"It's not Rocket Science, Boris"
Our mandate for London's new Mayor
Boris Johnson's election as London's Mayor is sure to lead to some significant changes to public policy in the capital. Drawing on some of our recent work in London, as well as riding a few personal hobby-horses, Rocket Science's London team offers a few initiatives that Mayor Johnson might consider. Some are "quick wins," others will require long-term investment. They range from seeing our primary schools as the key to promoting lasting community cohesion, to suggestions on how to implement the manifesto pledge to set up a Mayor's Fund For London. To read our 6 initiatives, click on the title headings below...
- Community Cohesion
Investing in our local schools - Welfare to Work
Giving Londoners the skills to compete - Corporate Responsibility
Capitalising on the Mayor's Fund For London - Digital Inclusion
Providing universal internet access for Londoners - The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Ensuring social enterprise plays its part - Partnership working
Rationalising the infrastructure
Community cohesion: Investing in our local schools
Community cohesion has been the subject of much debate and accusations of policy u-turns in recent years. Definitions of multi-culturalism and community cohesion are shifting all the time. Following the attacks on London on 7/7/05, and riots in northern cities like Bradford and Burnley, the government called for fresh efforts to promote cohesion and tackle deep-seated community tensions. Following a 10-month review, the government's Commission on Integration and Cohesion set out a clear national agenda whilst placing responsibility with local authorities for improving community cohesion in their area.
Nowhere is the impact of this challenge felt more strongly than in London, a truly global city, where more than 300 different languages are spoken. The new Mayor of London needs to place community cohesion at the heart of his agenda if the economic benefits of London's development are to be realised by all of its growing population. This will require practical approaches to building communities' own capacity to reduce tensions and create opportunities for more integrated and cohesive societies. Including:
- Strengthening rights and responsibilities
- Building mutual respect and civility
- Making social justice visible.
These commitments should not be so vague that they cannot be fact checked or measured. The ability to speak English is at the heart of an inclusive civil society. All life opportunities in London will follow from this basic requirement, including the ability to work and remain in work. London's schools, and particularly its primary schools, are at the heart of London's communities. They are the first point of interaction and integration for many diverse communities. We want to see a clear commitment and investment to develop the role of primary schools as the principal enabler of community cohesion. Providing extended school facilities and essential ESOL provision for children and their families. But also contributing a local environment in which to share common values, common beliefs and create a common future. Contact Mark Morrin for more information.
[ Return to the list of 6 initiatives ]
Welfare to Work: Giving Londoners the skills to compete
London is the only English region where unemployment is higher than it was in 1979. For many years, the capital's economy has been the fastest-growing of any region but its worklessness level has also been the highest in recent years. Currently 30% of Londoners of working age are not in work, compared to 25% nationally.
This regional disparity is partly a result of the fact that London has a greater proportion of disadvantaged groups who face multiple barriers to employment. Only 58% of Londoners of BME origin are in employment, 62% of women, and 45% of disabled people.
However, the incomes and employment prospects of residents are further undermined by factors particular to London. Affordability is a key factor in making work pay, particularly the cost of housing and the expense of childcare. The later makes it especially difficult for parents to return to work and decreases the financial gains of employment for those who would otherwise be receiving benefits.
The skewed nature of London's economy and labour market amplifies the problem. London's economy has seen a structural shift from manufacturing to services, with the result that the workforce needs more qualifications than ever before. A staggering 43 per cent of jobs require level 4 (degree level) or higher qualifications and the demand for high-level skills is expected to keep growing. [ See The London Story for more information on the current nature of the capital's labour market. ]
The large numbers of jobs requiring high skills, combined with large-scale inward migration from the rest of the UK and abroad, means that many local residents are uncompetitive when tested against the employment claims of skilled migrants. A recent survey by the London branch of the CBI showed that one of the most common complaints from businesses is residents' lack of skills, which forces them to look to skilled immigrants to fill vacancies.
The problem is most acute in inner city London boroughs, with Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey and Barking & Dagenham having especially large numbers of unemployed or economically inactive. London's Regional Improvement Partnership, Capital Ambition, has highlighted "the danger of an underclass being created" in areas of high worklessness as one of the key challenges facing London in the coming years. In inner London, with its high concentration of unemployed residents, around 50% of children grow up in relative poverty.
The new Mayor will need to address the stark disparities in skills and employment prospects that are helping to perpetuate vast inequalities can be seen in the capital. There are issues not just around a lack of skills in the resident population, but also around the unattractiveness of work to those who will not gain much financially by swapping benefits for high housing and childcare costs.
In many respects this will require continuity of policy and funding. Tackling child poverty and making work pay are the priorities for London. This means continued commitment to London's Child Poverty Commission and a London Living Wage. It also means continued investment in flagship initiatives such as the Childcare Affordability Programme as well as new interventions to ensure greater take up of working tax credits by working families in London.
The lessons emerging from London's City Strategy Pathfinders will need to be quickly acted upon and with support and enhancement for the Flexible New Deal provided through the Mayors agencies. Incentivising employers to invest in skills is one area where we would expect the new administration to make welcome improvements.
[ Return to the list of 6 initiatives ]
Corporate Responsibility: Capitalising on the Mayor's Fund For London
Over the past 10 years, various arms of government have tried to capitalise on the notion of corporate responsibility and businesses' increasing willingness to prove their credentials as good neighbours, environmental champions and ethical or community investors. Soon after coming to power in 1997, the Labour government created a Minister for Corporate Social Responsibility "CSR" within the old Department for Trade and Industry. Kim Howells, Douglas Alexander, Stephen Timms and Malcolm Wicks have all held the post at one time or another. Following the central government reorganisation in 2006, the newly created Office of the Third Sector took up the challenge; at a regional level the London Development Agency has also expressed interest in harnessing corporate citizenship activity to its objectives for London's social and economic development. And now Mayor Johnson is keen to get in on the act!
During the election campaign, Boris Johnson frequently referred to his intention to set up the "Mayor's Fund For London" which will "raise millions from wealth creators in London and invest in a wide range of voluntary sector projects, including academic mentoring, competitive sport, music and drama." The Fund is to be additional to existing government and London Development Agency funding and will be used to help "hundreds of groups who do not access any funding because they may be faith based or fit other criteria." Back in 2000, at the time of the first London Mayoral election, we were suggesting that the incoming Mayor had an opportunity to capitalise on corporate responsibility and harness it more effectively to the priorities for London's regeneration. Is it time to dust down these ideas and apply them to the design of the Mayor's Fund For London?
Back then we wrote: "the new London Development Agency, should consider the setting up of a small seed fund which would encourage smaller companies to engage with the community. An "Investors in Society" Fund might be modelled on the Department of Culture's "Pairing Scheme" which is used to match £ for £ first-time business sponsorship of the arts. Administered on behalf of the government by Business in the Arts, this is relatively inexpensive to operate and has been hugely successful at attracting new business investment in the arts, particularly by SMEs. A similar scheme managed by the LDA could significantly impact on future community development in London." Over to you Boris!
For further information on Rocket Science's work on corporate community investment, and our innovative approach to the measurement of companies' impact, as developed with Deutsche Bank and Linklaters, please contact Andrew Carter.
[ Return to the list of 6 initiatives ]
Digital Inclusion: Providing universal internet access for Londoners
In 2002, the Labour government committed to 'universal access to the internet' for all of the UK by 2005. However, by 2006, the percentage of London households with internet access was only at 60%, a figure close to the national average. Though the number of London households adopting internet access has increased steadily for several years and these figures continue to increase, there is also a clear disparity in subscribers by income.
Typically, the wealthiest groups in the UK adopt the internet at nearly 4 times the rate of the poorest with 88% of high income earners compared to 25% of low income earners having home internet access. Furthermore, while London provides public space for free internet access to all, studies in Canada have shown that people are much more likely to make use of online services from their home than in public areas like a library.
All of this suggests that London, as well as most of the UK, is a long way from achieving universal access and that those on low incomes are the ones being digitally excluded.
We believe making universal internet access in London a reality is vital because it will provide far greater numbers in our society with resources and opportunities currently out of their reach - electronic service delivery, online education and e-Democracy. For example:
- Citizens could be empowered by easier access to government services and those who provide them
- Children with few books at home could use virtual libraries
- Jobseekers and employers could develop new skills
- People could vote online or take part in public discussions
Having universal access is not only important for including all citizens, it is also important for the efficiency of the whole network. Non participation or the inability to participate will hinder other goals set out by the government, such as having all government services online by 2025.
We appreciate not everyone has a PC or can afford one. However, with the switchover from analogue to digital TV, the advancing technology of mobile phones and companies like Google and BT keen to generate city-wide broadband access, London's technological capability to realise this goal by 2012, Olympic year when the city will be a window on the world, is becoming easier. It is up to the new Mayoral team for London to take advantage and ensure that the capital moves to the forefront of this ongoing digital revolution.
[ Return to the list of 6 initiatives ]
The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Ensuring social enterprise plays its part
Central to the vision for London's Olympics is the catalytic role they can play in the regeneration of a large, formerly run-down area of east London. While the Games present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide and upgrade 'hard' infrastructure, it is the potential of a sustainable legacy in 'soft' people-based resources that will make London distinct from previous Olympics.
There is pressing need for this to happen. London's employment rate is significantly below the national average and has larger numbers of residents with low or no skills. Economic inactivity is higher still in parts of the Olympic boroughs. And, although London's bid was built around a celebration of its status as a "world in a city", its minority ethnic populations have consistently higher levels of social exclusion. Constructing and preparing the site as well as staging the Games offer opportunities to improve the skills, employability and enterprise capacity amongst local residents, as well as across the city as a whole.
Social enterprises are ideally placed to play a role in harnessing Olympic activity for wider social and economic gains. As we found in our work for Social Enterprise London, social enterprises provide much needed services and are deeply embedded in their communities. As such, social enterprises have both the operational and social credentials to make a significant contribution towards both staging the Games and securing a legacy of improved skills and life chances for Londoners.
Despite this potential, there is no clear strategy for actively involving social enterprises in the 2012 Games. The approach to date has been piecemeal, with social enterprises being included in the Olympic Development Authority's procurement strategy and mentioned in the London Employment and Skills Taskforce for 2012 report but over-looked in the London Assembly report on the Olympics and an employment and training legacy.
A sector with so much to offer in terms of achieving the goals and living the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Games requires a dedicated strategy and action plan in order to maximise procurement opportunities and build the capacity of newly emerging, as well as more-established social enterprises to play this role. The Personal Best programme shows how it is possible through detailed planning and local coordination to leverage employability outcomes from the Games across the capital. A clear commitment from the Games' authorities to use all that social enterprises have to offer could go a long way to contributing to 2012 London Games' distinctiveness and securing the legacy benefits that have been talked about so much. Contact Emily Crawford for more information.
[ Return to the list of 6 initiatives ]
Partnership working: Rationalising the infrastructure
Meeting the diverse needs of London's citizens is the key driver for partnership working between public, private and third sector agencies across the capital. The challenge facing organisations engaged in multi-agency/cross-sectoral partnerships in a city the size of London is how to work efficiently within what have become increasingly complex structures at regional, sub-regional, local and neighbourhood levels.
Individuals tend to associate themselves with their local neighbourhood, not with areas defined by the artificial boundaries of Super Output Areas, local wards or boroughs. Matching up local needs with organisations working to these administrative boundaries, or confined to different government-defined areas that may not be co-terminus, only serves to frustrate efforts to join-up or personalise services for the benefit of individuals.
Further frustration could be on the horizon when the new Local Area Agreements for the 32 London Boroughs are produced this summer. The rationalisation of PSA targets in order to focus on a set of highly-localised performance indicators could threaten already established cross-boundary working if these are not shared across partners working in more than one area.
To support London's partnerships in delivering improved public services for Londoners, the capital needs:
- a single strategic funding body which provides the support, governance and connectivity across London partnerships, reducing the complexity of issues faced by marrying up individual strategic and organisational targets with the new Local Area Agreements;
- dedicated funding and support to develop the capacity of partnerships to rise to this challenge and involve their communities in assessing their performance and developing structures that focus on achieving outcomes rather than managing a process;
- a London-wide Comprehensive Area Assessment framework, where common outcomes for London are developed and integrated into local CAA assessments;
- the development of a common performance management and improvement framework, to baseline and measure the impact of partnership working on the London economy at local, sub-regional and regional levels and to give funders' the intelligence they need to rationalise the partnership infrastructure.
For further information on Rocket Science's Partnership Evaluation Tool - a method for targeting investment in partnership working at a strategic level, contact Caroline Masundire.