The report of Deputy Director of Public Health is enclosed.

The Board considered the report of the Deputy Director of Public Health that provided an overview of progress made during 2023 on the Making Manchester Fairer (MMF) Action Plan.

The Board noted that the Anti-Poverty Strategy (APS) had been formally adopted at Executive in January 2023 and was the main route to delivering against the MMF theme of reducing poverty and debt.  It set out our vision that the whole of Manchester would work together to reduce poverty and lessen the impact of poverty on our residents. The strategy contained 53 actions across 12 priorities and 4 themes. 

The report described that an overarching narrative had been developed by the Communication Teams that reflected that the Anti-poverty strategy was now part of the Making Manchester Fairer plan. This has also included bringing in the immediate Cost of Living support, so that there was a unified stance to the work and made the most of the city's combined networks.

The Board were informed that the first Making Manchester Fairer Programme Board took place in May after an extensive Expression of Interest process that recruited people to the board that were visibly reflective of Manchester’s diverse communities (particularly those most impacted by health inequalities) and had a balance of different types of perspectives including organisational, professional and lived experience.

The Board were further informed that the development of governance and approval process for the Kickstarter Schemes allowed for the Children’s element of the Supporting children, young people and their families scheme to begin implementation.

Further to the workstream and programme development, a number of theme leads had developed projects and initiatives that were designed to meet the aims and objectives of the actions under their themes and Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) had developed a Health Inequalities programme.

The Board heard from representatives from MFT who described the many actions and initiatives that had been implemented to address health inequalities. These included the establishment of an Equalities Lead at each site so as to develop local actions to respond to specific local needs; the establishment of an equalities dashboard; MFT acting as an anchor institution and supporting their staff; initiating programmes to recruit staff from the local population, recognising that this would further support the issue of staff retention and staff acting as advocates for health equity; using patient data to understand the needs of the local population and identify issues or gaps in provision so that interventions and programmes could be targeted by working at a local level with Primary Care Networks and the Manchester Local Care Organisation. The Board were further advised that the Trust was seeking to employ a Consultant in Public Health to inform and support this area of activity. In response to a comment regarding digital exclusion, Professor Eddleston stated that the Trust were very mindful of this issue and due consideration would be given as to how this could be addressed as part of the ongoing work.

The Board welcomed the report and the update reported by the representatives from the Trust, stating that the work described demonstrated a commitment to place based working, the strength of genuine partnership working and an understanding of the needs of the local population that demonstrated that people were at the heart of everything that was described. The Board stated that the outcomes and impact of this approach needed to be reported and articulated, both at a local and national level and the Board was happy to support this. Professor Eddleston commented that she would be happy to provide an update presentation to the Board in six months’ time.

The Chair, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust stated that the MFT Board fully supported the vision and the work described. She stated the described approach provided a strong foundation on which to address health inequalities, support residents and end the ‘revolving door’ of health provision.

The Chair concluded the discussion by thanking the representatives from MFT for attending the meeting. He stated that it had been an important and constructive discussion. He invited MFT representative to attend all future meetings of the Board when Health Inequalities was to be discussed.

Decisions

1. The Board note progress made in implementing the Making Manchester Fairer Action Plan, the incorporation of the Anti-Poverty Strategy within the programme, and the work that is taking place across partner organisations to integrate the Making Manchester approach and principles system wide.

2. The Board recommend that a progress presentation be submitted for consideration in six months’ time.