Blog: Reflections on the Greater Manchester VCFSE Accord Launch Event

The Accord, now in place until 2035, is our shared agreement for how the voluntary community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) and public sectors work together across Greater Manchester. It sets out our values, our commitments, and the areas where we want to see change - not as document to sit dustily on a shelf, but as a genuinely useful tool, a framework for sharing power, making decisions and holding ourselves and each other to account over the next nine years.

This launch was a chance to bring people together around this joint commitment. Colleagues joined us at the People’s History Museum in Manchester on Wednesday 8^th July from across the VCFSE sector, local authorities, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, NHS Greater Manchester, transport, research, fire and rescue and more. The room reflected exactly what the Accord is about: different organisations, roles and perspectives, with a shared interest in how we work better together for residents, communities, places and the environment.

It was also a moment to recognise the collective effort behind the renewed Accord and the decade of collaboration in GM. Over the past year, the agreement has been shaped through hundreds of consultation responses, workshops and conversations with countless VCFSE networks and public sector partners. Seeing all that slow, reflective, work finally move into a room full of people discussing what a new Accord means now in practice was brilliant to see.

The morning began by grounding us in the history of the Accord and the last decade of cross-sector collaboration in Greater Manchester and how far we have come already. We heard from Ian Rutherford about what has changed because of the Accord, and what has been possible because people and organisations chose to work together differently. The case studies that followed brought that to life – from equalities work and violence reduction to borough-level memorandums of understanding, mental health leadership and alternative providers of health services – showing how partnership working cuts through policy, service design and infrastructure spaces  into real-world impact for communities across Greater Manchester.

A recurring theme was that the Accord is not about one project or one programme. It is about the conditions that make better work possible: relationships, our (party) ‘HAAT’ values in practice (honesty, accountability, ambition, trust), and a willingness to keep showing up On tables, people were asked to reflect on what became possible because they worked collaboratively that would not have happened otherwise. The responses were a reminder that collaboration is often most powerful when it changes how people behave with each other, not just what gets delivered.

Eve Holt’s keynote gave us a helpful, poetic challenge for the next phase. One line that stayed with me was about the Accord no longer being on the edges, but in the design lines of the system - not in the margins, but in the mainstream. That feels like our real task ahead. The renewed Accord should not be treated as an additional process or add-on. It should be part of the way we design and deliver everything else – shaping how decisions are made, how communities are involved, and how we work together every day to achieve better outcomes.

In the afternoon, we held workshops focused on the three headline areas for change in the renewed Accord: 1. Involve and Devolve, 2. Resource and Enable, and 3. Recognise and Value.  These are deliberately practical areas of work, focused on long-standing questions around power, funding, decision-making, influence and recognising the VCFSE sector’s contribution.

We were also pleased to welcome NIHR Applied Research Collaborative Greater Manchester as a new Accord signatory.  Their commitment matters because research, evidence and community insight all have a role to play in improving health and care outcomes, tackling inequalities and ensuring decisions are shaped by people’s experiences in Greater Manchester. This was also a great opportunity to highlight how the Accord continues to grow as a partnership, bringing together a wider range of organisations and perspectives.

The closing panel brought the conversation back to the future. There was a clear message that the Accord needs to support culture change, not just formal partnership structures. People spoke about stronger relationships, clearer accountability, shared learning, better evidence of impact, and communities having more control. There was recognition this won’t all happen by accident – it will take time, trust, challenge, resourcing and repeated commitment to showing up in all of these ways. Crucially, it requires the willingness to have honest conversations about what is and is not working, and what we need to stop, change or do differently together, as a result.

A huge thank you goes to everyone who contributed to the launch event: speakers, workshop leads, panellists, performers, facilitators, colleagues behind the scenes, and everyone who came ready to reflect, take part and celebrate. From thoughtful discussions to actual dancing (!), the day reflected the energy, creativity and collaborative spirit that defines Greater Manchester’s VCFSE sector and underpins the Accord

The signing of the Accord marked the end of a year of development; the launch marked the beginning of the next phase: turning the commitments we have made into action and ensuring they are felt in the way people, organisations and systems work together every day.

There is still much to do, but the energy, honesty and intent in the room showed that we have a strong foundation to build from, and an expanding movement of people ready to make the Accord a reality.