As this new report from our People's Procurement project explains, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) adopted its first Social Value Procurement policy in 2014, placing the city region at the leading edge of social value procurement.

Report from a Workshop with Early Career Researchers at University of Sheffield, 4-5 December 2018

--Tim May, Beth Perry and Charlotte Spring (with thanks to participants who gave their time).

What happens when practitioners and researchers who share an interest in co-producing with children and young people come together to reflect on practice, passions, and what might be done together?

To exemplify co-productive design principles means challenging the idea of an ‘end-user’ who receives a final report. It means rethinking what impact looks like and how it can be achieved. Our commitment is to engage decision-makers in a collaborative learning journey through informal spaces for exchange and international networking. Trans-local learning is an important element in opening up spaces for learning and dissemination often reserved for academics to urban decision-makers . Trans-localism is more than just cities learning from each other across national boundaries. It points to the need for meaningful interactions between networked individuals and groups of similarly thinking people beyond the local. What is at stake is a sense of belonging through shared perspectives and concerns that transcend local boundaries.

In this blog for our Trans-local Learning mini-series, guests David Rogerson and Nick Fairclough from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority reflect on their experience at the Mistra Urban Futures Annual Conference in Cape Town.

Deliberations about Greater Manchester’s Spatial Framework are entering a new phase under the guidance of Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett. Strategic urban planning might seem like a niche interest, but the use of space in and around the city region affects every citizen’s life.

What would it take for people to live a good life at home for as long as they choose?

This was the central question for The Care at Home Challenge, a citizens’ inquiry coordinated by Shared Future CIC on behalf of the Jam & Justice Action Research Collective.

‘Big Six' energy company price hikes, increasing numbers of people forced into energy poverty, market incumbents resisting change and the collapse of Carillion have all demonstrated the illusion of private sector efficiency and market primacy in the energy system – in fact the system is broken, unable to reform and in need a serious re-think!

Author Bertie Russell, 5th April 2018

A short report on the #CTRLshift2018 summit, held in Wigan on 27-29th March 2018.