£10m boost for Live Well plan to tackle inequalities, improve health, and help people back into work

• New funding boost for Greater Manchester’s radical Live Well mission to reduce inequalities and support 150,000 residents into good jobs
• Greater Manchester one of eight trailblazer areas identified in Government’s Get Britain Working White Paper
• City-region will receive £10m for pilot scheme plus funding through new integrated settlement with central government
• Plan for neighbourhood Live Well centres, bringing together health, skills, employment support and housing advice all under one roof
• Live Well will ease pressure on the NHS by taking a preventative approach to health and wellbeing, providing positive personalised support

GREATER Manchester’s Live Well mission has today (Tuesday 26 November) received a £10m vote of confidence from the Government. 

The city-region has been selected as one of eight new trailblazer areas in the Get Britain Working White Paper, which sets out reforms to employment support.

The new funding will help us deliver on-the-doorstep support to improve health, build self-esteem and get people ready to move into work.

The £10m trailblazer will build on the work of Greater Manchester’s established Live Well movement - a grass roots support system that tackles inequality and helps people to thrive. It will join up health, wellbeing, and employment support at a local level.

Nearly half a million people are out of work in Greater Manchester and 137,000 of our residents are long term sick.

Research shows that helping people overcome the health and social barriers holding them back could get 150,000 of our residents into employment in the next five years.  

Live Well centres and spaces will bring together NHS Primary Care facilities with the skills and employment support currently delivered through Job Centre Plus.

Embedded in local communities, they will offer social prescribing as well as other services, tailored to local need – from debt counselling, mental health services and help getting online to food banks, family hubs and social and sports clubs.

They will be run in partnership with social enterprises and the voluntary, community and faith organisations who know our residents best, providing practical wraparound help to overcome the everyday issues holding people back.

Greater Manchester’s ‘Live Well’ ecosystem will show how we can shift the balance of public spending to tackle the root causes of poor health and inequality, rather than only treating their consequences.

It will aim to create the virtuous circle Lord Darzi described in his review of the NHS - where improving health and wellbeing reduces pressure on public services and gets more people into good work, which in turn grows the economy, raising taxes to fund our public services.

Live Well will be supported by Greater Manchester’s Housing First approach which recognises that good health, good education, and good jobs cannot come without a good, permanent home. Live Well centres will offer housing advice and support for renters, including access to property checks and enforcement action against rogue landlords to legal advice to challenge wrongful evictions. 

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said:

“For people to be working well, they have to be living well – and the current job support system cannot do that with a narrow, box-ticking focus.

“Greater Manchester has already got a proven track record of helping people back into work. Our focus is on names and not numbers, and on providing a more empowering, more supportive experience within the community.

“This trailblazer will enable us to build on strong foundations and develop Live Well on a bigger scale, so we can tackle the root causes of inequality and help more people get good jobs here in our city-region.”

The Government is targeting a national employment rate of 80 per cent, and helping to remove barriers to employment in Greater Manchester could help meet that goal.

Greater Manchester’s Working Well pilot scheme, which has been managed at a local level, has helped around 27,500 people into new jobs, and helped another 76,500 to access training opportunities and support to prepare them for employment.

Working Well was ranked as one of the top national programmes for job outcomes. It was also shown to have resulted in better integration of local services compared to national DWP-led programmes, and delivered better value for money.

National data suggests that the proportion of working-age adults across the North West not in employment and not looking for a job is around 23.6 per cent.

Article Published: 26/11/2024 12:21 PM