Venue: Council Chambers, Kilmory, Lochgilphead. View directions
Contact: Samantha Somers 01546 604464
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Welcome and Apologies Minutes: John Paterson welcomed everyone
to the meeting. Paul Devlin has now retired and been replaced by Andy Watt. John
proposed Andy as the new Chair, this was seconded by Pippa. Andy looks forward
to chairing will take over from the June meeting. Apologies received are noted
above. John thanked Fergus and Morag for
taking on the joint lead for Outcomes 1 & 2, and thanks to Kirsteen for
becoming vice lead for these. |
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Minute of last meeting and action tracker Minutes: Comments on the last minutes were : Alison McGrory asked for
the wording on her action regarding volunteering directory to be amended as
shown below. John noted that the page 9, the contact assessment
model has now been rolled out across the division. This triage system covers
contact to the police by any means, not calling 999. Kirsteen asked for the wording to be checked
regarding page 4, Volunteering and the Labour market. The volunteer framework
will be covered at today’s meeting however this does not cover the labour
market. Action
- Samantha to look at last minutes and amend wording as appropriate. The following actions are marked as complete :
The following actions are still ongoing:
Updates on the actions were agreed by the
committee. |
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Community Planning National Improvement Board Please see https://www.improvementservice.org.uk/products-and-services/consultancy-and-support/community-planning-improvement-board for more information Minutes: Some
documents have been circulated and the board is looking to see good practice in
rural areas. They have been focusing on good practice since the legislation was
reviewed in 2015 under the Community Empowerment Act. The Scottish Government have indicated they want to
visit Argyll & Bute Council in the summer, Rona is awaiting further details
/ clarification on this and once received she will discuss this with the Chair before
distributing to the management committee. John advised that the Police are
increasing staff numbers involved with Community Planning, Marlene Baillie and Douglas
Wilson will be taking on the role of Local Area Policing Partners. He is keen
to see how partners can oversee and action priorities (especially relating to alcohol
intervention for under-18s, stress, mental health and underlying the issues of
these). Scottish Enterprise have been
sharing what we do in Argyll & Bute as best practice at the National Community Planning Improvement
Board.. Action
- Outcome leads to identify 1 or 2 key deliverables from their outcome that can
be delivered over 3 – 6 months. |
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Area Community Planning Group Highlights and Issues Raised Minutes: The Management Committee noted the highlights of
the report, provided by Patricia, as follows: MAKI ACPG requested support to enhance reliability of VC link equipment and meeting venue access.
Action is already being taken forward by Governance to assist and give support for
an alternative venue. Pippa will add her
support to take this forward. OLI ACPG have asked for support to take forward
some pilot work for the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership
(ADP) multi agency meeting. The committee felt it would be best to take this
forward under the existing structures of the ADP, that are already doing good
work in that area and that there was no need to create a further separate
group. There is a lot of local interest in this given recent media coverage and
Alison welcomed community conversations on this. John added that a Police
report showed drugs related crime in Oban was low in comparison to other areas.
The Management Committee support the work of the
ADP and encourages partners to feed in any evidence or views for the ADP to
take forward, also any partners that want to be
involved in the ADP can contact John Owens, Chair of the ADP. Kirsteen noted that there is public confusion of
the official structures for within Argyll & Bute, and no central source of
information of support on subject like ADP violence against women etc. Pippa
noted that there is already existing work to create a high level organogram of
these structures across the region. Individual areas can then create local
organograms – this will help overcome the challenges in capturing everything
that currently exists. Action
– The current review of the Community Planning and Development webpages to feed
into this process. H&L ACPG asked if the Management Committee can
assist in encouraging naval representatives from the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
to attend the H&L ACPG meetings. They also expressed concerns about
Arrochar car parking charges having a negative economic impact. Laura advised that the H&L ACPG have asked the
Community Liaison Commander to attend from the base, however they have not yet
attended any meetings (although they do attend Community Council meetings).
Pippa has a development partnership with the MoD, attended by Cdr Mark
Fitzsimmons. Fergus will attend the next partnership meeting and is happy to
raise it then to ask if the MoD can become more involved in the ACPGs. Pippa,
John and Brian have an Annual Liaison Meeting next week which the MoD attend
and they will also raise this then. Samantha asked if they can also explain the
difference between SDDF and ACPGs to the MoD representatives. Action
– MC members to raise / encourage MoD attendance at H&L ACPG at upcoming
meetings. Regarding Arrochar Parking charges, the council
decided to implement parking charges in Arrochar and noted there has been no detrimental impact in user numbers after the charges were introduced.
Pippa advised that the council budget has agreed to look at parking across the
area on a phased basis (based on business case, area by area). Samantha stated that the ACPGs have been generally
well attended. Area groups have been sharing on social media to encourage
people to attend and there is a really positive energy around this. John asked
how this can be turned around to feedback to the groups to show how their input
is delivering in their areas. Cameron asked about youth attendance at ACPGs.
There are normally 4 at H&L and attendance at B&C and OLI (although
noted not at the last meeting of these areas). Rona added there has been a comprehensively look at how to include youth members in community
partnership i.e. meeting timings, dates and the ACPGs were included in these
discussions. Youth workers in the council have also been engaged on this. Rona
happy to share this info with Cameron if it is helpful. Action
– Patricia to share all the area ACPG dates with Cameron so he can approach
members of area youth forums to attend. |
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Minutes: Alison welcomed this paper coming
to the management committee. The Forum has been in existence for some time in Argyll
& Bute Council and just over a year ago, was expanded to welcome other
partners. Work has been taken forward on Equalities Impact Assessments.
Membership is largely still the made up of the council so Alison reminded
partners that this is an underpinning theme in the community plan and encouraged
other partners to attend. The Equalities Statement in the HSCP is due to be
upgraded and Alison hoped the partners can work together to create a new joint
statement from A&BC and the HSCP. Rona added that it is worthwhile for
the partnership to be aware of the Equalities Forum. The minutes of this, and
highlights, will be standing item on future management committee meetings. Partners
are also welcome to become involved in the Equalities Forum if they wish. John said it is worthwhile
thinking about how we can all contribute and what we discuss/share locally can also
feed into the national framework at the Scottish Government. |
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Minutes: A presentation was delivered by
Fergus Murray covering the Rural Growth Deal, Strategic Transport Review and
digital connectivity Rural Growth Deal - The original
proposition for funding was £178.5m for 16 projects, the amount awarded was
£50m (£25m each from UK and Scottish governments) therefore it is not possible
to deliver on all projects and alternative sources of funding will be required.
The strategic outline business cases are
being prepared where noted, and will be sent to government to comment on,
covering for example, housing, tourism, skills and aquaculture. The proposed
governance structure for the delivery of the deal and next steps were also
covered. Slides can be forwarded if required. Pippa noted that there is concern
that without additional funding to this we will be unable to also meet the
requirements of the Islands Plan, this may present a need for more funding
lobbying. STPR2 – Progress to date includes
the completion of regional workshops and interviews. Transport connectivity has
been noted as a priority from local residents and this will be looked at in
STPR2, alongside the Rural Growth Deal. The case for change report covers the
area transport requirements for the next 10 years so it is vital that it
addresses current and future transport investment needs. Poor transport connectivity has also been
pointed to as a key factor in population decline in the area. The case for
change needs to be very strong, Morag asked for partners to take a key role in
influencing and feeding into this. Rona noted that the CPP have fed into the
consultation and attends the meetings. Fergus
said that at the public consultation stage it is vital that we clearly voice
what the needs of the area are for transport to create a robust submission to government.
Aileen noted that there is a risk that the work required on the Rest and be
Thankful may swamp the needs of the areas other roads. Pippa advised that
attendance at public meetings with Transport Scotland has been poor and we need
to encourage attendance at these to underline the importance of this matter to
the community. Digital connectivity – A national
investment programme (R100) has broken Scotland into 3 areas (North, Central, South). The South area has
been awarded to a contractor, however there is a delay in the process to
progress in the other areas. Fergus advised
that 4G mobile coverage has improved in the area due to new mast installations,
however, there are still gaps in service. OFCOM noted coverage in Argyll &
Bute can vary from 20 – 70% dependant on provider. Fergus is pushing for
investment into how we can take this forward in Argyll & Bute. Rural
gigabit Connectivity programme – the council have put a business case together
for a £15m investment to push fibre into the most remote areas of Argyll &
Bute and they are working with BT to progress this. Kirsteen expressed concerns that
the messages from the area seem to present that there are no jobs in the area.
John noted we may want to develop a central source of local information for
people moving to the area covering jobs / schools / housing etc. Morag noted
this is covered in ABPlace2b as a starting point and agreed Outcome 1 and 2 could
look at a CPP strategy for that. ACTION - Morag and Fergus look at what initiatives
are currently underway for “talent attraction and retention” and feed back to
the management committee on how best to create an approach to this. Morag pointed to some Outcome 1
and 2 priority activities, for example the redundancies from the challenges in
Kintyre, and has put together a Kintyre Action Plan. She asked partners to have
awareness of what is going on around this and support the existing business
base in this area. ACTION - Partners to forward any
information they have on this action plan and engage to increase partner
engagement e.g. attending job fairs. Morag to speak to Samantha regarding
getting the plan out to partners. Argyll & Bute Social
Enterprise Strategy Presentation was given by David Gourlay from Hall Aitken. Hall
Aitken are an independent consultant who, tasked by the TSI, developed the
Social Enterprise Strategy document. He explained how they looked at current
challenges, best practice and completed online surveys and key stakeholder
interviews as part of this work. Many social enterprises in the area are small
(annual turnover <£50k pa) and therefore struggle to bid to diversify into
growth areas (food, drink, tourism, aquaculture, health and social care). They also
looked at how to support social enterprises to focus resources, increase
digital activity and collaborate to win contracts by “Building, Developing,
Connecting”. Andrew has concerns regarding how
“merging” will work with enterprises spread over such a widely dispersed
geographical area. David noted that in Lincolnshire, there was a number of organisations
delivering similar support. Each one had their own managers and support staff.
Hall Aitken worked with them to successfully secure the service delivery, moving
to central management with locally delivered services. This decreased overheads
dramatically whilst retaining local level support. This may be an option that
some enterprises in this area could consider. Pippa highlighted the volunteer
fatigue in social enterprise, and asked if Hall Aitken had picked up on any
areas where we can prioritise activity to get the most value out of it - do not
want to spread resources too thin, where can we really add value? David noted
that there are opportunities for the Outcome 1 group to look at mapping of
support available, and suggested where priority interventions are that can help
to achieve the outcomes in that strategy i.e. what activities are social
enterprises involved in, which have the biggest impact, what interventions help
achieve the vision for market growth etc. He noted that while they have not yet
looked at specific areas, they are happy to do that. John asked if, as a CPP, is this what we need to do and how can ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Further informing the intelligence from engagement - interactive session Minutes: The Development day on 22 January
20 looked at the top 3 improvement areas for each area – covering what already
happening, what is planned for next 3-4 years and expected challenges. Partners
were asked today to complete a further gap analysis on each areas priorities
and provide contacts for each action. This information came from the Place
Standard results and SIMD information. ACPGs will look at this in May. The management committee will do further
analysis of the gaps at the June meeting Partners should be familiar with the
full Place Standard results, they can be found here https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/how-good-your-place.
Partners can also approach the CP team if they need any further information. Partners were told that @ABcommplanning
is the new twitter feed for Community Planning in Argyll and Bute, all partners
are encouraged to connect with this and use the handle to promote partnership
working. Some partners asked for more time
to respond. Pippa noted that many items relate to roads, there are already
policies on this and that we need to steer people to that information as that
will answer many of the questions. The message of the funding challenges in Argyll
and Bute needs to be disseminated to communities. Kirsteen added that
communities need to be aware of when they can influence policies, it is at the
consultation stage prior to reports / policies being written (not consultation
once the document has been produced). John felt engagement is needed
with the Communications Team to provide communities with a route to communicate
on matters that there are already actions in place, yet the community may not
be aware of what is already happening. This would help clarify for the
community why things don’t or can’t happen. Rona thanked partners for their
ongoing support of the Place Standard work. There may need to be a short life working
group put together to take the work forward. ACTION – Need to look at how the CPP and partners
engage with communities and communicate outcomes (via theme leads) - how to
signpost communities to appropriate information and involve communities in the
early development of plans. ACTION – Partners to return their responses to the
interactive session to the CP team by 20 March 20. ACTION – Future meeting to look at ways to engage -
using emerging digital platforms for community conversations and decision
making, providing information to inform the discussion and signposting to
self-serve options. |
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Climate Change - recommendations Minutes: There has been a positive initial
meeting with some partners and recommendations from that meeting are included
in the meeting pack. Moving forward this short life working group (SLWG) will
be co-chaired by the Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) and another partner. There will 3 more
meetings over the next 3 months and partners were asked to consider
volunteering to be the co-chair. The SLWG will promote what partners are doing
on climate change and share this with other partners. MSYPs have climate days
of action planned in the coming year and the Community Planning Management
Committee will join them for one of those, information will follow in due
course. It was agreed that SEPA should be
invited to future meetings (especially for discussions regarding flood risk). ACTION – Partners to consider volunteering to
co-chair climate change SLWG and respond to Rona by 20 March. ACTION – SEPA to be invited to future CPP meetings,
and to attend SLWG. |
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Volunteering Framework Minutes: A presentation was given by
Samantha Stubbs, TSI. The framework is the proposed vision for organisations in
Argyll and Bute looking to recruit, retain and support volunteers. The national
volunteer framework focuses on 5 principles, 5 volunteering outcomes and 4
national outcomes. The TSI have the lead responsibility for volunteering
locally, and there has been parts of that work adopted by Outcome 3. In Argyll and Bute there are an increasing
number of organisations that need volunteers however there are challenges
around volunteer supply (losing young people, higher retirement age, care
responsibilities and accessibility). It was felt there is a need to increase the
diversity of volunteers and be flexible with volunteering opportunities. The 6
framework key principles for volunteers are Choice, Support, Diversity and
Inclusion, Recognition, Quality and Partnership. The TSI are about to launch an
area wide volunteering website – volunteering opportunities can be registered
on this and volunteers can use it to communicate with, and support each other.
Support from the TSI can be obtained by emailing support@argylltsi.org.uk. The partners were asked to sign
up to the principles in the framework, however following discussions, it was
felt that the CPP were able to promote it to other partners, so that they can
review it and reflect on their own practices. Pippa advised that for the council
to adopt it, it would need to go through internal governance. John acknowledged
the good work that had gone into creating the framework by the TSI. Kirsteen advised that the paper
was produced as a response to the 2019 CLD Inspection feedback regarding
volunteer fatigue in the area. It was noted that the report says there are over
1400 people volunteering in the area and it was agreed that the TSI will
promote volunteering in line with the framework. ACTION – CPP to look at volunteering framework and
respond with any comments to Rona or Samantha by 20 March 20. It will also be promoted
via the CPP bulletin. Fergus said that some private
sector businesses offer 2 days of paid volunteering activity per year and this
is an effective strategy if it is organised with targeted activities, that can
then be measured and focused. |
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AOCB Date of next meeting is Wednesday 3rd June 2020, Council Chambers, Kilmory, Lochgilphead Minutes: On behalf of the CPP, John wished Andrew Campbell,
SNH all the best on his retirement and that we look forward to working with his
successor, Colin MacFarlane. Andrew thanked John and noted how much has been
achieved in the communities in Argyll & Bute, and that the work of the CPP
had formed a large part of that. John noted that SALSUS survey for Argyll and Bute
showed concerning trends regarding alcohol and drug use for 13 -15 year olds
and there may need to be further work to do around this. Rona said that Argyll
& Bute Children’s Group has information on this (Joanna MacDonald is
Outcome Lead) and they are speaking with the Police in regards to the survey. Action
– John asked partners to look at the study and provide any comments, or
information to share, to him. Morag asked what the correct forum is to raise “in
employment” substance misuse ( i.e. coming to work under the influence of
drugs) and its impact on the economy. John and Alison agreed this should be
looked at under existing HSCP and ADP work.
11. DONM Date of next meeting is Wednesday
3rd June 2020, Council Chambers, Kilmory, Lochgilphead at 1000. |