Theme one: Our people
Everyone who calls Manchester home, making sure that they can live their best lives.
Priority one
To support people to be happy, healthy and active from childhood and throughout their lives:
- Improve physical and mental health and wellbeing so Mancunians live for longer in good health.
- Reduce health inequalities in Manchester.
- Make health and care services more accessible for all communities and residents.
- Support people to lead healthier lifestyles, such as by staying connected to others, keeping fit, eating well, and making it easier to access advice and help.
- Offer easier-to-use advice and help.
- Provide places in Manchester where people can be active, connect with others, and breathe fresh air.
- Continue the work to make Manchester an Age Friendly City where people can age happily with equality, respect and independence.
Priority two
To support people to get a great education and continue to learn new skills throughout their lives:
- Invest in Early Years support and Family Hubs so Manchester children have the best possible start in life and are ready for school.
- Improve the quality and standard of education in Manchester schools and Early Years settings for the benefit of all our children and young people.
- Manchester colleges to continue to provide more high-quality learning places for young people and adults.
- Manchester’s universities to continue delivering world-class education with significant numbers of graduates remaining in the city region.
- Connecting Manchester schools, colleges, universities and training providers with employers to build better links between learning and work.
- Deliver the Skills for Life programme, ensuring top-quality opportunities for children and young people inside and outside the classroom.
- Improve our lifelong learning offer with Manchester Adult Education Service (MAES) as its anchor, following our recognition as a UNESCO City of Lifelong Learning.
Priority three
To support people to be proud of our diversity, feeling valued and included, knowing they belong:
- Improve services so they are more inclusive and accessible for all communities of Manchester.
- Stand up to racism and discrimination in all its forms.
- Take action to ensure the workforces of major employers more fully reflect the diversity of Manchester’s communities.
- Tackle inequalities in outcomes between the different communities of Manchester.
Priority four
To support people to participate, engage and influence decisions about their communities and neighbourhoods:
- Fund grassroots and community organisations that support engagement with communities, using funding such as Our Manchester VCS Grants.
- Increase the voice and influence of communities in decision making and operations of services.
- Be recognised as a UNICEF UK Child Friendly City where the voice of children and young people inform the future of our city.
- Doing more to engage people in new ways, building on work done such as Making Manchester Fairer, Community Health Equity Manchester and the Anti-Poverty Insight Group.
Priority five
To support people to be safe and secure in person and online:
- Tackling neighbourhood crime and antisocial behaviour together with local communities through the Manchester Community Safety Partnership and Anti-Social Behaviour Action Team.
- Working through the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership to keep young people and adults safe and prevent them being exploited.
- Our Early Help service will focus on prevention and early intervention to tackle problems for children, young people and their families as soon as they appear.
- Making sure that our front-line workers are trauma informed so they can recognise and respond to trauma.
- Supporting Greater Manchester Police to tackle serious harm and violence.
- Improve access to Manchester’s drug and alcohol treatment service, Change Grow, Live, and tackle the link between drugs, alcohol, crime, and antisocial behaviour.