What has been launched?
In another devolution first, a historic memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Partnership and Greater Manchester Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector, comprising of nearly 15,000 organisations.
Greater Manchester today becomes the only area of the country to formally recognise in an official agreement, the contribution and importance of the VCSE sector in designing and delivering health and social care services.
The ground-breaking five-year agreement, which is backed up by over £1.1m in investment from the Partnership’s transformation fund is the product of hundreds of conversations over the past year designed to establish a new way for the statutory and VCSE sectors to work together as two equal, complementary partners. The Partnership’s transformation fund is a £450m pot to push forward changes needed to create a sustainable care system.
Tell me more
Greater Manchester VCSE organisations are already major providers of health and social care (c5, 000), community development (c5, 000) and sports and leisure (c4, 000) and bring considerable resources in the form of independent income and volunteers. Local government and the statutory health sector contribute 38% of Greater Manchester’s VCSE income; and 1.1m hours per week of formal volunteering are given.
The MoU builds on the Partnership’s five transformation themes outlined in ‘Taking Charge of our Health and Social Care’:
- Helping people live healthier lives
- Transforming community-based care and support
- Helping hospitals work better
- Sharing more across the whole public services
- Enabling better care
Other programme themes within the Partnership include cancer, learning disabilities, mental health, dementia and diabetes; which the VCSE sector is also well-placed to deliver on.
Case Study
Michelle Carroll takes part in a community group in Salford. Read her story here.
