Manchester City Council are seeking input from partners and stakeholders to help shape the discovery phase of an Information and Navigation Tool project. The aim of this work is to explore how trusted information about local support and services could be made easier to find, helping staff and volunteers to have better conversations with residents and connect people to the right support at the right time.
Manchester City Council are particularly keen to hear from frontline staff including care navigators and peer support, and volunteers. If you regularly support residents to access services, advice or community support, complete the form here and share your experiences by 11th September 2026.
Your feedback will play an important role in shaping this work.
Further background information is provided below.
You said...
- It can be difficult to find the right advice and support for residents. Information is often spread across different places, services do not always work closely together, and people are not always aware of what help is available to them.
- You told us that staff and community organisations need easy access to trusted information so they can help people find the right support, make connections between services, and reduce the need for people to repeat their story.
Together we will...
- Explore and co-design an AI-powered navigation tool that helps people helping staff and volunteers find trusted information about local support and services more easily.
- The aim is to make trusted information easier to find, improve awareness of local support, and help staff and volunteers have those good conversations and connect people to the right support at the right time.
Part of a bigger picture
This project forms part of wider work to improve how information about support and services is shared across Manchester. We're exploring opportunities to make trusted information easier to find, maintain and use, and to test whether tools such as AI could help staff and volunteers who help people navigate available support more easily.
What this could help with
- Find hyper local / community-specific support, services and activities more quickly.
- Access up-to-date information from trusted local sources in one place, presented in plain English.
- Help you understand who a service is for and how to access it.
- Give staff and volunteers the right level of information they need to confidently connect people to the right support.
What it would not do
- Replace professional judgement, local knowledge or relationships.
- Decide what support is right for someone.
- Remove the need to check information where appropriate.
- Replace conversations with residents, services or community groups.
- Work well unless it is shaped and tested with the people who will use it
Please note: this project is still at the discovery stage. Manchester City Council have not designed a solution yet and will be working with stakeholders to shape any future tool.
If you have any queries Roberta Garsia at roberta.garsia@manchester.gov.uk and Nese Law at nese.law@manchester.gov.uk