Mayoral Election Special: Tackling poverty through social value
Ahead of Manchester’s Mayoral Election, tomorrow, Greater Manchester Poverty Action has asked stakeholders across the city region to set out what they think the newly elected mayor needs to prioritise to drive down poverty. Matthew Jackson is Chair of Greater Manchester Social Value Network (GMSVN) and Deputy Chief Executive of CLES; here’s what he had to say…
Greater Manchester attracts and already has a significant amount of wealth which does not always reach the right places – social value* is a means through which the benefits of this wealth can be reallocated and realised for all.
The Greater Manchester Social Value Network (GMSVN) seeks to ensure that social value is at the forefront of everything that public, commercial and social sector organisations do in Greater Manchester. This includes in their strategies, their spending, their recruitment practices, their delivery of projects, and in their relationship with Greater Manchester as a place and its residents.
*Social value considers more than just the financial transaction and includes: happiness; wellbeing; health; inclusion; empowerment; poverty; environment.
GMSVN’s members, including local authorities, housing organisations, and voluntary and community sector organisations, would expect the GM Mayor to also adopt such principles to ensure that social value is at the heart of their approach.
Specifically, GMSVN would expect…
- social value to be a common thread in all Greater Manchester Strategy and inform all Mayoral objectives moving forward;
- social value in Greater Manchester to be measured in a proportionate and relevant way;
- social value to be embedded in the Mayor’s own office through a specific policy role, and;
- social value to be a key component of and consequence of development schemes
Moving forward, GMSVN can assist in realising this and support the GM Mayor through continuing to collect information and evidence of social value; support organisations to deliver social value; and influence behaviour of key organisations around their approach to social value. All of this would redirect Greater Manchester’s wealth to where it’s needed.
