Launched in July 2009, the Total Place initiative is an ambitious national pilot programme looking at how all public money is spent in a local area and how it can be used more efficiently to improve local services. It tries to take a ‘whole area’ approach to public services, and to identify and avoid overlap and duplication between organisations.
There are 13 pilot areas participating in the scheme across England, varying considerably in size and type, and with various different themes to focus on. In Manchester the area covered is that of the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester along with Warrington, and the theme is Early Years (0-5, including pre-birth).
Connected to the Total Place initiative is the City Region pilot. The Greater Manchester region was chosen in April 2009 as a pilot Statutory City Region. This is essentially a bid to attain new devolved status. The Manchester City Region pilot proposals centre on reforming public services, and there are ten different sub pilots. The Total Place pilot is one of these sub pilots. The Manchester City Region is effectively treating Total Place and the City Region pilot as part of one work programme.
CN4M have produced a briefing paper explaining a bit more about Total Place (and there should be another to come soon on the City Region) which I’ve uploaded to the documents page. I’ve also uploaded several other documents that will give you a bit more information on the pilot.
Both Total Place and the City Region pilots could have a significant impact on how public services are delivered in Manchester in the future so I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on them. And, the upcoming Sustainable Neighbourhoods Forum is going to be themed around one of the City Region sub pilots so there will be a chance to discuss this in more detail in May. The forum will take place in the Friends Meeting House, 6-8pm, 18th May. Hope to see you there!
Sustainable Neighbourhoods Action Group 