Questions to the Mayor of London – answered at on 16 March 2021.
Following on from your press release date 12/03/18 and entitled “Mayor approves £750,000 of funding to support Croydon community”, could you please advise as to whether all of the money has been spent. If so, please provide headline figures showing where and when it was spent.
In March 2018, I announced that Transport for London (TfL) would provide £750,000 in support of Croydon Council's community recovery activities. The initial period of three years has been extended to enable Croydon to continue to identify and propose suitable schemes.
TfL has been in continuous contact with London Borough of Croydon to encourage proposals as to how the fund might be spent. No proposals have been declined and TfL stands ready to continue to contribute as and when called upon by London Borough of Croydon. To date TfL has paid £61,000 to Croydon. This relates to the provision of Mental Health First Aider training to primary care givers in Croydon. A further £100,000 is shortly to be paid for further Mental Health First Aider training.
In January 2021, Croydon provided TfL with a plan to spend approximately £400,000 (including the £100,000 in process), which TfL is fully committed to and will fund once they have commenced. The activities include primary care mental health training, Mental Health First Aider and Youth Mental Health First Aider training and trauma informed training. Progress on these initiatives has unfortunately been delayed by the pandemic and the financial issues that Croydon has faced as a result.
London Borough of Croydon would be best placed to advise on the benefits of and measuring the effectiveness of the projects which they have proposed and which have been supported by funding from TfL.