Welcome to Greater Manchester’s consultation hub

Our vision, as highlighted in the Greater Manchester Strategy, is to make Greater Manchester one of the best places in the world to grow up, get on and grow old.

We believe that involving people in our work leads to better decisions and outcomes, and this site is one of the places you can have your say on what happens in Greater Manchester, through consultations that are happening across the city-region.  

Our current consultations are shown below. You can also search our previous consultations to see how they have helped shape our strategies, policies and programmes.  

We always like to hear how we can improve the way we engage citizens across Greater Manchester. If you have any feedback on our consultation hub please get in touch here.

Open Consultations
Plastic waste and recycling in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester Co-operative Commission - Call for Evidence
See All Open Consultations
Closed Consultations
Mayoral Development Corporation - Regenerating Stockport's Town Centre West
Greater Manchester’s Big Alcohol Conversation
Commitments to individuals with palliative care needs
Police funding 2019/20
Developing a Drug and Alcohol Strategy for Greater Manchester
See All Closed Consultations

We Asked, You Said, We Did

Here are some of the issues we have consulted on and their outcomes.

We Asked

We asked people for their views on three broad areas within the draft Cultural Strategy. These were -
 
People - Health, Ageing and Families
  • Promote the importance of engagement across the life-course, recognising the value of intergenerational relationships and exchange in enriching lives and increasing levels of participation.
  • Capitalise on Greater Manchester’s status as the UK’s first age-friendly city region, enabling and promoting later life creativity and talent.
  • Champion culture’s role in improving health and wellbeing, capitalising on opportunities offered by the devolution of health and social care.
  • Empower our residents to take responsibility for their own creativity by improving the visibility of opportunities and removing identified barriers to engagement.
  • Create a joined-up approach to volunteering in the cultural sector, recognising the benefits of volunteering on people’s health and wellbeing.
Economy - Education, Skills and Jobs
  • Advocate for the importance of engagement with culture in ensuring our young people are school ready.
  • Ensure that cultural education, inside and outside of the curriculum is accessible to all young people, regardless of background.
     
  • Create a GM-wide approach to ensuring our residents have the skills required to drive and contribute to the growth of the cultural sector.
  • Work with employers in the cultural sector and creative industries to develop and promote good jobs and opportunities that pay fairly and are meaningful.
  • Work with cultural organisations and artists to develop entrepreneurial activities that improve the sustainability and strength of the sector.
  • Capitalise on our position at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse, working with partners across the North to strengthen and promote our collective offer and ensure that Greater Manchester is a world leader for Arts and Culture.
  • Work with our Universities to build Greater Manchester's reputation as an international centre of excellence in research and knowledge about the creative and cultural industries.
Place - Regeneration, Environment and Communities
  • Empower and support cultural organisations, artists and communities to understand and advocate for the intrinsic value of culture to a place and its role in articulating identity and attracting investment.
  • Work with cultural organisations to ensure that all venues in Greater Manchester are safe, accessible, and welcoming to all.
  • Create opportunities for people to reflect on, and forge their place in the world, locally, nationally and internationally and use culture to develop and promote social and community cohesion.
  • Promote the diverse and distinctive cultural offer in Greater Manchester, from clusters of activity in our city and town centres, to more dispersed activity taking place in our rural and semi-rural communities.
  • Recognise the importance of creativity in the planning of our places, from ensuring culture is considered in spatial planning, to promoting the importance of good design in the public realm.
  • Work with Marketing Manchester, GM's Night Time Economy Adviser and UK Music to cement and promote culture's position at the heart of Greater Manchester's visitor and night time economy.

You Said

There were more than 200 responses to the consultation.  Feedback was received from the online consultation, emailed responses, face-to-face consultation sessions and from members of the GM Culture and Social Impact Monitoring Committee and GM Economy, Business and Growth Scrutiny Committee.

Feedback and recurring comments which have shaped the final document included -

  • Need for greater clarity on the purpose of the strategy and how it will be delivered
  • Need for clearer narrative about the definition of culture for the purpose of the strategy
  • Need for heritage to feature more prominently
  • Need for reduction in number of priorities – first draft aimed to do too much
  • Need to be clearer on what success might look like
  • Need to be more explicit in how culture links to other portfolio areas
  • Need for strategy to be more ‘distinctly GM’
  • Greater resident voice
  • What are the opportunities and challenges distinct to GM?
  • What specific powers to we have at our disposal to achieve our vision?
  • Need for an implementation plan to understand what activity might be delivered

We Did

We have incorporated the feedback and the final proposed version of the Cultural Strategy is going to the Combined Authority on the Friday, March 29, 2019 to be approved.