Think-tank report praises Greater Manchester approach to improving people’s health

The King’s Fund has called Greater Manchester “the poster child for devolution” in England and praised the city-region’s efforts to improve residents’ health in a new report.

The Population health in Greater Manchester report highlights the link between health and communities, as well as the value in aligning strategies to ensure improvement of both the economic and health status of the population. It has shown how health is influenced by wider determinants such as high?quality and secure housing, a good job and a healthy environment.

Since 2015, Greater Manchester has had a wide-ranging devolution deal with Government on health which has led to improvements in life expectancy and other measures. Greater Manchester’s model was integral to the creation of statutory integrated care systems in 2022 with improving outcomes in population health and health care a key aim.

The report, published 17th October, also reiterates the importance of population health being a core goal of integrated care systems and the value in different government departments working more closely together. This approach underpins Greater Manchester’s ‘live well model’ that aims to transform the relationship between work and health.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester and NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership co-chair, said:

“Greater Manchester’s health devolution journey has a simple but fundamental principle at its heart: that more local decision-making can deliver better outcomes for people.

“This report from the King’s Fund sets out clearly the wider social factors that impact people’s health and wellbeing, but also the power of devolution to draw the connections between those issues and tackle them systematically.

“That is the strength of our devolved approach, and the mission of the new Live Well service that we want to pioneer here in our city-region. There are still challenges and pressures that we face. But we’ve made progress already, including on healthy life expectancy, and by bringing together partners and joining up the support offer for residents – whether that’s health and social prescribing, housing advice, or employment support – we can deliver better, more efficient public services, and improve people’s life chances.”

Jane Pilkington, Director of Population Health for NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care said:

“The King’s Fund spotlighting Greater Manchester as leading the way in population health is pivotal to re-emphasise the important role the NHS plays in improving the health and wellbeing of residents, by focusing on preventing ill-health in the first instance rather than just treating sickness, as well as relentlessly working to reduce health inequalities. 

“In Greater Manchester we need to continue to work together with communities and the voluntary sector, local government, and the NHS to help create a place where everyone can live a good life, growing up, getting on and growing old in a greener, fairer more prosperous city-region – focusing on improving both the health and economic circumstances of our residents.”