In the last year, across the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, our six local Citizens Advice services supported over 90,000 people with half a million problems.
Because we support so many people, we have a unique view of the problems people are facing right now across Greater Manchester- from housing instability and debt cycles to the headache of navigating complex systems.
By working together across local authority areas, we can compare what we’re seeing on the ground and connect the dots between boroughs. This helps us spot the common threads of hardship affecting the whole region- allowing us to use that collective insight to speak up for people right where it counts.
Six Services, One Voice
Because of Greater Manchester’s devolution, many of the decisions that affect the people we support happen at a regional level.
To ensure we are contributing effectively to these conversations, our six local services — covering all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester — have joined forces, aligning our policy and research work to provide a regional perspective.
By pooling our data and what we’re learning on the ground, we’ve created a collective ‘GM Voice.’
This collaboration has moved us beyond solving individual problems in isolation; it allows us to take local evidence and place it directly into the hands of those designing regional strategy. Our goal is simple: to ensure the lived experience of residents in our boroughs is at the heart of the decision-making process.
Supporting Regional Decision-Making
Working together in this way has established us as a dedicated strategic partner for Greater Manchester. We don’t just flag issues; we provide the intelligence needed to help regional leaders identify where policy can have the greatest impact.
By focusing our collective energy on the clearest opportunities for improvement, we aim to be a trusted resource for the region. We believe that while our local roots give us our insight, we are at our most impactful when we work as one to inform the solutions Greater Manchester needs.
Greater Manchester Citizens Advice services at the Resolve Poverty Conference in Manchester, In March this year.
Shaping a better Greater Manchester together
We are more than an advice service; we are a window into the reality of life across the ten boroughs. We are always keen to discuss how our regional insights can help make policy design in Greater Manchester as effective as possible.
To learn more about our current priorities and our latest research across the region, click here, or reach out to hayley.wright@casort.org.
This article was originally published by Hayley Wright of Citizens Advice SORT and is republished here with permission.