We've supported the Citizenship & Integration Initiative (CII) secondment programme for the last eight years. The model has been a huge success, achieving outcomes that neither the GLA or civil society could have delivered alone.
With the launch of a new Five-Step How-to Guide, project lead Geraldine Blake reflects on the impact of the initiative and how others can adopt the model.
The impact of a secondment model
Back in 2017, we hosted a welcome lunch for the first secondees joining the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) new Social Integration Team. At that point, the team had just two members, but the Citizen and Integration Initiative (CII) was about to expand its capacity significantly with four secondees from civil society organisations.
The model was straightforward: independent funders pooling resources to support secondments from London’s civil society, bringing fresh perspectives and expertise into City Hall. Many of the secondees drew on their own lived experience of migration, alongside deep community knowledge and extensive networks.
At that first gathering, the secondees sat with funders and GLA officers to hear from David Robinson of the Relationships Project, who reflected: “what matters about this approach is whether we are able to achieve something together that is more than the sum of all of us.”
That one statement has guided our work ever since – it’s how we identify the issues we want to work on together, how we support and encourage secondees, and how we reflect on our impact. Did we achieve more together than we would have apart?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes. Since that first lunch, the initiative has funded 14 secondments from 12 civil society organisations. We explored the impact in full in our impact report with Renaisi.
A few examples include:
- Secondees from Just for Kids Law – Let us Learn (now We Belong) brought together young people with insecure immigration status with the Deputy Mayor. The conversations between them led onto a greater understanding of the structural barriers to routes to settlement and the commissioning by the GLA of research, message testing and new guidance for them. We Belong went on to secure a major campaign win when the Home Office announced the removal of the ten-year route to settlement for young people who came here as children, replacing it with a shorter and more affordable five-year route.
- A secondee from New Europeans UK developed the European Londoners Hub - an online portal hosting information to help European Londoners navigate Brexit and the requirement to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme. Due to New Europeans UK’s deep understanding of not just the legal issues, but of how to engage with and reach out to communities least likely to access support, the portal quickly exceeded the initial target of reaching 50,000 people and reached over 2 million unique visitors. This has now become the permanent Migrant Londoners Hub hosted on the GLA’s website.
- Secondees from Eastern European Resource Centre, Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, Focus on Labour Exploitation and Kalayaan have developed a programme inside the GLA on Labour Exploitation and Modern Slavery. The expertise of the secondments have enabled the GLA to commit budget to commissioning research, capacity building and pilot demonstration projects, alongside a small grants programme, the Migrant Advice Support Fund, all of which have benefitted wider civil society. The total investment from the GLA is six times the cost of the secondments to the pooled funders through the CII - an exceptionally good return on investment.
- Secondees from Migrants Organise and Hope Not Hate made the case for the GLA to lead democratic engagement efforts and built the partnerships and structures for voter registration. As a result of the secondee’s expertise, the GLA were confident to establish London Voter Registration Week as an annual event (now in its sixth year), with small grants to enable communities with the lowest registration to promote the benefits of democratic engagement. Beyond the secondments, the GLA set up a permanent team in-house to lead on democratic and community participation, who lead campaigns on issues of democracy and participation such as Voter ID and the equalities impacts of the Election Bill.
These examples show the scale of what can be achieved when the expertise of civil society organisations combines with the profile and reach of the Mayor and GLA, making a real difference for migrant Londoners, and all Londoners.
The Social Integration team grew to 25 posts and has since split into two independent teams - the Migration Team and Economic Inclusion Team – demonstrating that the commitment of GLA to these issues matches that of the independent funders who have committed to the CII pooled fund.
Over the last eight years I've witnessed how transformational the CII has been in building trust between government agencies and civil society; implementing innovative solutions to address existing issues; and upskilling different departments to better understand the nuances and complexities of the challenges communities are facing. By having one foot in government and another in civil society, CII secondees have strengthened both sides' understanding of their remit, limitations and helped coordinate more collaborative and bold responses. I can't recommend this model enough - as someone working in civil society, then at the GLA and now in philanthropy, I've been consistently impressed by how impactful the CII has been for communities.
Letícia Ishibashi, Head of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation's Migration Programme, and former CII secondee
How (and why) others should replicate this model
We think there is a really exciting model here that shifts the dial on the challenges faced by communities and the regional or local authorities that serve them. We’re sometimes asked, should philanthropic funders support what is, in effect, public sector capacity?
This model of change enables civil society, funders and public sector bodies to work together on issues of shared concern where full capacity to address these issues exists in none of these places – as budgets continue to shrink, models that draw on the assets and expertise of all of us and maximise our shared impact are a good answer when our own efforts are otherwise at risk of being overwhelmed.
So, the second part of our Five Step Guide is exactly that: we’re sharing our learning about how to set this model up in your own place, with your own partners. The steps are pretty simple in writing…
- Step 1: Identify the opportunity for change and develop shared goals
- Step 2: Establish a mechanism for partnership
- Step 3: Identify where the secondment model can add value
- Step 4: Manage the secondment well
- Step 5: Plan for legacy
… but are of course less straightforward in the delivery. We’d be delighted to share more of our experience and learning with you, so if you’re thinking that a secondment model could be part of the answer you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to get in touch.