Agenda and minutes

Joe welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were noted as above.

Minutes from December 2022 meeting are attached to the notification of agenda pack email.

The December minutes were approved as an accurate recording of the previous meeting. No amendments or comments were received. Cllr Currie queried the lack of public attendance at these meetings, in particular of Area Community Planning Group (ACPG) Chairs. Rona stated that pre agenda meeting are held which chairs of ACPGs are invited to and do attend. It was noted to look at and support attendance.

From the action log, the majority of outstanding or in progress actions were marked as complete and Rona gave thanks to the partners for their work on these. Some points to note were:

-       Although marked as complete, partners are still welcome to forward guidance on successes they have had with producing graphic plans that meet accessibility needs; such as Plan on a Page.

-       Partners are assumed to have signposted to relevant information on Warm Spaces but if any more guidance is needed on this please contact cppadmin@argyll-bute.gov.uk.

-       Iain MacInnes advised regarding the mast resilience for Carradale within the Digital section of these minutes.

-       Shona confirmed that Ian Brodie has been advised that out of 56 possible community councils in the area, 54 have now been formed.

Meetings were held across all four areas in February. The function is now in place to facilitate hybrid meetings and this was used for the Helensburgh & Lomond (HL) and Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands (MAKI) groups with positive feedback.

All meetings considered an annual review of the terms of reference and membership. Appointments included Councillor John Armour re-appointed as Vice Chair in MAKI, Reeni Kennedy-Boyle appointed Vice Chair in Bute and Cowal (BC) and Kevin Champion was re-appointed Chair for Oban, Lorn and the Isles (OLI) until he leaves the area in August 2023.

Each group was given a well-received presentation on Home Energy Efficiency by Jackie Westerman, Home Energy Efficiency Project Officer for Argyll and Bute Council, which highlighted the help available to households. The report details the wide variety of great partnership working in action considered across the Area Community Planning Groups including the support offered by partners at the MAKI ACPG to the Lochside Champions.

The report raised a request by MAKI ACPG for the Management Committee (CPP MC) to discuss / take action regarding Forestry and Land Scotland’s (FLS) proposals to introduce car parking charges at a number of sites across the area. The proposals by FLS to introduce car parking charges in an Argyll and Bute wide proposal, has been brought to the MAKI and OLI ACPGs for discussion and both had concerns regarding lack of engagement on the proposals and the negative effect car park charges may have on tourism and visitor numbers. This was fed back to the FLS representative at the meetings. It was agreed for the community planning team to circulate the FLS report to CPP MC members and for comments and feedback to be developed into a response by the chair to FLS on behalf of the CPP.

Ryan requested for any communication with the FLS to highlight a lack of engagement with youth people in the area. Robin added that car parking is a serious matter to our communities and therefore important for the community planning partners to address their concerns

ACTION - Community Planning team to receive a copy of the paper sent to Area Community Planning Groups.  Paper to be circulated to Management Committee members with an invitation to comment on paper (including request to improve youth engagement).  Chair to prepare a response on behalf of the Management Committee which will be forwarded to Forestry and Land Scotland.

Stan submitted a paper for noting by members. Pippa wanted to record her thanks to Stan for all of his work on this and pulling partners together. She also wanted to note that the long term funding is not yet in place and it is important to note this is a key piece of work for partners. Pippa added that the council has achieved bronze carbon literacy status, with 65% of elected members now trained by ACT on this and recommended the training to other partners. Joe said it was great news to see that a Climate Officer post will be advertised in the next few months.

Mandy noted that her report to the meeting contained a summary of the framework on what is needed to achieve implementation of the UNCRC and an action plan. She highlighted the importance of needing to move away from the idea that this is just an issue for child-facing departments and organisations, and requires a whole council approach.

The key things to look at in the coming months are:

- child-friendly complaint procedures (asked by the ombudsman to join a pilot),

- data and evidence on children’s rights and poverty,

- staff training

- work ongoing on Quality Impact Assessments,

- action plan

Mandy noted some confusion around the naming conventions of the reporting i.e. the reports issued now will be badged as 2020 - 2023, although it covers future recommendations to be taken forward from 2023.

Mandy pointed partners to the following key documents:

-       UNCRC program update which covers the reporting process in detail.

-       Understanding child poverty as a child rights issue. This also contains a link to UNCRC general comment about public budgeting for the realisation of children’s rights and Mandy can circulate a summary of what we are already doing as we are covering many of those actions.

Pippa and Robin noted that the papers contained complex information on work that sits alongside many other council duties i.e. island impacts, environment and social. Mandy responded that it is her plan to hold an event once the action plan has been firmed up, to communicate to stakeholders that the implementation journey will need to build new skills and approaches and best practice may take time to develop. Kirsty noted how successful the simplified one page Child Poverty Action Plan had been given the positive feedback from community organisations when this was circulated and although the UNCRC data is complex, it may be possible to create the information in a similar simple, relatable document. 

Fiona noted that this new way of thinking about children’s rights needs cultural and practical changes to how we work, who we speak to and why and how that young voice will contribute to the way we do our business.

The process of review of the Child Poverty Action Plan will begin shortly and is the first to include a target year of monitored work. Fiona is optimistic that having come close to meeting current targets, the plan will help to achieve a reduction in child poverty in Argyll and Bute. She also updated that £197,000 has been awarded from the Scottish Government for Island Support, 1,300 Love Local cards have been issued to those in receipt of council tax reduction, £5,000 has been awarded to island food banks and top up payments have been paid for school meals on islands.

Fergus provided a paper for noting. Highlights include the range of different work around financial inclusion, update on crisis grants, concessionary housing payment, flexible fuel and food fund and the Love Local cards.

Partners are asked to note the section on “horizon scanning” and the potential work with the Rural Alliance on rural poverty. Fergus can be contacted at fergus.walker@argyll-bute.gov.uk for more information.

Scottish Government Community Wealth Building Consultation

Takki advised that work is being taken forward on a CWB audit, and following consultation the brief has been split into separate lots. The tender is currently live and can be accessed here.

The separate lots are:

-       how we look at land and assets to how we currently procure,

-       identification of relevant replicable case studies,

-       development of strategy and action,

-       can business cases and models be developed for us?

There is also lots of existing activity that needs to be mapped to prevent duplication. 

Takki proposed that a Learning Action Group convenes to review tenders at the end of April and then selects a preferred bidder by the end of May, with a report back to the December CPP MC to consider the outcomes and agree how to proceed.

Takki shared that CLD funding has allowed a collection of groups in Oban to explore opportunities that take advantage of CWB as a methodology and that the definition of anchor institutions has been broadened to include the third sector. Takki asked for a steer from the CPP MC to give consideration to the model that the working group should follow and if an expert reference group should be set up and who should be on that.

Pippa said this work is valuable for Argyll and Bute and would like clarity on any group terms of reference and reporting lines. She offered to meet with Takki off-table to work on that. Joe, Anthony and Morag expressed interest in also being part of that work.

ACTION - Other partners who are interested in joining the discussion on CWB group terms of reference and reporting lines to advise cppadmin@argyll-bute.gov.uk

Takki concluded by advising that the TSI and Inspiralba are commissioning Social Value Lab to produce an Argyll and Bute drill down into the Social Enterprise census data from 2021 which will help an understanding of the SE sector to support the CWB journey.  That report will likely be ready for June 2023.

Iain reported on the significant work that has already happened on the R100 programme in the Oban area and shared the maps of completed premises that now have access to full fibre across Argyll and Bute. Digital Scotland website shows where fibre is available or when it is expected. Iain said there may now be residents in areas that can access full fibre but they are not aware it has been installed.

Rona said that the CLD partnership are keen to help promote the availability of fibre coverage. 

Areas not covered by the R100 roll out can utilise the Scottish Government £5,000 voucher scheme to achieve fibre connectivity. Iain is also engaging with industry to scope projects to provide fixed line fibre to these locations. More information on this can be provided by Openreach when they attend the June CPP MC.

ACTION - Rona and Iain to meet to discuss the wider communication of the link for residents to explore if / when full fibre is available and information on the voucher scheme.

Regarding the resilience of the Carradale mobile masts, Iain advised that the network coverage by EE is very good in that area whereas other networks have poor signal. Iain confirmed that each ESN mast has power outage resilience via wind, solar or generator power as they must be active at all times. Iain is happy to provide information to partners on any signal / resilience levels in any other areas.

The contract has just been signed to provide IT equipment to the island hubs (Islay, Coll, Jura and Tiree) and the equipment is due to be installed in late April 2023. The average spend on equipment per site is £20,000. Funding has been applied to extend this work further into 2023/24.

Alex Edmonstone is covering some work previously carried out by Nicola Hackett. He advised that the CLD Partnership will reconvene next month and that the digital sub-group has been working with Takki on digital mapping to review existing activity and identify the support need to deliver essential skills to communities. An external consultant has been appointed and they will review that mapping, with an action plan to be put in place to support their recommendations. 

ACTION - Alex to provide a paper and update to June CPP MC meeting on the digital working group and on how communities can be supported to access digital in order to undertake Community Learning.

-       Community Engagement (Kirsty Moyes)

-       Volunteering (Takki Sulaiman)

Community Engagement

Kirsty advised that the Community Development Team has provided support to the non-digital and hard to reach groups to support participation in the ABOIP consultation and she will detail this in the presentation. A further update will be provided around progress on wider Building Back Better matters to the June CPP MC.

Volunteering

Takki provided a link to the TSI volunteer survey findings and gave an overview of the key points:

-       106 responses to the survey covering 40 organisations and individual volunteers.

-       qualitative and quantitative findings aligned to national research by SCVO on the cost of living crisis and its impact on volunteering,

-       many organisations are struggling to recruit to volunteering roles

-       further conversations needed by TSI on how to provide support to volunteers

-       volunteers and organisations are interested in incentive schemes (discount cards etc).

-       results suggest that the cost of living crisis has not directly impacted volunteer behaviour but it has directly impacted volunteer families,

-       the response regarding having a single volunteer system to on-board volunteers was inconclusive. Takki and Alex will continue to look at that.

Takki acknowledged the small sample size but the results were great conversation starters. The next volunteer conference is scheduled for later this year and there may be a different survey issued around that time.

Takki said the proposed volunteering framework brought to the CPP MC in 2020 needs to be updated.  The Scottish Government action plan from 2022 puts the onus on TSI to lead on this and produce a local strategy and action plan which Takki is keen to take forward.

A great volunteering event took place in Hermitage Academy, Helensburgh, where Community Councils and 60 groups got together and matched those organisations with a surplus of volunteers to those with shortages. This was a family friendly event that was well received and Takki noted that this model may be replicated in the future.

Rona thanked Takki for running the volunteer conference and asked Takki if there was any support the partners can provide to future surveys. She noted that during the pandemic response, volunteers of the community response groups were offered access to the Council Employee Counselling service and noted that although the take up rate was not high, the offer and peer to peer download opportunities were appreciated by volunteers. Rona was happy to work with the TSI to support peer to peer opportunities. Takki replied that any partner involvement to provide support to volunteers is valuable.

Rona presented information on the survey methodology and participation rates, highlighting that over 1,900 responses had been received, over 1,000 paper copies of the survey were issued, with 230 posters and 500 fliers placed across Argyll and Bute to advertise the survey.  The survey was also promoted via ebulletins, the CE podcast, twitter and Facebook. The team monitored the incoming survey results and then targeted promotion to increase participation across geographical areas and protected characteristics.

Kirsty presented highlights on the support by the Community Development team to engage potential non-digital and hard to reach groups to participate in the survey. Paper survey forms were widely distributed and interactive sessions were provided to support the completion of the forms, adapting to the audience with easy to read resources, different voting methods including QR codes and bucket voting. Central collection points and prepaid envelopes were also provided to ensure no costs were associated with the return of completed paper surveys. Over 40 community groups were supported to participate covering approximately 520 individuals and a video showcasing the engagement was played to the attendees.  

Lucy presented the work undertaken to engage young people, noting that it was important to hear from youth voices in the survey. Promotion included church groups, young carers, development trust, youth cafes, schools, scouts and guides. A further 18 youth organisations were contacted directly and there was also work with the LiveArgyll Youth Work team and CLD Partnership. Feedback received after targeted promotion was that young people were not engaged by the online survey, so an adapted single page survey was created in a more youth friendly format and language. Live Argyll supported Dunoon Grammar School engagement with the survey and over 100 students responded to the survey through this.

Lucy pointed out how worthwhile this engagement with young people in the survey process had been as the priorities you might assume for this age group were not reflected in the results.

John highlighted the responses by categories including administrative area, age and sex. The overall top 3 priorities for Argyll and Bute are Transport Infrastructure, Housing and Community Wellbeing. A fourth priority theme of Financial Inclusion was also identified. It was noted that the survey would be closing on 31 March. Rona advised the next step will be for partners to analyse the survey results in more depth at a development day.

Joe thanked everyone involved in the survey for their work to monitor, react to and review these results as they came in. He was pleased to see the focus on protected characteristics and the support to involve all groups. Joe felt this was a great example of best practice that should be shared with other Community Planning Partnerships. He also thanked partners for their support with the survey.

Pippa echoed the thanks to the team for the fantastic job with the survey. The priorities found are representative across other groups and there is existing evidence for evident themes like housing. She said it would be interesting to deep dive into the themes and suggested the definition of wellbeing could include financial inclusion. Pippa was keen that although climate change had not emerged as a priority that we still recognise the good work being done on that. She stressed the importance of the data from this survey and how it can be used in a much wider context than the ABOIP.  

Morag thought this was a really interesting piece of work and was keen to share and cross reference the data with existing intelligence gather by HIE last year - some of the data was similar but the substantial participation size for the ABOIP survey may better inform their activities. Morag was also looking forward to the development day and seeing how this work develops over the next year.

Takki agreed it was a phenomenal piece of work and looked forward to using the data produced to advise his own organisational plans. He asked for the timescale for production of the final ABOIP and if there would be any further consultation. Rona advised that John is currently preparing a key and handbook for the anonymised data, and other steps include:

-       sending thanks to all participants with an outline of next steps,

-       holding CPP development day (May / June dependent on diaries),

-       deep dive with online / offline groups over summer / autumn,

-       definitions of housing, community wellbeing and transport are agreed,

-       identify what needs to be improved,

-       long term actions agreed,

-       re-consult with stakeholders to ensure our understanding of the priorities and the actions proposed to address these matches those of our communities,

-       draft report published (with consultation at this point required under legislation),

-       plan published.

Rona advised that ‘you said, we did’ analysis will be conducted as per best practice and welcomed partners to share their thoughts at the development day on how best to ensure ongoing conversations with participants before a 10 year plan is set.

Joe asked partners to note the response submitted on 13 January 2023 on behalf of the CPP MC for this survey.

John noted that partners have been emailed this week requesting comments on this consultation by 6 April 2023. The Community Planning team will then form a response on behalf of the CPP MC. Joe asked all partners to make the effort to provide a response by the required date for inclusion.

Action - CWB consultation responses, and queries, to be forwarded to lucy.dunbar@argyll-bute.gov.uk by 6 April 2023.

Rona advised that this group sits under the existing Outcome 4 in the current governance of the ABOIP. The group are currently reviewing their priorities and are interested in synergies with the resulting priorities of the CPP MC and how we can work on that moving forward. The group will update on their progress to the June CPP MC with recommendations on the role of CPP MC around governance of the group. This may also be the case for other groups linked to the current ABOIP such as the Community Safety Partnership (under Outcome 6).

Takki said the data from the ABOIP consultation on young people may be of use to the CSG and it is important to work together with them where we can. He also noted the CSG has many feeder groups including the Corporate Parenting Board, the TSI and other staffing groups.

Pippa agreed that once the ABOIP findings’ deep dives, there will be a need to look at the governance of all the structures and the main partnership. As priorities are shifting those groups may need to be updated, may no longer needed or may sit within a different governance sphere and it will be useful to map that out, like with CWB, to get to the point where we have a one page governance structure..

Fiona, the current CSG Chair, supported the comments by Takki and Pippa adding that some associated groups have come about as a direct response to pieces of work or government directives, and it is important to get to a point where all the groups align with the new ABOIP priorities for the next 10 years with simplified and streamlined processes.

Date of the next meeting is Thursday 22^nd June 2023 at 1000.

Joe thanked everyone for attending and their contributions. He also reiterated the thanks to the Community Planning and Development team on the work on the ABOIP survey.

The date of the next meeting is Thursday 22 June 2023 at 1000.