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.

The Committee considered the report of the Assistant Chief Executive that 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 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.

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;

·       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 queries that arose from the committee’s discussions were:

• How the consultation and feedback would be expanded upon going forward;
• How engagement would continue to be culturally sensitive throughout the lifespan of the new Strategy;
• Welcoming the refresh of the strategy following 14 years of austerity under the previous government;
• Noting differences in themes emerging from targeted engagement and the online survey, particularly the need for affordable housing;
• How the committee could monitor and evaluate the strategy;
• How the strategy and work compared with that of other Core Cities; and
• The need to include reference in the strategy to residents’ sense of safety within the city.

The Assistant Chief Executive explained that the report detailed the first phase of the development of the new Our Manchester Strategy for 2025-2035 and that all scrutiny committees would be considering the report. He advised that residents, businesses and other stakeholders had been engaged with between January and March and that this consultation included broad, open-ended questions about future ambitions for Manchester, to ensure equalities and inclusion was built in from the outset. He stated that over 10,000 people had engaged with the consultation, which was welcomed.

In response to members’ queries, the Assistant Chief Executive confirmed that the second phase of engagement would include face-to-face consultation in different parts of the city and would focus on what the strategy would mean for residents and the city as a whole. The Strategy and Economic Policy Manager stated that a significant amount of data was available following the first phase of engagement and this would allow officers to assess how different groups, communities and areas responded to different questions.

The Assistant Chief Executive noted the different emerging themes, such as affordable housing which was a strong focus at in-person engagement sessions and community spirit which was important to groups and organisations. There was also a large focus on day-to-day immediate issues, such as cleanliness and open spaces.

Members were advised that a wider piece of work was underway through Making Manchester Fairer to create a set of community engagement standards, which would ensure a consistent approach to consulting residents in a culturally sensitive way. The Assistant Chief Executive also confirmed that a series of metrics would be developed, particularly ‘closing-the-gap’ metrics which would assess how performance indicators measured impact on the overall population versus the impact on disadvantaged groups. This was linked to the approach of Making Manchester Fairer which had a monitoring framework to examine progress with reducing inequalities. The Assistant Chief Executive stated that these approaches would assess how the strategy helped to close the gap for more deprived areas of the city in addition to race, ethnicity, age or disability and further information would be provided in the report in October.

In response to a query by the Chair, the Assistant Chief Executive explained that members would be kept informed of the work and progress of the strategy through the State of the City report, which was typically released annually to all members, although there had been a delay with publishing the report for 2023. This report also included comparison with other Core Cities and some London boroughs and would highlight positive case studies, which could also be presented in the final Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035.

Decision:

1. To note the report.
2. To request further information on performance metrics and how the survey will be monitored and evaluated in the next report in October.
3. To request that consideration be given to trauma-informed work in the final Strategy.
4. To request that the strategy includes detail on perceptions of safety amongst residents of all ages and how this could be improved.