Our Parklife Annual Report 2015

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15 Impact Report for Our Parklife CIC

Contents Executive Summary ..............................................................4 Introduction .............................................................................6 Mission and Approach ..........................................................8 Measuring our Social Impact .......................................... 10 Governance and Management ........................................ 12 Local Employment and Training .................................... 14 Volunteering – Park Champions .................................... 18 Park Mobility ........................................................................ 20 Educational Visits and Horticultural Tours.................. 22 Consulting with our Stakeholders ................................. 24 Our Parklife Founding Partners ..................................... 26 Appendices ........................................................................... 28

2

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

3

Executive Summary Our Parklife Community Interest Company (CIC) is a new social enterprise on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park designed to help deliver the legacy of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is our first annual report setting out the progress we’ve made in our first year of operation since the Park reopened in April 2014. Our Parklife is a truly innovative joint venture being the first CIC to bring together skills and experience from the private, charitable and social enterprise sectors in one organisation. Our aim is to create measurable social impact for local people from how the Park is managed and maintained by connecting local people to the Park through employment, volunteering and training and providing services on the Park. The income we receive for the services we provide is reinvested in this mission.

1

4

Our first year of operation has been supported by our founding members: Cofely, The Landscape Group, Groundwork London and Renaisi.

Cofely and The Landscape Group have invested over £40k and £20k respectively to support our services and the London Legacy Development Corporation have commissioned services valued at £150k. In return Our Parklife has helped to ensure 70% of the workforce looking after the Park and venues are from local communities including 50 local people who were previously out of work. Our early work on impact suggests that we have created approximately £1.255m of economic value for the local economy in reduced benefit payments and incomes for local people. We recruited over 200 regular Volunteers giving over 6,000 hours of their time to the Park. We estimate that this investment has yielded a return of approximately £1.79m in social value for the Park and local communities.1

Our Parklife CIC is a new organisation delivering services in new ways to create value for its customers and stakeholders. We will continue to develop our offer and business model over the next twelve months to ensure we are able to deliver more and better services, creating real social impact in a financially sustainable way.

Refer to appendix 6 Executive Summary

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

5

Introduction Helping deliver the legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games The UK bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games declared that the most enduring legacy of the Olympics would be the regeneration of an entire community for the direct benefit of everyone who lives there. The Our Parklife Community Interest Company (CIC) has been set up to help deliver the regeneration legacy starting with those related to the management of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park estate and many of its venues. Our Parklife is a joint venture between Cofely, the principal contractor for Estates and Facilities Management (EFM) in the Park; The Landscape Group (TLG), the Park’s management sub-contractor to Cofely; Renaisi, a local Social Enterprise specialising in regeneration; and Groundwork London, a environmental regeneration charity. Together these partners provide the unique mix of local, commercial, social, economic and environmental capabilities necessary to deliver on legacy commitments.

6

Introduction

Our first year During 2014/15 Our Parklife helped deliver the regeneration legacy by connecting local people to the Park through employment, volunteering and training, improving their well-being and increasing their ownership of the Park.

In our first year we have focused on delivering the contractual requirements related to the legacy (in particular those for local employment and volunteering) as well as setting up the new company and establishing relationships and connections across the Park. We have worked closely with the LLDC to design, develop and deploy the new Park Mobility service.

This short report illustrates the work delivered by Our Parklife in its first year of operation from April 2014 – April 2015 and provides some first steps towards fully measuring the social and environmental impact of our work as well as the delivery of targets.

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

7

Mission and Approach

Our Parklife Theory of Change

The Estates and Facilities Management contract Cofely are contracted to deliver the EFM contract on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The contract approach is one of “Affordable excellence and sustainable legacy through whole-life management of the landscape, essential infrastructure and social assets for our clients and communities”. This approach is built on the belief that a successful park is connected to its local community.

To achieve this, the vision for delivering the EFM contract has to be linked to the delivery of the LLDC’s “Priority Themes” for social, economic and environmental regeneration in the local area that represent the regeneration legacy.

The challenge therefore is to enhance the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of EFM contract to deliver this ambitious vision while simultaneously delivering critical social and economic legacy goals.

8

Mission and Approach

Inputs • Our Parklife Mission and Objectives • Priority Themes • Legacy Commitments in the EFM Contract

Activities

Outputs

Outcomes

• Technical Capacity

• Employment advice

• Investment

• Local people employed

• People into sustainable jobs

• Training and skills development

• Volunteer days

• Added value of volunteers

• Experience • Volunteer time

• Service co-ordination • Education • Services (e.g. Park Mobility and Volunteering)

Our Parklife’s mission Our Parklife’s mission is to connect local people to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park through volunteering, training and employment opportunities. These opportunities help integrate and connect local neighbourhoods and communities to a world class Park. The theory being that also makes good business sense for

• Previously unemployed employed • Training sessions provided • Education visits provided

Cofely and The Landscape Group who are responsible for delivering the EFM contract, and at the same time enables the LLDC to deliver its regeneration legacy commitments.

• Improved skill levels • Better environmental awareness

Impact • Increased effectiveness of EFM contract • Increased local ownership of the Park • Improved general well being of local people

• Added value in contract delivery

by the contract. From these outputs the overall outcomes and social impact can be assessed and measured. The model above illustrates this relationship.

Our Parklife’s founding partners bring together the range of technical skills and experience required to deliver the range of activities and related outputs needed

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

9

Measuring our Social Impact Measuring our social impact Social impact is the effect of an activity on the social fabric of the community and well-being of individuals and families.

It is important for social businesses like Our Parklife to measure and report these outcomes for all stakeholders on and around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. In trying to measure our impact we

are looking beyond the usual financial measures to try and assess the additional social, environmental value created as a result of our activities. We are conscious that at this stage some understanding of value is not complete or we may not have the data. We will look to continually improve that position through better data and better understanding. This year is very much a starting point and

70% of the people working on the Park are local Over 200 Volunteers helping on the Park giving over 6,000 hours

these figures all reference value that is created on the Park. One important way of thinking about social value for Our Parklife is that is creates value for different people in different ways as illustrated in the table below.1

£54,900 of value created for the Park

£1.8m of value created through Volunteering

Our Activities

Stakeholder Beneficiaries

1

10

Individuals

The Park community

The local contract

Employment and skills

Value of getting people into work

Number of local people recruited

Staff turnover levels

Volunteering

Value of volunteering to wellbeing

Value of hours of work on the Park

Additional quality and quantity of work

Access

Access to parks

Mix of activities

Volume of access by those with disabilities

A new way of working

Added value of Our Parklife brand

Extra resource brought to the area

Value of expertise

Estimated 50 people working on the Park previously unemployed £1.26m of value created for the local economy

Refer to appendix 6 Measuring Our Social Impact

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

11

Partnership model – capacity created

Governance and Management

additional cap acity Creates Renaisi Groundwork London, TLG, Cofely

Clear not for profit brand – can be developed on the Park for commercial services

Access to expertise across Cofely

nn Brings together the skills and experience of the private, social and charity sectors

nn Utilises existing networks of funding via partners nn Is asset locked and profit locked nn Can benefit from other sources of funding nn Encourages community ownership nn Is for a specific community purpose nn Can deliver revenue generating services to support its aims 1

12

The CIC was incorporated in September 2014 as a company limited by guarantee (Company Number 9242285). It is also registered with the Community Interest Company Regulator. Its Memorandum and Articles of Association set out its vision and objectives in relation to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the requirements of the EFM contract as well as arrangements for its leadership, management and reporting. The CIC Board has two Directors from Cofely and one each from TLG, Renaisi and Groundwork London. The Board

Ability to attract long term social investment as market develops

Creating new services – Park Mobility

es sin bu and cial s so Create

nn Provides a focus on Priority Themes

Management

meets monthly and met informally throughout 2014 until its formal incorporation in September. As a CIC it has a requirement to report publicly on its mission and objectives which it will do in September 2015. It is a “not for profit” company with surpluses achieved having to be reinvested in its mission of connecting local people to the Park.1

Joint Venture Structure based on Company Limited by Guarantee

sv alu e

Connecting Local People to the Park

Targets for local employment volunteering skills programmes etc.

Levered in resources from Skills Funding Agency, Public and Charitable Sectors

Testing new commercial services. Profits to be reinvested back into CIC

for inves tment

The structure of a Community Interest Company (CIC) was chosen because it:

A three year business plan covering investment and risk was submitted as part of the original bid has now been replaced with an annual business plan that sets out the key deliverables for the CIC for each year.

op po rtu nit ies

Why a Community Interest Company?

s te a e Cr

Refer to appendix 1 Governance and Management

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

13

n Pla e rc

Training Programmes ILM & PET

Defined Roles

Local Labour Model Matched to Roles tm en t

Job Ready Candidates

ke ra ge s

Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) – A six month programme developed specifically for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this programme provides employability support to increase skills and improve people’s prospects.

Job seekers take part in a unique pathway which provides training, CV and interview guidance, paid

Apprenticeships – Apprenticeships offer great opportunities for young people to gain skills in a specific industry. The apprenticeships available on the Park are specifically aimed at local young people and school leavers who are interested in careers ranging from Horticulture and Grounds Maintenance, Facilities Management, Engineering and Customer Service.

Hos tB oro ug h

SUPPLY FOR LABOUR

14

Our Parklife facilitates a range of training and employment opportunities for local people on the Park. The training and employment support that Our Parklife provides can often be the next step for some of our volunteers who are keen to gain experience in certain industries.

Pre-Employment Training (PET) – A 10-12 week programme of Pre Employment Training which offers local people who have been out of work for some time the opportunity to gain qualifications, skills and employment.

This leads to a guaranteed interview on the Park.

10% disabled

ties uni mm Co

1

Our training courses and programmes:

employment and one-to-one support.

This programme can lead to full time employment on or off the Park with local employers.

35% women

ui cr Re

A key target for the EFM contract has been to ensure 85% of the workforce is from the six original Host Boroughs.

Currently we employ 63% of the work workforce from the four host boroughs and 70% from ‘nearby’ boroughs.

Nearly 60% are from a black, asian and minority ethnic background, 35% are women and just under 10% have a disability1. We have worked closely with the local jobs brokerages to ensure all vacancies are advertised locally and support is provided where appropriate to local candidates to give them the best possible chance of entering the workforce. We developed a local labour model based on the requirements of the workforce and created a number of pathways into work for local people who may not have the correct level of skills, but show potential of developing them. For example we ran two preemployment courses for 40 local

unemployed people with 32 completing the course, 8 gaining jobs on the Park and 15 gaining employment elsewhere.

DEMAND FOR LABOUR

Local Employment and Training

Wo rk fo

Local Employment and Training

63% local employment

o Br s b Jo

Refer to appendix 2 and 3 Local Employment and Training

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

15

“ I get so much pleasure in volunteering opportunities, and learn so many new things, as well as meeting new people and helping the public enjoy the Park.

Jean,

Conservation Volunteer

16

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

17

Volunteering – Park Champions Volunteers on the Park are known as Park Champions and continue to embody the spirit of the 2012 Games Makers

Volunteering on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Volunteering was one of the great successes of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our Parklife manages the Park Champion Volunteer programme on behalf of the LLDC with over 550 registered volunteers. The programme aims to provide volunteers with an enjoyable and rewarding experience and the chance to develop new skills at the same time. In 2014/2015 volunteers gave up over 4,100 hours of the time across the programme in four main roles.1 These included: nn Supporting events nn Helping look after the wildlife, parklands and gardens on the Park

Individual programmes are delivered by responsible delivery partners who can meet the required standards.

A Volunteer Manager works closely with the LLDC Events Team and other stakeholders who are involving volunteers in their activities to ensure that their opportunities are consistent with the programme, fun, challenging and rewarding, whilst adding real value to the Park.

In 2015/16 the programme includes objectives for recruiting more local volunteers, and developing volunteering as pathway to work and gaining new skills.

Since the Park opened fully in April 2014 coordinated volunteer activity has risen to approximately 150 volunteer days. This will rise significantly through 2015 as the programme broadens.

“ I love being a Park Champion! I really enjoy helping the public to enjoy the Park, and also the conservation work.”

Janet,

Conservation Volunteer

Number of volunteer days by role 2014/15

15

125

197

350

nn Providing information and help to Park visitors, including delivering the Park Mobility Service nn Supporting the venues 1

18

Conservation

Mobility

Gardening

Events

Refer to appendix 4 Volunteering – Park Champions

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

19

“ I love showing this lovely Park to visitors and helping them enjoy all it has to offer. I enjoy meeting people and helping them when they visit by sharing my knowledge, experience or anything else!”

Viveca,

Customer Service and Mobility Volunteer

Park Mobility usage 2014/15 17%

5%

Park Mobility Park Mobility usage The Park Mobility Service was created in response to client request and uses park assets and volunteers to deliver a service to the public making the whole park accessible to everyone.

The current service consists of the hire of manual wheelchairs and mobility scooters and free access to a mobility ‘golf’ buggy (capable of accommodating a wheelchair user) and an 8 seater ‘golf’ buggy. The service delivered over 1,200 trips or hires for people with limited mobility in 2014/15.1 1

Volunteers are also trained as sighted guides and offer this service to visitors who are visually impaired.

For 2014/15 the service was available on Fridays and Saturdays from the Park Information Point. From April 2015 the service will be available seven days per week. The service is also available to commercial event companies, groups and the LLDC delivering events on the Park. Charges are levied dependent on type of organisation and extent of service required.

Refer to appendix 5

78% Wheelchairs 20

Park Mobility

Scooters

Accessible ‘golf’ buggy Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

21

Educational Visits and Horticultural Tours Education Visits We want to inspire, raise aspirations and raise educational attainment amongst school children. We have created a set of conservation activities on the Park which provide a unique learning experience for students. Through these activities students are encouraged to explore the spectacular parklands, discovering and enjoying all that the Park has to offer. To date, four schools and 80 children have been involved in: Building Bug Hotels – allowing children to discover the creepy crawlies that live in amongst the vegetation on the Park.

Habitat survey – identifying habitats through observing, touching and recording the variety of colours, flowers and textures that are throughout the Park.

22

Educational Visits and Horticultural Tours

Grid Survey – Children can discover how to read a map by being led around the Park and identifying different features.

A Wildlife trail – Identifying wildlife across the Park including; birds, insects, reptiles and plants.

pilots with over sixty people enjoying an insight into the gardens. The pilots provide valuable learning and insight into the possible launch of a fee paying service. The tours also provide valuable opportunities for staff development within the gardening teams.

Horticultural Tours During the year we piloted tours for the public of the 2012 Gardens. Delivered by expert gardeners who work on the Park and hosted by Volunteers we tested the provision of a three hour tour of the 2012 Gardens for horticultural groups. The three hour tour started at the ArcelorMittal Orbit and included parklands and gardens and ended at the EastTwenty Bar and Kitchen. The tour was integrated with the Park Mobility service. Three horticultural groups took part in the

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

23

Consulting with our Stakeholders Stakeholder Consultation In its first year of operation Our Parklife CIC has designed and delivered all of its services very closely with our client, the LLDC and other relevant stakeholders.

We have over 1,000 volunteers who receive our monthly newsletter providing Park Champion opportunities and asking for feedback. We use this feedback to develop our offer to volunteers and improve our customer service.

We co-designed and co-developed our Park Mobility service directly with Park users with limited mobility to make sure we used the right equipment and provide a truly customer focussed service. Each customer who uses the service is able to provide valuable feedback on their Park experience and this is used to fine tune the service.

At the end of the year we co-designed a Sighted Guide service with Park users

24

Consulting with our Stakeholders

who are visually impaired and Guide Dogs UK. This service relaunched in April 2015.

We worked closely with the wide range of stakeholders, including all the local authorities, involved in local employment to design our Local Labour Model and approach to recruiting local people.

We have worked closely with employees who live locally and are involved in maintaining the Park and venues to understand their motivations for, and experience of, working on the Park. This helped us understand how local people find out about opportunities on the Park as well as how local employees are able to enhance the customer experience of all visitors. We now circulate opportunities through local networks and social media as well traditional channels.

including any corrective action where necessary.

We have a commitment to introduce a formal Community Board to involve the wider Park community in how Our Parklife develops. This will be introduced in late 2015. We will continue to develop our online presence and social media to illicit feedback from our customers in 2015.

We report monthly to our client on a range of performance indicators

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

25

Our Parklife Founding Partners Cofely

The Landscape Group

Groundwork London

Renaisi

Experts in energy, technical, FM services and business process outsourcing, Cofely guarantees their customers transformational outcomes – from reducing cost and environmental impact and maximising operational resilience, to improving the quality and efficiency of business processes.

TLG is a leading UK supplier of green services – and one of the longest established – delivering a range of grounds maintenance, landscape construction and park management services for both public and private sector clients. Now part of Europe’s market-leading id verde group, TLG commits to quality, sustainability, community focus and generating best value in every project delivered.

Groundwork London is a social and environmental regeneration charity. For almost 20 years they have been at the forefront of environmental and social regeneration in London; changing places and lives for the better, in some of the capital’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In today’s challenging social and economic climate the work they do has never been more important; creating better places, improving people’s economic prospects and helping people to live and work in a more sustainable way. Their three over-arching objectives are to Create better places, Promote greener living and working and Improve people’s prospects.

Renaisi is an award-winning social enterprise committed to making improvements to communities, putting local people at the centre of positive change. Through their extensive experience delivering neighbourhood-based regeneration programmes, local economic development initiatives, employment services and work with migrant families, Renaisi understands what it takes to enable people and places to thrive.

Across the UK and Ireland, Cofely’s 15,200 employees deliver solutions at over 14,000 customer sites – with an annual turnover of £1billion.

Their unique combination of service expertise, extends from the design, installation and management of local and renewable energy solutions, to the operational delivery of integrated facilities services.

www.thelandscapegroup.co.uk @TheLandscapeGp

www.renaisi.com @Renaisi

www.groundwork.org.uk/london @GroundworkLON

www.cofely-gdfsuez.co.uk

26

Our Parklife founding partners

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

27

Appendices Appendix 1

Make up of workforce by 2014/15

Appendix 3 80%

Governance Structure

60%

London Legacy Development Corporation Regeneration and Partnerships

40% 20%

Park Operations and Venues

0%

Oct 14 Services Contracts e.g. Growing Links

Cofely EFM Contract

BAME (%)

Nov 14

Women (%)

Dec 14

Jan 15

Disability (%)

Feb 15

Host Boroughs

Mar 15 Total Host & Nearby Boroughs (%)

Community Board Our ParkLife CIC Board 2 Directors from Cofely and 1 each from others Local Community

Appendix 4 Appendix 2

Park Champion Volunteering days delivered 2014/15

Workforce by operations 2015 70 100%

60

80%

50

60%

40 30

40%

20

20%

10 0

0% BAME (%)

Hard Services

28

Appendices

Women (%)

Soft Services

Disability (%)

Security

Host Boroughs (%) Landscape

Total Host & Nearby Boroughs (%) ArcelorMittal Orbit

April

May

June

July Conservation

August

September Mobility

October

November

Gardening

December

January

February

March

Events

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

29

Appendix 5

Park Mobility Usage Number of Trips/Hires

250

Buggy pickups Scooter hires

200

Wheelchair hires

A conservative estimate of 50 previously unemployed people working on the Park who were gives £1,255,550 of value created for the local economy (50 x (£14,790+£10,321).

150 100

Number of local people recruited

50

Au gu st Oc to be r De ce m be r Fe br ua ry

Ju ne

Ap ril

0

Appendix 6 Measuring value It is important to emphasise that at this stage some of understanding of value created is not complete and that some data is not available. This framework is designed to be built on in future years, with the four values detailed below being only a starting point. There is a need to continually improve this position through better data and better understanding. The most important area for further work will be one of

30

Appendices

into work. Using the New Economy Manchester Unit Cost Database v1.4 (March 2015), the fiscal value for a workless JSA claimant entering work for a year is £10,321 and the wider economic value is £14,790.1

attribution, as at this stage there is no good evidence on the role of Our Parklife in all of the following outcomes.

specific research to test the attribution and wider effects of the work of Our Parklife will be needed.

As more data is collected through further years of delivery, more value measures can be slotted in to this framework. The number of people who use the accessibility services on the Park are an important start, as is collecting more information about the people who directly benefit from employment support. At some point,

The four areas of focus for the first year have been calculated as follows:

Getting into work There is a lot of literature available on the positive social value of getting back into work. For Our Parklife, a key factor is getting those who have been unemployed for over a year back

70% of the people working on the Park are local, meaning that they are residents of one of the following boroughs: Hackney, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich, Barking & Dagenham, Haringey, Islington and Redbridge.

This is a measure that Our Parklife will track in future, and will look to explore the value that is created by having more local people working on the Park.

Wellbeing from volunteering There have been over 200 volunteers helping on the Park in the last year, of which 133 are deemed core volunteers who undertake regular and consistent levels of volunteering. There are 133 core volunteers on the Park and using research by DWP and Cabinet Office (Fujiwara et al, 2013) on the value of volunteering on subjective wellbeing, this can be seen as a creation of £1,795,500 of value.2

How this Is calculated 6,000 hours x London Living Wage of £9.15 = £54,900 133 Core Volunteers will benefit to an assumed sum of £13,500 each per year.

Source: New Economy Manchester 2014.

50 x £25,110 (combined value of getting people into work). Source: New Economy Manchester.

Work on the Park The various volunteers who have worked on the Park in the year contribute a number of hours of labour to the Park, and in 2014/15 that was over 6,000. Applying the London Living Wage3 for each of those hours sees a creation of £54,900 worth of work on the Park through volunteering.

Photo Credits: Alistair Bayford Paul Harper Rowan Longhurst Carmen Valino

1

New Economy Manchester: http://neweconomymanchester.com/stories/832-unit_cost_database

2

ellbeing and Civil Society: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wellbeing-and-civil-society-estimatingW the-value-of-volunteering-using-subjective-wellbeing-data-wp112

3

Living Wage Foundation: http://www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation

Our Parklife Annual Report 2014/15

31

Ourparklife.co.uk @OurParkLifeCIC