I want to share with you all my thanks and my pride following our four-day peer review last week.
I could not have been prouder, as the reviewers – a team including a council leader, chief executive and directors – told us their findings and that they had never seen a council quite like Manchester.
In their very first bit of feedback, they called us a “first-class council’, where the workforce are “passionate about improving outcomes for Manchester people and rightly proud to work for Manchester City Council”.
While we developed areas with the reviewers where we can continue to improve, they were positive about every single part of the Council they visited.
Our Manchester
For me, the most important thing was that they got a clear sense of Our Manchester – that this is the city’s plan, not the Council’s, and that we deliver through deep, long-standing and impressive partnerships. In fact, they agreed that Our Manchester is fundamental and said it perfectly creates the framework for the city’s success. The leader of Camden Council told us she has never seen partnership done as deeply and as powerfully as we do here.
Feedback
Throughout the feedback sessions, the reviewers were incredibly positive about our teams, the corporate leadership and the political leadership.
They said the strength of progress in health and care integration, and the depth of partnership, is a great foundation for future improvements. The scrutiny process here is as strong as anything they had seen. Neighbourhoods are a real strength, and they were amazed by the significant improvements in children’s services.
They obviously recognised Sir Richard Leese’s leadership and long-term vision, investment in partnerships and the growth of the city, but welcomed the new leader’s intention to build on it. They said Councillor Craig has a strong vision for the future on how communities benefit from the city’s success, and an Executive that is ambitious, committed and proactive in leading partnership and wider member involvement.
Opportunities
I wanted them to tell us where they thought we could improve, and I am pleased to say there was nothing that we would not already recognise ourselves.
They could see progress on our equalities work, and heard a story from staff that this work is progressing – but they agree we need to go further and faster to ensure our commitment translates into deep change.
They see housing as an area of huge potential to build on where we are now and address challenges around delivery, homelessness and temporary accommodation issues.
The future shape programme was also an area they believed could be tightened up – they understood the overall programme but felt that the ambition is not yet matched by the definitions we have for target outcomes, and how we are going to get there. Similarly, with our digital strategy – while we have made huge strides, they would like to see our definitions of success, a move beyond technology thinking to more future adaptability, and said we should take advantage of Manchester being one of the most thriving tech sectors in the UK to do something really special.
They also saw huge opportunities for us around social value and the inclusive economy.
Next steps
The next step will be a fuller written report in the new year. This will lead to us producing a clear action plan, which I will share with you, but I wanted to give this feedback as soon as possible as this is all down to you. In fact, they were not joking when they said they had to work hard to get people to say something critical about Manchester!
I cannot thank you enough – those who took part in interviews or in hosting visits from the reviewers, or those who picked up the work while colleagues were working on the peer review. This is down to all of you.
Final thought
I will leave you with the final thoughts the reviewers gave to me: Keep being Manchester. Celebrate the real progress across the Council. Celebrate the real progress in children’s services; your Year of the Child work must be embedded in every Council department and will transform lives and galvanise the city. And the work Manchester is doing on place leadership in neighbourhoods is pioneering and nationally significant. By keeping the ambition and demonstrating how lives are being transformed in each community of Manchester, you could redefine neighbourhood leadership for the sector.
Many thanks to all of you for this outstanding work.
Joanne Roney, OBE
