Since 2018 Salford have been part of Greater Manchester’s Place Partnership with Sport England to build healthier, more active communities. The partnership aims to reduce inactivity and health inequalities. To do this we take a place-based, approach that brings together people, communities, and organisations to create sustainable solutions to inactivity.
Salford used the place-based partnership to drive a more whole systems approach in the borough. This included pushing for consistency across sectors from a strategic level down to a neighbourhood level.
Salford have many examples of how they have successfully worked in a hyperlocal place-based way. The most prominent examples include the creation of “the Den” a youth hub that targeted anti social behaviour in Walkden. The second example is a hyperlocal health marketing campaign in Eccles. Both areas of work took a community centred approach and built on existing local assets. The two examples also highlighted examples of good cross sector collaboration. The Den was a joint project between Salford community leisure (SCL) and Salford Youth Alliance, while the work in Eccles was a joint piece of work with the place team, public health and a PCN.
One of Salford place teams biggest success is the Salford Physical Activity Alliance (SPAA). Originally a small group dedicated to place based working . The group has significantly grown, both in membership and influence – standing at over 100 members from multiple sectors. It now guides the implementation of place work, and also the implementation of the Moving in Salford framework.
Salford have also made great strides in their collaboration with PCN and GPs. Through targeted work in Eccles, the public health team have been able to raise the profile of physical activity in GP surgeries in PCNs. An initial relationship with a Sport & Exercise registrar, the place team were able to create opportunities for healthcare professionals to better engage with physical activity, and promote it for their patients. This includes offering CPD opportunities, including Active Practises and Physical Activity Clinical Champion training.
Through the place partnership influence physical activity is now embedded across multiple polices. One example of how the place partnership has influenced policy is the creation of the Salford Moving framework and action plan. This took key learnings from from early evaluations and helped shape the framework. This has resulted with place partner principles are interwoven throughout the framework.
The test and learn nature of the place partnerships also created a culture of ownership and leadership within the work. This resulted in the development of many individuals from the early days of the local pilot into more senior roles across the system. This has supported the spread of place partnership principles, and their advocacy has supported the rising profile of physical activity within the system.
Salford want to continue to build on their work from the last five years. Deepening aims are to continue to grow and embed the whole systems approach, while supercharging certain priority areas.
Salford will continue to raise the profile and importance of physical activity. This will be achieved by engaging and influencing key stakeholders in the target areas. A few sectors have already been identified a key drivers for forward plans. These include
Using the SPAA and other channels Salford hope to engage more strategic partners. Building a greater understanding of physical activity benefits, and how it can support other agendas. Once engaged Salford will provide training opportunities to increase capability and confidence across the workforce. An example of this in action is Salford’s collaboration with GM Moving and local PCNs. The team spent time building relationships and engaging with PCNs and GPs. The once engaged supported GPs to undertake PACC and Active Practice implementation.
In recent years Salford have invested into improving the local WWC and greenspace infrastructure. Using cross sector connections, the place team want to build awareness help activate these spaces. The team also want to engage local residents to understand the wider impact of these improvements. This engagement and subsequent learnings will help shape future WWC investment.
Another ambition is to support strategic efforts to embed wheeling, walking and cycling in the target areas. Having WWC viewed as central to any master planning in Salford is key to making this work sustainable. To ensure that long term Salford rescinded feel empower to WWC and increase Active Travel across the region.
The team want to see co-production, insight and engagement ingrained into standard practise across the city. This includes increasing opportunities for community to shape the development of new and improved facilities. An example of this in action is SCL’s accessibility audit. SCL employed Beyond Empower and residents with lived experience to co-designing the audit. This highlighted previously unknown barriers to accessing leisure and community centres. This new checklist is changing how SCL are approaching accessibility of their centres for disabled people.
We also want to raise awareness of the physical activity opportunities available in target areas. Building on the learning from the previous hyperlocal marketing campaign in Eccles. This includes residents co-producing marketing materials and the creation relatable case studies.
We take Safeguarding seriously Read our safeguarding policy