Agenda item
Building Stronger Communities Together Strategy 2023-26 Action Plans
Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods).
This report provides an update on progress on the Building Stronger Communities Together Strategy 2023-26 for Manchester City Council.
Minutes:
The committee considered a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided an update on the progress of the Building Stronger Communities Together Strategy 2023-26.
Key points and themes within the report included:
· Providing an introduction and background to the strategy and its aims;
· The key priorities of the strategy
o Relationships
o Participation
o Belonging
· The nine Building Stronger Communities Together behaviours and principles, which would be embedded into a programme of workforce development focused on social cohesion for staff and elected members to be delivered during October and November 2024 by the national Belong – Cohesion and Integration Network;
· Noting recent disorder and violence over the summer, which had accelerated this work to respond to the impact of this;
· Manchester would be a beneficiary of the government’s Community Recovery Fund;
· Neighbourhood and place-based work to deliver the strategy in Moss Side, Hulme, Rusholme and Wythenshawe;
· Examples of activities and projects contributing to social cohesion across the city;
· Enablers to delivery, such as the Our Manchester VCSE Fund, MCRVIP and the Neighbourhood Investment Fund;
· The Communities and Power Board would provide oversight of the programme activity and progress in addition to an officers’ coordination group; and
· Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) quarterly Policing and Community Safety Survey would be used to understand and measure levels of social cohesion.
Some of the key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussions included:
· How socioeconomic factors would be considered through this work;
· Welcoming comparisons with Greater London authorities and querying if there were any shared learning opportunities;
· Emphasising the need to target a range of areas within the city which were experiencing exclusion;
· The Community and Power Board;
· How the Policing and Community Safety Survey responses were gathered and whether this included information at ward-level;
· How to target those who seek to bring division to communities and the need for greater resources to do this;
· How the State of the City report helped to inform this work;
· How residents would be informed of changes and improvements as a result of the strategy; and
· How the picture of Manchester was collated and embedded into this work.
The Deputy Leader informed the committee that the strategy was launched in May 2024 and action plans had been developed to test and learn from key events, actions and engagement and to build on good practice. She highlighted that this was an important strategy for the city and to foster social cohesion, which was especially relevant following recent protests and disorder over the summer.
The Prevent and Community Cohesion Coordinator commented that the programme of the strategy was in its infancy and would build cohesion in Manchester, solidify current work and provide members and partners with a narrative of what social cohesion looks like. She stated that learning and development sessions would be held, and she encouraged members to book onto these.
In response to members’ queries, it was confirmed that socioeconomic factors would be considered through the strategy and action plans and the Director of Communities recognised the impact of poverty as a root cause of ill-feeling in some cases.
The Prevent and Community Cohesion Coordinator explained that regular meetings were held with colleagues across the Greater London authorities (GLA), and they would seek to learn how the GLA had achieved a response of 95% to the measure “My area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together”. The committee was informed of other learning opportunities, such as linking with other local authorities through the Belong Network and with other Core Cities with similar family units and demographics to identify how they measure cohesion.
In response to a query regarding the concentration of activities in Moss Side and Rusholme, the Director of Communities reiterated that these had been chosen as pilot areas and acknowledged that other areas also needed activities. She stated that the intention was to initially test activities in some areas to understand time, resource and capacity requirements.
The committee was informed that the Community and Power Board formed part of the governance arrangements for the strategy and would ensure that this linked with other activities and groups such as Area Youth Forums and people with lived experience.
The Director of Communities explained that the Policing and Community Safety Survey was conducted by Greater Manchester Combined Authority so only provided Manchester-specific responses which could not be broken down to individual wards. She stated, however, that the Performance, Research and Intelligence (PRI) and Communications teams were looking into reinstating a Residents Survey which would allow for a greater geographical breakdown in responses.
It was acknowledged that recent events and disorder in the summer had acted as a catalyst to national conversations about the resources needed to support communities and the Director of Communities expressed hope that additional resources would be forthcoming to help with this.
In response to a question from the Chair regarding the State of the City, it was stated that the annual report helped to underpin the data and demographic of the city which informed much of the strategy’s objectives and work. Members were informed that significant work was ongoing with local insight and the State of the City report provided a snapshot of Manchester. Insight and intelligence were also gained through ward coordination and work with partners. It was also stated that Making Manchester Fairer had a framework to ensure that progress was communicated with residents and partners.
The Director of Communities also offered to bring a further update report on this work in 12 months’ time alongside an update on the Making Manchester Fairer work.
Decision:
That the committee
1. notes the progress on the delivery of the Building Stronger Communities Together Strategy and place-based activities along with the work that has supported community recovery post the incidents and events over the summer;
2. commits to attending the BSCT and social cohesion learning and development sessions for elected members and encourages elected members outside of the membership of this committee to also attend; and
3. welcomes the Director of Communities’ offer of a further update report in 12 months.
Supporting documents: