Growing up with "Manchesterism"
In 1996 I started my local government career as a graduate trainee at Manchester Council. I was thrilled. Having moved to Manchester as a student, I had always been drawn to how forward thinking and diverse Manchester is as a place. Now I’d landed a fantastic job where I could play my small part in making Manchester an even better place to be.
“ I loved that Manchester’s response was to look after it’s own, to rebel, to reward creativity. And to be honest, that set the tone for my career at Manchester.”
Sir Richard Leese became Leader of the council the same year and two years later Sir Howard Bernstein became the Chief Executive. A partnership that endured until 2017. A partnership that created “Manchesterism”. A partnership that’s continued to evolve across a wider Greater Manchester footprint led by Andy Burnham and Sir Richard.
All the recent talk of “Manchesterism” has made me reflect on my 25 year career working in Manchester and what it meant to work within it. I grew up with “Manchesterism” so I know what it looks like in practice. My very first role at the council was working in the Compulsive Competitive Tendering team in the days when Thatcher was forcing councils to tender out public services. Our team existed to give in-house services the best possible chance of winning tenders whilst staying within the boundaries of the law. Our team leader, Bernard, was a highly intelligent man who talked about legal complexities and procurement regulations that I couldn’t pretend to understand but he led a team of trade unionists, HR and policy people to find ways to act in the best interests of Manchester. I loved that Manchester’s response was to look after it’s own, to rebel, to reward creativity. And to be honest, that set the tone for my career at Manchester.
There so many examples of times when I got to work on innovative stuff that no other councils were doing at the time. Like, working on funding bids for new facilities to host the Commonwealth Games; to moving on to contribute to the Leisure Strategy that was all about ensuring local people benefitted from the facilities and the Games; to working alongside childcare managers to support them to change from traditional nurseries to children and family centres before Surestart was a thing; to developing children’s trust arrangements and locating social workers within schools; to leading on the design of a council-wide innovation to enable staff to develop new skills and move into different roles in the context of big changes coming. A role by the way that began my journey to specialise in workforce transformation. I remember well, presenting the initial design with the Deputy Chief Executive to Members. They sent us on our way telling us we needed to be more innovative and to bring back something bolder. That felt so exciting and liberating.
“This is Manchester, we do things differently here”
The culture of the council was a massive enabler. “This is Manchester, we do things differently here” was pervasive. This gave us permission to be creative and motivation to find new ways of doing things. Finding innovative solutions to difficult problems was what we were there to do. But it was never just about place. Our Deputy Chief Executive’s whiteboard had a hand written question writ large on it – “What have you done for the people of Manchester today?” Whatever was happening for Manchester the place, also had Manchester the people at its heart. (I speak in the past tense because I left Manchester to go freelance 5 years ago so don’t feel qualified to comment on what it feels like to work there now. I can only imagine, seeing what I see coming out of the council in the place that I still live, that this culture continues to thrive).
“What have you done for the people of Manchester today?”
It seems like everyone is going mad for Manchesterism at the moment in the hope that Andy Burnham can make it happen nationally. Whilst I applaud this energetically, it’s important to know that Manchesterism isn’t a fad or a trend. It’s been a journey of courage, innovation, partnership and leadership spanning thirty years. It’s not a quick fix and if other places try to replicate it without the right leadership and culture, and without working out what’s right for their people and their place, it simply won’t work. People working in councils need to feel trusted, valued, encouraged and enabled to find new ways of doing things, to take risks, to experiment, to get things wrong sometimes and to move on taking the learning forward into something even better.
I was in Manchester City Centre just yesterday. The buzz, the energy, the diversity that I fell in love with all those years ago is not only still there but has grown exponentially. You can’t avoid seeing the impact Manchesterism continues to have, an impact that is now spreading across Greater Manchester. It’s not perfect of course, there’s always more to do but if Andy Burham can pull this off, the country will be in a better place.
