 GM Live Well is Greater Manchester’s commitment to ensuring great everyday support is available in every neighbourhood. It will tackle health, social and economic inequalities by changing how public services work with people and communities to grow opportunities for everyone to Live Well. GM Live Well will ensure everyone has the support, control, connections and resources to lead a healthy happy life.
#GMLiveWell
Live Well is featured as a case study in the NHS 10 Year Plan: 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future - GOV.UK.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “The Government is right to put prevention at the heart of an NHS fit for the future, and Greater Manchester is ready to blaze a trail as the UK’s first Prevention Demonstrator."
“Bringing health services closer to home through neighbourhood centres and teams is the approach that is already the driving force of our Live Well mission to transform how we deliver public services."
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Local teams are developing their plans for Live Well centres, spaces and offers in their areas in partnership with people and communities.
This comes after Greater Manchester invests £10m to support Greater Manchester residents to live well - Greater Manchester Combined Authority
For example, people from across Trafford came together in a first of a kind event for the borough. Residents, GPs, NHS teams, community groups, emergency services, and council representatives explored ways to improve collaboration between services at a neighbourhood level.
Tom Ross, leader of Trafford Council and co-chair of the event, said: "This was a brilliant first event – full of energy, ideas, and commitment. What really stood out was the shared determination to do more for the people of Trafford by working more closely together. There’ll be more events like this in the future as we keep building momentum and turning ideas into action."
Health and wellbeing symposium held in Old Trafford | Messenger Newspapers.
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'Driving Change: The BIG GM Live Well Bus Tour’ highlighted the amazing work of local community organisations across the city region, and the crucial role they play in shaping a happier, healthier and fairer future.
The tour led by GM Live Well, Local Trust, Locality, and the We’re Right Here campaign for community power, showcased pioneering community-led spaces in Greater Manchester, to support the development of Live Well centres, spaces and offers.
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The National Lottery Community Fund Board came to Greater Manchester to see the work of the Live Well accelerator sites they are funding in Salford, Bolton, Trafford, Oldham and Rochdale.
The visit highlighted just how strong the #GMLiveWell movement is growing when Chair Dame Julia Cleverdon CBE mentioned she couldn’t tell who was who - councils, NHS, voluntary sector leaders, community organisations, community reporters. She commented that if you cut people down to their core, they would bleed the same vision, values, and Live Well mission, and that’s very rare.
The afternoon was all about showing Live Well in action. The five National Lottery Community Funded accelerator sites showed the impact of creating new ways of working:
‘Collaborative rather than transactional’
‘Where community voice is the most effective solution’
And Elephants Trail brought community reporting into the room:
‘Change is happening. It might seem small from outside. But it’s massive when it’s you.’
This and more is inspiring and informing the future of Live Well, as together we grow community action, power and wealth and a network of Live Well spaces of hope across the region.
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To ensure Primary Care is fully engaged in the design and implementation of Live Well across Greater Manchester, a structured engagement process has been taking place. Co-led by the GM Primary Care Board and NHS GM, with the support of GMCA, this involved in-depth consultation with hundreds of Primary Care professionals across General Practice, Dentistry, Community Pharmacy and Optometry. Together they are contributing to the co-design of the Live Well model and strategy as it moves into its implementation stage. Reports are being finalised currently, and a programme plan to enable Primary Care's full contribution to Live Well is in development.
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Work is underway as a result of the £10m funding boost for Greater Manchester’s Live Well plan to tackle inequalities, improve health and help people back into work - Greater Manchester Combined Authority to shape employment support across the system.
For example, locally, Bolton recently held a session to explore, with residents who are out of work due to ill-health, and alongside council colleagues, how the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector could support the individuals alongside specialist employment support, to move them further towards good employment.
It was great to be able to join Shannon from Elephants Trail to talk about how we are putting into practice the #DoWith values in Greater Manchester through Live Well. The event, hosted by Voluntary Sector North West and The King’s Fund, was designed to gather real thoughts, experiences and ideas on how we move from talking about co-production to truly doing it. It was great to:
- Show Made by Mortals video about what being able to Live Well means to our people and communities: Made by Mortals - what Live Well means to me?
- Share the journey we've been on, made possible by the initial National Lottery Community Fund investment to do more listening, movement building, testing and learning.
- And highlight our learning through Elephants Trail community reporting: Hope – creating Live Well centres - YouTube
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Greater Manchester was out in force at the New Local Stronger Things conference. Oldham, Manchester, Stockport, Wigan and Trafford represented the region; on panels and in conversations.
Discussions reminded us that prevention starts in and with communities - if it begins in institutions, by definition, it’s not upstream prevention. There was lots of talk about growing the capacity, capability and confidence in our systems to work differently with communities, growing power and resources and recognising and respecting what’s already there.
Elephants Trail brought Live Well to life with community reporting, spoken word, and real talk from the stage: “Stop funding the shiny new stuff. What works is already out there. Fund it. Support it.”
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Over the last 6 months every locality has been exploring ways we get grant funding to grassroots groups, aimed at helping address inequalities and building community led health and wellbeing, through a £1million Live Well Communities Fund. A whole range of new approaches have been tried, from participative grant making, to new ways of making grant processes accessible, to shifting who is on decision panels and how they work. All this work has generated new relationships, learning and insight. To understand this a 'Learning Pack' is being developed, informed by Community Research.
Seven Community Researchers, supported by A Brilliant Thing CIC, have been engaging in localities to find out what has been tried and learned. A sensemaking session brought them together with the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Local Infrastructure Organisations who had led the work locally, and identified patterns, theme insights and codesigned the Learning Pack structure.
The Learning Pack will be available in September.
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At the official opening of a new community space and formal launch of the Ridge Hill Together CIO, the team at Ridge Hill community centre shared their Journey to Wellbeing.
Attendees explored how their learnings can inform the development of a wider neighbourhood working model.
As a neighbourhood on a hill, with the GP and other services at the bottom and limited public transport, the community wanted to explore new solutions. Alongside work to lease a new community space in a church premises, they developed other community-led activity, such as music, cycling, edible memorial trees and more, and brought the GP practice closer to the community.
Colleagues from Jigsaw housing (who is leasing them the space), the council, NHS and the newly founded Ridgehill Together CIO (set up as legacy from both the Ageing in Place Pathfinder and Big Local investment), and residents discussed the ingredients needed for ageing in place to thrive in neighbourhoods, and what core features of a Live Well offer deliver that.
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The Live Well approach to pensioner poverty was highlighted in a House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee report.
The report, which follows an eight-month inquiry into pensioner hardship, draws heavily on contributions from the city region, from written evidence to in-person testimony and a dedicated roundtable with older people held at Manchester Town Hall.
It highlights Greater Manchester as a leading example of how coordinated local action can make a tangible difference in older people’s lives. It praises the joint efforts of local authorities, voluntary organisations and community groups, particularly in areas like housing, health, social care and benefit take-up.
Greater Manchester’s ‘whole place’ approach to pensioner poverty recognised in landmark parliamentary report - Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Myriad: A Global Majority Spotlight on Creative Health online resource
Sharing learning to support practitioners and organisations to develop culturally competent practice.
https://myriadproject.co.uk/
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Frameworks resources for countering anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. Research-backed framing strategies to counter harmful rhetoric and keep our communities together:
Health Equity Evidence Centre Evidence pack: What works to address health and care inequalities. Evidence-pack_for-website.pdf
We're Right Here influencing toolkit designed to make taking action simple: WRH-Influencing-Toolkit-2025-WG04-4-1.pdf
A training roadmap for Social Prescribing Link Workers, following National Academy for Social Prescribing's recent link worker survey, they have created a training roadmap to provide greater clarity over training and development requirements: Training roadmap for Social Prescribing Link Workers – National Academy for Social Prescribing | NASP
Greater Manchester Equality Alliance (GM=EqAl) guidance on hearing the voice of lived experience in policy making.
https://www.vcfseleadershipgm.org.uk/resources/including-lived-experience
NHS GM, alongside Humber and North Yorkshire, partnered with national organisations Action on Smoking and Health, the Obesity Health Alliance, and the Alcohol Health Alliance to launch a new national toolkit. This resource empowers regions and local authorities to take bold, effective action on harmful products such as alcohol and unhealthy food, building on the successes of tobacco control.
Explore the Three Biggest Killers – Regional Toolkit and watch the launch webinar recording to learn more.
Greater Manchester Research Engagement Network, co-led by the Caribbean and African Health Network on behalf of the Greater Manchester Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Leadership Group, has launched a Respectful Research Charter which acts as a guide for both researchers and community groups to understand the barriers preventing those who are underrepresented in research to engage in the process.
Breaking down barriers to health research in Greater Manchester
A conversation between Leah Chikamba-Mulando, the CEO of local organisation Angels of Hope for Women, which supports women recovering from domestic abuse and mental health issues, and Tabz O’Brien, Strategic Lead for community-led innovation, working as part of a Greater Manchester-wide Live Well team.
Communities lead the way in Greater Manchester’s Live Well transformation - We're Right Here
TLAP and Dementia Change Action Network's report calls for a renewed focus on wellbeing, shaped by connection, community, and personalised care and support. Grounded in real experiences, it presents a hopeful vision for what’s possible, alongside nine practical actions to guide the way forward: ‘I just want to be able to dance’ - TLAP
Big Life Group and Natural England's report on young people's access to green spaces in Hulme, Moss Side, and Longsight highlights the need for safer, more inviting green spaces and the power of community-led activities to improve young people's wellbeing.
https://www.thebiglifegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Young-People-and-Green-Spaces-Report-for-Natural-England.pdf
GM Walking and Wheeling Fund Impact Report 24/25
“The walking sessions gave me a reason to get out of bed.”
“It became my weekly therapy: talking to other women who had been through similar things made me feel seen and heard.”
Aisha is one of more than 1,700 people who are walking and wheeling more often thanks to groups supported by the GM Walking and Wheeling Fund from GM Moving.
Warm Welcome's latest Impact Report shows that in 24/25 Warm Welcome Spaces received more than 2.6 million visits. One of the space volunteers said:
"By coming together, we can create a world where generosity changes lives, restores hope and builds stronger relationships. Let's join hands, give wholeheartedly and make a difference that will echo for generations."
WHO Commission on Social Connection report - Drawing on the latest evidence, the report makes a compelling case for urgent action - practical, scalable solutions - to strengthen social connection – and calls on policymakers, researchers and all sectors to treat social health with the same urgency as physical and mental health.
Exploring the Potential of Community-Centred Public Services - New Local - a think-piece by leading social explorer Cormac Russell, focusing on how to realign the relationship between institutions and communities.
New Civil Society Covenant recognises collaborative efforts of Greater Manchester The Civil Society Covenant aims to reshape how the Government works with communities to tackle the country’s biggest challenges. GM's Accord and the GM Violence Reduction Unit have been highlighted in the Covenant as case studies of successful partnership working with civil society.
'Perspectives in Public Health' mentions the Creative Health work happening in Greater Manchester - Creativity and collaboration in public health - J Channing, H Smith-Charles, 2025
Over the past three years, with support from the Health Foundation, Salford has been part of the Economies for Healthier Lives programme, alongside Glasgow city-region, Havant, Leeds and Liverpool city-region. The programme aimed to strengthen relationships between economic development and health. It was about using local economic development strategies to improve health and reduce health inequalities.
Learning is available here: Economies for Healthier Lives
The outline of Salford's approach is reflected in 'Fairer, Greener, Healthier. Our grower’s guide to nurturing an inclusive and green economy' flipbook.
And learning is summarised in a short animation: Rooting for a Healthy Economy
What does it take to grow a culture of prevention? Leaders from the GoodLives GM Leadership Collaborative and beyond have been learning about the leadership required to shift towards prevention as a key part of Live Well.
The webinar sharing their emerging insights is available to watch (alongside more webinars) here.
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Localis/We're Right Here policy webinar: Done To, Not With
Done To, Not With | Localis / We're Right Here community power policy webinar
Black girls and sport: A breakup story: Dear Sport | Women in Sport | #KeepBlackGirlsPlaying
"I love sport, but I always feel like I have to fit into it, rather than it fitting into me." Georgia, 14
Boost Boxing supporting men's mental health in Marple - a partnership with Marple Cottage Surgery and the Stockport East and South Primary Care Network, to develop and deliver a boxing programme to support men with mental ill health: BOOST Boxing in Marple
If you live or work in Oldham, help map green spaces
Oldham’s GreenME project, a pioneering European initiative involving the University of Salford and University of Kent, is inviting you to contribute to research on how nature impacts mental well-being. This quick, interactive survey allows you to map your local nature spots in and share your insights, directly shaping policies for a healthier, more sustainable Oldham: GreenME survey on nature and wellbeing in Oldham
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Become a Core20Plus Ambassador - Cohort 4 recruitment is open until 12th September.
Anyone working in the NHS and across integrated care systems or wider in local authorities, voluntary, community and social enterprise or in industry who is committed to narrowing healthcare inequalities can apply.
VCSE Data and Intelligence Peer Learning Network – How to Approach Data in Smaller and/or Less Resourced Organisations
Select tickets – Bolton Locality Learning Event - Part of Fairer Health for All – Microsoft Teams
Workshop: Including the Voice of Lived Experience in Policy Making
Locality teams are coming together to explore how we can grow and embed community voice in local Live Well implementation across the city-region, a key principle of the GM Live Well approach.
We'll share an update in the next newsletter.
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Greater Manchester Primary Care Summit 2025
The Alternative Provider Collaborative Convention
VSNW Conference and AGM 2025: 'From Uncertainty to Strength – Building Capacity & Resilience in Our Sector'
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