Leaders of the ten local authorities have voted to support new £10m of investment to help start the development of GM Live Well, Greater Manchester’s commitment to ensuring great everyday support is available to residents in every neighbourhood.
The project will see a network of welcoming and empowering Live Well centres and spaces offering integrated financial, employment, well-being, health and social support as well as social connection for residents being set up .
These will be accessible from any neighbourhood and through our health service.
The investment will see the first move a fragmented welfare system to a proactive, preventative, community-led model – that instead of waiting for people to fall into crisis, will invest in prevention, early intervention and community-led health, care and support.
Mayor of Greater Manchester and co-chair of the Integrated Care Partnership Board, Andy Burnham, said:
“Too many of our residents are held back by barriers like poor housing, longstanding poverty, ill health, lack of training opportunities and digital exclusion which they cannot overcome alone.
“GM Live Well is essential to break this cycle and our collaborative approach to deliver it, not just internally across GMCA but alongside partners at NHS Greater Manchester, local authorities and the VCFSE sector will ensure that this support is properly resourced and truly embedded in our communities.
“Our public services are under intense strain and the benefits system is just not set up to help people into work. We need to radically rewire how we deliver our services and, in Greater Manchester, we’ve proven that we can do that successfully and we have the ambition and vision to go further.
“This funding is the first step towards that vision, and a Greater Manchester where every person can access positive, practical support every day to improve their lives.
This investment will come equally from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and NHS Greater Manchester (NHS GM) and half will be earmarked to go directly to the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCSFE) sector in the region, to support them to lead the work in and with our communities.
GM Live Well is a city-region-wide commitment to ensuring people get the support they need, at the right time, in the right place through:
