Welcome to the first quarterly newsletter written by Macc's Policy and Influence Team. The main focus of these newsletters is on the policy work that we're directly involved in, and there is also a short section on other news we think you might be interested in. There are so many things happening in Manchester that we cannot hope to capture everything. If there are things that you think we ought to include, then please let us know. Hope you find the newletter interesting and we'd welcome your feedback.

If you want to find out more about any of the policy areas mentioned here, please contact us at [email protected] or come along to the next Macc Policy and Influence Network Meeting (details below). 


Contents
- Breaking News
- What We're Involved In
- Other Useful Stuff to Know About
- Our Favourite Jargon
- What We're Reading 
- Our Blogs



Breaking News
Macc Policy and Influence Network Meeting
Wednesday 2 May, 9.30-11am
Macc offices
Please come along to the first meeting of our Policy Network. It's aimed at anyone involved in policy and/or influence work in Manchester. This is a chance for all of us to meet each other and find out what everyone is doing. It will be a mix of presentations and discussion. To book a place, contact Helen at [email protected] or call 0161 834 9823. 

What We're Involved In
Voluntary Sector Assembly
The last Voluntary Sector Assembly organised by Macc in January looked at how to maximise opportunities for the VCSE sector to build relationships with the hospitals in Manchester. This has led to a number of interesting conversations, including work with Manchester Foundation Trust to look at the role of the hospitals within the wider community, and to think about how resilience funding could be transferred into the local community to reduce the number of people being admitted to hospital unnecessarily. A number of working and action groups will soon be set up to progress this further. Videos from the last VSA can be found at https://bit.ly/2JySMiD.

Commissioning
Our Manchester Grant Programme
Checks on organisations that were offered funding from the programme are complete and final offers are going out. The new role of liaison officers who act as the key contact for organisations is going to be critical to a more effective partnership. A number of organisations that were previously funded but failed to get refunded are being temporarily funded and offered support. The Programme Board has begun discussions about how further money from Manchester CCGs (held by Macc) will be invested. The background to this programme can be found on the Manchester Community Central website at https://bit.ly/2uZ7Jav.

Manchester Social Value Strategy
Manchester City Council and Manchester Health and Care Commissioning are both considering how they can improve their own social value (e.g. employee volunteering and apprenticeships) and try to improve the way that commissioners embed social value within specifications. 

Health and Wellbeing
Home Care
Manchester Health and Care Commissioning will retender home care services by April 2019. It will move from time and task (30 minutes to carry out a specified task) to an outcomes model. There is also a much broader discussion about the wider home care system (not just that paid for by MCC), how it will link with neighbourhood and hospital-based health and care services, and the role of voluntary and community sector organisations.

Manchester Public Information
It’s very early stages but a new group is coming together under the auspices of the Manchester Local Care Organisation to improve the quality and impact of the information that people in Manchester have access to about organisations and events happening in the city. It's focus is on improving health and wellbeing, and reducing the huge levels of duplication in the gathering of information.

Manchester Local Care Organisation and Money for the VCS
Negotiations are continuing within the LCO about money for the VCS. There is £120k associated with the Health and Wellbeing Development Workers in North Manchester that will go out soon and a further larger sum that is under discussion at the moment, for which a business case is being prepared. Overall, though, these are relatively small sums compared with the budget of the LCO. For more information on the background to the LCO, please visit the page on our website - https://bit.ly/2GMJtJP

Manchester Local Care Organisation and Neighbourhood Approaches
The LCO have recently made a commitment to developing closer relationships in neighbourhoods to ensure that VCSE sector organisations and the wider community have the opportunity to influence decisions and discuss local solutions. We've been helping them to think about their role in neighbourhoods, and what they can do to support and add value to what already exists. 

Systems Leadership
The Richmond Group of Charities have recently published Tapping the Potential - https://bit.ly/2IIGanH. This outlines some of the lessons learnt from their practical collaborative work in Somerset, and has a lot in common with our systems leadership approach in South Manchester - more information can be found at https://bit.ly/2ExOFj9. We’ve been working across sectors to re-think what it means to be a leader within the wider system, and to explore the role of the VCSE sector in the transformation of health and care.

Hubs
There is currently a programme to establish two new hubs (buildings) in Gorton and Withington, and Burnage. Converations are taking place to help think about the role of the VCSE sector and the wider community with the aim of ensuring these new centres are well connected and are a vibrant part of the local community that look at health and wellbeing.

Representing the Sector
Registered Housing Providers
Conversations have recently been held with a number of housing providers across Manchester to discuss how we could work together and how to build relationships between housing and VCSE organisations. A number of key areas have been identified where we have shared priorities: social value, volunteering, community development, and health and wellbeing.

Timebanking
This was recently discussed at the Equalities and Communities Scrutiny Committee with Manchester City Council and some local Manchester Timebanks to explore the opportunities to expand Timebanking in the city in line with the Our Manchester approach. A working group will be set up to look at how funding can be secured to establish a network of Timebanks across Manchester, and how resources can be provided to enable local groups with an interest in Timebanking get started and be supported. Find out more about Timebanking from their website - www.timebanking.org/. 


Other Useful Stuff to Know About
Manchester Local Care Organisation
Manchester’s LCO is now officially called Manchester Local Care Organisation and has taken over the running of statutory community health and social care services (or quite a lot of them) from the beginning of April.

12 Neighbourhoods
Manchester is divided into 12 neighbourhoods for the purpose of health and social care service delivery with the hope that this will enable better integrated working. Due to proposed ward boundary changes, there are plans to change the areas covered by some of the neighbourhoods. The proposal, understandably, has infuriated some of the organisations that have built networks and projects, working across the existing footprint.


Our Favourite Jargon (and some possible definitions!)
Cultural Baseline Diagnostic - What was the last book you read?!

On-Boarding Allignment - Something to do with surfing?!


What We're Reading
How to work effectively with the third sector by the Institute for Local Governance
A summary of the views of the third and public sectors about how to work together that divided opinion in the office. Some thought this was too focused on funding!
https://www.stchads.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ILG-How-to-work-effectively-with-the-third-sector-discussion-paper-March-2019-.pdf

Reimagining community services by the King's Fund
A call to action for radical change to our community services. Didn't seem that radical to us but welcome still. 
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-01/Reimagining_community_services_report.pdf

Public procurement guidance for practitioners by the European Commission
A straightforward guide to what you can and can’t do according to EU rules.
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/guides/public_procurement/2018/guidance_public_procurement_2018_en.pdf

Levenshulme Market Social Impact Report
An uplifting analysis of the role of a local market in economic regeneration.
https://www.levymarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/LM_Social-Value-Report-2018_FINALcompressed.pdf

 

 

 

To get in touch
Telephone: 0161 834 9823