Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from :-

Rona Gold, Argyll & Bute Council

Andy Buntin, Argyll & Bute Council

Stuart McLean, H&L Community Planning Group

Joanna MacDonald, Health & Social Care Partnership

Stuart Mearns, Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park

            Paul Devlin has taken over as Chair and all attendees where welcomed and a special welcome was given to new members. Thanks were given to Hazel Hendren for her exceptional work in her tenure as Chair and Paul wished her well in her new role.

            The vacant Vice Chair role will be taken by John Paterson, as nominated by Cleland Sneddon, and agreed by the committee.

The CPP Welcome pack includes a new buddy system for new members. Members were encouraged to offer their services in this. Cleland will buddy Martin Jones, Paul will act as buddy to John and Anthony will act as buddy to Liz Dean. Paul will also introduce buddy support for the MYSP attendees.

The last meeting was the Full Partnership in March 2019. The last minutes from November 2018 were accepted as accurate.

The actions were reviewed as follows:-

Road Traffic Closures – Brian advised the group have met and this is still ongoing. Gillian Gardiner is currently seconded and there are now 2 structured groups relating to Outcome 6. Andrew advised on Easter Sunday Traffic Scotland reported the A85 closed in both directions at 9am with no further update provided, yet the road was closed all day. He felt that Transport Scotland needed to be spoken to rectify this as it is unacceptable to have total road closures with no further info.

Brain discussed the challenges regarding what information goes out and how this can be improved and he is happy to discuss his again with Transport Scotland, however, there are legal implications regarding this. Road deaths or road closures are reported from the Police with a potential timescale of road closure yet there are still extensive periods of time when a road must be closed to allow emergency services access and investigations to be completed if required.

Paul and Rona were involved in a meeting with Tom Bissett, Jacobs for Traffic Scotland, regarding traffic infrastructure in Argyll & Bute.

Action – Circulate and share with the CPP  a note of the meeting between Jacobs, Paul Devlin and Rona Gold once received.

Cleland advised the action regarding overnight trunk closures is complete.

Action – Any further impact evidence on road closures should be provided to Pippa Milne to include as evidence to those looking at the Rest and Be Thankful.

Action - The action regarding DWP Rural Strategy, DWP and TSI discussions regarding volunteering and the labour market strategy are ongoing.

Amendments to the CPP Annual report are complete.

Strachur Hub presented to the CPP Full Partnership in March therefore action is complete. Paul said he had greatly enjoyed the input at the CPP Full Partnership by Strachur Hub, including the tai chi.

Rural Watch information has been included in the CPP bulletin and action is complete.

It was noted that OLI CPG has circulated lots of information on this and it was included in the CPP Bulletin so action is complete. 

Cleland provided a further update on the Local Governance Review advising that the Scottish Government has now published consultation on Phase 1 - Democracy matters and Phase 2 - Consultation with local sector leaders and public bodies. CPP had agreed the response that was submitted. Conclusions are in the consultation document and these are available on the Scottish Government website (including an easy read version). The Cabinet Secretary issued a statement that indicated the Scottish Government will take time to reflect on feedback received and the Local Democracy Bill may now be referred into the next Parliamentary term. There has also been dialogue with COSLA around “functional empowerment” (permissibility of thinking about new forms of public bodies). Ideas and suggestions will thought about over the summer. Cleland noted that this is an important piece of work.

The report going to the meeting of Argyll and Bute Council on the 27^th June can be found here:

https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=257&MId=8324&Ver=4

A report is going to the meeting of Argyll and Bute Council on the 27th June for formal approval. It is a legal requirement of the Child Poverty Scotland Act to produce a joint plan with the local authority and health board. This is reviewed annually.

Judy and Mandy spoke to the report and advised the Committee of the priority areas of the plan, the local challenges in Argyll and Bute and the partners involved in putting together the plan. There is a desire to strengthen the involvement and input of partners moving forward in the delivery stage.

Discussion was held on the third sector commissioning process and the restriction of one year budgets on this process.

It was felt that the Child Poverty Action Plan fed into a number of the outcomes and that the quarterly Outcome Lead meetings should consider the plan and how actions are being taken forward within the CPP.

Action – Progress on Child Poverty Action Plan to be standing agenda item for Outcome Leads meetings.

Andrew Campbell asked for clarification on a point in the plan that notes 24% of employees are on receipt of less than minimum wage.

Action - Judy will check source of data and come back to the partnership.

Cameron and Yasmine gave a presentation outlining the role and focus areas of MSYPs.

Discussion was had on how MSYPs can affect the Scottish Parliament and it was noted that there were opportunities for joint collaboration between the CPP and MSYPs to move forward matters of importance to the area.

A question was asked on how the CPP can best engage with young people and social media and the local youth forums were encouraged to be utilised by partners to engage with young people. The MSYPs are happy to publish any relevant CPP matters on their social media pages.

Paul thanked Cameron and Yasmine for the presentation and highlighted the value of them being part of the CPP. 

Action: Ensure CPP members have the email addresses of the MSYPs for any social media publications

The recommendations in the report were agreed subject to the following amendments:

·         Outcome 1 – broaden the case study on Islay to be about enhancing tourism more widely

·         Move the Islay logistics study to Outcome 2

·         Include an update on the roll out of rural broadband in Outcome 2

·         Include STEM opportunities through Digital learning to Outcome 3

·         Include alternative pathways for young people in Outcome 3

·         Move workforce planning to Outcome 4

·         Include Health and Wellbeing Network in Outcome 5

·         Include Equalities in Outcome 5

·         Include Social Prescribing in Outcome 5

It was noted that some of the data measures were now obsolete and that partners would be invited to a data meeting to review these.

            Action – Case studies to be with Samantha by the end of July

Action plans have been agreed by outcome leads and an outcome lead meeting will follow the main committee meeting.

            The key issues across the outcomes were discussed. Kirsteen noted that the TSI are already committed to leading Argyll & Bute Volunteer Strategy and requested that this be added to the actions within Outcome 3.

Jane spoke to the report which showed that the population of Argyll and Bute was still declining. There was discussion on net migration and the impact of this. Councillor Morton is engaging with other local authorities in the west coast of Scotland and spoke of a ministerial taskforce on population challenges which we will engage with.

Discussion was had on budgets, population demographics and the ratio of working age people to older people.

Paul met yesterday with Amanda Coulthard who sits on the Community Planning Improvement Board to better understand their remit. It was noted that the Board intend to visit Community Planning Committees across the country over the next few months to see how CPPs work. Paul felt that we were in a strong position for these visits following the recent self-assessment process and are able to demonstrate areas of collaboration. 

Highlights were given from the four Area Community Planning Groups held in February and May this year. There have been changes in personnel in two of the areas with Cathleen Russell taking on the role of Chair in Bute and Cowal, with Willie Lynch as Vice Chair and John Fleming has taken on the role of Chair in Oban, Lorn and the Isles. 

In respect of the concern raised by the MAKI group regarding the HSCP locality models, Alison McGrory advised that the move to align the HSCP locality areas with the Council / Community Planning locality areas had been the decision of the Integrated Joint Board following consultation and a workshop with stakeholders. The new 4 area model was felt to be a better use of resource for all partners involved in the HSCP locality groups. Kirsteen reported that it had become clear through this process that there was a misunderstanding on the remit and statutory basis for Locality Planning groups. This has been addressed by the formation of a strategic engagement advisory group which has a framework for engagement which should strengthen the engagement between communities and the Health and Social Care Partnership.

There was a concern from the Oban, Lorn and the Isles ACPG with regards to response times to the community of Dalavich and whether volunteers could be trained to use the equipment. Paul advised that there is a 35 minute minimum response time to this area. Whilst there is a national review by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on the placement of stations, Paul had concerns over whether a volunteer fire station was viable in this area but is happy to engage with the community further if required.

Following the CPP Full Partnership where collective engagement was discussed, Jane felt that there was a need for us as partners to get the most out of those we consult with as they are often the same people. It was noted that a common complaint was that communities contributed to consultations yet did not receive feedback on results or actions of the consultations. 

Discussion was held on engaging with young people through the youth forums and schools and it was agreed that organisations could provide information following any public engagement to Jane to be published on the ABplace2b website.

Sally was unable to join the video conference so Samantha Campbell led the presentation which asked the question of how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) informed the work of the CPP in Argyll and Bute.

The presentation provided details of what ACEs were and the need for emotional resilience to counteract the effects of these experiences. It was noted that the Health and Social Care Partnership had recently received a grant for a study to look at the effect of ACEs in the area, highlight the gap areas and increase the awareness of ACEs in both the public and professionals.

It was felt that this was a piece of work which fed into a number of outcome areas and would be picked up in Outcome Lead meetings.

Cleland advised that Argyll and Bute Council are going through a Best Value 3 audit this year. He advised that all partners will be involved and requested that everyone start thinking of examples of “community planning in action” and how we improve outcomes for our communities. It is anticipated that Audit Scotland will be conducting their visits in October.

Cleland invited partners who wished more detail on the process to contact Stuart Green who can provide more information on how to prepare. Once the programme for the audit is known, contact will be made with those who are involved and assistance provided in preparing for that engagement.

Papers for noting are found below:

ASSISTING OUR REFUGEES BACK INTO EMPLOYMENT.

Morag reminded the CPP Management Committee of the multi-agency Refugee Resettlement Group which was set up in August 2015 and continues to meet quarterly and has a major impact on refugees in Rothesay.

A video was shown highlighting the positive impact of the refugee resettlement in Rothesay and highlighted the support provided to Bachar Helmi who used the support offered by the group and via Business Gateway to set up his own bakery in Rothesay which won an award recently for Scottish bakery of the year.

Morag encouraged partners to contact herself if the videos could be used by partners to highlight the good work happening on Rothesay.

Paul reemphasised his thanks for the work by Rona, Samantha and the CPP team for such an engaging day at the Full Partnership in Dunoon, and thanked those attending today for their time.

Thanks were given to Shirley MacLeod for her huge contribution to the CPP, in particular the Area Community Planning Groups, and wished her all the best for her future in retirement.