Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by Manchester City Council on 5 October 2022.

Councillors in Manchester have unanimously agreed to put young people who are in care and care-experienced people of all ages at the forefront of policies and decision-making in the city.

Their agreement gives formal recognition to ‘young people in care’ and ‘care experienced people’ as additional characteristics to be considered in all equality impact assessments carried out during the decision-making and policy-making process.

It means that all future decisions and policies made by the Council will now have to demonstrate that the needs of these two groups have been properly considered and thought through, along with any impact on them.

A Notice of Motion on the issue to today’s meeting of the full Council was agreed without exception by all councillors and is expected to have a real tangible impact both on young people in care, and adults of all ages who have been in care in the past.

Councillors also want to ensure that the impact on both groups is considered from the start when services are commissioned – in the same way as other protected and additional characteristics currently are – and to make extra effort to make sure that anyone who has care experience can access all of council services.

The Council has already taken several important steps over the last few years to support its cared-for children and care experienced young people better.  This includes measures designed to help and support young people as they leave care and move into accommodation of their own and start looking for employment.

As a result, all care-leavers in Manchester are exempt from Council Tax up to the age of 25, are considered as a Band 1 priority on the Council’s housing register, and receive specialist support if they’re facing homelessness – without the use of B&B accommodation. 

As part of its commitment to better supporting young care leavers, the council also brought its Leaving Care service back in-house and invested in a new home for the service, with ‘trainer’ flats for care-leavers to get them used to holding down a tenancy after leaving care, and additional emergency accommodation on site.

At the same time the Council has increased its use of ‘staying put’ so that young people can stay on with foster carers if they want to, and also invested alongside housing partners to provide move on accommodation for those young people who need independence.

In terms of support into employment young care leavers are already guaranteed first access to apprenticeships with the local authority, but councillors now want to make it even easier for people of all ages who are care-experienced to gain employment at the Council and to develop into senior roles – with guaranteed interview schemes, mentoring and support, and reasonable adjustments made to support them.

The city council’s decision to recognise children in care and people of all ages who are care experienced in this way comes off the back of an independent national review of children’s social care that recommended looking at making care experience an additional characteristic.

Manchester is one of the first local authorities in the country – and the first in Greater Manchester – to take on board the national review’s recommendation and is well-ahead of any national policy on this, with the Government yet to respond to the national review which was commissioned by them.

Today’s Motion to the Council was seconded by Councillor Garry Bridges, Executive Member for Early Years, Children, and Young People.  He said: “Young people in our care or who have left our care have the right to expect everything from a corporate parent that would be expected from any other responsible and good parent.  Good parents continue to support, care for, and be ambitious for their children after they leave home and become independent, and this is what we are determined to do.

“We’re already very clear that our involvement with young people doesn’t just end when on paper they become adults at 18, and we’ve had a solid package of measures in place for some time to support our care-leavers up to the age of 25.

“What we will now be doing however is taking this a step further, by extending our support to ensure that people of all ages who have had care experience in the past don’t find themselves discriminated against in their lives as a result of decisions and policies made by the Council – whether that’s in relation to where they live, their job, or other opportunities available to them.

“We’re fully committed to doing everything we can to help everyone who is care-experienced – whatever their age – towards independence, and to support them in building a happy, healthy, successful future for themselves.

“The proposals we’ve agreed today will help ensure they have all the tools they need to do just that.”

The press release issued by Manchester City Council on 7 October 2022.

The public and landlords are being asked their views on the proposals to expand Selective Licensing to eight new areas in five wards across the city.

There are already seven areas where Selective Licensing is in operation to help improve standards in the city’s large private rented sector to ensure the homes have a positive impact on an area.

The consultation around the new areas is now open and asks for feedback about schemes in the following areas:

• Cheetham – Esmond/Avondale – 87 PRS properties
• Cheetham: Heywood St/Cheetham Hill Rd – 251 PRS properties
• Cheetham: Flats Over Shops: Cheetham Hill Rd – 86 PRS properties
• Levenshulme: Matthews Lane – 170 PRS properties

• Longsight: The Royals – 74 PRS properties
• Moss Side & Whalley Range: Claremont Road / Great Western St – 346 PRS properties
• Rusholme: Birch Lane – 70 PRS properties
• Rusholme: Laindon/Dickenson – 38 PRS properties

The consultation is now open and residents are invited to take part. 

This consultation will close on 14 December.
If agreed, these designations could come into effect in spring 2023.

Selective Licensing allows Councils to introduce compulsory licences for all private rented properties in areas experiencing one or more of the following: significant and persistent problem caused by antisocial behaviour, poor property conditions, high levels of migration, high levels of deprivation, high levels of crime, low housing demand – or is likely to become such an area.

Councils are able to issue civil penalties of up to £30,000 or prosecute a landlord (with an unlimited fine) if they are not complying with the conditions of the licensing scheme. In extreme cases, Councils can also prevent the use of a property or assume control of a property.

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development, said:

“We are seeing the real positive impact of selective licensing in the previously designated areas and it’s satisfying that through our licensing schemes and subsequent investigative work our officers are uncovering serious issues that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. 

“We firmly believe that everyone living in Manchester deserves a decent home to live in and as our private rented sector grows, landlord licensing gives us a way of making sure that our residents can sleep easy knowing their property is safe.

“Of course, we know that the vast majority of landlords do manage their properties to a good standard – but for those that don’t, our message is that it’s unacceptable to take advantage of your tenants and we will do what we can to hold them to account. There is no place for rogue landlords in our city.”

Initial designation of Selective Licensing (2,279 PRS properties –

• Crumpsall – 13th March 2017 to 12th March 2022 (now closed)

• Moss Side – 8th Jan 2018 to 7th Jan 2023
• Moston – 23rd Apr 2018 to 22nd Apr 2023
• Old Moat – 23rd Apr 2018 to 22nd Apr 2023

Second designation of Selective Licensing (from Feb 2022)

• The Ladders – Gorton and Abbey Hey – 690 PRS properties
• Hyde Road – Gorton and Abbey Hey – 95 PRS properties
• Trinity – Harpurhey – 428 PRS properties
• Ben Street area – Clayton and Openshaw – 99 PRS properties

The press release issued by Manchester City Council on 10 October 2022.

A new vision to end homelessness in all its forms in Manchester was the focus of the Manchester Homelessness Partnership (MHP) today, 10 October, World Homelessness Day.

At a relaunch event, the Partnership reflected on the work of the last seven years and restated its ambition to ending homelessness in the light of the huge challenges facing people in the current economic climate, and the ongoing energy and cost-of-living crisis.

The MHP has brought together the public and private sectors, the voluntary and charity sectors, alongside people who have experienced homelessness, sharing knowledge and expertise to work together in a city approach and with one voice to ensure that homelessness is rare, brief and one-off.

The work of the Action groups each tackle a key challenge that people experiencing homelessness regularly face, such as access to mental health support, emergency accommodation, employment, and migration and destitution. Genuine progress has been made including; securing additional funding to support young people, developing services for women with complex needs, supporting ex-offenders, and improving prevention work across the partnership.

One of the overarching key successes of working together has been a reduction of 50% in the numbers of people sleeping rough on the streets. This was the most pressing issue facing the city when the MHP started, and the collaborative efforts of working together to design services, the ability to secure funding, share resources has seen major changes to the support provided to people to help deal with issues that led to them sleeping rough in the first instance and wrap around support to stay off the streets.

Looking to the future, the Partnership aims to reinvigorate members, bring new partners on board and to get new Action Groups off the ground to deal with a changing emphasis in the homelessness landscape.

Although people sleeping rough continues to be an issue, the rising numbers of families/people presenting as homeless and the increasing number of people in temporary accommodation is the overriding challenge for the MHP. Work to improve outcomes for people at risk of homelessness and to prevent it happening in the first instance, along with a reduction in the time in temporary accommodation and ending the routine use of Bed & Breakfast accommodation, with a focus on quality and more affordable accommodation, will be a key focus for the homeless partnership in the future.

Councillor Joanna Midgley Deputy Leader, Manchester City Council said:

“We know that Manchester is stronger together. Our one city approach under the umbrella of the MHP to tackling homelessness means that we have a real chance to make a marked difference to our residents at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives. We can achieve more together as we have shown through the successes of the Partnership. However, we know that we are in challenging times so now is the right time to refocus and breathe new life into the work that we are all passionate about and work towards our aim to end homelessness together.

“The work taking place across the Partnership is reflected in our transformation programme in the homelessness service where we are placing greater emphasis on prevention, and to cut the number of people in temporary accommodation while continuing to reduce the number of people sleeping rough.”

Paul Newcombe, Manchester Homelessness Partner and Chief Executive of the Booth Centre said:

“With the cost-of-living crisis there has never been a more crucial time for us to come together to redouble our efforts, in making homelessness a thing of the past in Manchester.

“Working in partnership with people who have experienced homelessness, the MHP has improved standards of temporary accommodation across the city, has helped preserve peoples’ dignity through specialist projects, and improved choice by recognising individual need. Though some great work has been done, there is more ahead of us and I am confident we can get there together.

“This relaunch event provides the ideal opportunity for all like-minded services and citizens of Manchester to work together on the next steps, focusing on prevention and wider system and structural problems whilst meeting the significant needs of those in crises.

“The strength of Manchester’s homeless partnership is its wide and varied membership and how each partner can contribute, the relaunch both recognises this and builds on it for the future.”

To help people sleeping rough this winter there are a range of homelessness charities and organisations that work across Manchester which request specific items, volunteers or donations to fund their vital work including Real Change MCR, one of the Action Groups, a fund which supports 20+ charities in Manchester who can access the fund to help get people sleeping rough the things they need and ongoing support to start a new life away from the streets – to donate or find out more: www.realchangemcr.co.uk

For anyone needing help and advice this winter go to www.manchester.gov.uk/helpinghands