Since 2018 Bury 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.
The importance of relationship building for place-based working was a key learning for Bury. By building stronger relationships the team were able to increase collaboration among stakeholders and build community trust. One relationship that was identified as key to place work success was with Bury VCFA and the wider VCSE sector. Through open and honest conversations, a number of barriers were identified between stakeholders. The place work with its test and learn principles, and community focus provided an opportunity to reset and rebuild.
Building trust and relationships with communities was also vital to the work. In partnership with Bury VCFA, open conversations were held with residents in Radcliffe. These conversations were flexible and focused on what people liked about living in their area. The discussions were positive and helped identify a neighbourhoods’ strengths. They also helped identify community champions who were passionate about where they lived. The knowledge gained from these conversations shaped the work moving forward. It also meant that the local pilot officer was invited into a new collective that was created “Radcliffe Growing Together”. This group included local residents, business and groups, and has helped shape the work in Radcliffe to help get people moving more. This led to a community member joining the local pilot steering group. This group helped influence and make decisions on resource to support initiatives across the borough.
The place work in Bury has also had huge successes in influencing policy and transforming processes. The place partnership principles are reflected in the Let’s do it and Let’s Keep Bury Moving Framework. These strategies take a holistic view of services and places the community at the centre of decision making. The strategy was shaped by conversations with over 2000 residents and 100 partnership groups. To support this strategy, the Live Well service was restructured, including the creation of neighbourhood teams, built around primary care networks (PCNs). To help support staff adapt to the restructure and new ways of working training was provided. This included building confidence of staff bring physical activity into wider conversations, and including movement as apart of all assessments.
Bury are building on their progress, and have identified several areas as key for deepening this work.
Building on the wellness work, Bury want to provide a core universal offer and targeted offer for CYP. Collaboration across sectors and community engagement will be key to achieving these goals. In the short term the Neighbourhood teams, and VCSE sector will be core to community engagement delivery. However, it is hoped in the long-term community co-design of all local health interventions will become the norm.
Through the wider community engagement, and community upskilling the place team are hoping to build greater community health and resilience.
To ensure any new work is relevant and sustainable we know that youth voice need to be better captured. While this may be happening already in some areas of work, Bury recognises systems need to be put in place for youth voice to captured more routinely. To highlight its importance and the impact current good practice need to share, along with upskilling staff.
Creating safe spaces to play and move more is another strand of the work. Bury wants to build on encouraging all the schools in Bury to become an ‘Active School’ which holds varying levels of support and initiatives to achieve the ‘Let’s Get Bury Moving Active School Award Active Schools in Bury. When schools achieve the award, it demonstrates how a whole systems approach in a school can impact physical activity levels. Beyond schools the place work would also like to explore green spaces, to ensure they feel like safe and welcoming spaces for families and CYP.
A number of key partners have already been identified as areas the place team would like to strengthen their relationships. Examples of these partners include VCSE, Public Health, Youth Service, housing, and NHS.
By improving cross sector relationships Bury are hoping to use their influence to see physical activity included across more agendas and policies. Physical literacy is one potential tool that could help sectors recognise their role in supporting communities to be more active.
This collaboration and closer working are also thought to help identify and relieve pressure in certain parts of the system. For example, by building a better understanding and closer working relationships between VCSE and PCNs. We might help provide a more joined up services and relieve pressure on GPs.
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