Agenda and minutes

Raymond Park welcomed everyone to the meeting.

CPP Management Committee 3 October 2007

The Minutes of the meeting of 3 October 2007 were accepted as an accurate record with the following amendment:

 

Item 5 paragraph 1: should read:

 

Careers Scotland were already in the process of moving away from Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and from 1 April 2008 will be part of the new training agency (Skills Development Scotland).

Sue Gledhill had nothing to add at present, a further meeting will be held next week.

Chris Carr and Eileen Wilson are currently compiling the Tender for the Citizen’s Panel.

 

Geoff Calvert highlighted the issues surrounding young people and Eileen Wilson explained that the intention is that they will become more involved in future.

 

Muriel Kupris mentioned the school e-mail system and that Young Scot so far has not had much success in engaging with young people.  The main point is to acknowledge and engage with young people and for more youngsters to sign up with project.

Presentation by Douglas Cowan (to follow)

A presentation was given by Douglas Cowan  - HIE.

 

Migrant workers are one of the focus points for Highland and Islands Enterprise and the Government Economic Strategy is looking overall at sustainable growth.

 

The Highlands and Islands has an older population than Scotland overall and Argyll has an older population than Highlands and Islands. Migrant workers provide three key components.

 

-          Increase in productivity and competitiveness

-          Stimulate economic participation

-          Stimulate population growth

 

The growth aspiration for Highlands and Islands is an increase of  60,000 over the next 20 years to 500,000.

 

The economy in the Highlands and Islands area overall is very tight.

 

Brian Barker posed the question of how does the population growth feed into the local plan, the discussion that followed highlighted that unemployment is currently at 6%, although there are job vacancies to counter this, but there is a need to attract a better quality of job.  Migrant workers are already here, we need to  understand “why” they came to the area and “if they will stay” for the economy to grow.

 

There are three main reasons as to why migrant workers arrive.

 

-          Adventure – life experiences

-          Economic – they will stay here for 6-12 months.

-          Lifestyle – a desire to relocate permanently.  This group forms the minority.

 

There are key issues as to why they do not stay in an area, often they are over qualified for the jobs on offer or there are barriers with language skills and the attitude of employers and the community.   They have brought a significant positive impact on the Highlands and Islands economy and rural areas in general as they tend to be highly skilled.

 

Negative impacts are the pressures on housing, health and education.

 

How we address these pressures is why accurate data is necessary.  It is very difficult to track the movement of migrant workers, presently any information received is in small pockets from various sources, ie education and local businesses.  There is a need to pull resources together to enable a fuller and more accurate picture to be complied.  Currently there are large numbers in Inverness and the Moray Firth area, with the second highest registration in the Highlands and Islands area being Oban.  There are significant numbers in other towns in Argyll -Dunoon and Campbeltown.  The overall numbers in Argyll estimated at 950.

 

Migrant workers are expected to reduce significantly over time die to the removal of border restrictions in 2009 and 2011.

 

What are the Population Priorities for this Community Planning Partnership Area?

 

There followed a discussion on various schemes/incentives to  invite migrant workers to the areas of the business community that need workers, ie recruit Polish classroom assistants from Poland, but the reasons should not just be employment.

 

Raymond Park used the example of Polish classroom assistants in relation to security and safety issues ie Disclosure Scotland.  Douglas explained that Highland Council for example already has a system that deals with this type of issue and that in other areas other mechanisms are up and running, and that we need to join together and collect information at a strategic level.  Raymond suggested a Steering Group is formed to look further at this, HIE stated they are happy to facilitate a group and will initially look at Highland Council as a scoping exercise, to address not just Polish workers but all migrant workers as well as  our own local people and workers, Lucinda Gray will lead and perhaps Dick Walsh could give a very strong steer on this group.  Douglas is also happy to assist the new group.  Malcolm MacFadyen pointed out that if migrant workers were not her at present, local builders would be struggling.  What happens after 2009 if they have better options?  Are there any initiatives to keep them here?

 

Douglas explained that the Scottish Executive is looking at present, including both positive and negative pressures, and that Argyll and Bute need to look at the area and how we can intervene.

 

Action Point: The group will be formed by the end of next week.  It will come back on the agenda mid 2008 and aims to develop a very clear scope – 9 July 2008.

Presentation by Bill Dundas (to follow)

A presentation by Bill Dundas, Rural Payments and Inspections - and accompanying handout – Rural Development Contracts – Rural Priorities.

 

After the presentation, Bill informed the meeting that Partners are now being treated as stakeholders and feedback will be required on the Draft Regional Priorities.

 

SRDR is the Scottish Government programme to develop public support to land managers and rural communities; the aim is to tie in with European legislation. 

 

There will be a number of different delivery mechanisms, with a strong focus on outcomes and integrated delivery.  There is a budget of £1.6 million – there will be rural priorities, (the definition of rural being any community with a population less than 10,000) the funding will be competitive and open to all. 

 

The requirement from the Partners is to look at the rural priorities statement from the national to local level, check if there is anything within respective organisations or responsibilities that needs to be included, and email Bill within two weeks to enable changes to be made.

 

Several questions surrounding the implementation of the new contracts were then asked

 

-          Is the paperwork going to be complicated for communities or individuals to complete?

-          What support will be available?

 

Eileen Wilson suggested that this information should be passed to the Funding Hub.

 

 

Eileen Wilson described the plans for a three year rolling programme for Local Community Planning delivered as sustainability workshops, and asked if anyone present was willing to become a facilitator for the programme or if they could nominate/volunteer staff/volunteers. 

 

The workshops will provide useful, adaptable community engagement training for Partners and it would be preferential to have people spread across the area.

 

The workshops will train 12 at a time with the first workshop being held in January 2008. 

 

Names to Eileen by 12 December 2007.

Eileen reminded the Committee that this agenda item gives partners and partnerships the opportunity to bring relevant and/or important CPP issues to the table.

 

The Voluntary Transport Project are looking for sustainable funding from March 2008 onwards – it was suggested they contact Nicola Debnam, Argyll and Bute Council.

 

Pat Logan has resigned from the Volunteer Centre, which is currently in the process of recruiting a new manager, but it is business as usual.  The new manager will adopt a more strategic approach.

 

Gordon Anderson, Strathclyde Police gave the good news that the Community Safety Partnership has successfully been awarded £30,000.

 

Raymond Park spoke about the Licensing Forum.  Should the CPP look over the  lists, any specific comments or needs should be directed to Susan Mair, Argyll and Bute Council.

 

DRIVESafe

 

Eileen Wilson opened the discussions by stating that we need to look at the wider remit of the DRIVESafe co-ordinator, Dave McBride. Dave has been in the post a few months and has made quite a lot of progress, issuing quarterly e-bulletins, operating clinics within libraries and developing promotional material. 

 

Do the partners want to continue funding (managed to date with monies from Strathclyde Fire and rescue and an under spend from last year).  Funding comes to an end in March 2008.

 

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue and Strathclyde Police are willing to develop it further but it needs commitment from Partners.  

 

It was discussed at the Full Partnership meeting (9 November 2007) and acknowledged that there was now an opportunity that DRIVESafe could be taken forward and developed, not just as Occupational Road Risk but to widen its remit. 

 

Partners were asked to consider a monetary contribution.

 

Brian Barker spoke about the SOA – the Government has reached agreement with Local Authorities.  There are a range of outcomes but no further information to date

 

As there seems to be some cross-over of activities with other partners, there is a need to recognise how this will work locally and how, as partners, we will approach these issues. 

 

Ringfenced funding – as a rule there will no longer be ring-fenced funding.

 

Alan Murray spoke about the Transport outcomes – information on these will be circulated in the near future.

 

Action Point: Brian Barker to bring SOA to next meeting 6 February 2008

David Dowie informed the Partners of the changes surrounding Communities Scotland.

 

As from April 2008 Communities Scotland will no longer exist.  Most functions will transfer to the Scottish Government.

 

Two areas will not transfer

 

(i)                  Registration and Inspection Function

(ii)                Local Regeneration Function

 

The current level of funding is £145 million nationally, but the Community Regeneration Fund will link with other funds and monies are likely to go direct to local authorities.

 

Social Economy Funds will be re-distributed.

 

Funding to the Housing Associations is intended to become a “lighter touch” with a general move away from “hands on” to “arms length”. 

 

Project teams have been set up to manage change with the next steps in the process being –

 

(i)                  The winding up of Communities Scotland

(ii)                A new organisational structure with central government for community regeneration.

(iii)               Internal registration and inspection.

Indication that the CRF has received 25% of funding - £160,000.  

 

There will be no roll-over in spending this year.  

 

Malcolm MacFadyen stated that next financial year’s funding will be protected at this year’s level – for this year  only.

 

It was agreed that a better handle was needed on this by the next Management Committee meeting.

The European Funding is moving onto the next stage at present.

Noted – minutes attached.

The budget was agreed in principle at the Full Partnership meeting (9 November 2007).  Partners will receive correspondence from Sonya Thomas, Argyll and Bute Council in the near future regarding contributions.

Noted

John Davidson – Islay and Jura CVS has difficulty attending the meeting on a Wednesday.

Wednesday 6 February 2008