Area Focus - Because of the diversity in the city, different solutions are needed in different areas even though the problems may be common. Area focus identifies what problems or issues prevail in which parts of the city, looking at the causes, and devising locally appropriate solutions. Area focus enables service providers to direct resources where they are most needed and to maximum effect.
Agenda 2010 - sets out the city’s priorities for achieving racial equality by 2010. The strategy will improve services for Black and Minority Ethnic communities. In Manchester, Agenda 2010 is driven by the Agenda 2010 Steering Group and is part of the Manchester Partnership.
Area Co-ordination Team - The Area Co-ordination Team was established to support and assist the delivery and focus of public services to specific areas. The team supports Ward Co-ordination and other area focused structures and develops links between local service delivery and the thematic priorities of the Manchester Partnership as set out in the Manchester Community Strategy.
Capacity building - Shorthand for a wide range of support, techniques and initiatives which aim build the capacity of individuals or organisations within communities to contribute effectively to regeneration projects.
Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) - Statutory partnerships formed as a consequence of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which required the Police and local authorities and others to work together to tackle crime and disorder within a local authority area. www.crimereduction.gov.uk
Cross Cutting Themes - Issues that affect specific groups of residents are now embedded within the work of each of the seven thematic partnerships. A number of groups leading on these issues are formally linked to the Manchester Partnership. These are: Agenda 2010 (race equality); Community Engagement; The Manchester Compact (community focus); Valuing Older People and Community Legal Services Partnership (legal advice for residents). As these issues affect all thematic partnerships they are known as ‘cross-cutting’ issues.
Community Strategy - The plans which local authorities are now required to prepare for improving the economic, environmental and social well being of local areas and by which the councils are expected to co-ordinate the actions of the public, private voluntary and community organisations that operate locally.
Decent Home - A decent home is one that is wind and weather tight, warm and has modern facilities. It reflects what social landlords spend their money on. To set a national target a common definition of decent is needed so all social landlords can work towards the same goal. A decent home meets the following four criteria:
It meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing
It is in a reasonable state of repair
It has reasonably modern facilities and services
It provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort
Delivery Plan - A plan which sets out what a project or programme intends to achieve, when, where and at what cost.
Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) - Drug & Alcohol Action Teams bring together representatives of all the local agencies involved in tackling the misuse of drugs and alcohol, including health, local authority, police, probation, social services, education, youth services, and the voluntary sector. Drug & Alcohol Action Teams also work with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to help the police and communities tackle drug and alcohol problems and associated crime.
Economically Inactive - People of working age who are neither working, nor looking for work. Examples include those people looking after children, or people who are unable to work through ill health.
Floor targets - A floor target is a minimum standard of attainment, across a number of different themes, that affects neighbourhood renewal. Included are targets for health, crime and disorder reduction, employment, and education attainment. Floor targets are for local authorities that are in receipt of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund - money that is allocated to areas where there is a considerable gap in performance across these themes, as compared to the rest of the country.
The Greater Manchester Local Transport Plan - This is a statutory document prepared under the Transport Act 2000. It is a five year strategy for the management, maintenance, development and monitoring of the region’s transport system and is put together by the ten City and Metropolitan Borough Councils and Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA), with input from local stakeholders. It provides a basis for bids to Central Government for the resources needed to implement the strategy.
Gross Value Added (GVA) - This is a particularly powerful means for measuring productivity of sectors and economies in England. Manchester has the highest GVA outside London.
Local Area Agreements (LAA) - Government has piloted LAAs to nine selected local authorities. Submissions are being made by local authorities of which Manchester is one. LAAs will provide greater freedom for these authorities to explore local solutions to local problems. LAAs are structured around three key themes: children and young people; safer and stronger communities; and health and older people. Manchester's Local Area Agreement came into effect in April 2006.
Local Authority - the body responsible for the administration of local government with a city, borough, county or district.
Local Public Service Agreement – Agreements between individual local authorities and the Government setting out the authority’s commitment to deliver specific improvements in performance, and the Government’s commitment to reward these improvements. The agreement also records what the Government will do to help the authority achieve the improved performance.
Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) - Overarching partnerships of stakeholders including local people who come together to shape the future of their neighbourhood in how services are provided. The aim of LSPs is to improve the quality of life of residents.
Manchester Employment Plan - The first Employment Plan for Manchester was launched in April 2004. All the main partners involved in placing people in employment, skills and business support signed up to the framework that aims to help city residents to become ready for employment.
Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) - Provides public services and communities in the 88 poorest local authority districts with extra funds to tackle deprivation. www.neighbourhood.gov.uk
Outputs and outcomes - Outputs measure what was directly produced by a programme or intervention, such as additional training places or more houses. Outcomes measure the longer term changes such as less people living in poverty.
Performance Targets - A statement of something to be achieved where progress can be measured.
Performance Management Framework - Brings together a range of systems and activities to assist the Manchester Partnership to monitor and evaluate performance against priority outcomes for the city and its residents.
Places Project - The project was a government initiative that piloted work with Manchester, Nottingham and Southwark to explore the action needed to accelerate progress towards meeting floor targets, to identify local and national barriers and, where possible, to address them. It developed a new collaborative approach between central and regional government and Local Strategic Partnerships, focusing on the specific characteristics and issues within those places.
Public Service Agreements (PSA) - Deprivation will be tackled through the merging of main departmental programmes such as the police and health services, to focus more specifically on the most deprived areas. Departments now have minimum targets to meet, which means that, for the first time, they will be judged on the areas where they are doing worst, and not just on averages.
Quality of Life Indicator - Performance measures which are identified locally and designed to show performance against these measures. They are predictors of quality of life in a locality and are linked to community strategies.
Safe and Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF) - The SSCF unites several government funding streams which address common themes relating to crime and disorder, the quality of the local environment and empowering local communities to participate in local decision-making and influence and deliver services.
Service delivery outcomes - How well the service is being operated in order to achieve the strategic objectives.
Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) - The Single Regeneration Budget programme aims to enhance the employment prospects, education and skills of local people and to tackle the needs of communities in the most deprived areas.
Social Entrepreneurs - The equivalent of business entrepreneurs, but operating in the social, not-for profit sector. They aim to seek new and innovative solutions to social problems.
Strategic objectives - Why a service exists and what it seeks to achieve.
Strategic Health Plan - The Strategic Health Plan is a key part of Manchester's Community Strategy 2002-2012. It sets out how local agencies intend to work together for health improvement and to meet the Community Strategy's key challenge of tackling health inequalities. It provides a clear vision for the future health of Manchester, and outlines the steps required to work towards this vision. In doing this, it builds on the work which was undertaken to develop a Health Improvement and Modernisation Plan during 2001-02.
Strategic Regeneration Framework - Establishes a broad framework for the regeneration of neglected and deprived areas. Public and private sectors work together to implement total change to a specific area or neighbourhood in order to ensure that it is a desirable place in which to live and work.
Sustainable Neighbourhoods - Neighbourhoods in which people choose to live even when they have the economic means to move elsewhere. Sustainable neighbourhoods have a good supply of decent housing and a good range of public services including schools. They are places where residents feel safe and which are clean and attractive with a range of leisure activities available and effective transport links to connect residents to job and leisure activities.
Thematic Partnerships - The thematic partnerships are the strategic delivery mechanisms for the Manchester Partnership that bring together service providers from all sectors to plan what actions are needed to meet the partnership’s targets, and to deliver actions to reduce inequalities.
Valuing Older People (VOP) - The VOP initiative has a commitment to improving the quality of life for Manchester's older population. VOP is a partnership between Manchester City Council, the three Manchester Primary Care Trusts, community and voluntary organisations. The partners' aims are to work with older people and to improve services to them, and to increase their opportunities to participate in a whole range of activities.