Tag: mayor

Greater Manchester Poverty Action – Mayor election special

Posted on by GMSVN

Tomorrow Greater Manchester will elect its first ever Mayor.

Greater Manchester Poverty Action have developed a newsletter containing a series of short articles written especially for the successful candidate’s attention.

Read the newsletter on their website.

Greater Manchester Poverty Action asked stakeholders across the city region to set out what they think the newly elected mayor needs to prioritise to drive down poverty. Our chair, Matthew Jackson had this to say…

Greater Manchester attracts and already has a significant amount of wealth which does not always reach the right places – social value* is a means through which the benefits of this wealth can be reallocated and realised for all.

The Greater Manchester Social Value Network (GMSVN) seeks to ensure that social value is at the forefront of everything that public, commercial and social sector organisations do in Greater Manchester. This includes in their strategies, their spending, their recruitment practices, their delivery of projects, and in their relationship with Greater Manchester as a place and its residents.

*Social value considers more than just the financial transaction and includes: happiness; wellbeing; health; inclusion; empowerment; poverty; environment.

GMSVN’s members, including local authorities, housing organisations, and voluntary and community sector organisations, would expect the GM Mayor to also adopt such principles to ensure that social value is at the heart of their approach.

Specifically, GMSVN would expect…

  • social value to be a common thread in all Greater Manchester Strategy and inform all Mayoral objectives moving forward;
  • social value in Greater Manchester to be measured in a proportionate and relevant way;
  • social value to be embedded in the Mayor’s own office through a specific policy role, and;
  • social value to be a key component of and consequence of development schemes

Moving forward, GMSVN can assist in realising this and support the GM Mayor through continuing to collect information and evidence of social value; support organisations to deliver social value; and influence behaviour of key organisations around their approach to social value. All of this would redirect Greater Manchester’s wealth to where it’s needed.

Messages for Greater Manchester Mayoral candidates

Posted on by GMSVN

The Greater Manchester Social Value Network (GMSVN) is a network of organisations which seeks to influence stakeholders, policy and strategy at the Greater Manchester level around social value.

GMSVN believes that social value should be at the heart of Mayoral priorities in Greater Manchester moving forward and has therefore submitted the below message to all mayoral candidates.

 

Messages for Greater Manchester (GM) Mayoral candidates from the Greater Manchester Social Value Network (GMSVN)

  • Social Value should be at the heart of all GM strategy – that means the Mayor needs to ‘Social Value-proof’ existing and future strategy to ensure it has a common thread and is adapted accordingly. Social Value should be one of the priorities throughout the GM Strategy, Spatial Framework, and wider devolution planning.
  • The creation of social impact should be ‘valued’ and recognised as a way to achieve the maximum return from investment of public and private money in GM, and measurement frameworks are required. But frameworks should not insist that every last piece of ‘value’ has to be measured and accounted for in financial terms. There needs to be understanding and agreement that this is the right way to do business, but not all social value can/should be measured. All ‘measuring’ should be proportionate and relevant.
  • Social Value needs leadership – it should be taken seriously and effort/resources put into changing the way that GM does business. This should include the policy lead for social value being included in the GM Mayor’s own office.
  • Social Value isn’t just procurement, it’s inclusive growth – measures are required to ensure that every development project in the Greater Manchester Strategic Framework maximises the delivery of social value and contributes towards inclusive growth.

 

What should the GM mayor put in his/ her manifesto?

I will ensure that the public sector in GM goes beyond the confines of the Public Services (Social Value) Act, embedding a social value approach into everything that they do; and will work with the private sector to create a GM where ‘responsible business’ is ‘normal business’.

Social value will be used to ensure that expenditure of the GM pound will create a fairer, more inclusive and caring place to live, work and do business.

 

Activities to support these objectives:

  •  A GM employment/ social value charter – including a single definition of social value and a commitment to a number of high level GM-wide priorities for social value (for example; paying the Living Wage, creating employment and skills for GM people and encouraging greater community activity).
  • A GM wide procurement policy – all public sector organisations should be mandated to follow a single policy and process for maximising social value in procurement and commissioning.
  • GM planning and development – embedding of a social value ‘ask’ in development agreements, funding awards and strategic plans.
  • A GM commissioning framework – which encourages the public sector across GM to work collaboratively on this and develop a joined up approach rather than developing different policies/frameworks/process within different parts of the GM system. Achievable and measurable outcomes should be established and achievements monitored.
  • Greater Manchester Social Value Network – resources and effort to support sharing learning and experience, training and awareness raising around social value.