role in facilitating the access to community-hubs, acknowledging that different boroughs will have different requirements depending on the nature of their communities. Discussions have also covered Potential principles for future cohorts and the localised challenges such as vaccine hesitancy.

• Enforcement

London local government and the MPS agreed an enforcement position statement at the start of 2020, in order to improve partnership responses to the enforcement of lockdown restrictions.

• Communications

London Councils is working with NHS London, PHE London and the GLA to co-ordinate and support community engagement and communications to support the uptake of the vaccine. This includes the promotion of borough led community engagement events aimed at specific communities which are relevant to communities in other boroughs. It leads the ‘Keep London Safe’ campaign, including supporting the development of locally specific and culturally appropriate communications and engagement tools by boroughs based on insight to communities where high levels of ‘hesitancy’ have been identified.

Conclusion

12. The London local government has continued to rise to the challenges of the Covid pandemic and to play a critical role in the response, including supporting vaccination, outbreak control and providing support for vulnerable Londoners.

13. In addition, we have supported engagement at a pan-London level, working though the London Councils Pandemic Steering Committee and the partnership structures set out earlier – providing a formal channel for political oversight and on behalf of Leaders ‘ Committee. A verbal report on any key issues discussed at the Committee’s meeting on the 16th March will be reported verbally to the Leaders’ Committee.

14. Leaders are asked to continue to consider and comment on key issues in the update to help steer London local government’s continuing response to Covid-19.

Financial Implications for London Councils This programme of work will represent a significant commitment of officer time across the organisation. This is currently being managed largely within existing overall budgets by a flexible deployment of resources. Legal Implications for London Councils There are no direct Legal implications for London Councils as a result of this report. Equalities Implications for London Councils Equalities implications of key elements of the response will be considered as part of the Pandemic Steering Committee’s remit. Background Papers

Appendix A: Terms of Reference for London Councils Pandemic Steering Committee

Appendix A: Terms of Reference for London Councils Pandemic Steering Committee

Overview This Committee was established following Leaders’ Committee’s consideration in October 2020 of lessons learned during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its remit is to give pan borough political leadership to the pandemic. It will: 1. Receive briefings on emerging trends and issues pertaining to the pandemic from a local and sub-regional perspective. 2. Develop and seek to agree a London local government line on key issues, taking account of a range of borough perspectives. 3. Ensure effective political oversight of the London local authority Strategic Co- ordination arrangements for COVID-19. Role of the Committee - To receive reports and advice from the London Local Authority Strategic Co- ordinating Chief Executive (LASC) and assess the implications of available data and information. - To provide strategic direction on any challenges/opportunities that might arise from the above in relation to the management of COVID-19 in London. - To plan ahead to ensure longer term planning for future challenges arising from the pandemic. - To form a London local government view of matters relating to the London Leaders’ COVID-19 Committee as well as the Transition and Recovery Boards. - To ensure the outcomes of the above are communicated appropriately at a London- wide, sub-regional and local level. Membership • London Councils Chair, • Deputy Chair • 3 Vice Chairs (cross party) • Other Relevant LC Portfolio Holders and sub-regional political leads by invitation (based on agenda) - London Local Authority Strategic Co-ordinating Chief Executive (LASC) +1 to ensure coverage and continuity - Chief Executive of London Councils

Leaders’ Committee

London’s Recovery and Renewal Item no: 5

Report by: Doug Flight Job title: Strategic Lead

Date: 23 March 2021

Contact Officer: [email protected]

Summary: This report provides an update on the developing work that London local government is jointly leading to catalyse the capital’s recovery, working with the London Recovery Board.

The report goes on to seek a steer from Leaders on ways of ensuring that local borough priorities can become more central to our collaborative recovery and renewal work with local, regional and national partners.

Recommendations: The Leaders Committee is asked to:

1. Note the update provided on the: - Recovery Board - The Social and Economic Work Strands - The Mission based approach (see Appendix A) - Borough-based recovery and renewal strategies 2. Comment on the questions set out in paragraph 13. 3. Provide a steer to guide engagement with the next phase of recovery preparations.

London’s Recovery and the Mission based approach Introduction

1. An earlier report on today’s agenda address the issues arising from the continuing Covid 19 response, however there are a number of longer-term challenges that Leaders will also want to give due weight to, as we transition towards the capitals recovery and renewal, including:

• How far recovery and renewal will result in more than simple restoration and instead harness the opportunity to create a different sort of city, that better meets the needs of Londoners?

• How to ensure that London government does all it can to deliver renewal and so lays the foundations for gaining support from business, national government and wider society?

• How to ensure London gets the investment and levers for change that it needs to drive the City’s renewal and contribute to the recovery of the nation as a whole?

• How to adequately address the disproportionate impact of Covid across London?

• How to develop and embed a green economy?

• How to support London’s communities through a potentially very challenging post-lockdown landscape?

Laying the Foundations for Recovery

2. In accordance with established emergency-management practice, planning for recovery has continued in tandem with the response. This work has developed both under local leadership, nationally and at the pan-London level. Boroughs have engaged both sub-regionally and at a pan-London level though London Councils. The London Recovery Board is co-ordinating engagement at a pan-London level and is co-chaired by Cllr Georgia Gould, the Chair of London Councils, together with the Mayor of London - and also includes the London Councils’ Deputy Chair and three Vice-Chairs.

3. In addition to her role as Co-Chair of the main Board, Cllr Georgia Gould plays a leadership role in relation to what is framed as the economic recovery sphere, working alongside Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe. Cllr Dombey plays a similar leadership role in relation to what is framed as London’s Social Recovery, working alongside Deputy Mayor Debbie Weeks-Bernard.

4. London Councils officers have provided support for the various workstreams which sit under the board, along with GLA officers and representatives of the voluntary and community sectors. London borough chief executives and other borough colleagues have also made significant contributions to this work. Following discussions with City Hall, which were reported to the Executive in 2020, Cllr Gould, borough Chief Executives and London Councils officers have helped recruit a joint team which will be in place from April 2021 to support the Board’s work.

5. The Board includes senior leaders from business, public service and civil society and has the potential to align and focus commitments across partners to drive London’s medium-term recovery and renewal. Whilst there will, in the near term, continue to be arrangements focused on response, pivoting progressively to the management of re- opening, both of those are likely to be time limited phases of activity on the scale that they have existed and consideration is being given to how organisational arrangements can reflect that evolution.

6. In addition to the pan-London programmes being co-ordinated through the London Recovery Board, it is important to recognise that a lot of recovery work is emerging at a local and sub-regional level. London Councils continues to work with senior officers to ensure that these initiatives can help shape the pan-London work and to ensure that there are opportunities for good and emerging practice to be identified and shared ( both to inform practice in other localities and to provide context for our work in advocating for local solutions where these work best) .

7. London Councils’ senior members and officers have also engaged with Anchor institutions workstream (and associated charter) that the Board is sponsoring - working through a multi-agency Task-and Finish-Group, chaired by Sir David Sloman.

8. The Executive considered a Recovery report at its meeting in March 2021 and, in discussion, members began to explore the current framing of the Missions based approach. Issues considered included:

• The need for a focus on reducing inequalities at the heart of renewal; • The importance that the missions approach benefits from the differing responses initiated in each of London’s 33 local authorities when reaching a citywide perspective on action; • The need to think across service silos and shape actions in the light of that learning; • The challenge of co-ordinating different borough solutions, such as for high streets, to preserve their distinct local value and also gain the benefits of scale that come from a city wide perspective; • The value of experimentation in areas where it is unclear what form of renewal will be best for Londoners; • The differences in the way that economic missions have developed when compared to the social missions; • The framing of particular mission goals such as those on healthy food. 9. The detail of mission action plans is reported in Appendix A.

The Recovery Missions - as agreed in 2020

10. The Board agreed its overall ‘grand challenge’ last year:

“to restore confidence in the city, minimise the impact on communities and build back better the city’s economy and society”

11. In support of this, a high-level package of social and economic recovery missions was agreed and an update on action plans behind the Missions were received by the Board at its meeting on 9 March 2021. The following ‘Missions’ are currently in place: Economic I. A Green New Deal II. High Streets for All III. Helping Londoners into Good Work IV. Digital Access for All

Social V. A Robust Safety Net VI. A New Deal for Young People VII. Building Strong Communities VIII. Healthy Food and Weight IX. Mental Health and Wellbeing

• A Green New Deal - Tackle the climate and ecological emergencies and improve air quality by doubling the size of London's green economy by 2030 to accelerate job creation for all.

• High Streets for All - Deliver enhanced public spaces and exciting new uses for underused high street buildings in every Borough by 2025, working with London’s diverse communities.

• Helping Londoners into Good Work - Support Londoners into good jobs with a focus on sectors key to London’s recovery.

• Digital Access for All - Every Londoner to have access to good connectivity, basic digital skills and the device or support they need to be online by 2025.

• A Robust Safety Net - By 2025, every Londoner is able to access the support they need to prevent financial hardship.

• A New Deal for Young People - By 2024 all young people in need are entitled to a personal mentor and all young Londoners have access to quality local youth activities.

• Building Strong Communities - By 2025, all Londoners will have access to a community hub ensuring they can volunteer, get support and build strong community networks.

• Healthy Food and Weight - By 2025 every Londoner lives in a healthy food neighbourhood.

• Mental health and Well Being - By 2025 London will have a quarter of a million wellbeing ambassadors*, supporting Londoners where they live, work and play.

12. In addition, the Board has sponsored research on the impact of the pandemic on the ‘Central Activities Zone’ (CAZ) to identify the emerging trends across key sectors over the next few years and in the longer-term. You can read the interim report here: https://www.london.gov.uk/business-and-economy-publications/central-activities- zone-caz-economic-futures-research

Shaping the recovery in the interests of London’s Communities

13. Leaders Committee is asked to consider the evolution of the missions in the wider context of developing London Councils approach to the renewal of London. The questions below are offered as a prompt for that discussion.

• How can boroughs best ensure that local insights help shape policy and the allocation of resources at a regional or national level?

• Are there specific ideas that we could contribute to the Recovery Board’s discussions, to help reinforce the coherence of the nine missions, as currently drafted, and hence to support the recovery and renewal activity that boroughs will want to take forwards in coming months and years?

• Would London’s overall approach to city renewal benefit from utilizing a specific perspective, such as using an equalities lens to focus on the disproportionate impacts of Covid 19 on our communities?

• How can the different missions be best connected to support each other? Would it be helpful if there were separate narratives supporting the social and the economic missions?

• How far can we make use of the work on Anchor institutions to bring public service partners together to ensure better recovery and renewal?

Recommendations 14. Leaders Committee is asked to comment on the questions set out above, in paragraph 13, and to provide guidance on how the next stage of collaborative recovery work should be shaped.

Attachments Appendix A – Slide deck setting out the missions

Financial Implications for London Councils There is significant London Councils resource input to the broader work on Economic and Social Recovery. This, however, is provided for in current budgets.

Legal Implications for London Councils

None specifically flowing from this paper.

Equalities Implications for London Councils

None specifically flowing from this paper, however those designing the recovery plan will want to take account of the impact of the pandemic on communities and the need to target opportunities

RECAP

 Grand Challenge: Restore confidence in the city, minimise the Further Information : Recovery Overview impact on London’s communities and build back better the city’s Document on London.gov.uk economy and society.

NB Three of the Cross-Cutting Principles approach (a) Collaborating/involving London’s diverse communities , (b) Innovating/Digital Date and ( c) Affordability/Value for Money, are taken into account through all missions but are not explicitly covered in this presentation pack. Our delivery across these principles will be picked up and brought to the Board for consideration at a later date. THE MISSIONS A ROBUST SAFETY NET

Mission Approach

By 2025, every Londoner is able to access the We propose to achieve this mission through targeted interventions support they need to prevent financial hardship. to connect the most disadvantaged or excluded communities with advice or hardship support; taking steps to address deserts of provision; and raising awareness amongst Londoners of their rights and financial entitlements and where they can get help to enforce or Mission Co-leads: claim them. Fran Beasley (Chief Executive Hillingdon Council) & Jim Minton (Chief Executive Toynbee Hall) This will focus on three main projects: 1. A minimum standard of local welfare Lead Organisations & Partners: 2. Improved coordination of advice and support in London GLA and London Councils, boroughs, VCS, advice providers, 3. Embedding advice in community locations funders, community anchor institutions (e.g. schools, faith/health settings) These projects will be supplemented by a flexible approach to exploiting opportunities to bring recovery partners together around specific advocacy positions in the run-up to the spending review A NEW DEAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Mission Approach

By 2024 all young people in need are entitled to a We propose to achieve this mission by listening to young personal mentor and all young Londoners have people’s expectations and experiences of mentoring and youth activities; working alongside VCS and local authority partners to access to quality local youth activities. establish picture of quality provision across London; and ensuring funding and working with delivery partners to launch a Mayoral mentoring movement and London–wide youth programme Mission Co-leads: Jeremy Crook, CEO Black Training and Enterprise Group; Lib Peck, Director of the VRU; Martin Pratt, Deputy Chief Executive & Executive Director Supporting People at LB Camden.

Lead Organisations & Partners: City Hall & London Councils working with VCS organisations, grassroots youth groups and networks, and London funders. BUILDING STRONG COMMUNITIES

Mission Approach

By 2025 all Londoners will have access to a We propose to achieve this mission by… community hub ensuring they can volunteer, • Identifying and convening communities and groups most get support and build strong networks. impacted by the virus (e.g BAME groups, LGBT Londoners, disabled Londoners etc), for conversations about needs and assets, to begin the co-production of activity; Building hyper- Mission Co-leads: local networks and knowledge; Supporting community-led Yolande Burgess activity (through funding, convening, providing expertise etc) to Fiona Rawes develop and strengthen local assets and embed a tailored community hub approach across London.

Lead Organisations & Partners: • This will focus on three projects: London Plus, London Funders, Equality Infrastructure, CVSs, 1. Ensuring London Civil Society can meet the needs of Volunteering bodies, London Borough Faith Network. diverse Londoners 2. Listening and working to Londoners’ voices 3. Developing hyper local opportunities for Londoners to support and connect with each other MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

Mission Approach

We propose to achieve this by engaging communities whose wellbeing By 2025 London will have a quarter of a million is at greater risk due to the pandemic, working closely with partners, wellbeing ambassadors*, supporting Londoners and recognising and building on what works and already exists. where they live, work and play. This mission is informed by the principles that relationships are important for wellbeing and resilience, and that anyone can support wellbeing. Mission Co-leads: Kevin Fenton – PHE London/Mayor’s statutory advisor The mission objective is to empower Londoners to act to improve their Will Tuckley - LB Tower Hamlets own and their communities’ wellbeing, and particularly those whose wellbeing is at greater risk. Lead Organisations & Partners: PHE, GLA, London Councils, Thrive LDN, local authorities (inc. public health teams), VCS orgs. Plan developing for a wider group Four programmes are identified: 1. Londoners as Wellbeing Ambassadors of stakeholders to be involved as an advisory group or 2. London Communities Leading the Way collaborative. 3. Equipping Places and Settings to Support Wellbeing *‘Wellbeing Ambassador’ is a broad umbrella, reflecting a range of different people, in different contexts, communities or settings. It is someone who is knowingly taking action, large or small, to 4. Building infrastructure - Network and Digital Hub support the wellbeing of themselves and others – this could mean having a conversation, signposting to support or developing an activity to benefit the wellbeing of a group or community. HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHY WEIGHT

Mission Approach

The theme is to address obesity and encourage healthy weight through food.

By 2025 every Londoner lives in a The focus is on healthy food neighbourhoods, through: healthy food neighbourhood. 1. Communities at the heart of design and action 2. Building on what works and what is already successful 3. Accelerating existing partnership action

Mission Co-leads: This mission seeks to take a whole systems approach and proposes to deliver a Kevin Fenton PHE London universal framework that can be applied to any area by local authorities and other Will Tuckley LB Tower Hamlets partners. Pan-London policy interventions and initiatives which support local work and benefit all Londoners will also be explored. Lead Organisations & Partners: Public Health England (PHE) , GLA, London The mission will be achieved through close working with partners on seven Councils, London Food Board, Boroughs working programmes: group (others to be identified through engagement) i. Healthy Food Highstreets v. Healthy Food Retail ii. Healthy Food Environments vi. Healthy Food Schools iii. Healthy Food Communities vii. Developing capacity and sustainability iv. Healthy Food Access A GREEN NEW DEAL

Mission Approach

Tackle the climate and ecological emergencies and We propose to achieve the mission through large scale improve air quality by doubling the size of London's green transformation by 2030, requiring new approaches, greater coordination, faster action, citizen buy-in, the devolution of powers economy by 2030 to accelerate job creation for all. and funding from national government, and substantial flows of private sector capital.

Lead Organisations & Partners: Three key themes to deliver projects Convening a Green New Deal Advisory Panel and co-designing 1) decarbonise and transform the built environment; action plans with delivery partners through 'deep dive' workshops. 2) green London’s transport and public realm; • Three aimed for Winter 2021: Retrofit, Zero Emission 3) mobilise new finance and support green jobs, skills and Zones and Enhance green spaces and resilience. lifestyles. HIGH STREETS FOR ALL

Mission Approach

Deliver enhanced public spaces and exciting new uses We propose to achieve the mission by fostering local for underused high street buildings in every Borough by engagement, partnership formation and a culture of ideas, experimentation and invention across the city to deliver inclusive, 2025, working with London’s diverse communities. exemplar High Street projects in every borough.

This will be supported by enabling funds, expert advice and best Mission Co-leads: practice sharing. We will develop tools that respond to Sarah Cary (LB Enfield) recent planning and licensing changes and plan for, safeguard and Patrick Dubeck (GLA) directly deliver a diverse, resilient and thriving mix of High street and town centre activity within easy reach of all Londoners and at all times Led by locally defined partnerships - involving property interests, of day and night. businesses, diverse community groups and local anchor institutions, supported by London Boroughs, London Councils and All the while, we will be making the case for London's receipt of a the GLA group and a newly formed multi sector / diverse interest fair share of Government resources available for high streets and advocates group. town centres. Major Mayoral investments especially Housing and Transport will be harnessed to support local economic recovery objectives. DIGITAL ACCESS FOR ALL

Mission Approach

Every Londoner to have access to good connectivity, We propose to achieve the mission through joint working and basic digital skills and the device or support they need funding between GLA, boroughs, business and the VCS sector to deliver discrete, high-impact projects led by task-and-finish groups, to be online by 2025. based on a detailed map of digital exclusion in London.

Key themes behind projects: Mission Co-leads: Theo Blackwell (GLA), Davina Fell (Southwark) • Better digital connectivity in poorly served housing. • Improve access to basic digital skills. • Device offer for those who need it. Lead Organisations & Partners: • Place-based approach. GLA working with London Office of Technology & Innovation (LOTI), • Improve digital capability of VCS to support most digitally boroughs, businesses, and business groups (CBI, London First, excluded. FSB), Adult Education Budget training providers and VCS organisations (Good Things Foundation, DevicesDotNow, Age UK) including EDI groups. HELPING LONDONERS INTO GOOD WORK

Mission Approach

We will support Londoners into good jobs with a focus We propose to achieve this mission by developing easy to access on sectors key to London’s recovery. support for Londoners so they can find training and rewarding employment opportunities. This includes four project strands:

1. Supporting Londoners hardest hit by the pandemic into good Mission Co-leads: work, while ensuring that Londoners with the most complex Michelle Cuomo-Boorer (Assistant Director – Skills & Employment, needs are not left behind. GLA) and Dianna Neal (Strategic Lead: Enterprise, Economy and 2. Coordinating skills, careers and employment support so there Skills, London Councils). is ‘no wrong door’ for Londoners seeking assistance. Lead Organisations & Partners: 3. Establishing sector specific London 'Academies' to support GLA and London Councils, boroughs, Jobcentre Plus, skills and Londoners to gain relevant skills and move into good work in employment support providers, employers, unions and VCS. sectors key to London’s recovery. 4. Close working with employers and job creation initiatives to promote good work.

Leaders

Economic update Item no: 6

Report by: Dianna Neal Job title: Strategic Lead: Enterprise, Economy and Skills

Date: 23 March 2021

Contact Officer: Dianna Neal

Telephone: 020 7934 9819 Email: [email protected]

Summary: This paper provides an update on activity across London Councils and London boroughs to support Londoners and businesses to deal with the immediate economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the focus of work around preparing for London’s longer-term economic recovery.

Recommendations: Leaders’ Committee is asked to note and comment on this report.

Economic Update

Introduction

1. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the national and London’s economy has been severe and disruptive, with many businesses forced to physically close and many employees working from home. Whilst the outlook is uncertain, London’s economy may experience structural change and different working and commuting patterns in the longer term. This is likely to require London boroughs to consider new approaches to economic development, focusing on how to stimulate economic growth, in addition to ensuring that growth is inclusive. It will require an agile approach, given the interplay between the economy and health. This paper highlights London Councils’ work on both the short-term economic challenges and the longer-term economic recovery work. Leaders’ Committee is asked to feedback on the approach to guide this work and ensure that it links in with the work of the London Recovery Board effectively.

2. While recognising the economic impact of the pandemic across the UK, London is in a unique position and the pandemic is resulting in disproportionate economic harm. This is due to a range of factors, including the structure of its economy due to dominance of sectors most severely impacted by the pandemic, such as cultural and creative industries, tourism and hospitality and London’s heavy reliance on international and domestic travel and commuting, with many businesses servicing tourists and office workers whose numbers have significantly reduced. London is losing out on an estimated £10.19 billion in tourism spending this year1. This impact is particularly severe in the Central Activities Zone (CAZ) and in areas surrounding major airports, such as Heathrow and international rail hubs.

3. This is reflected in London experiencing the fastest increase in unemployment claims2 compared with other UK regions since the pandemic – an increase of 157% between March 2020 and January 2021, reaching a total of 485,180 claims. The UK claimant count increased by 102% in the same period. London has the highest take up rate of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS – or furlough scheme) than any other region, at 17%. Meanwhile unique job postings in the

1 GLA Economics Research, October 2020 2 The claimant count covers people claiming Jobseekers Allowance and claimants on Universal Credit ‘searching for work’ capital fell by 62% between March 2020 and December 2020, equivalent to approximately 58,000 postings3.

4. The impact on communities has also been uneven and is likely to exacerbate inequalities. Young people, disabled people, the low paid/those with insecure employment and BAME groups have been disproportionately affected in the labour market. It is also clear that London’s response to the economic challenges arising from the pandemic needs to be agile, responding to the changing public health environment and dealing with continued uncertainty.

Short term economic work

5. London Councils has been lobbying government with the GLA and business representative organisations on support for London businesses. The Budget on 3 March provided some welcome support for businesses and individuals affected by the pandemic including:

• Extension of the 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure until the end of June 2021, reducing to two-thirds for the remainder of the year and subject to capping.

• Extension of the 5% reduced rate of VAT for good and services supplied by the tourism and hospitality sector for six months to 30 September 2021, followed by interim rate of 12.5% for another six months.

• Restart Grants of up to £6,000 per premises for non-essential retail businesses and up to £18,000 per premises for hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses and an additional £425 million of discretionary grant funding to be delivered via local authorities.

• Extension of the CJRS (furlough scheme) to the end of September 2021, with increasing employer contributions from July onwards.

• Further grants available to the self-employed, with a fourth and fifth round of grants planned to be released before September 2021.

6. London Councils lobbied for many of these measures as part of our budget submission to the government. We continue to work with the GLA and business organisations to deliver the Economic Roadmap for London's recovery, given that

3 Job Posting Analytics, Emsi, 2020. the government has now published its roadmap out of lockdown. London Councils continues to work with boroughs and other stakeholders to work towards a safe and effective re-opening of the economy. We have held an event for chairs of borough licensing committees to share good practice and lessons learnt from summer 2020 and continue to share practice around effectively and quickly distributing grants to business among London boroughs.

7. London boroughs have significantly increased their knowledge of and relationship with local businesses during the pandemic. The emergency grants giving process has created a direct channel between each borough and many businesses in their area. We need to consider how boroughs build on this knowledge and relationships during the transition to longer term economic recovery during 2021. London Councils has refreshed its Pledges to Business and will launch this later in the year.

8. In response to the rising levels of unemployed Londoners, London Councils has worked with boroughs, Sub-Regional Partnerships and other stakeholders to influence the government’s Plan for Jobs. Government has reverted to centralised commissioning for many of these employment and skills programmes. Activity has included:

• Sub-regions commissioning the JETs employment programme that will support at least 30,000 Londoners who have been unemployed for three months or more and need support with job search, skills and well-being. The programme started in October 2020 and will run for one year initially.

• 24 boroughs are actively involved in the Kickstart scheme in London, which provides six-month work placements for young people, either as employers themselves or as gateway organisations working with local businesses.

• Secured smaller Contract Package Areas (CPAs) for the government’s forthcoming Restart programme for long term unemployed people, aligned to our existing sub-regional partnership geographies. Bidders will need to answer a specific question on how the programme will integrate with local provision and sub-regions will assess these responses as part of the procurement process.

9. London Councils has commissioned research into the likely volume and characteristics of unemployed Londoners up to September 2022 at a pan-London, sub-regional and borough level. This will report very shortly and highlights significant differences in unemployment levels, the groups most affected and the likely rate of recovery between sub-regions and boroughs. For example, the 35-49 age group is significantly at risk of unemployment in West London Alliance, whereas in other sub-regions the younger and older people are the most at risk groups. This may reflect the impact on the labour market of Heathrow and its supply chain. CLF is expected to see the biggest rise in unemployed Londoners in absolute terms; whereas Local London will see a significant rise in unemployment but is forecast to recover less quickly compared to other sub-regions.

Longer term economic recovery work

10. London Councils been working closely with the GLA, alongside boroughs, sub- regions and other stakeholders, to develop a programme for longer term economic and social recovery, under the oversight of the London Recovery Board. The details of this work are described in another paper on this agenda. The four economic focused missions are: A Green New Deal; Helping Londoners into Good Work; High Streets for All and Digital Access for All. All the missions have agreed action plans and are starting activities to deliver each mission.

11. The missions do not cover all the economic recovery work that is taking place or that needs to go ahead. They are more focused on the supply side of the economy; there will clearly need to be further activity around job creation; infrastructure investment, supporting businesses and local investment strategies. Lobbying is needed to secure external funding to deliver each mission’s ambitions and further work is needed to consider how to lever in private sector investment, where appropriate.

12. The announcements in the Budget around priority areas for investment for both the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund4 and the £220m Community Renewal Fund5 to pilot the replacement for EU funds suggests that London is unlikely to receive significant allocations from either of these funds to support recovery activities. This is one factor increasing the likelihood that London local government will need to develop

4 The government has identified 124 priority local authority area for the Levelling Up fund; only two of these are in London (LB Newham and Barking and Dagenham). 5 The government has identified 100 priority areas for the Community Renewal Fund and none are in London. the kinds of strategies for growth creation that have long been used by other major UK cities.

13. London Councils has commissioned consultants is working with Metro Dynamics6 to support work developing a coherent framework for the economic recovery that:

• brings together borough and other activity around the missions and related recovery work such as the economic roadmap for London’s recovery.

• identifies priorities and opportunities for collaboration between boroughs and other stakeholders, such as local anchor institutions.

• identifies the levers that boroughs can use to drive inclusive economic growth.

• looks at different likely scenarios for London’s economic recovery and how London boroughs can get the best for London in each case.

• Develops clear components of London’s economic narrative, explaining London’s approach to recovery and investment and how government can support that renewal.

14. To support this work, London Councils has been working with boroughs and sub- regions to gather granular information from boroughs on their economic recovery activities around the immediate crisis, transition to recovery and the longer term. These cover the recovery missions but also wider activities such as campaigns and communications, licensing, planning and enforcement and business support. We are also aiming to quantity the resources that boroughs have now and in the next year to support economic recovery work.

15. London Councils also held a roundtable with experts and key stakeholders to consider how London best maintains its global city status, reporting back to the London Recovery Board with proposed actions. These included developing an overarching brand and ‘festival of re-opening’ during summer 2021; improving the co-ordination and consistency of messaging between stakeholders and demonstrating London’s innovation through a ‘Living Lab’ initiative.

16. All the strands of work reported above suggest that the London economy will recover in a different shape to the economy that preceded the pandemic. London Councils’ commitment to inclusive growth already required a different approach to

6 Metro Dynamics is an economic consultancy focused on cities and urban areas economic policy. There is early evidence to suggest that the pandemic may have increased the need for London boroughs and London government to do more to generate growth. If so then learning from the experience of other UK cities will be valuable.

Next steps

17. Clearly the second wave of the pandemic has deepened the economic crisis and pushed back the longer-term recovery. It also means that planning for the recovery is more important, gives some more time for this and is an opportunity to widen and strengthen borough participation and learn from each other. Feedback from Leaders on the approach would be useful to guide this work, particularly in developing the strategic framework for economic recovery.

18. The GLA has secured £500,000 from the LEAP to increase capacity within boroughs and sub-regions for activities aligned with the economic missions. This would need to be matched with resource from the borough or sub-region. The process for accessing the funding will be launched during April.

19. Recommendations

20. Leaders Committee is asked to note and comment on this report.

Financial implications for London Councils None Legal implications for London Councils None Equalities implications for London Councils None

Leaders’ Committee

Climate Change Strategy and Resource Item 7 Transfer

Report by: Katharina Winbeck Job title: Strategic Lead – Transport and Environment

Date: 23 March 2021

Contact Officer: Katharina Winbeck

Telephone: 020 7934 Email: [email protected] 9945

Summary: This report highlights London Councils activities on the climate change agenda over the past year through the Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) and describes key elements of London Councils 2021/22 Climate Change Strategy previously adopted by both TEC and London Councils Executive.

This is a very important year for climate change policy and TEC is ambitious in the outcomes it wants to achieve and willing to resource this ambition. Expenditure on climate change related activities are however outside TEC’s authority and this paper therefore seeks agreement from Leaders’ Committee that the ambitions should be met with the additional resource transfers as outlined in Paragraph 9. Recommendations: The Committee is asked to: 1. Note progress on climate change policy to date and the

strategy for 2021/22; and

2. Approve the proposal for a transfer from the Transport and Environment Committee to the Joint Committee to resource climate change activities to March 2024 (paragraph 9).

Climate Change Strategy and Resource Transfer

1. Climate change policy has been a high priority area for London Councils TEC and Leaders’ Committee to support action locally, collectively as London Councils, and also collaboratively with the Mayor through the London Recovery Board. London Councils TEC and Leaders’ Committee approved London Councils priorities and resourcing for climate change in December 2019, and in June 2020, approved eight green recovery proposals. London Councils TEC and Executive Committee considered climate change policy and strategy at their December 2020 and January 2021 meetings respectively, and thus shaped and endorsed a strategy for the coming year.

2. Nationally, there have been a number of important policy and strategy developments around climate change, such as the roll out of the Green Homes Grant starting in summer 2020, the National Infrastructure Plan in November 2020, the Energy White Paper and the sixth Carbon Budget with extensive supporting research, including the role of local authorities in achieving net zero by 2050, in December 2020. Many more are expected during this year of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), taking place in Glasgow in November.

3. In this report, officers outline some of the progress that has been achieved on this agenda and the plan to take this work forward in this COP26 year.

Climate Change Progress to date and Strategy for 2021/22

4. Officers presented key achievements of the first year of the climate change programme to the TEC meeting in December 2020 and to the London Councils Executive in January 2021. They include:

i. Recruitment of nine boroughs (see Appendix 1 for a full list) to lead the delivery of the seven climate priority programmes in the London Councils Joint Statement on Climate Change. These nine boroughs will work with both geographically and political representative groups of boroughs to develop and then implement action plans ii. Establishment of working groups to draft action plans for four of these priority programmes, including securing £75,000 funding to support development of the retrofitting action plan

iii. Integrating London Councils’ green recovery proposals into the missions under the London Recovery Board, including developing a £1.1 billion pipeline of green projects

iv. Hosting three London Climate Action Week events attracting a total live audience of more than 260, including the launch of our inaugural polling on Londoners’ attitudes to climate change

v. Lobbying BEIS to ensure that London receives a fair share of well-designed and targeted retrofitting funds1, and securing an invitation to join their Social Housing Decarbonisation Consultative Panel

vi. Supporting the establishment of a Heads of Communications Climate Change Steering Group

vii. Supporting the development of climate capability training for Directors and elected members, led by LEDNet and attended by more than 100 people

5. Building on this, and discussions at the 10 December TEC meeting, officers have developed a climate change strategy for 2021/22 that was endorsed at London Councils Executive on 19 January.

6. The programme aims to create learning and opportunities for all boroughs, without a one size fits all approach. Key elements of the strategy are:

i. delivering an analysis of published borough climate action plans, a borough-level consumption emissions profile and establishing a carbon emissions accounting task and finish group to develop a consistent approach in this area;

1 Boroughs secured: £25 million under Green Homes Grants (GHG) Local Authority Delivery (LAD) schemes phases 1a and 1b, and have an indicative allocation of £27.5 million under LAD2; at least £68 million under Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme; and we are confident also of success for two schemes under the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund demonstrator. ii. supporting lead boroughs to finalise and oversee delivery of ambitious and well- supported action plans for our seven priority climate programmes, including appropriate governance structures (see Appendix 2) and links to the London Recovery Board missions;

iii. Lobbying on the indispensable role of local government – and London as the nation’s capital – in delivering net zero, with a particular focus on the Net Zero Strategy, Spending Review and UNFCCC COP26;

iv. delivering effective communications that support boroughs, our policy and funding asks, and the role that all Londoners can play in tackling the climate emergency; and

v. ensuring that London Councils itself both ‘talks the talk’ and ‘walks the walk’ on climate action.

7. In delivering on this strategy in 2021, we have to date:

i. Established a Climate Oversight Group comprising Directors from our lead boroughs and representatives of key Director Groupings on environment, housing, finance and public health. The Group has a remit to oversee strategic delivery of the climate programmes, avoid duplication of effort and maximise synergies, and consider cross-cutting themes including investment and resourcing, green jobs and skills, communications and engagement, public health and knowledge partnerships; it will report back to TEC and Leaders’ Committee on a six-monthly basis, and will be supported by a Climate Officers Coordination Group (see Appendix 2, overall governance).

ii. Organised a meeting between Lord Callanan (Minister for Climate Change and Corporate Responsibility), Cllr Rodwell and Mayor Glanville, to put the case for improvements to the Green Homes Grants scheme, and offer a partnership to deliver retrofitting and the associated green jobs and skills in London.

iii. Hosted a ‘climate roundtable’, chaired by Mayor Glanville and bringing together Cabinet members from lead boroughs with the Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy and representatives of London Councils political groups, to agree an approach to shared climate priorities for the coming year. This includes key points of the narrative we will use around climate, and an indication of how we will articulate this to key audiences, including communities, businesses, investors and other cities, and to government (see Appendix 3).

iv. Secured a partnership with Core Cities and the Connected Places Catapult to develop a City Investment Prospectus, which will articulate low carbon investment opportunities and business case for aggregating investments across cities to create more attractive propositions at greater scale and volumes. The prospectus will be launched at a high profile Investment Summit at COP26 and the steering group will be include Mayor Glanville and Keith Bottomley, Vice Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee at the City of London.

v. Begun the development of a communications campaign and toolkit for boroughs around active travel and electric vehicles.

Resourcing climate change activity

8. London Councils resources for climate change policy were approved by both TEC and Leaders Committee in December 2019, consisting of a Head of Climate Change post, funded by TEC specific reserves. This post was recruited to in February 2020 for a two- year fixed-term contract. Climate change policy has also been supported through a six- month placement (October 2020 – March 2021) by a National Graduate Development Programme trainee (1FTE), and staff time from across the Transport and Environment, Housing and Planning, Enterprise, Economy and Skills and Communications teams, supporting the different aspects of policy.

9. To maintain the current level of resource going forward, officers are requesting approval for a one-off transfer of resources from TEC special projects specific reserves to London Councils Joint Committee to:

i. Employ a Principal Policy Officer (1 FTE) on a fixed-term contract form June 2021 to March 2024 (two years and ten months), at a cost of £221,799; and ii. Extend the contract for the Head of Climate Change post for a further two-year period, from March 2022 to March 2024, at a cost of £221,308.

10. TEC will need to formally agree this at its March meeting, but informally members have indicated support for this use of part of the special projects’ specific reserves.

11. This will enable London Councils to continue to support borough ambitions on climate change by:

i. Delivering the ‘roadmap to COP26’, including the development and launch of the COP26 City Investment Prospectus with Core Cities and the Connected Places Catapult, and capitalising on the outcomes of COP26 and the launch of the prospectus from 2022 onward.

ii. Supporting the climate change lead boroughs to oversee the delivery of each of the seven climate change programmes (whose targets run to 2030) and report to TEC, and seeking further resource to support those programmes

iii. Coordinating strategic oversight of the seven climate programmes, including through support to the Climate Oversight Group and the Climate Officer Coordination Group.

iv. Co-leading development and management of the Green New Deal mission, with the GLA, including through the Expert Advisory Panel, which is jointly chaired by Mayor Phil Glanville and Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues and links through to the Green economy climate programmes and green skills work led by the sub-regional partnerships

v. Coordinating and managing relationships on climate policy and evidence with the GLA, and with pan-London organisations such as UK Power Networks and NHS London

vi. Delivering cross-cutting data, evidence and research, and advocacy and lobbying activities on behalf of boroughs, including specific needs arising from the climate programmes vii. Developing joint advocacy activities with local government partners, including the LGA, through the Blueprint Coalition

viii. Supporting the development of training and best practice, for example around Climate Action Plans and their overall costs, which will continue to rapidly evolve, including working with groupings such as the London Environment Directors’ Network (LEDNet)

ix. Supporting the development of evidence-led communications activity and support to boroughs, via the Heads of Communications Climate Change Steering Group, including annual polling on Londoners’ attitudes to climate change

x. Supporting collaboration and coordination across London Councils, including ensuring that we ‘walk the walk’ and ‘talk the talk’ on our own carbon emissions

Recommendations

12. The Committee is asked to:

• Note progress on climate change policy to date and the strategy for 2021/22; and

• Approve the proposal for a transfer from the Transport and Environment Committee to the Joint Committee to resource climate change activities to March 2024 (paragraph 9).

Financial Implications

13. The Director of Corporate Resources reports that the cost of the draft proposals outlined in this report are estimated to be a maximum of £443,107, which can be funded by a transfer of uncommitted funds from the TEC special projects specific reserve to the Joint Committee as detailed in paragraph 9 above.

Legal Implications

14. Climate change related activities are not within the functions delegated to TEC in the TEC Agreement and are therefore currently outside TEC’s authority.

15. However, the proposed activities are within the functions delegated to Leaders’ Committee and these can be funded by a transfer of uncommitted funds from the TEC special projects specific reserve to the Joint Committee. Equalities Implications

16. There are no specific implications for equalities arising from this report Appendix 1: Climate Change Lead Boroughs

Programme Lead borough #1 Retrofit London LB Enfield and LB Waltham Forest #2 Low Carbon Development LB Hackney and LB Tower Hamlets #3 Low Carbon Transport RB Kingston #4 Renewable Energy LB Islington #5 Consumption Emissions LB Harrow #6 Green Economy LB Hounslow #7 Resilient and Green LB Southwark

Appendix 2: London Councils Climate Change Governance

Appendix 3: Climate roundtable outcomes

1. Attendees at the roundtable agreed that we should adopt a positive narrative to frame our work on climate change, centred around:

• a shared vision for a more connected city that is greener, lower carbon, more resilient and more equal where all can thrive

• active support for our burgeoning green economy to help us build back better from Covid- 19, creating markets for local businesses, good jobs for Londoners and innovation

• positioning London as a leading engine for the green recovery that also supports and works alongside other cities and regions, and international partners

• working in partnership with our communities, our businesses and government.

2. Attendees also agreed that London local government should develop a series of outward-facing events through 2021 to articulate this narrative to our key audiences, focusing on a small number of top priorities, which are likely to include green financing. We will also seek to undertake joint lobbying activities, to present our shared narrative on the opportunity that London presents to achieve net zero, and the support we need to achieve that aim. Key moments will include:

Leaders’ Committee

Minutes and Summaries Item no: 9

Report by: Lisa Dominic Job title: Senior Governance Support Officer

Date: 23 March 2021

Contact Officer: Christiane Jenkins

Telephone: 020 7934 9540 Email: [email protected]

Summary Summaries of the minutes of London Councils

Recommendations Leader's Committee is recommended to note the attached minutes: • Executive Minutes – 19 January 2021 • YPES Minutes – 28th January 2021 • Grants Executive Minutes – 10 February 2021 • GLEF Joint Minutes – 11 February 2021

Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Tuesday 19th January 2021 09:30 am

Cllr Georgia Gould was in the chair

Present Member Position Cllr Georgia Gould Chair Cllr Teresa O’Neill (OBE) Vice Chair Cllr Ruth Dombey (OBE) Vice Chair Cllr Darren Rodwell Deputy Chair Cllr Muhammed Butt Cllr Clare Coghill Cllr Danny Thorpe Mayor Phillip Glanville Cllr Damian White Cllr Jas Athwal Cllr Elizabeth Campbell Catherine McGuinness Vice Chair

London Councils officers were in attendance.

1. Apologies for absence and announcement of deputies

There were no apologies for absence

2. Declaration of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

3. Minutes of the Executive Meeting held on 10th November 2020

The minutes of the Executive meeting held on 10the November 2020 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting

4. Climate Change Strategy 2021/22

Mayor Philip Glanville introduced the paper, thanking all of those involved in advancing he work and, in particular, the nine lead boroughs for their contribution. He commented that:

• work continued on the completion and adoption of action plans to support the seven climate programmes; • work was also being done to look at the impacts of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy and the Comprehensive Spending Review, and to prepare for the COP26 Climate Summit; • boroughs and London Councils had made significant progress in delivering the Joint Statement on Climate Change and supporting borough Climate Action Plans, in partnership with the Mayor, and also made a significant contribution to the London Climate Action Week (LCAW); in addition a poll had been carried out to assess Londoners’ attitudes to climate change; • future plans would see the strategy delivering projects that developed and articulated the evidence base and adopting a consistent approach to carbon emissions data. There was also a need to continue to interlink green recovery into this work, and to work closely with partners across London to deliver these ambitions.

In response to points made by members, Mayor Glanville additionally commented that:

• while central Government and the GLA had been at the centre of decisions regarding funding in this area, it was important to recognise the convening power of local authorities, their ability to engage effectively with local communities on these issues and to influence the climate change agenda. The role of London Councils in supporting this was also very important. Not all boroughs shared the same workstream priorities, different areas of expertise operated in different parts of London and at some different pace, but there was a high degree of consensus about boroughs’ core ambitions in this area; • the pandemic had highlighted many of the climate change challenges that had already existed, for example health inequalities, and it was important to understand how these impacted in London, and how initiatives such as green jobs, Green Finance and the retrofitting agenda benefitted both London and the rest of the country.

The Chair thanked Mayor Glanville, other members and staff in London Councils and boroughs for the work undertaken in this area.

Executive noted the progress on London Councils Climate Change Strategy 2021/22 as outlined in the paper reported to Executive.

5. Covid 19 – Update

The Chair commented that:

• while there were some positive signs recently in terms of reductions of numbers of people infected, the pandemic still placed extreme pressures on London resource; as a result, since the last Executive meeting, the Mayor had declared a major incident in London; • the cross-party approach to responding to the pandemic and the complex issues arising from it had been robust, resulting in the setting up of the Pandemic Steering Committee, which had been effective and complemented the contribution to the London Leaders Covid-19 Committee. Issues covered had included working with faith groups regarding access to places of worship, and the issue of school closures. The importance of focusing on the needs of London’s children was increasingly pressing • current issues being considered included enforcement, lateral flow testing, the London Vaccination Programme and the availability and analysis of data to monitor any potential health inequalities arising from the pandemic.

The Chair thanked the members and staff involved in the work, including the rota of co-ordinating Chief Executives.

The Executive noted the issues contained in the report.

6. Health Update – ICS Consultation

Cllr White introduced the report, nothing that.

• it updated members on London Councils response to the recent consultation on the future of Integrated Care Systems. The response was based in part on the five principles previously agreed by Leaders’ Committee; • because of the deadline, wider consultation with Leaders had not been possible, although meetings had been held with shadow political representatives; • there was now a requirement to set up a bi-partisan London wide workshop with Leaders, elected Mayors and care and health cabinet members, with a view to a preparing for further engagement with the wider issue at Leaders’ Committee and Executive.

Members supported the need for further discussion on the issue, recognising the large amount of local authority driven work in this area - for example the support given to Primary Care Networks in respect of vaccine rollout – and that it was important to understand and capture the role of boroughs and their achievements. It was also important to establish a core health role r in terms of local involvement and accountability.

The Executive noted the report and agreed to the proposal to lead wider engagement with London’s political leadership on this issue over the coming months.

7. Economic Update

The Chair informed members that:

• London Councils was working with the GLA on economic recovery.. There was a clear, shared recognition of the scale of the economic challenge facing London as a result of the pandemic;boroughs had worked effectively with businesses during the pandemic, delivering £1.6 billion of grants across London, and further lobbying had been carried out regarding, for example, reviews of business rates; • the longer-term work now focused on the four recovery missions: A Green New Deal; Helping Londoners into good work; High Streets For All (a £2m package had just been agreed to support this mission); and Digital access for all; • a series of action plans supported the missions and the Chair thanked all those who had been involved either in supporting or lobbying on the economic issues.

In response to a question regarding compiling criteria for successful business grant applications, Cllr Thorpe confirmed that work was being done to disseminate best practice information to assist local decision making.

Cllr Thorpe also mentioned that work was taking place to map out the short- and medium-term conditions for post Covid recovery. Catherine McGuinness mentioned that the City of London were running ‘The Global City’ campaign and would be keen on linking this with the work mentioned by Cllr Thorpe.

The Executive noted the report.

8. Review of scale of election fees

The Chief Executive reported that this item was submitted annually and contained recommendations of the London Elections Management Board, informed by the London branch of Electoral Administrators for the scale of election fees to apply in London in the forthcoming year. The proposal was for an increase in election fees and expenses for 2021/22 of 2%.

Members were invited to commend the report to boroughs.

In response to a question regarding lessons learned, and potential additional costs in this area arising from the pandemic, the Chief Executive confirmed that the Elections Management Board would be considering this issue, and conversations had already taken place with the Cabinet Office about identifying potential cost increases associated with a Covid secure election..

Executive noted the report and agreed that the recommendations should be commended to boroughs.

9. Audited Accounts 2019/20

The Director of Corporate Resources confirmed that the accounts had been reported later than in previous years due to pandemic-related delays on the part of the external auditors, which had also been experienced in other boroughs’ accounts closing processes.

The Accounts would be reported to Audit Committee in March 2021.

The Executive noted the changes between the pre-audited and audited financial outturn for 2019/20 for each of London Councils’ three committees; and formally adopted each of the three statements of accounts.

10. Nominations to Outside Bodies

The Chief Executive confirmed that the report related to nominations to external bodies, and that the report on internal allocation of roles would be brought to a future meeting.

The Executive noted the nominations/appointments made by the Chief Executive on behalf of London Councils.

The meeting closed at 10.50.

Young People’s Education and Skills Board Minutes of Meeting

Date 28 January 2021 Venue Microsoft Teams and livestreamed

Meeting Chair Councillor Clare Coghill, Leader of London Borough of Waltham Forest and London Councils Lead on Skills and Employment

Contact Officer Peter O’Brien

Telephone 020 7934 9743 Email [email protected]. uk

Present Cllr Clare Coghill Leader, London Borough of Waltham Forest and London Councils Lead on Skills and Employment Ben Anderson Landsec, employer representative on the London Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) Cllr Elizabeth Campbell Leader, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and London Councils Lead on Schools and Children’s Services Gail Tolley Strategic Director for Children and Young People, London Borough of Brent) representing the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services Dr Graeme Atherton Director, AccessHE John Prior Principal, Orchard Hill College, representing NATSPEC / Association of Colleges (AoC) – Special Colleges Mary Vine-Morris Area Director (London) and National Lead on Employment, AoC Michael Heanue Greater London Authority (GLA) / LEAP Dr Sam Parrett OBE London South East Colleges Group, representing AoC – General Further Education Colleges Sarah Hernandez Group Partnership Manager, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Sarah Wilkins Head of Education and Youth, GLA, representing Joanne McCartney, Deputy Mayor of London for Education and Childcare Tanya Douglas Deputy Headteacher, Chase Community School, representing the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Yolande Burgess Strategy Director, London Councils

Observer Eileen Atkinson

Officers Peter O’Brien Manager, London Councils - Young People's Education and Skills Team Tim Gallagher Principal Policy Officer for Skills and Culture, London Councils - Enterprise, Economy and Skills Team

Apologies None

1 Welcome, Introductions and apologies

1.1 The Chair welcomed Board members and invited those in attendance to introduce themselves.

2 Declaration of Interests

2.1 No interests were declared.

3 Notes of the last meeting and matters arising

3.1 The notes were agreed. Matters arising were included in the agenda items.

4 Policy Update

4.1 Peter O’Brien introduced the discussion and mentioned that since the paper had been written, the government had recently announced changes to Traineeships and Kickstart.

Post-meeting note: London Councils, boroughs and the GLA have published a new guide to help London employers make the most of Kickstart.

4.2 The meeting accepted the report and congratulated Dr Sam Parrett OBE, the AoC and ASCL on their individual and collective recognition in the Times Education Supplement for their services to the FE Sector during the pandemic and added its appreciation to them.

4.3 During discussion, Board members raised the following points:

- Recruitment in FE this year has been uneven, some colleges had seen an increase in enrolments, a few had seen a reduction. - Some of the research published by the Young People's Education and Skills Team, in collaboration with other partners (such as The Employment Gap in London), added considerable insight to discussions in the past and consideration should be given to similar analyses in the future. - Although the government has said that it will not be publishing all data relating to participation, achievements and progression in 2020, it may be possible to produce reports based on unpublished data. 4.4 The Chair thanked Peter for the report and Board members for contributing to the discussion.

Actions:

The Young People's Education and Skills Team to explore the possibility of commissioning independent analyses to aid understanding of key issues.

The Young People's Education and Skills Team to explore whether reports on progression, achievement and progression in 2020 can be produced from unpublished data.

5 Skills for Jobs White Paper

5.1 Peter O’Brien spoke to a paper provided to the Board and thanked Tim Gallagher for his assistance in its preparation. Peter provided an overview of the White paper’s content, the response from the sector and what the White Paper means to London.

5.2 The following points emerged from the Board’s discussion:

- The meeting was positive about the changes being proposed in the White Paper, particularly because it provided opportunities to take radical action, but would have preferred a more comprehensive set of proposals that addressed the wider role of FE.

- The Board felt that a more explicit definition of the local geographies expected to be covered by the proposed arrangements would have been welcome. Nonetheless, the Board believed that the considerable effort by partners, led by the Mayor, to engage with businesses in recent years would put London in a strong position to implement the reforms.

- The consensus of the meeting was that an opportunity to address the funding gap between FE providers and schools and between 18-year-olds and other post-16 students had been missed.

- The Board was particularly encouraged by the proposals to strengthen careers guidance.

- Although there was no explicit role for local authorities in the proposals, the meeting expressed the hope that this would be defined during implementation and through legislation.

5.3 In summing up the discussion, the Chair proposed a series of actions that the meeting agreed.

Actions:

The Chair and Councillor Campbell will meet to discuss the main gaps that had been identified in the White Paper and, through the Young People's Education and Skills Team in London Councils, propose to the Board the means to address them in London. The Chair and officers of the Board to discuss implementation of the White Paper in the context of the London Recovery Board’s missions.

6 Young People's Education and Skills Plan

6.1 Peter O’Brien introduced the discussion, referring to the paper provided to the Board. He spoke about aligning the Board and Team’s work with the London Recovery Board’s missions and mentioned the spotlights on each theme covered in the updates that had been provided during the pandemic, noting that the summary of the evidence base would be published. He also said that a borough breakdown of the claimant count for December would be provided after the meeting. The Board’s attention was directed to the questions in paragraph 3 of the paper and responses were requested by 26 February.

6.2 During the subsequent discussion:

- Board members acknowledged the detail précised in the ‘spotlights’ and proposed that these merited separate review in dedicated discussion groups.

- It was agreed that the questions posed in paragraph 3 in the paper should be reorganised by theme and reprovided to the Board in the post-meeting note.

- The Board welcomed the thoroughness of the topics covered in the spotlights and the commitment to align the work of Young People's Education and Skills to the London Recovery Board. The meeting was particularly encouraged that mental health and welfare of young people would be taken forward.

6.3 The Chair thanked the team for the paper and Board members for their contributions.

Action:

Young People's Education and Skills Team to reorganise the questions in paragraph 3 by theme and send to Board members in the post-meeting note so that Board members can respond by 26 February 2021.

7 Pan-London Supported Employment Board

7.1 Yolande Burgess introduced a paper that sought the Board’s agreement to the establishment of a Pan-London Supported Employment Board, its terms of reference and its membership.

7.2 The meeting discussed the paper and agreed its recommendations, with the following amendments:

- The Pan-London Supported Employment Board should include two young people’s representatives and their peer/outreach support should be defined.

- Consideration should be given to including employers other than the NHS on the Board.

7.3 The Board further agreed that it should receive regular reports on the Pan- London Supported Employment Board’s implementation and activities.

Action:

The Young People's Education and Skills Team should proceed to convene the Pan-London Supported Employment Board, in line with amendments to the proposed membership, as set out in the paper.

8 Other Business

8.1 None

9 Date of Next Meeting

9.1 The next meeting will be held on 20 May 2021 at 10 a.m.

Note for context: The papers referred to in these minutes can be downloaded for reference LONDON COUNCILS GRANTS COMMITTEE EXECUTIVE MEETING Minutes of the Grants Committee Executive meeting held via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday, 10 February 2020 at 2pm

Members: Cllr Richard Watts (Chair, LB Islington) Cllr Caroline Kerr (Vice Chair, LB Kingston upon Thames) Cllr Viddy Persaud (LB Havering) Cllr David Leaf (Vice Chair, LB Bexley) Cllr Joseph Ejiofor (Vice Chair, LB Haringey) Cllr Jonathan Cook (LB Wandsworth) Cllr Sue Anderson (LB Harrow) Cllr Jonathan Slater (LB Lewisham) Cllr Charlene McLean (LB Newham) Dhruv Patel OBE (City of London)

London Councils officers: Yolande Burgess, Strategy Director Samara Armitt, ESF Technical Advisor Frank Smith, Director of Corporate Resources Daniel Houghton, Liberal Democrat Political Advisor Jade Appleton, Conservative Political Advisor Mehboob Khan, Labour Political Advisor Ana Gradiska, Principal Governance and Projects Officer Lisa Dominic, Senior Governance Support Officer

The Chair welcomed Grants Executive members and London Councils’ officers to the meeting.

1 Apologies for Absence and Announcement of Deputies

1.1 There were no apologies for absence.

2 Declarations of Interests

2.1 There were no declarations of interest.

3 Minutes of the Grants Executive held on 16 September 2020.

3.1 The minutes of the Grants Executive meeting held 16 September 2020 were agreed.

4 Minutes of Grants Committee AGM held on 11 November (for noting)

4.1 The minutes of the Grants Committee AGM were noted with the following changes: Cllr Jonathan Slater has expressed interest in becoming a sponsor for Youth Poverty, rather than Homelessness. It was Cllr Jonathan Cook who expressed an interest in Homelessness 5 Draft Agenda for Grants Committee on 17 March 2021 and a verbal update on consultation for the Grants programme 2022-2026

5.1 The draft agenda for the Grants Committee on 17 March 2021 was agreed, with the following change: Month 9 Revenue Forecast to be taken off the agenda. 5.2 The Strategy Director said that so far there had only been ten responses to the consultation on the Grants programme for 2022-2026, comprising of six borough officer responses and four voluntary and community sector responses, although some organisations had indicated that they would be submitting their responses shortly. This represented a significantly lower response rate than last year, when over 200 responses were received. This reflected the current challenging environment that boroughs and organisations were operating in. The Grants team was planning on contacting boroughs week starting 15 February 2021 to encourage them to respond to the consultation. The report for the development of the new programme, which will include a summary of consultation responses, would be sent to the Chair and the Executive members before being presented to the full Grants Committee in March 2021. The Strategy Director confirmed that the Youth Poverty Alliance will be approached for a response. 5.3 Members asked to be copied into correspondence sent to officers in their boroughs in order to be able to keep track of the consultation responses. They also asked that the Grants team keep the Party Group Leads up to date with the progress on the consultation response rates so that they could intervene if necessary.

6 Month 9 Revenue Forecast

6.1 The Director of Resources said that: - The projected surplus was £31,000 for the year, as at31 December 2020. - All commissions are projected to spend their allocated budgets in full. The current monitoring arrangements which have been in place for the past seven years, where an organisation is only paid once evidence of milestones reached and financial position statements have been submitted, ensures that no overpayments are incurred. - It had previously been agreed by the Grants Committee that a proportion of uncommitted S.48 ESF reserves would be utilised for priority 1 and 2 providers to support advice around No Recourse for Public Funds (NRPF). It was forecast that £945,000 would be paid to providers in 2020/21. Expenditure in relation to the above NRPF payments would be transferred from S.48 ESF reserves held by the Grants Committee. - Projected total reserves of £937,000 were forecast at the year-end, following the finalisation of the audit accounts for 2019/20. This funding could potentially be used for a ‘response fund’ or for other undertakings that members deemed suitable, with the proviso that any recommendations would need to be endorsed by the Leaders’ Committee. 6.2 Members: - noted the projected surplus of £31,000 for the year; and - noted the projected level of Grants Committee reserves. 7 Discussion item: Utilising reserves through a respond fund

7.1 The Strategy Director said that discussions have been ongoing for some time on the best way to spend the reserves funding, and several options were available to the Grants Committee. She invited members to give their thoughts on how the reserves funding should be spent. 7.2 Members agreed that the funding needed to be targeted at the supporting people who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, including hospitality workers, freelancers and rough sleepers with no recourse to public funds. In addition, once the evictions ban has been lifted, it was expected that there would be surge in homelessness. A pan-London programme which provided good value for money and did not duplicate current borough initiatives was essential. Sub-regional programmes may be one way of ensuring that the funding was targeted. However, it was important to avoid a ‘cliff edge’ at the end of one-off funded support. 7.3 The Chair said that any decision needed to be guided by the Terms of Reference of the Grants Committee. The programme chosen needed to be either specialist or provide significant economies of scale. It would also need to be something that worked better when implemented pan-London rather than by individual boroughs.

8 AOB

8.1 The Strategy Director said the Domestic Abuse Bill was currently going through parliament, and legislation would change during the life of the 2022-26 programme, which would affect Priority 2 - Tackling Sexual and Domestic Violence. The new Grants programme would need to be flexible in order to adapt to the new legislation, and suggestions on how this could be carried out would be presented in a paper at the full Grants Committee meeting in March 2021.

The Chair invoked Standing Orders to ask members of the press and public to be excluded from the meeting for a private conversation. The meeting finished at 2:30pm

Leaders’ Committee

Report from the Greater London Item no: Employment Forum

Report by: Steve Davies Job title: Head of Regional Employers Organisation

Date: 23 March 2021

Contact Officer: Steve Davies

Telephone: 020 7934 9963 Email: [email protected]

Summary: Summary of the minutes of the Greater London Employers Forum held on 11 February 2021

Recommendations: For information. PRESENT: Employers’ Side - Cllr Daniel Thomas (Barnet), Cllr Nick O’Hare (Sub) (Bexley), Cllr Margaret McLennan (Brent), Cllr Alison Kelly (Sub) (Camden), Cllr Kamaljit Dhindsa (Ealing), Cllr Nesil Caliskan (Enfield), Cllr Carole Williams (Hackney), Cllr Zarar Qayyum (Hammersmith & Fulham), Cllr Matthew White (Haringey) Cllr Catherine Faulks (Kensington & Chelsea), Cllr Tim Cobbett (Kingston upon Thames), Cllr Satnum Gill (Islington), Cllr Amanda de Ryk (Lewisham), Cllr Caroline Cooper- Marbiah (London Borough of Merton), Cllr Terence Paul (Newham), Cllr R Baker (Richmond upon Thames), Cllr Richard Clifton (Sutton), Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets), Cllr Guy Senior (Wandsworth), Cllr Clyde Loakes (Waltham Forest) and Cllr Rachael Robathan (Westminster)

Unions Side: Helen Reynolds (UNISON), Andrea Holden (UNISON), Sean Fox (UNISON), Maggie Griffin (UNISON), April Ashley (UNISON), Gabby Lawlor (UNISON), Gloria Hanson (UNISON), Neil Tasker (UNISON), Jackie Lewis (UNISON), Sonya Howard (UNISON), Vaughan West (GMB), Sonya Davies (GMB), Penny Robinson (GMB), Madeline Daley (GMB), Danny Hoggan (Unite) and Gary Cummins (Unite).

Others in attendance: Steve Davies (Employers’ Side Secretary), Debbie Williams (Regional Services Officer), Mehboob Khan (Labour Political Advisor), Jade Appleton (Conservative Political Advisor), Daniel Houghton (Liberal Democrats Political Advisor) and Julie Kelly (UNISON)

Item 1 - Apologies for Absence - Apologies were received from Cllr Steven Hall (Bexley), Danny Beales (Camden), Cllr Katherine Dunne (Hounslow), Cllr Catherine Faulks (Kensington & Chelsea), Cllr Terence Paul (Newham), Neville McDermott (UNISON) and Madeleine Daley (GMB)

Item 2 - Declarations of Interest - There were no declarations of interest.

Item 3 - Election of Chair and Vice-Chair 2021-22 - Danny Hoggan (Unite) was nominated as Chair for the year 2021-22 from the Employees’ side and Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) as Vice-Chair from the Employers’ side.

Item 4 - Confirmation of GLEF Membership 2021-22 - GLEF Membership for 2021-22 was noted as follows:

Borough Rep Party Deputy Barking & Dagenham Sade Bright Lab Irma Freeborn Barnet Daniel Thomas Con D. Longstaff Bexley Steven Hall Con Nick O'Hare Brent Margaret McLennan Lab Shama Tatler Bromley Pauline Tunnicliffe Con Stephen Wells Camden Danny Beales Lab Alison Kelly Croydon Callton Young Lab Patsy Cummings Ealing Jasbir Anand Lab Enfield Nesil Caliskan Lab Mary Maguire Greenwich Linda Perks Lab Hackney Carole Williams Lab Philip Glanville Hammersmith & Fulham Zarar Qayyum Lab Haringey Matthew White Lab Dhiren Basu Harrow Adam Swerksy Lab Havering Robert Benham Con Viddy Persuad Hillingdon Richard Lewis Con Hounslow Katherine Dunn Lab Islington Satnam Gill Lab Asima Shaikh Kensington & Chelsea Catherine Faulks Con Kingston upon Thames Tim Cobbett LD Andreas Kirsh Lambeth Andy Wilson Lab Jacqui Dyer Lewisham Amanda de Ryk Lab Kevin Bonavia Merton Caroline Cooper-Marbiah Lab Marsie Skeet Newham Terry Paul Lab Rokhsana Fiaz Redbridge Kam Rai Lab Jas Athwal Richmond upon Thames Richard Baker LD Southwark Rebecca Lury Lab Sutton Richard Clifton LD Sunita Gordon Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs Lab Candida Ronald Waltham Forest Clyde Loakes Lab Simon Miller Wandsworth Guy Senior Con Westminster Rachael Robathan Con Tim Mitchell City of London Edward Lord, OBE, JP Ind

UNISON: April Ashley, Sean Fox, Maggie Griffin, Gloria Hanson, Mary Lancaster, Jackie Lewis, Simon Steptoe, Clara Mason, Andrea Holden, Neville McDermott, Sonya Howard, Karen Lynn, Danny Judge, Gabrielle Lawler, Henry Roberts/Adejare Oyewole (Joint Subs) and Julie Woods (in attendance)

UNITE: Onay Kasab, Gary Cummins, Danny Hoggan, Susan Matthews, Kath Smith, Jane Gosnell, Pam McGuffie, Mick Callanan

GMB: Penny Robinson, George Sharkey, Madeline Daley, Kehinde Akintunde, Donna Spicer, Sonya Davis, Vaughan West and one other

Item 4 - Minutes of the Last Meeting held on 20 February 2020 Including Matters Arising - The minutes of the meeting held on 20 February 2020 were noted as a correct record.

Matters Arising - April Ashley (UNISON) raised the menopause support arrangements and asked that an update be provided at the next meeting of how many councils have introduced a menopause policy.

Jackie Lewis (UNISON) raised the Healthy Workplace Charter, a report was promised to be tabled at today’s meeting so we would like to reiterate that request for the next meeting on which boroughs have signed up.

Steve Davies, Regional Employers Side Secretary stated that he is happy to collect the data and share at the next meeting.

No further matters.

Item 5 - Apprenticeships Update – Tim Gallagher, Principal Policy Officer, London Councils - Tim Gallagher, Principal Policy Officer Skills (London Councils) gave a presentation on the London Borough Apprentice Data for 2019-20.

The presentation covered:

• Background • Number of apprenticeships – key findings • Number of apprenticeships – generated by London boroughs • Ethnicity in apprenticeships councils • Meeting public sector apprenticeship targets • Pay survey – average weekly hourly pay L2 and L3 • Pay survey – London living wage

A copy of Tim’s presentation is attached.

GLEF 2021 - Apprenticeship data

The Chair thanked Tim for his presentation and asked if he was able to give details of which boroughs pay the London Living Wage (LLW) and those which do not.

Steve Davies, Employers Side Secretary informed that the list of 17 boroughs who pay the LLW is provided in the report on page 17.

Simon Steptoe (UNISON) thanked Tim for his report, very helpful. Well done to the 17 boroughs who do pay the LLW. As for the rest it is recommended you pay the LLW. The Union Side would like to know what happens at the end of the apprenticeships in terms of employment, are they guaranteed an interview or job? Would like a report back on this some point.

Jackie Lewis (UNISON) stated that the Union Side would like to refer colleagues back to the minutes on this agenda where there is a request from the unions for information on what London boroughs are doing around the higher-level apprenticeships with existing staff. This initial request was around the time as the social worker level came in as well as other apprenticeships This does not appear to have got communicated that we would like these figures. We would like to ask that we get this information We know another survey is going to be undertaken soon and would like these questions incorporated.

We recognise that there is a bit of gender stereo-typing in terms of the types of jobs women do and don’t do and from reading the report there did not seem to be any connection on the data provided that women are represented in certain trades. Could boroughs be asked about this in future surveys?

Cllr Richard Clifton (Sutton) thanked Tim for the report and asked that as there is going to be repeated survey that full data for ethnicity is collected as this is essential. Would also like to see data on retention, progression and occupational spread for apprenticeships.

Henry Roberts (UNISON) asked with regards to the race equality element of the London borough apprenticeships survey is it known what percentage those boroughs who did not respond represent?

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) stated that the report is for the 2019-20 year so a bit out of date. The current year collection will be disrupted by the impact of Covid but would like to see more up to date information provided at these meetings.

Tim Gallagher responded that in terms of additional collection of information there was a question around existing staff who were taking on apprenticeships which we do have a breakdown of for council employees that are new and existing apprenticeships. We do ask a lot of questions, but we have to be realistic about what information we will get back but agree we want more information on ethnicity, roles, retention and progression which colleagues have mentioned. Would be useful to collect this information.

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide the percentage of boroughs who did not respond to ethnicity today but can get this figure and provide. Some boroughs only had partial data but think this was only a very small number of cases where they could not provide data.

It makes sense to carry this survey out at the end of a financial year so we can get a complete picture. We will be sending out the survey in April to get the picture for 2020. Will take away all the points raised and seek to answer those questions in the next survey.

Maggie Griffin (UNISON) asked that in future could the figures for disabled apprenticeships be included? This is 2021 so it should be included, boroughs will have a record of this information so it should be there. Need to be more forceful, how do we know that disabled people are being offered apprenticeships of some substance?

Tim Gallagher responded that this question was asked but the findings were not presented on the slide. Not all boroughs provided data but will lift out the response and send this through.

Item 6 - Local Government and NHS Collaborative Working - Steve Davies, Employers Side Secretary informed colleagues that this item is something that the unions are aware of. This is about the London HR network working with NHS employers. We are trying to work more collaboratively together on HR related issues and one of the things we talked about is to try and get together something tangible to recognise conditions of service from each employer. The local government family already do this in terms of leave, sickness, maternity etc but we have not done this between our sectors, so we have created an employment service passport with the NHS.

We thought the best way to do this was through a memorandum of co-operation, might still be some challenges through this mechanism, but the best way to get employers to sign-up. The NHS employers are very supportive along with our union colleagues.

The item is on the agenda today to garner the support of our employers.

Colleagues will find on pages 21-22 of the report a useful table which answers key questions which people might have.

Sean Fox (UNISON) stated that in principle this is a good initiative. What we would welcome is a more detailed discussion at Joint Secretaries about how we monitor this. Would also like some joint advice to be produced as well as a memorandum. We could do a bit more with this piece of work as there is increasing mobility between the NHS and local government.

Mayor John Biggs (Newham) stated that the Employers Side welcome this report and it looks like good practice and we can have further conversations, could be quite productive in terms of seamless employment in our sector.

The report was noted.

Item 7 - London Pensions CIV Update - Steve Davies, Employers Side Secretary informed colleagues that the Trade Union Side requested an update from London Pensions CIV and highlighted the following from the report:

• London CIV has been operating quite well from a financial perspective. • Increased their focus on sustainable investment, investment on social and environmental impacts, and good governance. • Employing staff to focus on these investments. • Lord Robert Kerslake is due to stand down from the Board in September 2020 and they are out actively looking to recruit a replacement • Chris Cooper (UNISON) has been granted full member access on the committee which he was previously observer at, which is a positive.

Vaughan West (GMB) stated that by welcoming Chris Cooper to the Board, the balance between employer and union side representation is still not satisfactory. With so much investment being transferred to the CIV the unions would like three representatives at least sitting on the Board. This is not going to go away so would like it kept on the agenda.

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) stated that this is a matter at Leaders level so we can pass this back up to Leaders Committee as unfinished business. Happy to take this to Leaders myself.

The Chair stated that there are still people who do not opt into the pension scheme, the more involvement the unions have the more confidence people will have with the pension scheme as the unions will promote it. It’s a missed opportunity if the CIV doesn’t get a strong employee voice.

The report was noted

Item 8 - Restriction on Public Sector Exit Payments - £95K Cap - The Chair stated that the Trade Union Side would like to declare an interest in this subject as it affects us all. It is one of the maddest things this current government has done.

Steve Davies, Employers Side Joint Secretary informed colleagues that the report summarises the key issues. The Judicial Reviews are planned to be heard at the end of March 2021. The outcome of the review might change things, but we won’t know the impact on pension scheme members until these reviews have taken place.

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) stated that a lot of us are frustrated by this and are bound by it, we are currently following the guidance provided by the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) but also awaiting the outcome of the reviews. Frustrating to be in this position. We need it sorted out asap.

Simon Steptoe (UNISON) stated that this is a classic example of political incompetence. We want to ask if there is any clarity across London, are boroughs paying low (reduced amounts) and awaiting a challenge or pay high (unreduced pensions) with the possibility that members may need to pay back if cases don’t succeed in the courts?

Sonya Davies (GMB) stated that from a trade union perspective we don’t agree with this as it is set so low, the here and now is where it is holding up figures in relation to reorganisations and members are awaiting figures. What is, if any, the consistent approach across boroughs? The Union Side would like to know.

Steve Davies, Employers Side Regional Secretary responded that the report notes that the London boroughs are following the LGPS advice, which is making reduced pension payments and assuming this is binding. If the courts find this is not enforceable, we will need to backdate any monies owed.

Page 28 of the report, paragraph 3.6 identifies the LGPS Advisor Board’s view, which is the common position taken by boroughs across London. There have been discussions at Heads of HR and boroughs are taking this position as advised. Frustrating for individual pension members, they have a right to make a complaint to the ombudsmen, which the Local Government Association (LGA) are encouraging people to do. It is made clear that it is the administering authority not the employer to decide whether people are paid a reduced pension or not. Most administering authorities are not going to pay out as they will be out of pocket, so they are not really doing anything at this time.

The Chair asked if boroughs are explaining the exit pay to pensions members? Hopefully the Employers Side can put pressure on the government, it is bizarre scheme which came out of the BBC top earners who earn millions so how that transferred to us for someone working on bins with 35 years’ service is unknown.

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) stated that it is not a political contentious issue, the headlines say it is for fat cats, which we know is not true, clearly a conflict between negotiating terms and conditions, pensions and the £95k rule. We need clarity, so we can sort this out.

Helen Reynolds, Trade Union Side Secretary stated that she wanted to raise that pension scheme members will still be able to make claims if the Judicial Review is successful and asked if there was a mechanism in place for members who don’t understand it and will not know that they can make a claim? Will they be contacted by their employer to let them know they can make a claim? Will the employers ensure they will contact? Would like this to be considered.

The Chair informed that they all deal with union members who don’t know about the exit cap and some union members have had to forego their notice.

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) stated that he assumes this will be done automatically if the rules change, they will be notified by their pension funds or their severance pay will be affected. Could Steve Davies clarify if good and simple guidance on the options are in place?

Cllr Nesil Caliskan (Enfield) stated that he wanted to reiterate the impact the cap is having on what might be a small number of people but the impact on the individual(s) is significant, people could be missing out on £30-40,000. Difficult situation authorities are finding themselves in. Have raised in my borough for assurances that we are taking the risk on our books in the event the review allows retrospective payment, we need to ensure there are budgets to pay this. We know who these individuals are and secondly would echo what Helen Reynolds said that we need to proactively contact those individuals. This is the message I am giving to my authority.

The Chair stated that people were making difficult complex decisions. The Trade Union Side discussed that we would give people rough estimates of their pensions, but we found it difficult to estimate what the pension strain is. It is time consuming for employers to also do this, especially during a time of more work due to Covid.

Helen Reynolds, Staff Side Secretary thanked Cllr Caliskan for the contribution. It would be great if individuals where contact automatically but not confirmed this is the case. Would ask that advice go out to boroughs should there be a success following the Judicial Review.

Steve Davies, Employers Side Secretary responded that the HR community are very keen on this and the people impacted are on record. Boroughs are being supportive to employees affected by the cap but will make sure that the boroughs are and inform that this committee recommends that they do this and make sure it happens.

Sonya Davies (GMB) stated that we need to bear in mind that this is going forward so if it is going to unsuccessful it will impact going forward, will be much greater for people within this scheme. It is not just about the here and now.

The report was noted

Item 9 - GMB Domestic Violence Charter – Nell Andrew, GMB - Vaughan West (GMB) introduced Nell Andrew, National Equality and Inclusion Officer, GMB who was in attendance today to give a presentation on the GMB’s Domestic Violence Charter. GMB has developed the Charter and this an opportunity today to encourage London authorities to adopt the Charter. Domestic violence has become a pandemic itself over the last 12 months. A copy of Nell’s presentation is attached.

Microsoft PowerPoint Presenta

The Chair thanked Nell for her presentation and informed colleagues that most London boroughs have domestic violence policies in place as well as having links to resources on their intranet.

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) thanked Nell for her fantastic presentation and stated that most employers will have a policy in this area, but today’s presentation is a reminder that there is a requirement for employers to dust it down. Asked if Steve Davies could take the issue back to the Heads of HR group for discussion.

Jackie Lewis (UNISON) thanked Nell for presentation, as has already been said, we think a lot of the boroughs actually do already have policies, some for quite a while. The Trade Union Side would like to request that boroughs are asked whether they have a policy in place, request that they revive them if they have not been looked at for a while and ask them to link it to the Domestic Violence Bill. Those boroughs not doing anything need to be encouraged to do so, so we can get moving on this.

Sonya Davies (GMB), thanked Nell for an interesting presentation and asked in terms of what is happening with Covid and the increase of domestic violence, bearing in mind the hear and now, that employers are talking to people working from home, it is knowing what is happening in the here and now.

Steve Davies, Regional Employers Side Secretary thanked Nell for her presentation and stated that he would like to invite her along to present at a future HR meeting. Colleagues in HR have been thinking and constantly talking about people who work from home, more so because of this issue. The more we can raise the issue the better, we will start the debate.

Nell Andrew stated that it was good to hear what colleagues were saying about boroughs having policies in place, but union members are saying they are old and out of date and do not relate to Covid. Training is key for managers. If documents are not live, then managers do not feel confident in tackling not only with staff disclosing but through patterns of behaviour. Have heard that managers have no training on the policy set, half hour training sessions are not enough to equip managers. Would stress that mangers need to look out for signs.

Would be happy to come a speak to boroughs individually, we have resources to share and as well as attend future meetings.

Nell can be contacted at: [email protected]

The Chair thanked Nell for her presentation and stated that we will all go back to our workplaces following this meeting and promote the Charter.

Item 10 - Any Other Business - The Chair informed that the Trade Union Side would like to raise few questions around Covid. Would personally like to ask if there is an update on the financial impact London boroughs are facing? We were provided an update at the Greater London Provincial Council meeting in October 2020 and wondered when we would get an update.

Sean Fox (UNISON) raised in terms of vaccinations it would be useful to see what advice London boroughs are providing and whether there is a consistent approach being taken across London. This is especially important with the imminent opening of schools; it would be good to start conversations with colleagues around a consistent approach with schools.

Clara Mason (UNISON) stated that she wanted to raise the issue of the South African variant and the need for boroughs to provide surge testing. My council Greenwich are currently meeting to discuss their planning if the need arises to do door to door testing. Would like to make sure other boroughs are discussing with their trade unions what they are doing to do. We have concerns that support staff are going to be used for surge testing and want to make sure they have the appropriate PPE is in place.

George Sharkey (GMB) stated on the subject of the vaccine the one neglected service which has not closed down is the Early Years Centres. I understand that are going back to full staff capacity from the 23rd February so would call that councils make these people a priority.

Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) stated that on behalf of all London boroughs our workforce employees have been heroic in a number of ways, people are operating in harm’s way or working remotely supporting people. As employers we have a duty to protect our staff as much as visibly can be done. There will be agreements within individual boroughs but if there are things we can do at London level happy to have discussions.

In relation to the financial impact on boroughs we have been given additional money, but it is still an unstable position for us. People now getting vaccinated does not mean this is not going to carry on much longer, it is still so fragile for boroughs.

One of the frustrations in local government is that most of this stuff is managed through the NHS, councils have been doing a lot of work supporting the vaccine programmes. In terms of protecting staff we have been lobbying for key staff to get vaccinated, care, refuse etc. A lot going on locally and if there are regional messages we want to give about vaccinations and prioritisation then happy to hear this. In relation to surge testing Public Health tell us that although the virus going down it is still higher than last summer. Flaring up in high density populated places so we need to be alive to this. A lot of us have been involved in working on the frontline and tackling this crisis. If there are things to do at a London regional level, then very happy to do this.

The Chair suggested that it would be useful to have a discussion at Joint Secretaries to discuss general issues around Covid.

Steve Davies, Regional Employers Side Secretary agreed that a discussion take place at Joint Secretaries. The Heads of HR network meeting weekly to discuss a lot of the issues raised to ensure they are taking a consistent approach across London. Will share more information with the Joint Secretaries when a meeting is organised.

The Chair mentioned that Lambeth had already gone through the experience of surge testing and where obviously sharing good practice with others.

Thank You and Goodbye Mayor John Biggs (Tower Hamlets) informed colleagues that today was the last meeting that Mehboob Khan, Political Advisor to the Labour Group (London Councils) would be attending as he was moving on to pastures new. Would like to give thanks to Mehboob for his support of the GLEF and the GLPC meetings over the last 7 years as well as the support he has given the Labour group.

The Chair extended his thanks to Mehboob from the Trade Union Side.

The meeting concluded at 1.08pm

Item 11 - Date of Next Meeting - Tuesday 20 July 2021 (AGM) Group Meetings: 10.00am Joint Meeting: 11.30am

Future Meeting Dates 22 February 2022 19 July 2022