Welcome to Greater Manchester’s consultation hub

Poor health adversely affects both victims of crime and offenders. From learning disabilities to drug addiction to poor mental health, it is clear that there are a range of health factors that directly increase your likelihood of entering the criminal justice system. The links between health, victimisation and offending are both critical and complex: that is why we have developed a health and justice strategy and are the first city-region to do so.

The aim of this strategy is to improve the health of people who are already in the criminal justice system, or who are at risk of entering it – either as a victim or offender. We believe this will reduce the risk of some people becoming a victim, and prevent others from getting involved in crime, as well as reducing the risk of reoffending of those already caught up in crime.

We have developed a vision and a set of priorities for our Health and Justice Strategy. We sought your feedback to help us improve the support we give to vulnerable people who come into contact with the criminal justice system in Greater Manchester.

The feedback that was collected during this consultation will be used to shape the delivery plan for the Greater Manchester Health and Justice Strategy.

This consultation was open from October 2nd and ran until October 31^st 2019.

We received 281 responses to this consultation. The majority of these responses were received via the online survey, with a smaller number shared with us directly via email.

We were pleased to note that victims of crime were well-represented among the public responses (73%), as were individuals who consider themselves to have a disability.

90% of respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with our vision for an integrated strategy for health and justice, and 90% of responses also agreed with the priorities which we set within the strategy. We take this as a good indication that members of the public are broadly in favour of our approach, and are supportive of the direction we are taking.

Members of the public were clear about their preference for approaches that focused on prevention. Specifically, the parts of the strategy which they considered most important included the reduction of violence on one hand, and the prevention of young people becoming involved in crime on the other.

A number of important pieces of feedback were given, and we have taken note of several. These included:

• Mental health: members of the public were keen to see a greater emphasis placed on mental health in the vision and priorities of the strategy. It was acknowledged that mental health was recognised explicitly throughout the document, but the public’s perception was that work on mental health should be made more prominent.
• Support for offenders: while often sympathetic, members of the public expressed a lack of certainty about the rationale behind improved support for offenders. There was concern that a greater emphasis needed to be placed on supporting victims – and that these two objectives needed to be approached with distinctly from one another.
• Wider considerations: members of the public identified a number of other factors which they felt were just as important in determining offending related behaviours. These included education (for children and young people) and employment opportunities (for adults). They felt that ‘health and justice’ only made sense as a strategy in the context of wider issues.
• Communication: members of the public expressed a concern about the degree to which we would communicate with them. They were keen for us to consult with them and involve them in designing and delivering policy. They were also keen for us to tell them clearly about what we are doing.

The results of the survey were formally reviewed by the steering group for the Greater Manchester Integrated Health and Justice Strategy, and key decisions were taken about amendments to our approach. The Strategy, and specifically its delivery plan, has been revised to reflect the considerations taken on board during the consultation.

The feedback we received from the survey as well as our engagement with staff has informed a number of proposed amendments to our initial proposals.

The updated strategy includes:

• We will make specific provision for mental health within the delivery plans for appropriate priorities. We will also distinguish mental and physical health in the outcomes framework for the strategy.
• We have ensured that work streams designed to support victims are separate from work streams designed to support offenders. Work on victims and offenders will be resourced specifically and distinctly. We will specifically monitor outcomes for victims as well as offenders within the outcomes framework.
• We will adopt an approach to service user engagement which directly involves service users in developing policy.
• We are going to re-draft our priority on “family justice” and will seek to make sure that we recognise the importance of the whole family.
• We will develop a communications plan in the first part of 2020 which will ensure we keep the public appraised of our work.
• We will direct resources towards the priorities which the public have expressed as the most important in the first instance: violence reduction, and the prevention of young people from becoming victims or offenders.

The Integrated Health and Justice Strategy for Greater Manchester will be considered at parallel meetings of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership on Friday 31^st January 2020.

Our Pass will provide 16 to 18 year-olds (12/13^th academic year) in Greater Manchester with free bus travel alongside a wealth of sporting, cultural and leisure opportunities.

The pass is a two year pilot starting on September 1, 2019, led by Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), with support from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). The pass has been developed with Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority (GMYCA), and a host of other youth organisations, groups, schools and colleges across the city-region who helped with the overall design and name of the pass.

Our Pass has been designed to support young people at a crucial point in their lives and aims to raise aspirations of all young people across Greater Manchester. It is a commitment to the opening up opportunities in the city region to young people.

This survey was used to ask young people across the city-region what opportunities they would like to be available with Our Pass and how opportunities should be allocated. We specifically asked:

• Which opportunities young people would be most/least likely to take up?
• What young people are interested in?
• Which apps young people use the most?
• Whether opportunities should be discounted as well as free?
• How opportunities should be allocated?

The survey was open from May, 9 and ran until June, 23 and was promoted across social media channels. Our Pass partnered with GMYCA and other youth work led partners to share the survey across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The survey received 662 responses overall, 94% of which were received by respondents aged 18 years or younger (the target audience for Our Pass).

The survey results gave an insight into opportunities most and least popular amongst young people. The top three opportunities respondents reported most likely to take-up being indoor leisure complexes, such as cinema and bowling (86%), restaurants (79%) and live music (67%), whereas the least popular included under-18 clubs and bars (58%), museums (44%) and watching sports (44%).

Respondents were also asked to rate their level of interest in a number of commodities. Food, music and clothes were rated the highest (all within 90%), with beauty, computer games and sports rating the lowest (all under 60%).

As well as interest, respondents were asked their thoughts on opportunity allocation. The vast majority of respondents (96%) believe that Our Pass should provide discounted shopping and vouchers, as well as opportunities. Additionally, 87% of respondents said they would be interested in discounted opportunities as well as free opportunities.

The results of the survey have been collated into a report and sent to the Our Pass Board who ultimately make decisions regarding Our Pass.

We’ve listened to the results and are currently developing Our Pass opportunities based on the results with businesses across Greater Manchester. Using the feedback, Our Pass has already developed a range of opportunities including:

Sports

• Manchester Giants (Basketball and Netball)
• Oldham Boxing and Personal Development Centre
• Challenge 4 Change
• Helly Henson Watersports Centre

Music and Culture

• Palace Theatre Manchester
• Manchester Opera House
• Parklife
• Hallé Orchestra

Additionally, as 96% believe that Our Pass should provide discounted shopping and vouchers as well as opportunities, Our Pass have officially partnered with JD Sports who are currently running a £50 gift card competition for young people who sign up for Our Pass before the launch in September and will continue to apply discounts to all Our Pass users.

Our Pass are currently encouraging other businesses across Greater Manchester to get involved for the launch of the pass on September 1.

Programme for Change represents a major transformation programme for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service with the aim of ensuring the Service has the right resources in the right places, is well-equipped, well-managed, and well-led.

There is a recognised need for GMFRS to modernise, and there has been ongoing work for some years to develop the Service to ensure that it is in line with today’s risks. The new governance arrangements and the election of a Mayor in 2017, who has responsibility for the fire service, has acted as a catalyst to drive this need for transformation forward.

The Outline Business Case for Programme for Change sets out in detail the challenges faced by GMFRS and our proposals for how the Service might look in the future.

This consultation is the public's opportunity to contribute their views on some of the content of the business case, including -

• Our proposal to consolidate six fire stations into three brand new, state-of-the-art community fire stations in Bolton, Manchester and Stockport
• Our proposal to manage our fleet of fire engines, whilst ensuring that we still have a response time that is faster than the national average

The survey was open from March 25 and ran until May 31.

You can view the full Programme for Change consultation report here.

In total we received 402 responses to this consultation which included 1,286 individual comments. These were received via the online survey and via email.

Members of the public were mainly concerned with the reduction in the overall number of fire engines in Greater Manchester. This concern was evidenced by referencing the emerging risks of moorland fires, high-rise buildings, future building developments and the threat of terrorism

Other feedback included the increase in funding for emergency services and the need for more campaigning at a national level to secure support for GMFRS.

In addition to this public feedback, there was also significant feedback from staff and trade unions, which isn’t featured here, but has contributed to decision making.

The results of the survey have been collated into a report that has been considered by the GMFRS leadership and the Mayor and Deputy Mayor and has informed potential changes to the initial proposals. The consultation report was also presented at the GMCA Corporate Issues and Reform Scrutiny Committee.

The feedback we received from the survey as well as our engagement with staff have informed a number of proposed amendments to our initial proposals.

Our updated proposals include:

• The current arrangements around the number of firefighters on fire engines will be maintained for this financial year.
• Firefighter numbers will remain at or above May 2017 levels for at least the next financial year.
• Firefighters will see their role around prevention and protection enhanced, in areas around fire safety visits, inspections and enforcement activity. We will allow sufficient time for our firefighters to be adequately trained and equipped to fulfil these duties whilst retaining a number of additional specialist prevention staff to support complex cases.
• We will develop alternative delivery models for volunteering and cadets and continue our Princes Trust work to allow more time to develop future options.
• We will maintain a fleet of 50 fire engines for at least this financial year.
• The fire station mergers go ahead as planned as well, which will see the creation of three brand new state-of-the-art fire stations, alongside ongoing investment in stations, including welfare facilities.
• The initial requirement to reduce 113 non-uniformed roles has reduced to 60 roles and the service continues to aim for no compulsory redundancies. The service will work with any staff impacted to help them find new roles.

The revised proposals will be considered at the meeting of Greater Manchester Combined Authority on Friday 27 September.