Report of the Director of Inclusive Economy.

This report provides an overview of the work undertaken to date to develop a refreshed poverty strategy for the city which for the purpose of this report will be referred to as the ‘Manchester Anti-Poverty Strategy. The report will set out the approach and engagement process for developing the strategy, the evidence base, emerging themes and the suggested priorities and actions that will be included in the final strategy.

This report also sets out the relationship between the new strategy fits and existing work on Making Manchester Fairer, developing a more inclusive economy, tackling the Cost-of-Living Crisis and other linked areas of work.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Inclusive Economy which provided an overview of the work undertaken to date to develop a

refreshed Poverty Strategy, referred to as the Anti-Poverty Strategy in the report, for the city.

Key points and themes within the report included:

·         Poverty remains a significant and complex problem for Manchester residents, is driven by many external factors and has persisted despite the best local efforts to reduce it.

·         A significant amount of partnership work had been undertaken to deliver the 2017 Family Poverty Strategy over the past five years against a backdrop of health and economic challenges which highlighted and exacerbated poverty in Manchester;

·         The new Anti-Poverty Strategy provided an opportunity to identify the impact of these challenges and extend the Strategy to cover all households with and without children;

·         Conversations with key stakeholders and partners helped to shape the development of the new Strategy as well as understanding the lessons from the Family Poverty Strategy;

·         An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) was undertaken in June 2022 to identify how poverty impacted on different communities of identity. This indicated that all communities of identity were more likely to live in or experience poverty with the biggest impact felt by disabled residents, people from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds, the over 50’s and people with one or more protected characteristics;

·         The EIA has informed the engagement process of the Strategy, particularly with residents;

·         There were 4 suggested priorities and actions to be included in the final strategy, which were subject to further refinement with our stakeholders as well as formal consultation:

o   Preventing Poverty

o   Mitigating Poverty

o   Pathways Out of Poverty

o   Good Governance and Effective Delivery

·         The Manchester Anti-Poverty Strategy will sit under the Making Manchester Fairer Plan and will support the delivery of these priority actions, along with other key actions identified through the development of the Strategy;

·         A formal online consultation on the draft strategy will be carried out in mid-December, with the final Strategy being taken to Executive in January 2023.

The key points and queries that arose from the Committee’s discussion included:

·         Welcoming the proposed priorities;

·         How much focus was placed on prevention of poverty and relief that could be provided, given the context of the cost-of-living crisis;

·         How targeted the evidence base was;

·         How the outcomes and delivery of the Strategy would be measured;

·         Commending the pathways out of poverty referenced in the Strategy;

·         How long “breathing space” periods to pause enforcement against residents for non-payment of fines or other charges when they are accessing professional support or help would last;

·         Whether the Council had considered reviewing the use of bailiffs for debt collection;

·         How frequently members will receive progress updates on the work within the Anti-Poverty Strategy;

·         Consultation with ethic minority communities and the voluntary sector;

·         Vagueness within Appendix 1 with regards to gender reassignment and what data the anecdotal evidence referred to in the appendix is based on;

·         The stigma around the term ‘poverty’, and welcoming training provisions for frontline workers to recognise the signs of poverty;

·         What actions were being taken to remove or address barriers to people using work as route out of poverty, such as childcare or transport;and

·         Highlighting the importance of good quality work as a pathway out of poverty.

In introducing the item, the Deputy Leader of the Council explained that work had been undertaken to refresh the Poverty Strategy, which had been renamed the Manchester Anti-Poverty Strategy to demonstrate the Council’s commitment to reducing and eradicating poverty within the city. The Strategy would form part of the Council’s work on ‘Making Manchester Fairer’ and was an important piece of work given the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis. She highlighted that Manchester was ranked the 6^th most deprived local authority in 2019 and 42% of children in the city live in poverty.

The Director of Inclusive Economy commented that the Council had access to both local and non-local levers to address poverty and a Family Poverty Strategy was already in place. She explained that the Anti-Poverty Strategy was devised by drawing on the Council’s substantial evidence base, a literature review, and extensive targeted consultation.

The Director of Inclusive Economy concurred with members’ comments on the importance of prevention and highlighted how the Council had amplified its response to the cost-of-living crisis. The Anti-Poverty Strategy would be positioned between this response and the Making Manchester Fairer Action Plan, which addressed the relationship between poverty and health inequity.

The Strategy and Economic Policy Manager explained that the evidence base for the Strategy was drawn from publications by organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Resolution Foundation. Whilst the Council had a lot of data, it was acknowledged that it did not have a reliable overall measure of poverty at a Manchester-level. The data available provided a probability of characteristics and demographics of those who may experience poverty and work had been undertaken closely with the team working on Making Manchester Fairer.

In response to a query around measuring outcomes and delivery, the Strategy and Economic Policy Manager acknowledged difficulties in identifying trends and patterns between indicators of poverty and the actions taken as part of the Strategy. External circumstances would also affect the measurement of delivery and the focus would need to be on evaluating individual projects and their effectiveness.

The Deputy Leader of the Council explained that there had been significant engagement with Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME) groups through Covid-19 work and the Council was keen to build on this engagement as work progressed on the Anti-Poverty Strategy. The Strategy and Economic Policy Manager advised that there had been discussions with many organisations working with BAME residents and there would be a formal online consultation for all residents and group sessions with key organisations across a range of communities.

The Director of Inclusive Economy highlighted the Council’s robust system for using bailiffs, particularly in cases where a resident is receiving council tax relief. She explained that the Strategy sought to address how good practice could be shared between the Council and partner organisations and create an aligned approach.

Clarification on how frequent progress would be updated to Economy Scrutiny Committee would be provided once the Strategy was live and there was a process for measuring progress. The work of the Strategy would also impact the information within the Economy Dashboard, which committee members received in their agendas.

The Deputy Leader of the Council concurred with members’ comments around the stigma of poverty and its impact on mental health. She emphasised that the Council wanted to highlight the support and resources available for residents who may be struggling and this would be embedded into the final version of the Strategy.

In response to a member’s query about what was being done to address issues such as childcare and travel, which could be a barrier to employment and getting out of poverty, it was explained that affordable and accessible childcare was a key component of the current Family Poverty Strategy to enable parents to access work.  This would be continued in the new policy.The re-regulation of transport had already yielded benefits in terms of capped fares - £1 single for children & young people and £2 for adults.  In addition, the Our Pass for young people had been important in enabling young people to travel across the conurbation for post-16 education and training of their choice.

In discussing the importance of good quality work, members were reminded that the next meeting of Economy Scrutiny would consider the Living Wage and Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter.

Decision:

That the report and proposed priorities for the Manchester Anti-Poverty Strategy be noted.