FOI 2025/1393

This request concerns your organisation’s policies, initiatives and actions as an “anchor institution” – that is, as a large, place-based organisation that uses its employment, procurement, estate, and other levers to support local economic, social, and environmental wellbeing.
Please provide the following information for the last three financial years (or the most recent available period):
1. Anchor Strategy / Policy
Copies of any published or internal strategies, policies, plans, or board papers that define your organisation’s role as an anchor institution or set objectives for anchor-related activity.
The date of approval or adoption of such strategy/policy.
2. Dedicated Teams / Leadership
Details of any dedicated teams, departments, posts, or named roles (by job title only, not personal names) with responsibility for anchor-institution or community-wealth-building work.
Copies of any role descriptions or Terms of Reference for anchor-related working groups or steering committees.
3. Procurement and Local Supply Chain
Any KPIs, targets, or reports showing spend with local suppliers (e.g., within your local authority area or region), or with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), social enterprises, or voluntary-community sector organisations.
Any frameworks or procurement policies designed to strengthen local supply chains or inclusive procurement.
4. Employment and Workforce
KPIs, targets, or reports relating to local recruitment, apprenticeships, entry-level employment or career-pathway programmes aimed at residents in your local area.
Any policies or initiatives to address equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment from local communities.
5. Estates and Capital Investment
Any programmes or policies to use your estates, land, or capital projects to promote local economic development (e.g., local supplier targets in construction, use of local land for community benefit).
6. Partnership Working
Details of your participation in any local or regional anchor networks (e.g., Birmingham Anchor Network, London Anchor Institutions’ Network, Leeds Anchor Network, etc.).
Copies of Memoranda of Understanding, Terms of Reference, or equivalent documents for these partnerships.
7. Monitoring and Reporting
Copies of any recent reports, dashboards, board updates, or evaluations that measure the impact of your anchor-related activity.
8. Budget and Resourcing
Budget allocations or recorded expenditure specifically earmarked for anchor-related activity (if separately identified in accounts or reports).

1. The Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership Strategy 2023-2028 sets out how we will work together to improve the health of the people of the city-region. It is structured under 6 missions which are our priority actions. Mission 2: Helping People Get into, and stay in, good work refers to developing social value through a network of anchor institutions.

Read the full ICP Strategy here

Dated January 2023.

The Joint Forward Plan describes how we will realise the aims of the ICP Strategy over the next five years, including the commitment of developing GM as an anchor system.

Read the Joint Forward Plan here

Creating healthy spaces by working with anchor institutions is a key principle of our Fairer Health For All framework that brings everyone together to tackle health inequalities in our communities, workplaces and health and care settings. The Framework aims to;

• Join up action at community, locality and regional level through a set of shared principles, enablers, tools, resources and themed priority areas.
• Connecting leaders and champions that to grow a movement for change
• Sharing learning about what works to create more opportunities for people to lead healthy lives in our city region
• Our response as a Health and care system across Greater Manchester to the Marmot and Independent Inequality Commission reports
• A call to action to embed prevention, equality and sustainability into everything we do

Read the full Fairer Health for All framework here

Dated January 2024.

The NHS GM procurement policy (dated 02.09.22) includes organisational responsibilities around social value and how it is to be considered throughout the procurement/commissioning and contract cycles.

Broader than the traditional definition of Anchor work but of possible relevance to your enquiry is our work to support community health and wellbeing – under our Live Well agenda. Live Well is our commitment across Greater Manchester to grow great everyday support in every neighbourhood and address inequalities. As part of its scope, it aims to support community wealth to be built, and there has been significant investment and partnership work relevant to these aims over the last 3 years.

Live Well was presented at the Integrated Care Partnership Board on 27^th September 2025, and the content for that can be found at: Greater Manchester Combined Authority

2. There are currently no dedicated teams, departments, posts or named roles directly employed within NHS GM with responsibilities for anchor-institution or community-wealth-building work. Responsibilities are covered by staff from across the organisation – working in areas such as population health, environmental sustainability, workforce, strategy, and estates. These roles are not dedicated to the anchor’s agenda.

For 2 years up to March 2025, a sub-contractor was engaged to provide expertise on and coordination of this agenda for between 2 and 3 days a week, but this arrangement has now ceased.

There are posts to support the Live Well agenda with a focus on including economic, social and environmental wellbeing, part funded by NHS GM but hosted by other organisations. These include:

• 30% of the VCSE Strategic Population health role, hosted by 10GM – a joint venture to support the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in Greater Manchester
• 50% funding for a Strategic Programme Lead for Live Well, employed through GMCA

Please note – There is an Anchors Network, but it is not a formally constituted group with a Terms of Reference

3. NHS GM does not produce specific reports showing spend with local suppliers. In commissioning goods and services NHS GM adheres to procurement legislation and NHS England requirements. The approach to procuring goods and services is outlined in the NHS GM Procurement policy which can be provided on request.
4. NHS Greater Manchester has maintained a strong focus on fair employment and inclusive workforce development across the city region.

Although a recruitment pause has been in place for much of the past year, recruitment activity continues in critical and hard-to-fill areas (such as Medicines Optimisation and Continuing Healthcare). During this period, we have prioritised improving the fairness, transparency, and inclusivity of all recruitment activity rather than volume of hires.

We are currently developing a wider Inclusive Recruitment Project to strengthen equity in both internal and external recruitment processes, ensuring that selection panels and interview approaches are consistent, diverse, and fair.

Across Greater Manchester, we have also supported targeted local recruitment initiatives, including community-based events held within localities. One recent campaign in central Manchester successfully filled approximately 16 of 25 vacancies, with 68% of appointments drawn from the Greater Manchester footprint.

NHS Greater Manchester is an active full member of the Good Employment Charter, with a member of staff on the board of the charter itself and continues to embed its principles within our employment practices. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve and to equipping all recruiting managers with the skills and confidence to recruit inclusively.

NHS Greater Manchester has led the way in building a coalition of new members to the Good Employment Charter across health and care. In the last two years 40,000 people working in health and care now work in an organisation which is a member of the Good Employment Charter (more than any other sector in Greater Manchester) which results in organisations paying the real living wage and meeting standards around flexible work, engagement and voice, recruitment and secure work to name but a few.

In addition, NHS Greater Manchester is playing a leading role in creating career pathways for young people through technical and apprenticeship routes:

• Our T Level programme has increased placement capacity across Greater Manchester by 10% in its first six months, creating 40 new placements across 14 new employers, including the region’s first midwifery T Level pathway.
• Over 2,200 young people have engaged with our Meet Your Future careers and technical pathways events.

Our current People and Culture Strategy sets out the values and intentions that underpin this work. A refresh of the strategy is planned to align with ongoing NHS reform activity and future workforce priorities.

We also work closely with partners in Population Health and Strategy on initiatives supporting community wealth building and inclusive access to employment across Greater Manchester.

Please refer to the NHS GM strategy – People & Culture Strategy

5. NHS Greater Manchester do not hold any estate assets or land and do not procure capital projects directly.  We therefore whilst this subject is important to us, we do not hold any programmes or policies in relation to this question.
6. NHS Confederation – attending and supporting anchors related learning and events – e.g. a previous Director of Population Health spoke at an event chaired by Michael Wood (Head of Health Economic Partnerships)

Health Anchors Learning Network events – Health Anchors Learning Network

GM Social Value Network Steering Group (GM SVN) news, events, information sharing on social value in Greater Manchester

7. Learning reports from Live Well Accelerator work:

August 2024

Greater Manchester Live Well – Goodlives GM

Plus community wealth building video: https://youtu.be/4mVuRLZ-AVg

We worked with UCL Partners to develop an anchors dashboard, but this work has not been published externally.

The NHS GM Intelligence Hub contains several dashboards related to anchors activity; however, access is restricted to NHS GM staff and stakeholders/partners.

8. 30% of the VCSE Strategic Population health role, hosted by 10GM: Averages £37,300 per year, over the last two years.

50% funding for Strategic Programme Lead for Live Well, employed through GMCA: £37,500 per year, over the last three years.

c.£80K per year in 2023/24 and 2024/25 for external sub-contractor support.