Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

This report provides an update on the draft Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 reset document. A draft of the reset Strategy is appended to this report.

Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 will reset Manchester’s priorities for the next five years to ensure we can still achieve the city’s ambition set out in the Our Manchester Strategy 2015 – 2025.

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) that provided an update on the draft Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 reset document. The draft of the reset Strategy is appended to this report.

Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 would reset Manchester’s priorities for the next five years to ensure we could still achieve the city’s ambition set out in the Our Manchester Strategy 2015 – 2025.

The main points and themes within the report included: -

·         Describing the background to the Our Manchester Strategy reset;

·         Providing an overview of the Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025;

·         Describing the final design and communications; and

·         Next Steps.

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

·         Some Member’s debated as to whether as a result of the ongoing pandemic it was an appropriate time to proceed with the reset;

·         Had any analysis of the previous strategy been undertaken;

·         Members welcomed the ambitious strategy as it was required to tackle issues of poverty and health inequlaity;

·         Noting that the consultation response rate had been good, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19;

·         Had the demographic characteristcs of repondants been recorded to ensure the views obtained reflected the city;

·         How were outcomes measured and reported; and

·         Did the Our Manchester Forum hold partners, such as Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and local health service providers to account.

The Deputy Leader reiterated that this was not a new strategy, but rather a reset of an existing strategy to reflect on how the city would recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated that the report set out how the city was taking a lead on this issue and being on the ‘front foot’ as the city emerged from the pandemic. He described that there had been a lot of involvement in this programme of work, including consultation with local Members.

The Policy and Partnerships Manager informed the Committee that information on the benchmarking data and respondent demographic data, where available had been reported to the November 2020 meeting of the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee. She further advised that it was important to note that the Our Manchester Strategy was not a Council strategy, but rather a city wide strategy that involved a range a partners, adding that the outcomes and progress was reported in the comprehensive State of the City report.

The Policy and Partnerships Manager further advised the Committee that a comprehensive communications strategy had been established to maintain links and channels of ongoing dialogue with the different groups across the city who had contributed to the strategy. She stated this provided a mechanism to reflect on what they said to ensure their voice was captured and obtain feedback.

In response to the question regarding holding partners to account, the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) advised that formal structures existed for overseeing the performance of partners such as GMP and health service.

Following the discussion, the majority of the Members agreed that the final version of Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 should be taken for consideration by the Executive in February 2021.  

Decision

The Committee recommend that the final version of Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 should be taken for consideration by the Executive in February 2021.