{"id":161998,"date":"2025-06-06T04:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T04:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161998\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T04:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T04:18:16","slug":"the-plan-to-end-greater-manchesters-dwp-computer-says-no-tick-box-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161998\/","title":{"rendered":"The plan to end Greater Manchester’s DWP ‘computer says no tick box system’"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘There\u2019s a lot of time and effort wasted’Andy Burnham with the ‘owl of destiny’ in Little Hulton – the destiny of his own Live Well dreams lies with someone else (Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

As a bright yellow electric bus glided down Firs Way in Sale<\/a> this morning, one onlooker looked shocked.<\/p>\n

He did a double-take as an ordinary Bee Network bus contained an extraordinary manifest of passengers.<\/p>\n

They included mayor Andy Burnham<\/a>; Paralympic hero and Greater Manchester active travel commissioner Dame Sarah Storey; the chief executive of the Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester, Caroline Simpson; and the boss of NHS<\/a> Greater Manchester, Mark Fisher.<\/p>\n

The who\u2019s who of Greater Manchester\u2019s leadership had assembled on the bus to visit the Sale West Community Centre as part of a wider tour which went on to Salford<\/a>, Bolton<\/a>, and Wigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Manchester Evening News exclusively joined proceedings on Thursday (June 5), which began in MediaCity with Mr Burnham joking he would \u2018do my Shaun Ryder impression\u2019 when they reached the Happy Mondays\u2019 birthplace of Little Hulton.<\/p>\n

The mayor welcomes attendees on the tour on the bus from MediaCity(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Before the mayor could go Madchester, though, the Bee Network bus sped along the M60<\/a> and pulled into the Sale West Community Centre past some gobsmacked onlookers.<\/p>\n

The tour was arranged to build support for the mayor\u2019s Live Well initiative, which aims to provide better support for job seekers so they don\u2019t fall through the gaps.<\/p>\n

He has campaigned government ministers to devolve the employment support budget to Greater Manchester so it can fund community centres to provide more holistic help for job seekers.<\/p>\n

The idea is to one day have \u2018Live Well Centres\u2019 replace JobCentres, and be a place where someone can get advice on finding work, have a health check, learn about their housing options, and connect with others.<\/p>\n

Sale West Community Centre volunteers show Mr Burnham around(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the evidence we have is if you take a bottom-up approach working through organisations people trust, it’s better than the top-down computer says no tick box system,\u201d Mr Burnham explained.<\/p>\n

The idea of Live Well is \u2018happening anyway\u2019 because \u2018over the last 15 years, a voluntary welfare state has grown up\u2019, he added, before warning: \u201cWhat we hear from organisations like this one in Little Hulton or in Sale West is we won’t be able to just carry, don’t just assume we can always be here, and don’t take us for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process to build Live Well has already begun, with a \u00a310m DWP \u2018economic activity trailblazer\u2019 helping kick-start the programme along with another \u00a310m from the mayor\u2019s office and NHS. But more cash is needed, and community organisations say they desperately need \u2018core funding\u2019 which they can spend freely, not project-specific funding.<\/p>\n

The CommUNITY Little Hulton pavilion(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cCore funding gives you the freedom to run something and invest,\u201d said fellow bus tour passenger Clare Standish, who runs the Sale West Community Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you set up a project and when it\u2019s not brand new then you can\u2019t get funding for it. Everyone wants a shiny new project to throw their money at. The organisations need some stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to seek funding for a project needed by everyone. I\u2019m trying to spend time seeking it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of time and effort wasted. It would be amazing to have someone say I\u2019m going to fund you for five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s lots of enthusiasm for Live Well, with applause following the mayor \u2014 even when he took questions from a cardboard \u2018owl of destiny\u2019 at CommUNITY Little Hulton \u2014 its long-term future is not in anyone from Greater Manchester\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

That lies with Rachel Reeves, who is reviewing Mr Burnham\u2019s request \u2018for greater devolution of employment support funding\u2019 as part of the government\u2019s comprehensive spending review, to be finalised next week.<\/p>\n

The mayor is \u2018confident we’ve made our argument really clearly\u2019, but accepted \u2018it was hard for me to say\u2019 what Live Well\u2019s prospects are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re all waiting for the outcome of the spending review,\u201d he summarised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘There\u2019s a lot of time and effort wasted’Andy Burnham with the ‘owl of destiny’ in Little Hulton –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[8916,748,1267,393,4884,11564,2465,285,2619,1290,1289,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-161998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dwp","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-greater-manchester-combined-authority","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-sale","17":"tag-salford","18":"tag-trafford","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114634497058492935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}