Our Policy and Influence Team supports a strong, collective voice for Manchester's voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and residents by sharing information, co-ordinating and linking organisations and providing opportunities for people to come together and network.
We aim to ensure that the VCSE sector has opportunities to influence public affairs and is supported and engaged in order to maximise its contribution to the life of the city. Our policy work ensures that we communicate the issues and concerns of the sector to elected officials, the Council, NHS and other relevant stakeholders.
We do this through:
- Working with commissioners to support fair commissioning processes
- Working with partners to ensure that cross-cutting issues are addressed
- Having regular meetings to share information, share good practice and gather views on a range of issues
- Facilitating themed forums and reference groups for peer learning, sharing knowledge and developing good practice. It also provides a way for the sector to make a collective input into a range of local and national decision making bodies
- Supporting voluntary and community sector representatives to attend partnership meetings to be the voice of the sector
- Producing information and resources including policy briefings, toolkits, advice and information bulletins. Ensure safeguarding information is accessible for the voluntary and community sector
- Providing opportunities to consult on a range of issues
- Developing collaboration
- Supporting the voluntary and community sector in gathering evidence of their impact
Below are some of our key ideas and themes with a brief introduction to what we're doing on each of them.
Campaigns
Voluntary Sector Assembly
Equalities
Health, Social Care & Wellbeing
Mental Health
Children & Families
Older People
Advocacy
Further updates are available in the Policy and Influence section of our Manchester Community Central website