Agenda item

Agenda item

Progress update on the development of the Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive        

 

This report provides an update on the development of a new Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035. A project team and steering group was formed in late 2023 ahead of the phase 1 engagement being launched in early 2024. This report provides a summary of the approach to engagement, the overall phase 1 engagement reach and a summary of the findings that are most relevant to the work of the Committee.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report of the Assistant Chief Executive which provided an update on the development of a new Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035. A project team and steering group was formed in late 2023 ahead of the phase 1 engagement being launched in early 2024. This report provided a summary of the approach to engagement, the overall phase 1 engagement reach and a summary of the findings that were most relevant to the work of the Committee.

 

Key points and themes in the report included:

 

  • Providing an introduction and background, describing that the Our Manchester Strategy 2025 was the ten-year strategy for the city and the current Our Manchester Strategy was due to expire in 2025;
  • That officers had completed the first phase of development for the next Our Manchester Strategy for 2025 to 2035; and
  • Providing an update on the activity undertaken to date, a summary of the outputs from the first phase of the development for the new strategy, and a summary of the next steps.

 

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

 

  • How the needs and perspectives of marginalised groups, including young people with disabilities and from minority groups, were being addressed through the Strategy;
  • Whether safe travel to schools would be addressed through the Strategy;
  • What mechanisms would be put in place to monitor and evaluate the progress of the Strategy, particularly its impact on children and young people;
  • That the branding should be reviewed, including seeking residents’ views, to ensure that it reflected the diversity of the city; and
  • That response rates were low in some wards and how could engagement be increased.

 

In response to a Member’s question about the data at 5.7 in the report, the Strategy and Economic Policy Manager advised that Wythenshawe had been identified by respondents as an area of importance to them and he offered to share a corrected version of this data.  He reported that the Council had worked with a range of different groups, as outlined in appendix 2, to help them to reach children and young people with disabilities and from minority ethnic groups.  He informed Members that targeted work had taken place to seek responses from groups which were under-represented in the responses to the universal engagement activity and outlined how a more detailed analysis was now taking place, breaking down the responses further, and considering the weighting given to responses.  He reported that other data sources were also being used, such as information that had been gathered through the UNICEF Child Friendly City work.  In response to a Member’s question, he informed Members that the questions used in the engagement on the Our Manchester Strategy had been very broad, for example, asking what made the respondents proud of Manchester, to enable people to raise issues which were important to them, rather than leading them towards a set range of responses.  In response to the Member’s question about travel to school, he advised that improving public transport had been one of the strongest themes that had emerged from the engagement and he highlighted that the Strategy was for the city as a whole, not just for services delivered by the Council.  He informed Members that this was an overarching Strategy which would set the overall vision for the city and that other specific strategies and programmes of work would flow from this. 

 

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People informed the Committee that enabling children to travel safely to school was a priority issue for her and that she would be working with the Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport and the Highways Service on this.  She reported that the UNICEF Child Friendly City engagement activity was ongoing and that Members would be asked to visit schools in their ward to engage with children and young people.  She emphasised the importance of cultural capital and ensuring that children and young people were included in the city’s cultural activities.

 

The Strategy and Economic Policy Manager reported that the State of the City report was used to monitor progress against the Strategy and that, as the new Strategy was developed, there would be an opportunity to consider changes to how its progress was monitored and evaluated.  He acknowledged Members’ feedback on the branding and informed the Committee about new designs which were being developed by the Communications Team.  He reported that, benchmarked against other cities, the level of public engagement on the Strategy had been good and that it also compared well to other engagement work in Manchester.  He acknowledged that response rates varied across different areas and groups and advised that work had been undertaken to address this.  He reported that Ward Councillors had been involved at an early stage in identifying places in their ward to engage with local residents and he encouraged Members who had any suggestions for places or organisations within their ward to be involved in stage 2 of the consultation to contact any of the officers listed on the report with this information. 

 

Decisions

 

  1. To note the report and that a further report will be considered by the Committee later in the year.

 

  1. That Members will support engagement within their wards in the next phase of the Our Manchester Strategy consultation and will work with the Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People on engagement in relation to the Child Friendly City work.

 

[Councillor Mandongwe declared a personal interest as a trustee of the Dimobi Children’s Disability Trust and Dimobi Women’s Trust.]

Supporting documents: