Chief Exec's Update
Coming up in 2018…
Obviously I’m writing this in the final days of 2017 and a list of things which will affect charities, community groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises is something you can never actually finish writing (note to self: write more blogs this year) but here are the things which are swishing around in my head as things to think about for 2018.

Starting with a few things at national level, Office for Civil Society will start consultation on a new Civil Society Strategy. The Conservative-led governments since 2010 have sometimes appeared hostile to the things our sector says and does despite various themes such as the 'Big Society' or the 'Shared Society'. With a new Minister for Civil Society based in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport there’s an opportunity for a new conversation about the role of our sector in shaping places that people live in, not just an abstract national strategy. Often, this kind of strategy ends up being completely disconnected from the day to day work of a community group in Newton Heath or Baguley. Maybe, we can change that this time? (That’s me trying to start the new year with a bit of optimism).

Maybe it will even include an impact assessment of how the sector will be affected by Brexit? (That’s me starting the new year being totally unrealistic.)

Welfare Reform: the rollout of Universal Credit is going to continue to put pressure on local support organisations such as advice organisations, foodbanks and family services. We need to keep campaigning and sharing stories of the impact this is having on people’s lives. That’s partly about challenging the media stories of 'benefit scroungers' which have created a whole set of urban myths and prejudices. It’s also about identifying where there are possible legal challenges to this system. Greater Manchester Law Centre is going to be looking to take up test cases which will help challenge the unfair and inflexible aspects of the system through the courts. The Public Law Project recently secured a major victory when it supported a case which went to the High Court and resulted in a judgement which found that part of the rules governing Personal Independence Payments are unlawful and discriminate against people with mental health difficulties. It’s important that our sector keeps making these sorts of challenges. Providing day to day support is part of our job, so is improving the system.

The Greater Manchester Devolution experiment will roll on. I hope it will gain a fresh sense of ambition next year. There’s a risk of becoming less daring as time passes: risk aversion can stifle innovation but only bold solutions will work on things like housing, planning, inclusive growth and so on. We know Transport is going to be one of Andy Burnham’s big themes next year so expect lots of attention around buses, cycling and, if there’s any justice, some serious rethinking of Manchester’s messy very attempt to develop an equivalent of the London Oyster Card. We’ll have to make sure this is an inclusive conversation which brings in seldom heard voices as transport barriers are often at the root of other issues such as social isolation, access to employment, exclusion of people with physical and learning disabilities, etc.

Homelessness will continue to be a highly visible issue, politically and practically. There is a good broad conversation going on about emergency support and getting people off the streets but it will need to get into the harder subject of ongoing support for people with complex needs, collaboration between agencies and some honest discussions about economic priorities.

I will be hoping to see plenty of discussion about how the GM Mayor’s Accord with the VCSE sector is to be implemented. For me, it’s these conversations which are the important bit as the build collaboration and understanding of why it’s important and how it can practically be done. Very easy to write a document and get it signed off. Who remembers the Compact?

There’s no sign of the Government doing anything to tackle the financial pressures faced by Local Authorities and with the national political agenda hypnotised by the fast approaching headlights of Brexit, that’s unlikely to shift any time soon. Manchester still faces these pressures but there are positive signs that at least the Our Manchester approach to collaboration, strategy and community involvement is taking root. As with all these things, some of it ends up being a bit lost in translation but the principles at the heart of it are good and we have a great example of jointly designing and implementing a programme in the shape of the Our Manchester VCS Grants Fund. Hopefully something to build on during the year.

Ofsted has announced that Manchester Children’s Services are no longer inadequate but there is still a lot of work to do to get to a rating of Good on all services. Child protection, Looked After Children and support for care leavers are all still assessed as “requires improvement”. We’ll need to consider what our organisations – whether focused on children, young people and families or other groups – can do to engage with children and young people in or leaving the care system.

The Children and Social Work Act went onto the statute books as of April 2017. This new legislation allows local areas to determine their own arrangements for Safeguarding Children – effectively ending the requirement for a Local Safeguarding Children Board - and focuses on the combined duty of the Local Authority, the Police and the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group to safeguard children. It will change the way Serious Case Reviews are conducted, with some being taken up by a new national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel though it is still unclear what form new reports will take. The recognition that the current system is too complex and never had enough resources is welcome but it still leaves our sector with a question: with so many groups operating informally and with limited resources, where is the capacity and support to embed good practice?

Remember also there are Local Elections in May. It’s a good time to be talking to candidates about local issues.

Health and Social Care is an entire briefing in itself! So here is a quick race through some things to watch out for over the coming year:

The Manchester Local Care Organisation doesn’t have a snazzy name yet (Local McCareface?) but it will come into existence from 1 April 2018. And it will take on responsibility for a lot of health and social care services. As I write this, I’m not entirely clear which ones. After a year of conversations and meetings I also don’t have a great deal of insight to offer on how it’s going to work with the VCSE sector. I’m sure the intention is there but there is still a very long way to go.

With Social Prescribing getting a lot of attention at Greater Manchester level but still no overall agreement on what a good model looks like – and, for me, still a lack of recognition that it’s not just about GP’s prescribing voluntary sector stuff, it’s the whole design and system of our sector working with public services. Manchester will roll out the Community Links for Health model to south and central Manchester early in the new year through a tender process. Keep in touch with us if you want news of the turnaround will no doubt be quite fast.

Nationally and locally social care is under pressure but Manchester particularly needs to find new ways of organising care at home and residential care, something picked up in the recent Care Quality Commission report. I think there is room to develop local social enterprises and co-operatives to provide home care, including within particular communities of identity but it’s hard to see where the investment in that could come from as it’s quite a risk to enter a ‘market’ like this when costs are rising and the only sizeable customer (the Council) has less and less money to spend. And of course pressures on the NHS continue. I recently heard someone say that in NHS terms ‘winter’ now lasts for 12 months of the year. We’ll be starting the conversation in January about how the VCSE sector and hospitals can work together.

So, as I did last this time, year I’m going to leave you with a quotation which sits on my office wall.

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centred men have torn down, men other-centred can build up.”
Dr. Martin Luther King

On the bright side, I’m looking forward to seeing Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor. It’s about time.
Mike Wild, Chief Executive, Macc

 

Active Communities
The Active Communities work of Macc emerged in late 2017.

In 2018, Active Communities will work to establish itself as a partner and enabler to the VCSE sector by building a collaborative strategic approach to volunteering, active citizenship and asset based community development; with the bottom line being getting more people doing more good and useful things in Manchester!

Several projects and services are now aligned under Active Communities, here's some outline of what's coming up in 2018:

Volunteer Centre Manchester
The volunteer centre will continue to support volunteer-involving organisations and people who want to volunteer in Manchester; by providing information, support, training and brokerage.

As part of the Our People: Volunteering programme (delivered in partnership with Manchester City Council), the volunteer centre will also encourage local authority employees to 'spend' their employer supported volunteering leave with Manchester-based charities and good causes; connecting them with local communities and bringing new skills and resources into the VCSE sector.

During Volunteers' Week (1 - 7 June 2018), the volunteer centre will lay on a programme that see's more people than ever getting involved in the celebration movement that recognises the contribution of volunteers.

Greater Manchester Older People's Network (part of the Ambition for Ageing Programme)
The Greater Manchester Older People’s Network (GMOPN) aims to inform and influence Greater Manchester strategies that affect older people.

In the New Year the GMOPN will be looking to develop its influence by holding network events every quarter that focus on key themes; the first of which (Transport) being on 17 January 2018, with speakers including Andy Burnham and representatives from Transport for Greater Manchester.

The GMOPN will also be expanding it's core Action Group by recruiting members from areas across Greater Manchester which are currently under or not represented; and by developing creative opportunities for network members to participate in the work of the group through volunteering. Digital technology and skills development.

Community Reporting
Community Reporting is about people having a voice and telling their stories.

In 2018, the Manchester Community Reporters network will continue to welcome new members to the storytelling movement through training and engagement. Moving forward, Community Reporter training will embrace the emerging models of Community Reporting for Insight, Co-production and Storytelling so that activity can be more useful and impactful than ever!

Opportunities to be involved and create content will be shared with the network throughout the year, such as an opportunity to produce content for the Spirit of Manchester Awards and Festival 2018. Community Reporting will also be featured and embedded into as much Active Communities work as possible.

Skill Givers
Skill Givers will be an exciting new addition to Active Communities in 2018; and will work across Manchester and Salford with National Lottery funding from Sport England to help local volunteers make a positive contribution to their community using sport and activity.

The Skill Givers project will link voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) groups who deliver physical/sport activities with local businesses. The project will enable employees within these business to effectively engage with the VCSE groups and donate their valuable skills and experience to help them to grow and prosper.

The project will be managed and delivered through the partnership of Macc and Salford CVS and will commence in early 2018.

Capacity Building Team
The Capacity Building Team at Macc is here to support Manchester based voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) organisations with developing their organisation, this could be anything from finding funding to writing a business plan, developing your trustee board or in choosing the right legal structure for your organisation.

To start the year we know that many groups will have heard about the outcome of their Our Manchester VCS grant and are still waiting to hear about their Young Manchester grant (successful applicants are due to be informed on 1 February 2018).

If you’re successful you may be looking at recruiting staff and should make use of our brand new factsheet which has been developed by a HR specialist on what to do if employing staff for the first time. This will be available on our website in January and will be included in a future ebulletin.

If you’re unsuccessful in receiving funding we are here to support you. You can sign up to become a member of Macc, which will give you access to our Funding Portal. We also regularly run a Funding Your Project workshop, which covers searching for funds using the funding portal and applying and diversifying funding to your project and can offer 1:1 support.

Manchester VCSE groups can contact us at any time for support with developing their organisation, on 0333 321 3021 or email us at: [email protected].

You can also find lots of helpful factsheets and policy templates on our website

Training Needs Analysis 2018
So here we are – a new year and a new training needs analysis offering you the opportunity to tell us what you are looking for when it comes to training this year. The results really do assist in scoping what our training offer will look like during the course of the year so the more responses received the better the programme – it will only take 10 minutes of your time (we promise).

This year we are also entering everyone into a prize draw for a free place on one of our own workshops of your choice so please do pass onto colleagues and networks as appropriate.

To take the survey visit: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SVGXGPF

Policy and Influence
Policy Trends
Every year I do a humorous update on some of the policy issues and trends over the year. (2016, 2015). Given the general level of bleakness (read this if you feeling particularly strong) it seems only reasonable to try a lift the mood a fraction, whilst having a gentle dig at some of the frantic absurdity that surrounds us.

Elusive Growth
It is now generally acknowledged that the economy is broken especially in the North and even (please whisper) in Manchester. The previous economic orthodoxy to ‘build shiny new things’ and ‘attract big business’ led to some of the worst inequalities in the UK. It is to be replaced or at least slightly amended to something else, but nobody is quite sure what that is. It almost certainly isn’t spending a few £100 million building a new tram line to the Trafford Centre, or taking money away from smaller arts organisations to build a new cultural centre at the Old Granada Studio site. Apparently, this lack of certainty is a good thing, for the first time in 30 years we don’t have an economic model. It’s all up for discussion. Please send your thoughts to: [email protected]

Please Sir
Right across Greater Manchester one can hear the plaintive cries of health and social care planners and commissioners pleading for money from the GM £450 million transformation fund for health and social care. Me, me, me, look at my strategy/project/vague idea. This is the cost benefit analysis that we created that proves (no it doesn’t) that we will save this amount of money in 3 years (no it won’t) and thus save the health and social care system from collapse (if only). The pretence of an open and transparent process for allocation of transformation money in Manchester didn’t last long. It was ‘transformed’ into business as usual, decisions made behind closed doors.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Not in the voluntary sector obviously. However, at least we can rejoice for our health and social care colleagues in all the new jobs being created in the Local Care Organisation and at Greater Manchester level. You ain’t no-one if you don’t have a new title with transformation somewhere in the title or if you’re not part of some new organisation; the single hospital (Manchester Universities Hospitals – at least they’re being honest about their priorities - being a university); single commissioning (Manchester Health and Care Commissioning); single community provider (local care organisation – no name yet but I think it would be a really good idea if they spent a lot of money doing a Manchester wide consultation on what the name should be); and a bigger and better mental health provider (Greater Manchester Mental Health). Excellent progress has been made, everyone has a new email address and a new identity card.

The Manchester Experience
Our Manchester is a philosophy, a way of seeing the world, a strategy, an experience, a set of behaviours, a brand or something like that. I’m definitely for it, unlike the previous sacred cow - public sector reform (let’s not mention the Troubled Families Programme, no really don’t mention it, they’re a bit sensitive about it). Our Manchester can be occasionally, possibly, a tad unclear, what it is and what it isn’t, not to me obviously, but to some other people. It’s going to take a long time and it’s got a lot to do with assets and strengths and being honest and talking to people. Sometimes it feels like tying it down too precisely might actually mean that one could identify some Manchester City Council activities that are definitively NOT Our Manchester.

A Gentleness of GPs
What do you call a collective of GPs? – please send your answers in on a postcard. My thoughts – ‘a wishfulness’, ‘a bunfight’ or possibly ‘a monopoly’ or ironically ‘a selflessness’. There are 3 such collectives in Manchester (not counting the Manchester-wide collective of collectives) and it’s not been easy going. Trying to bring together, what is essentially a group of small business people, many of whom are individualists at heart, without much in the way of organisational skills, with minimal organisational resources, was possibly not a guaranteed recipe for success. Despite the difficulties, it’s great to see GPs getting out and meeting voluntary sector organisations, but let’s be realistic it was never going to work everywhere, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

Happy New Year

Nigel Rose
Strategic Lead (Commissioning)
Macc Policy and Influence Team

Spirit of Manchester
Our annual Spirit of Manchester programme is a week-long, celebration, of the work of thousands of VCSE organisations in Manchester. We believe it's important to recognise, support and encourage volunteers and local voluntary action.

Spirit of Manchester 2017 was a huge success, and it’s not long until we start preparations for next year. This year was filled with inspirational stories and fun festival events from all across the VCSE sector and we know that there will be many more next year.

Keep an eye out in the Spring when we will be opening up the nominations for our awards, then in the first week of October the celebration begins yet again!

The Macc team wishes you all a very happy new year and looks forward to working with you again this year.

To get in touch
Telephone Information Service: 0333 321 3021

• Support Line open Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm

Email: [email protected]
Web: www.manchestercommunitycentral.org