Agenda and minutes

Paul welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted apologies as above.

Minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

Paul has circulated a paper from Jacobs regarding Transport Scotland for the committee to read through. Fuller consultation from Jacobs will follow in due course.

Evidence on road closures – Pippa had no additional feedback to add but noted partners have taken part in a stakeholder group.

Volunteering and labour market strategy – Kirsteen noted Volunteering is moving forward under Outcome 3 but the DWP / labour market part has not yet moved forward. DWP did attend the outcome group meeting but this item was not covered.

Action – this is to remain:  DWP Rural Strategy, DWP and TSI discussions

regarding volunteering and the labour market strategy.

Child poverty – Progress in an action plan is an item on the agenda for today. Councillor Currie asked who could provide an update on this. Cleland advised it is Mandy Sheridan.

Action – Samantha to contact Mandy Sheridan regarding clarification of data that 24% of employees are in receipt of less than the minimum wage.

CPP to share emails for Members of Scottish Youth Parliament – Paul not actioned yet but this can be shared after meeting.

Action – CPPadmin to share emails of MYSPs with CPP Management Committee.

Case studies – These have now been passed to Samantha and the action is complete.

Updates on the actions were agreed by the committee.

Meetings were held in August across all areas. Ian Brodie was appointed as Chair of the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group with Andy Buntin serving as Vice Chair for a one year period to assist with the handover.

The MAKI CPG raised an issue of communication between those responsible for carrying out speed surveys and the area groups. Pippa Milne advised that there were a number outstanding at the moment and that results were published to the local Area Committee once carried out. It was noted that there was a waiting list for the surveys and limited equipment available. It was noted that there had been issues with identifying the correct council officer to approach to receive an update from and Pippa will liaise with Shona further regarding this.

Action – Pippa to provide details of Officers who look after speed surveys to Shona.

Paul asked Shona for more detail on the perceived lack of attendance at the MAKI CPG. It was noted that there were few partners round the table in Inveraray and that there was an issue of attendees only staying for their item and then leaving.

Councillor Currie voiced concerns regarding IT issues when attending ACPG meetings from other locations. Police Scotland and Argyll College UHI both offered their facilities to assist with VC.

Action – Shona and Paul to look at attendance in MAKI, and other areas, and possible solutions to overcome IT issues.

The draft work programme of the National Community Planning Improvement Board was presented to the Management Committee.

Kirsteen Murray advised that that there was an action being led by the TSI in Edinburgh but there had been no mention of this at TSI Chief Officer meetings which suggests that there is some disconnect. Similarly, Mark Newlands is not aware of any work on the actions noted against Scottish Enterprise. Councillor Morton advised that she had concerns around the deliverability of some of the actions within the timescales of the report, particularly if local partners have no knowledge of them.

Cleland provided a number of comments and concerns across the themes. He felt there was a risk that of workstreams becoming advisory and largely ignored and was keen to see real actions identified, resourced and delivered. It was agreed that a response be put to the National Board.

Action – Rona to provide response to National Board based upon Cleland’s feedback

It was agreed by the Board to hold the CPP Full Partnership at a minimum of every two years.

An update was given by Samantha with a document tabled on the day of the demographic breakdown of the place standard response results to date. 

The statutory requirement to these plans was noted and the Committee was refreshed on what had been agreed previously and the proposed timetable moving forward. The commitment to making the full information available to communities and partners for their own use was reiterated.

It was noted that 801 responses had been received to date across 73 communities with a wide range of mediums being used to engage with the community.

Suggestions from the Management Committee to boost numbers included and were agreed to:

• Circulate the information around the youth forums via the MSYPs
• Argyll College to promote to its students
• Extending the survey date to the end of October
• Include the Health Scotland video on the Place Standard tool in communications so that communities could better understand the purpose
• Ask Youth Engagement Officers to assist with circulating information

Lucinda asked if there was an example from the last year which could highlight what the action plans have achieved. Samantha advised that the last consultation had flagged up an issue on availability of services for those with learning or physical disabilities and the transition between High School and Adult Services. The HSCP worked with the Third Sector and now Oban Youth Café provide a weekly session specifically for those affected by this.

Cleland highlighted the importance of community-led action plans being connected to the community planning structure and asked about the anticipated relationship with these results. Samantha responded saying that using existing actions from community-led action plans and having partners support the community to deliver these actions was actively being explored.

Paul advised that he was happy to commit officer resource to assist with the data analysis if required.

Councillor Currie asked Rona to send a notice in plain English to the Committee about the tool with links so that it could be sent out by the Management Committee to their contacts.

Action – Rona to send information on Place Standard Tool to committee for onward distribution by them to contacts.

Kirsteen was representing Outcome 3 today in the absence of the Outcome Lead and Deputy. A meeting had been held since the last Management Committee meeting to determine the priority actions for Outcome 3 for the coming year.

Kirsteen spoke and advised of the new priority actions and they were agreed.

Councillor Morton asked whether the actions for the next year focused on community learning and development rather than core education. Rona advised that item 1 of the plan had actions which linked to economic development and education. The Early Years team had also been present at the meeting in June and were happy with the proposed actions.

Rona advised that CPP’s are required to publish a Children’s Rights Report for 2017 to 2020 on what is working well for young people in the area and where there are challenges.

Rosie requested that the MSYPs and young people be involved in producing the report.

It was agreed that the ownership for this report be delegated to the Outcome 4 Leads: Alex Taylor and Patricia Renfrew, and the Argyll and Bute Children’s Strategic Group, engaging with the MSYPs and all 8 High Schools.

It was also agreed that a draft report come to the CPP Management Committee for approval between March and December 2020.

Action - Outcome lead 4 to involve MYSPs and High Schools with progress of Children’s Rights report and MYSPs to share information with the board.

Action - Argyll and Bute’s Children Strategic Group to focus on the production of the report, ownership and process.

Rona advised that action leads had not yet been identified for taking forward the delivery of actions within the Child Poverty strategy. It was noted that the meeting of the Outcome Leads would be looking in more detail at this and that the Management Committee required to be kept informed of progress.

Action - Paul noted this is to be discussed at today’s outcome leads and the results of those discussions and any progress can be looked at the next management committee meeting.  

Councillor Currie noted there are 3000 children in poverty in our area and this has to be addressed with a plan of action on how we can eradicate child poverty in Argyll & Bute. He felt the CPP was the ideal body to address this.

Rona presented the draft response to the CPP Management Committee. Cleland advised that he felt all the thematic areas could only be delivered in partnership and suggested the “partnership” theme be replaced with “community wellbeing.” It was noted that Argyll and Bute has relatively low criminality but high vulnerability and welfare issues which require resource from the Police.

The response will be amended as per above and the consultation responded to.

Action – Rona to amend the response to reflect that partnerships is an underpinning theme rather than a main header

A discussion was held on the use of hashtags and social media. It was noted that the MSYPs used #abcpp and #abgetinvolved. It was noted that #abplace2b was the main hashtag for Argyll and Bute.

It was agreed to use the above 3 hashtags for any social media promotion about the CPP.

Rona asked about the paper that came to the June Management Committee meeting on engagement and specifically the “you said we did” offer to post consultation responses of partners on the council website. Rona asked whether this had been utilised by any partners or whether any further information was required. It was noted that some partners had concerns over this approach and the management of expectations.

ACTION - Partners to feedback concerns and questions on this to Jane Jarvie.

MYSPs advised that they use Instagram regularly. Cleland advised that the council has an Instagram site. It is currently being used for a different promotional purpose but it can be utilised for other information and that messages need to be amended for each social media platform to capture the biggest audience.

Ralph noted that the Scottish Government are using a digital marketing company to test similar versions of same message across different social media platforms to get feedback on what works best. Ralph is happy to share the results of this once the process is complete.

Action – Ralph to share outcomes of social media testing.

12. AOCB

Paul noted that the recent Fire Service Statutory Consultation has now closed and he thanked anyone who provided feedback. He noted there had been 259 responses nationally.

Paul thanked everyone for attending today and the date of the next meeting was noted as Wednesday 4^th December in the Three Villages Hall, Arrochar.