Over the past six years, our place-based work has evolved significantly, from early testing of community-led approaches to shaping system-level change across Greater Manchester. Our latest report captures that journey, bringing together learning from across places to show what we’ve done, how the approach has matured, what’s worked, and what’s emerging as we look ahead.
A different approach to reporting
This report was designed with a clear purpose: to be used.
Senior leaders involved in the Place Partnership approach told us they needed something practical. A tool that could help them advocate for place-based approaches, influence decision-makers, and support real conversations about investment, priorities and system change in their places.
We co-designed a short, practical slide deck with senior leads across our ten boroughs shaping everything from the themes and narrative to the look, feel and how it would be used locally.
The result is an accessible, fully editable resource that:
- Tells the story of key shifts since 2019
- Highlights community-led, system-enabled change through partnership working
- Demonstrates how resources have been aligned and investment leveraged
- Can be adapted by local teams with their own data, case studies and branding
What the journey tells us
At its heart, the report shows a fundamental shift in how change happens.
Place Partnerships have demonstrated that when communities lead and systems enable, impact builds over time. This approach has led to deeper, more inclusive and more sustainable outcomes: strengthening trust, improving decision-making and creating the conditions for long-term change.
It has also helped move the system beyond individual programmes, attracting wider investment, enabling system change and reducing long-term risk.
As the report’s timeline illustrates, this isn’t just a series of milestones but a story of growing maturity, alignment and shared responsibility across people and systems.
A shift in thinking
As Warren Heppolette, Director of the Prevention Demonstrator GMCA, reflects:
“Instead of being recipients of national funding for fixed programmes, GM became partners with Sport England exploring what partnering in a movement for physical activity would look like.
Since 2019 we’ve moved from knowing physical activity is good, to understanding and practising how it supports health and care and wider outcomes in practice.
Place Partnerships have enabled a shift from transactional funding to shared responsibility… investing not just in programmes, but in the skills, relationships and system conditions needed for long-term change.”
This shift, from programmes to systems, from funding to shared ownership, is at the core of what makes this work different.
Why now?
As Greater Manchester enters its next phase, there is a clear opportunity: to embed these principles into core systems so that prevention, physical activity and tackling inequality are no longer time-limited initiatives, but part of how the system operates every day.
This report supports that by:
- Demonstrating the real-world impact of the approach, including prevention
- Providing a shared evidence base to inform leadership decisions
- Supporting advocacy for community-led, system-enabled ways of working
What we hope you’ll do with it
We want this resource to be picked up, adapted and used.
- Use it to start conversations with decision-makers.
- Use it to make the case for investment and long-term thinking.
- Use it to share learning across teams and partners.
Most importantly, use it to continue shifting how we work towards approaches that are rooted in communities, enabled by systems, and designed for lasting impact.
This is the first time we’ve reported in this way. It’s not perfect, but it’s a strong foundation and an open invitation to keep learning, adapting and building the case for change together.
