Agenda item

Agenda item

Making Manchester Fairer

Report of the Director of Public Health

 

This report provides an overview of progress made from October 2023 to October 2024 on the Making Manchester Fairer Action Plan.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Public Health that provided an overview of progress made from October 2023 to October 2024 on the Making Manchester Fairer Action Plan.

 

Key points and themes in the report included:

 

·       Providing an introduction and background, noting that Making Manchester Fairer (MMF) was Manchester City Council’s five-year action plan with a longer-term ambition to address health inequalities in the city, focusing on the social determinants of health;

·       Information on the establishment of a MMF Community Forum to strengthen the contribution of local people with lived experience to the programme governance;

·       The development of a coherent approach to workforce development, with a focus on what was needed to achieve health equity that aligned with Manchester City Council’s workforce plans;

·       Developing and implementing a Work and Health Kickstarter focused on North Manchester with patients of Manchester Foundation Trust (MFT) with Musculo-Skeletal conditions (MSK) identified as needing employability support were referred for assessment by the Growth Company before being referred onto one of several employability programmes; and

·       The development of an approach for engaging with businesses and philanthropists, encouraging and supporting them to partner with neighbourhood and community-based services and organisations;

·       Implementing an approach for Manchester City Council to formally adopt the Socio-Economic Duty and integrate it into its policy development and decision-making processes, demonstrating the council’s commitment to social justice and contributing to a more equitable city;

·       Supporting the delivery of a comprehensive and immersive education programme on Race and Health Equity;

·       Information on the review in order to refresh the MMF Action Plan thematic objectives, ensuring that we were making the most of opportunities to tackle inequalities and addressing emerging challenges; and

·       Discussion of the next steps for the MMF Action Plan.

 

The Committee heard from a number of invited guests who spoke on the case studies of the three MMF themes that had been provided in the report. The individual representatives described their specific project and associated initiatives designed to respond to the needs of residents and tackle the wider determinants of health. They also described the positive outcomes for residents. The Chair thanked all for their important contributions and recognised the significant positive impacts all were having on the lives of Manchester residents.

 

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

 

·       Noting the work described in relation to ‘Theme 1: Giving children and young people the best start in life’ and asking if a strong relationship had been established with local schools to support this work;

·       Welcoming the LGBTQ+ Extra Care Housing Scheme and asking if staff working in such schemes received additional training to respond to the needs of those residents;

·       The importance of embedding MMF principles in the workforce culture and practices of all organisations who engaged with residents;

·       Housing developments needed to consider delivering appropriate accommodation for those older residents who wished to right size;

·       The need to deliver affordable housing for the residents of Manchester;

·       The need to share good practice and learning across all Marmot Cities; and

·       Members should discuss MMF as a regular item at their Ward Coordination meetings.

 

The Committee welcomed Professor Sir Michael Marmot who said that the delivery of an additional Extra Care Housing Scheme was an important development for Manchester and was to be welcomed. He discussed the need to improve the energy efficiency of all homes across all tenures, noting the correlation between housing and health outcomes. In response to a specific question, he said that he was cautiously optimistic that the new government was alert and responsive to addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants of health. He also said that he expected to see an end to the undermining of the public sector. He said that he had held positive discussions with Ministers and noted that the Prime Minister had met with regional metro mayors shortly after taking office, and he took this to be a very positive development. He added that Manchester had led on this work nationally and the Director of Public Health was a great advocate for Manchester and the significant work that had been delivered to date to address health inequalities. He commented that the health inequality issues faced nationally, such as the levels of child poverty were higher in Manchester and said that the scale of the challenge was mirrored by the scale of the ambition and commitment in Manchester to tackle these. He reiterated the importance of breaking the link between deprivation and poor health outcomes.

 

The Committee stated that they remained resolute in their support for the MMF approach and said they would continue to engage with local MPs and Ministers on this issue and support Professor Sir Michael Marmot.

 

In response to specific questions, Tanya Finn, Company Director, Regen.me.uk

said that positive relationships had been established with local schools and the breadth of work undertaken helped pupils transition into education settings with the correct levels of support. Guy Cresswell, Executive Director Customer Services, Great Places Housing Group said that staff working in the Extra Care Schemes received appropriate training to enable them to fully support those residents. The Assistant Director of Strategic Housing, Manchester City Council noted the comments made regarding energy efficiency in homes and said that improvement work had been focused on social housing, however he recognised the significant challenge presented by the Private Rented Sector and private households. He said that funding was a significant barrier to delivering improvements at the scale required across the city. He said that the Council had adopted a Private Rented Sector Strategy that sought to support landlords to make homes more energy efficient. He further made reference to Awaab's Law to address damp and mould, noting that proposals had been made to extend this requirement to the private sector also. The Affordable Housing Programme Manager, Manchester City Council said that the Our Housing Strategy had a target of building 36,000 new homes, 10,000 of which would be affordable, making further reference to the introduction of the Manchester Living rent. He further commented that properties had been delivered in recent schemes to support people to right size.

 

The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care stated that Manchester had led the city region and nationally on the issue of addressing health inequalities in accordance with the Marmot principles. He said that Manchester remained committed to keeping this programme of work at the forefront of all its programmes and initiatives, brining particular attention to the paragraph in the report that described the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) that was a local government-led partnership which connected councils, academics and local people to work together to improve health outcomes as a testament to the ambitions in Manchester.

 

In concluding this item of business, the Chair expressed her appreciation to Professor Sir Michael Marmot for attending the meeting and contributing to the discussion.

 

Decision

 

The Committee recommend that any future update reports contain ward specific data and information where available to demonstrate the impact and outcomes of the breadth of Making Manchester Fairer activity described.

 

Supporting documents: