GOL ensured that the planning applications for the 2012 London Olympics were dealt with within our three week target and GOL is increasingly involved in ensuring that London benefits from the legacy working across central Departments on issues such as skills and employment.
GOL has played the central role negotiating a further 15 round 2 Local Area Agreements in London over the past year, working in partnership with the boroughs and on behalf of Whitehall Departments.
GOL worked with the GLA to launch London's first young person's forum, the Young Londoner's Network, enabling the capital's teenagers to voice their opinions on issues which affect their lives.
Our multi- agency Resettlement team wrote, published, and launched the first London Resettlement Strategy. We have established a pilot to test the implementation of the strategy in Wormwood Scrubs Prison and eight London boroughs, breaking new ground to develop the local partnership infrastructure to support the resettlement of offenders and reduce re-offending.
The twenty London boroughs receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding through their Local Strategic Partnerships have shown a consistent picture of positive change in areas such as crime, GCSE achievement, and KS3 English and Maths. Our interventions have strengthened partnerships and improved performance management to ensure improvements are sustainable, and to support LAA negotiations.
Our Crime and Drugs division continued the roll out of the Drug Intervention Programme to 21 boroughs and ensured it was running well in all of them, with over 500 in treatment at any one time, and we negotiated a Young People's Substance misuse strategy in all 33 boroughs.
GOL ensured that every Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership strategy contained detailed crime targets to meet the 19.4 per cent reduction in volume crime for London by 2008.
Our Crime and Drugs divisions developed and delivered interagency strategies on business crime; guns, gangs and domestic violence and race hate crime.
Successful regional workshops were held in late February for all London local authorities and their partners in the Every Child Matters - Change for Children programme, and we have identified with individual authorities priorities for continued development and support.
GOL’s London Resilience team and volunteers played a vital role in the well exercised, co-ordinated pan-London response to the bombings on 7/7, playing a vital expert role in the delivery of the Resilience Mortuary and Fatality Plan and the Family Assistance Centre.
GOL is helping London boroughs increase their recycling rates. Five workshops let representatives from 20 London boroughs discuss their experiences. The straightforward, honest input provided a platform for delegates to learn from the experiences of others, develop potential partnerships and take forward innovative ideas.
GOL negotiated the production of a London Climate Change Adaptation Strategy with the Mayor, by brokering discussions with the GLA and the Mayor. Climate change is now the top priority for the review of the London Plan.
GOL has been instrumental in developing London's Capital Standards initiative and a new 4 year programme to clean up London. 92 per cent of the capital now has less litter and grime than last year, due to the concerted effort of Capital Standards and the boroughs involved. It also trained over 250 enforcement officers through its Street Academy which has led improved the quality of enforcement across London.
The London Housing Board, chaired by GOL, published Capital Homes: the London Housing Strategy 2005-16, setting out policies and actions to deliver more homes and build sustainable communities in the capital. The Housing Delivery Unit has secured around £35 million of Growth Area funding from ODPM for 2006-08 to support housing led projects, and helped to make sure that London delivered 27,364 new homes 2004/05, 19 per cent above the London Plan target.
We drew up the GOL Race Equality Strategy, the first in the Government Office Network, which was launched by Home Office Minister Tony McNulty in February 2006, and sets out our role, key objectives and achievements, and focuses on the Government’s continuing commitment to race equality in London.
In March 2006 the Deputy Prime Minister and the President of Brazil visited two landmark regeneration developments at the GOL-sponsored Westham and Plaistow New Deal for Communities Partnership.
GOL has managed over £100m of European Regional Development and Social Funds a year through four different programmes, providing jobs, qualifications and infrastructure improvements for Londoners.
Up until December 2005 almost 450,000 of London’s most disadvantaged and socially excluded citizens had benefited from the European Social Fund, administered by GOL. 55 per cent of these beneficiaries – 247,500 people, were from Black and Minority Ethnic groups; 52 per cent - 234,000, were women; and over 8 per cent - 36,450 people, were disabled.
GOL has restructured to deliver government objectives in the region more effectively from 1 April 2006. Our HR and Finance teams played a key role implementing the new GOL structure, which will deliver a financial saving of £1.3m on our running cost budget in 2006-07.
GOL’s website receives a quarter of a million hits a month – many more than any other government office.
