Greater Manchester, Victim support, public funding
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.57 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the cities of Manchester and Salford. Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972.
Greater Manchester spans 496 square miles (1,285 km2). It is landlocked and borders Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lancashire (to the north) and Merseyside (to the west). There is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. It has a focussed central business district, formed by Manchester city centre and the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford. Victim Support is a charity in England and Wales which aims to help victims and witnesses of crime by raising awareness of their needs and by delivering dedicated services to them. It was established in 1974. It is a national charity with branches in every community and each criminal court in England and Wales. In 2004-2005 it offered help to around 1.3 million victims and almost 400,000 witnesses. Victim Support delivers three services. In the community Victim Support branches help people in the aftermath of crime by talking over how they are feeling and by providing practical help, such as applying for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. In the criminal courts Victim Support provides the Witness Service which offers emotional and practical support to all victims, defence and prosecution witnesses, and their family and friends. It also provides Victim Supportline (0845 30 30 900), which is a telephone helpline for victims, witnesses and family and friends. public funding can be best understood in the following example: Publicly funded health care is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most health care needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are set down in rules applying to the whole population contributing to the fund or receiving benefits from it. The fund may be a not-for-profit trust which pays out for health care according to common rules established by the members or by some other democratic form. In some countries the fund is controlled directly by the government or by an agency of the government for the benefit of the entire population. This distinguishes it from other forms of private medical insurance, the rights of access to which are subject to contractual obligations between an insurer (or his sponsor) and an insurance company which seeks to make a profit by managing the flow of funds between funders and pro