MACC's work around health and wellbeing is primarily about sharing information and good ideas. Its main aim is to enable local people to have a say about public health issues.

But rather than expect everyone to come together at more meetings, we focus more on working with existing local groups to identify what the real issues are in their area. Local people are the ones who know what is actually going to make a difference in their neighbourhood. We do this in a number of ways:

• Contributing to local meetings
• Listening at local meetings
• Using feedback forms to gather people's views

Occasionally, we can, if there are a number of groups who would like to come together, organise a wider meeting around a particular issue, but the focus is on reflecting local diversity.

We have a number of places we can plug into to communicate with the people who plan and deliver services. The main way we can influence is within the Health Inequalities Partnership at which all the main agencies - the various City Council Departments, NHS organisations, etc. - come together to ensure there is a joined up approach to tackling the health issues in the city.

The Health and Wellbeing Network is part of the Community Network for Manchester.

Documents and Strategies:
Key documents and strategies relating to health and wellbeing issues can be found here.