Manchester City Council has published its latest annual Public Health Report for 2025.
The theme of the report, Making Manchester Fairer, provides an overview of the two years since the strategy was launched in the city and the importance of the ongoing work to address inequalities and improve long-term outcomes for people living in the city.
Making Manchester Fairer is the council's roadmap for the coming years, tackling preventable ill health and other inequalities to help eradicate the impact that a variety of factors such as where residents live, work or are educated, may have on their opportunities as well as affecting how long they live. These influences are also known as the social determinants of health.
The report looks at the progress that has been made to meet the increasing needs of residents to prevent them from sliding into poverty and improve long-term health outcomes city-wide. It also shows how communities have had direct involvement in both the development and delivery of the Making Manchester Fairer action plan.
The eight themes for action within Making Manchester Fairer focus on the social determinants of health in the city covering:
- Early years, children and young people
- Poverty, income and debt
- Work and employment
- Prevention of ill health and preventable deaths
- Homes and housing
- Places, transport and climate change
- Tackling systemic and structural racism and discrimination
- Communities and power
The Making Manchester Fairer strategy underpins the importance of targeting investment into key areas of concern, and the report outlines many achievements to date.
For example, the Work and Health Kickstarter focused on removing the barriers that people with physical and mental health conditions can experience when looking for work, keeping their job, staying at work, and progressing in their careers.
This specifically included supporting patients in North Manchester with conditions such as back pain, arthritis and osteoporosis who needed help to access employment. An enhanced programme of support with advisers embedded as part of the musculoskeletal programme delivered by Manchester Foundation Trust has also helped to deliver hyper- local programmes to specific minoritised communities.
Important work to support the Black Caribbean community through the Healthy and Hearty project is also reaping rewards. Two Black-led Voluntary Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations are leading the work with Black Caribbean people who, despite having a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease, are not being supported in the most appropriate way.
Drop-in sessions with a worker from their community to measure blood pressure and to talk about general health and wellbeing has meant that patients feel more comfortable speaking to someone with a similar lived experience who understands the cultural factors for their community.
Helping children with intensive support in some schools where speech and language therapists and psychologists work with children who may have not met developmental goals is also making headway. This is also the subject of the latest Making Manchester Fairer podcast at Heald Place Primary: https://rss.com/podcasts/mmf/ .
The podcast looks at health, wealth and key social issues that affect life chances – as Manchester squares up to inequality.
Details of the full Public Health Report here - Public Health report
Cordelle Ofori, Director of Public Health for Manchester said:
“This is my first annual report as Director of Public Health for Manchester. The report shows how Making Manchester Fairer – our approach to tackling health inequalities in the city – is working in practice, building the foundations of good health in communities.
“The report describes the progress made over the past couple of years using examples of the ‘Making Manchester Fairer approach’ in action. The Making Manchester Fairer plan included actions within eight key themes to build the foundations of health in communities. It also included early initiatives known as the Kickstarters – projects to ‘kickstart’ delivery and exemplify the approach."
Councillor Thomas Robinson, Executive Member for Healthy Manchester said:
"Poverty, health inequalities and the ongoing cost of living crisis are all issues that cut to the heart of our communities, and unchecked create profound and lasting damage that can take years to reverse.
"It is important that we show what the Making Manchester Fairer Programme has achieved so far – and perhaps even more importantly, how it has listened to first-hand experiences from people in our communities and then worked together on bespoke approaches. That partnership is essential and means the next part of the Making Manchester Fairer journey will build on these strong foundations, so that we have a long-lasting delivery model in our neighbourhoods, built and informed by that resident involvement.
"Through Manchester Making Fairer we're determined to do everything we possibly can right now to make sure everyone in Manchester gets the same life chances as people elsewhere - and that includes our children and young people."