Iswe also worked together with Rochdale to discover ways of enabling people across the community to create and lead this local movement of “Good Help.” The key goal being to create systemic change from the bottom up. The desired outcomes were that residents could create change themselves, without the permission of the council or anyone else. They also set out to generate stories and evidence of how Rochdale as a place could be transformed, along with the lives of the people who live there.

Like hundreds of other places across the country, Covid-restrictions created new challenges in town centers affecting businesses, services, the council, and its wider systems. Together we helped to review prevention and complex needs services, and the local voluntary sector infrastructure. There was also a mapping exercise of safe, physical spaces in the neighborhood, for people with multiple disadvantages to disclose and access Good Help.

Local issue and place based projects were identified, where there was high potential for impact and a need for Good Help services.These included collaborative services helping single, shielding, older people through the Covid-19 winter, a specialist programme for families who have had multiple children removed, and youth employment hubs.

Rochdale are still integrating Good Help across their services, commissioning and workforce, and we shall be releasing our findings in a report due in early 2024.