Member Insights
Here you will find resources from our membership base: case studies, reports, policy insights and examples of good practice. We hope you find them useful.
If you have a resource you would like to share with the network, please contact us.
UBI Lab Manchester: Tackling Homelessness with Unconditional Cash Transfers.
UBI Lab Manchester: Tackling Homelessness with Unconditional Cash Transfers. A discussion on how giving unconditional cash to people who are homeless is helping them turn their own lives around. Is this an approach that could work in Greater Manchester, and in the many other places across the UK where homelessness is entrenched?
Free school meals in the North West
Free school meals ensure children get a good meal every day, can make the most of their education and face less stigma. They also help with family finances. In the North West, there are 100,000 children in poverty who do not qualify for free school meals. Read a new report on free school meals in the North West, produced by GMPA in collaboration with CPAG:
Womens safety: austerity and intersecting crises in Manchester
‘Women's Safety. Austerity and Intersecting Crisis in Manchester’ report produced by Isis Barei-Guyot, with Eliazbeth Ackerley and Alsion Biggs (the University of Manchester), outlines key challenges facing the individuals and services working to support safety of women who are experiencing homelessness in the context of austerity and intersecting crisis in the UK. Click below to read the report:
Financial crises damage people’s mental health – our global review shows who is worst affected
Financial crises are periods characterised by devastating losses of income, work, a certain future, and a stable family life. The effect on mental health can be catastrophic. But not everyone is affected equally. Read this Conversation publication by Ben Gibson (De Montfort University), Jekaterina Schneider (University of the West of England) and Mark Forshaw (Edge Hill University) to learn more about how financial crises damage people’s mental health:
On the Cliff Edge: Crisis Support 2022/23
‘On the Cliff Edge: Crisis Support 2022/23’ written by David Bond and Claire Donovan (End Furniture Poverty) looks at local authority spending on local welfare schemes and examines how they have spent their allocation of the Household Support Fund, (HSF). The report shows that 37 English local authorities have now closed their local welfare scheme, while 62% of all local welfare spending came from the Household Support Fund – which is only set to run until March 2024:
A Report into current Anti-Poverty Strategies and Work in Greater Manchester
A Report into Current Anti-poverty Strategies and Work in Greater Manchester by Shannon Jones (the University of Manchester) reviews anti-poverty strategies and work being done to support people who are struggling financially and socially following the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing ‘cost-of-living crisis'. It does so with a specific focus on Greater Manchester:
The cost of education in Halton August 2023: School uniform report
‘The Cost of Education Report’ produced by Citizens Advice Halton explores the cost of uniforms and identifies marked differences in the costs of compulsory school uniforms. It argues that more can be done to reduce the costs for families. Alternatives to branded items directly from suppliers can significantly reduce the costs which can have a crucial, positive impact on families' budgets:
Running on Empty: Austerity, Rising Costs of Living and Growing Inequality for People and Charitable Organisations in Northern England
The ‘Running on Empty’ report by by Allison Briggs and Sarah Marie Hall (University of Manchester) reveals how people and charitable organisations in the UK are ‘running on empty’ as they face the relentlessness of poverty, austerity, and the rising costs of living. Read more:
International Innovations in Childcare: What can Manchester share and learn?
This report discusses the issue of childcare provision in three distinct Metropolitan regions of Europe: Greater Manchester, UK; Cagliari, Sardinia and Barcelona, Spain. It outlines some of the issues surrounding the current childcare infrastructure in theUK, namely affordability and accessibility: