Place Partnerships

The Mission

Our mission is to enable active lives for all by reducing inactivity and health inequalities. Through a place-based, collaborative approach that brings together people, communities, and organisations to create sustainable solutions to inactivity. By supporting people and building on the unique strengths of each place, we aim to break down barriers and create opportunities for everyone to live healthy, active lives. 

Why it matters 

We know that place matters. Where we are born, live, work and play profoundly shapes our opportunities to live healthy, active lives.  Nearly 1 in 3 (28%) of Greater Manchester residents are active for less than 30 minutes a week, missing out of a range of benefits to their physical and mental health. There are stark and stubborn inequalities in activity data too with an 11-percentage point difference in inactivity rates between our most active borough (24% inactive) and least active borough (35% inactive), in the latest Sport England data. Our place-based, collaborative approach addresses the deep-rooted inequalities and systemic barriers that determine who can move, be active, and thrive so everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy, active life. 

Who is involved?  

We know that inactivity is a complex challenge that requires collaboration, no single person or organisation can do it alone. That’s why each of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs has a 'place partnership' a network of local residents, community organisations and key partners who share a common passion: creating healthier, happier and fairer communities. They recognise that physical activity, sport and movement plays a vital role in achieving this, even if they aren’t directly involved in delivering sports or physical activity. By bringing together their diverse range of knowledge, skills and resources, they break down barriers to activity and help more people lead active, healthy lives.  

Click below to learn more about each boroughs place partnership approach. 

Why take a place-based approach to inactivity? 

Across Greater Manchester, our communities told us that that they didn't want to be "done to" but, wanted to share their local knowledge and work together to create solutions that built on the strengths of their communities. 

We often saw that short-term, top-down, interventions  didn't work or only engaged those that were already likely to be active. By focusing on the deficits of a place, we overlooked community strengths, damaging relationships and failing to address the root causes and barriers of inactivity. When these programs ended, the same barriers remained, and communities were left frustrated when little had changed. 

We also noticed that when these interventions did work, we would try to copy successful projects from one place to another. We assumed that if something worked in one community, it would work everywhere. But this failed to acknowledge that every community is different and reflect on the what the unique conditions, or strengths, that made it successful in the first place. When this approach didn't work, we would dismiss the idea instead of reflecting on why it had not worked and what we could do differently next time. 

It became clear that we needed to try something different. 

What makes us different 

Our approach is underpinned by a set of guiding principles that were co-designed by our place partnership teams across Greater Manchester. These principles guide our approach and support meaningful, sustainable change and community-led solutions. We know that how we make things happen, is as important as what we do. 

We know that strong relationships are key to tackling inactivity and inequalities, not just within each borough, but across Greater Manchester and the wider region. By prioritising collaboration and collective action, we can align efforts across sectors to break down barriers, close health gaps, and create opportunities for everyone to live an active, healthy life. 

Our journey so far 

As part of Sport England’s Place Partnership approach (formally local delivery pilots) since 2019 work we have demonstrated how collaboration, prioritising relationships, and community-led solutions can sustainably tackle inactivity and support the wider system in helping our communities live healthy and active lives. 

The place partnership work in Greater Manchester has had a transformative impact, driving significant change both locally and regionally. Our efforts have contributed to a faster than national average decline in inactivity, with the gap between Greater Manchester and national levels narrowing in the past 12 months. Data from Active Lives shows that Greater Manchester has seen a reduction of -3.1%, compared to a national decrease of just -1.2%. While we cannot definitively link these changes to our actions, the trends indicate that our approach is likely playing a key role in driving positive outcomes across the region. 

When reflecting on our work to date we can break down our progress at a regional level into 3 phases.  

Phase 1 (2017-19): Laying the foundations 

We worked closely alongside our localities to shape what place-based working should look like in Greater Manchester. This included developing the ‘place partnership principles’ which underpinned each boroughs approach when creating their own place-based plans and identify the communities they would work with.  This period focused on building relationships, in our communities and regionally, and creating a culture of ‘testing and learning’ where we gave ourselves permission to work in new ways, try new things and where failure was seen as an opportunity to grow.  

Phase 2 (2020-22) Strengthening Connections 

This phase was heavily influenced by the Covid-19 response and the Building Back Fairer agenda, focusing on deepening relationships and expanding partnerships. Key milestones during this period included framing the language and messaging around physical activity, sport and movement, alongside the development of the five enablers of change. These enablers of change helped us to understand the conditions required to support a population scale increase in physical activity, place-based work and a whole systems approach. The enablers helped also helped us to understand our impact and influences regional strategies like GM Moving in Action (2021-31).   

To read more about the 5 enablers of change please click here.

Phase 3 (2022-25): Understanding our impact. 

During this phase we refined our understanding of how change happens by developing and evolving Greater Manchester’s Theory of Change. This has helped us reflect on our influence, consolidate learning, and strengthen the direction for the next phase of our work. As part of this, we collectively refreshed our principles to better reflect our growing maturity in understanding place-based work.  

We also supported the national Place Partnership expansion effort, sharing our journey and the value of place-based approaches nationally. This period also marked the beginning of planning how we could extend our place partnership approach into new communities across Greater Manchester, expanding our reach and impact. 

For more information please watch our video summarising GM’s journey so far, visit our locality webpages, or read our process evaluation reports here.

Looking ahead to Phase 4, which will take us from 2025 to 2028, we are focused on deepening our impact, strengthening our partnerships, and supporting others in their place-based journeys.

Get involved 

Whether you’re a community member, organisation, or leader, there’s a role for you in enabling active lives for all. Learn more about our partnerships, projects, and how you can collaborate with us to tackle inequalities and create healthier communities. 

• Learn more about our approach and how we support our localities through four catalysts functions; Evaluation, People and Leadership, engagement and marketing (see below)

• Learn more about the place partnership work in your area through the Greater Manchester Map

• Contact us