Agenda and minutes

In the absence of the Chair – Councillor Allan Macaskill, the Vice Chair – Councillor Robin Banks took the Chair and welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Robin welcomed Eileen Wilson, in particular, who had been appointed as Community Planning Manager with effect from 24 July 2006.

Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership 3 March 2006

The Minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2006 were accepted as an accurate record.

James McLellan gave an update on a number of items from the previous minutes.

Verbal Report by Andrew Campbell

Andrew Campbell provided a verbal update on the Management Committee meeting held on 28 June 2006 and details of all matters would be available in the minutes held on the Council’s website.

The main item of interest was the Youth Participation Conference which Andrew Campbell had attended.  He had given an assurance that it was important that young people’s views would be heard.  Anne Clark advised that the Health and Wellbeing Group in particular will be helping young people and despite the sparse area of Argyll and Bute there are good community links.  It was felt that this was mostly working well.

Brian Barker confirmed meetings of the Bute and Cowal Pilot would take place at the end of July to streamline more effective engagement and proposals would be considered on 4 August.

Report by Brian Barker

Brian Barker spoke to his report on Shared Vision – Leading Rural Areas, copies having previously been circulated.  The positives had been commented on but more detail was required on Best Value by the Accounts Commission.  The Management Committee had discussed the draft vision and comments had been incorporated into the circulated version as the basis for future work on a revised community plan.  The Community Planning Action Plan would be reviewed by the new Community Planning Manager.  The Council is currently debating actions against the draft Council Strategic Objectives detailed in Brian’s report and the Council will continue its process of using the vision as the basis of a revised Corporate Plan to be agreed in August.

·         Health and Wellbeing Group (Josephine Stojak)

·         Argyll and the Islands Economic Forum (Alan Milstead)

·         Dunbartonshire Economic Forum (Verbal Report – Aileen Edwards)

·         Sustaining and Developing our Communities, Culture and Environment (Donald MacVicar)

Health and Wellbeing

The Partnership noted the report on the activities of the Health and Wellbeing Group, copies of which had previously been circulated.  It was also noted that Elaine Garman had taken over from Josephine Stojak as Chair of the Theme Group.

Argyll and the Islands Local Economic Forum

The report on the activities of the Argyll and the Islands Local Economic Forum, copies having previously been circulated, was noted.  Having regard to activities involving population growth and maintenance mentioned in the report, James McLellan made reference to the recent completion of the Aqualibrium leisure development/conference facility in Campbeltown which was an encouraging illustration of partnership working towards regenerating the community.

Dunbartonshire Economic Forum

There was no update from Dunbartonshire Economic Forum

Sustaining and Developing our Communities, Culture and Environment Theme Group 3

The Partnership noted a report on the activities of the Sustaining and Developing our Communities, Culture and Environment Group, copies of which had previously been circulated.  It was noted that the Management Committee had agreed in principle to a proposal to change the existing name and role of the Group and that Donald MacVicar report back to the Committee in October when he, Brian Barker, Eileen Wilson and David Dowie had looked at this in detail.  The Partnership discussed the requirement when reviewing the focus of the Group to retain coverage over all priorities of the Group, not only focussing on Housing and Communities.

(detailed island accounts available on request to grace.leitch@argyll-bute.gov.uk)

The Partnership noted the summary report from the three islands of Colonsay, Coll and Jura, copies having previously been circulated.

Jim Johnstone, IBP Strategy and Research, provided a presentation on Accessing Services within Argyll and Bute and results of the 10^th Citizens’ Panel questionnaire, copies of the presentation to be circulated to the Partnership following the meeting.  This provided percentage figures for the key issues of Access to Services, Satisfaction with Public Services, Communication and Community Safety.  Jim explained the rating and scoring for each section.  Further explanation was sought by the Partnership on various topics and it was agreed that Jim would look further at analysis and comparisons and that a summary report would be circulated, when available.

Report for Period April 2003 - 2006

The Partnership noted the report for the period April 2003 – 2006 of the Argyll and Bute Choose Life Initiative presented by the Health and Wellbeing Theme Group 1, copies having previously been circulated.  The report would now be forwarded to the Scottish Executive.  James McLellan asked that measurement of figures of those affected by conditions mentioned in the report be provided to the Partnership.

Robin Banks welcomed Mike Firth and Craig Jackson of Scottish Water to their first meeting of the Partnership.

There had previously been circulated to the Partnership the Argyll and Bute Council report on the current situation with Scottish Water and development constraints within Argyll and Bute – concluding that in response to growing concern over water development constraints facing many areas of Argyll and Bute the Council had undertaken a number of actions to clarify information and seek solutions to overcome development constraints, resulting in good progress being made, with many areas having sufficient capacity to meet the realistic needs of the Finalised Local Plan.  There had also been previously circulated Programme Update on quality and standards III investment by Scottish Water and letter dated 4 July 206 from Initiative at the Edge calling for further and continued dialogue to raise the profile of the marginal communities.  There was also provided to the meeting letter dated 7 July 2006 from Argyll and Bute Councillor Ian Gillies expressing concerns on the lack of new connections, particularly on the islands of Coll and Tiree and underlining the fact that a lack of new connections was severely hindering any development in both of these fragile islands.

Mike Firth spoke on the programme update and confirmed that Scottish Water were refocusing priorities since the report issued in December.  Organisations were concerned at lack of their involvement in discussions and it was confirmed that issues should be raised through the Council’s Local Plan consultation procedure.  Following various questions and answers on issues arising from the above, and on request for action plan details, it was agreed that Scottish Water would provide a presentation to the Partnership at their next meeting to be held on 10 November 2006.

http://search.scotland.gov.uk/search/pages/search/basic.asp?QuerySubmit=true&Paging=true&Page=1&QueryText=Transform+Public+Services

The Partnership noted that the Scottish Executive website for accessing the consultation paper on Transforming Public Services can be found at

http://search.scotland.gov.uk/search/pages/search/basic.asp?QuerySubmit=true&Paging=true&Page=1&QueryText=Transform+Public+Services

The Chair of the Partnership had received an invitation from the Scottish Executive to one of their dialogue events for the next phase of public services reform, scheduled to run from July through to September at different locations across Scotland.  When specific dates and locations were obtained from the Scottish Executive, these would be forwarded to Andrew Campbell who, it was agreed, would attend.

There had previously been circulated update on Integrated Service Delivery and Governance Project 2^nd Round Workshop.  Brian Barker advised that there had been positive feedback from the Scottish Executive when the Council had indicated a preference for integrated services with the public sector and local organisations such as NHS Highland, SNH, AIE, Argyll College in discussions on working more closely.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/11102023/0

It was noted that the Scottish Executive website for accessing the consultation paper on Shared Services can be found at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/05/11102023/0.  The consultation paper sets out the Scottish Executive’s proposals for a national strategy for shared services covering all parts of the Scottish public sector.

Individual partners noted the Council progress report on the development of a Customer Contact Centre, copies having previously been circulated, and it was agreed that the Council would bring reports back periodically to the Partnership.  There was a need to have local consultation and it was noted that the Management Committee had agreed that Brian Barker contact Stephen Whiston, NHS, and Murdina Macdonald, AIE, to ask if they would be willing to represent the Partnership on the Project Board.  It was noted that discussions were ongoing regarding office accommodation.

http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/publications/pubs2006.htm

It was noted that Audit Scotland’s Report on Community Planning Partnerships, setting out the effectiveness of partnerships, could be viewed at

http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/publications/pubs2006.htm

NHS Scotland Resource Allocation

Brian Barker advised regarding NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee consultation on review of NHS funding and the criteria for distribution of funds to Health Boards.  Concern was expressed that Argyll and Bute could be disadvantaged by use of certain criteria, for example, road mileage per head of population and it was felt we might wish to challenge proposals so that there would be more benefit for Argyll and Bute.  Partners were invited to respond either to the Council or direct to the NHS website www.nrac.scot.nhs.uk.  The closing date for responses is 29 September 2006.