Scottish Borders Council

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Newtown St Boswells

Contact: Jenny Wilkinson  Tel: 01835 825004 Email:  jjwilkinson@scotborders.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence.

- Mrs Marjorie Hume, Third Sector

Minutes:

Apologies had been received from Andy Bruce (Scottish Government), Councillors Bell and McAteer (SBC), Marjorie Hume (Third Sector), and Tony Jakimciw (Borders College).

2.

Minute pdf icon PDF 111 KB

Consider Minute of Previous Meeting of the Community Planning Strategic Board held on 23 November 2017.  (Attached.)

Minutes:

The Minute of the previous meeting of the Strategic Board held on 23 November 2017 had been circulated.

 

DECISION

APPROVED the Minute.

 

3.

Action Tracker pdf icon PDF 60 KB

(Attached.)

Minutes:

The Board noted that there were no outstanding actions.

4.

Transitions Project

Presentation giving an example of successful partnership working.

Minutes:

4.1       Robert Jamieson - SBC Social Work, and Gill Binnie – SBHA, gave a presentation on the Transitions Project, which enabled a “whole system” approach to support young people leaving care with the transition to independence, with a broad spectrum of services working together for better outcomes.  A care leaver was defined as a person aged 25 or under who had been looked after by a local authority for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14, and who ceased to be looked after on, or after, their sixteenth birthday, and were eligible for Aftercare.  Details were given on some of the national context, including the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on outcomes for young people.  Currently over 200 young people were looked after/accommodated in the Scottish Borders, with that number increasing, as it was nationally.  Mr Jamieson explained that the Transitions 16+ Project provided enhanced assessment, planning and support to care leavers across the Borders.  The flagship project had 6 transitional flats at Albert Place, Galashiels – 4 occupied by young people with tenancies with SBHA, 1 flat as a staff flat (concierge staff employed by SBC with overnight provision cover, with their role mainly building management but also as support to the young people), and the other flat being used for training young people to test living on their own and how to deal with managing a home.  SBHA provided a Tenancy Support worker to help the young people, who came from across the Borders, by establishing security on how they should work and live.  It also helped young people develop positive relationships, provided support for health and wellbeing, which in turn allowed them to integrate back into their home communities more effectively.  The project had been designed alongside young people, who were part of the Project Board, to ensure they were listened to and the project was something young people wanted.  A You Tube clip (https://youtu.be/PBKji9L1rDE) was shown to the Board in which young people helped by the Transitions Project explained how it had benefited them.       

 

4.2       Gill Binnie then explained how the Housing Options Protocol for Care Leavers operated by supporting young people leaving care into independent living.  This recognised the vulnerability of young care leavers, and the challenges they faced moving into adulthood compared to other young people.  The Protocol had been developed by SBC’s Throughcare/AfterCare Team and Homelessness Service, in partnership with the 4 main Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in the Borders (BHA, EHA, SBHA and Waverley).  Referrals were made following discussion of the care leaver’s housing needs at a Housing Options Panel meeting, and the Panel agreed the most appropriate housing, areas to be considered, and the type of tenancy to be offered i.e. Scottish Secure Tenancy (SST) or Short SST.  Approximately 38 care leavers came through the Panel each year and of these, SBHA received 19 referrals, with 4 housed at the moment and referrals made to other RSLs.  Over 300 care leavers had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Community Planning pdf icon PDF 2 MB

(a)       Community Plan – Update.

 

(b)       Governance – Update on delivery model of the Community Plan.

 

(Community Plan and Action Plan attached.)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

5.1       With reference to paragraph 4 of the Minute of 23 November 2017, there had been circulated copies of the Community Plan and Action Plan.  Jenni Craig, SBC Service Director Customer & Communities, advised that the Community Plan had first been published in November 2017, with a new approach comprising a vision, 4 themes, and 15 outcomes.  Key measures, targets and actions to take forward these 15 outcomes were now drafted and included in the latest edition of the Community Plan.  Good feedback had been received from the November workshop for all Community Planning partners and representatives, and it was hoped the next workshop would take place at the end of October 2018.  The focus of the Joint Delivery Team recently had been on partnership working, leadership and resources. As intended, the Community Plan was being continually updated (May 2018) so it remained a dynamic document, with one outcome (More children, particularly those living in poverty, achieving higher levels of attainment) still requiring measures and targets.  Partners commented on some information/statistics within the Plan and Alistair McKinnon, Scottish Enterprise, advised that in his opinion some information was misleading as the agricultural sector was not the mainstay of the Borders economy which the Plan seemed to be suggesting.  Scottish Enterprise had fed back information to the Economy and Low Carbon Group and that had not been included. 

 

5.2       With regard to governance, Ms Craig explained that the current Community Planning structure comprised a Board, Joint Delivery Team, 3 themed delivery teams and a number of partnership groups feeding in to that.  With the change from the Single Outcome Agreement to the Community Plan, the Joint Delivery Team had had discussions on whether the current structure was still valid.  To take actions forward in the best way, it was proposed that the Strategic Board remained as it was, the Joint Delivery Team changed to a Joint Programme Board with a number of Groups aligned to the 4 themes (Our Economy, Skills & Learning; Our Health, Care & Wellbeing; Our Quality of Life; and Our Place) instead of two of the existing themed delivery teams.  It was further proposed that the Reducing Inequalities Group be retained as a cross-cutting group.  This should prove to be a more effective way to take Community Planning forward and deliver on the actions within the Community Plan.  In future, the delivery and performance of each theme would be reported to the Strategic Board, to allow progress to be monitored effectively.  Members welcomed the change in the structure.   

 

Action:  AGREED –

(a)     to the proposals to change the Joint Delivery Team to a Programme Board, to retain the Reducing Inequalities themed group as a cross-cutting group, and to replace the remaining two themed groups with groups aligned to the 4 themes of the Community Plan;

 

(b)     all partners would provide any comments/information on the content of the Community Plan, including details of any targets and measures to the SBC Communities and Partnership Manager.

 

6.

Area Partnerships and Locality Plans

Verbal update.

Minutes:

With reference to paragraph 4.2 of the Minute of 7 September 2017, Jenni Craig, SBC Service Director Customer & Communities, gave an update on operation of the Area Partnerships and development of the Locality Plans.  The Area Partnerships had been launched in January 2018, with each taking ownership of a Locality Plan.  These Locality Plans were structured around the same themes as the Community Plan, and were each living documents which would be built and changed as required.  There had been 3 cycles of meetings of the Area Partnerships to date, with the style of the meetings very much focussed on conversations and action planning rather than presentational.  This was to try to make meetings more engaging so that people were encouraged to come along and sit round small tables and join in discussions.  There had been some positive feedback from those who had attended meetings, although some felt that there was something lacking from the previous Area Forums.  The Community Council network and some Community Councils had also provided comments, so a survey of all Community Councils was planned.  There was a commitment to review Area Partnerships by summer 2019, but information for that review would start to be gathered from now.  The meetings of the Area Partnerships (14 so far) had produced a lot of information and now actions needed to be developed to show how priorities would be taken forward.  This should demonstrate that those people who had attended and contributed to the meetings were being listened to and involved in outcomes.  There was a need to look at how best to encourage different groups to attend meetings e.g. young people, or if they were not attending meetings personally to be able to engage digitally.  It was hoped that Locality Plans would be fully developed by the end of the year, with their content being brought to the planned Workshop in the autumn for all Community Planning partners, and then feeding up to the wider Community Plan.  Councillor Aitchison commended the officers for their work in getting the Area Partnerships up and running.  The aim of the Council was to try to change the whole way it communicated with communities, while accepting there was a need to change the perception of what the Council could and could not do.  This was reflected in the Council’s new Corporate Plan and #yourpart.  Colin McGrath, Chairman of the Community Councils Network, referred to some confusion between Community Planning Locality Plans and the Health & Social Care Locality Plans, and suggested that the Community Hubs for health and social care could also be used for Community Planning locality work.  Shona Smith, SBC Communities & Partnership Manager, advised that the aspiration was to combine any partner locality plans into one Locality Plan for each area in future, with work already started with Police and Fire & Rescue local plans to do just that.  Tim Patterson, Director of Public Health, commented that the big advantage in producing the Health and Social Care Locality Plans had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Third Sector Interface Review pdf icon PDF 54 KB

- briefing note attached.

Minutes:

A briefing note by Marjorie Hume, Volunteer Centre Borders, had been circulated giving an update on the position of the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Interface (TSI) Review since December 2017.  A letter had been received from Scottish Government in March 2018, advising that Evaluation Support Scotland would lead a project involving Scottish Government and the TSIs to develop an outcomes based agreement that would be in place for September 2018, for the start of the new grant period.  This framework would also be the basis for new reporting arrangements that would allow TSIs to demonstrate impact.  At a TSI senior managers meeting held in May 2018, TSIs had been advised that they should hear about funding by the end of June.  Alastair Hirst, representing the Third Sector at the meeting, commented that no further information was available from Scottish Government and TSIs were waiting to find out more.  It was clear that there would be changes but no clarity as yet on what these changes may be.  One potential change was a longer term commitment, and a review of funding and how this was allocated.

Noted.      

8.

Dates for Future Meetings

·         Thursday 13 September 2018 at 2pm

·         Thursday 22 November 2018 at 2pm

·         Thursday 7 March 2019 at 2pm

·         Thursday 13 June 2019 at 2pm

Minutes:

The dates for future meetings of the Board were considered.

 

Action:  AGREED the dates for future meetings as follows –

·         Thursday 13 September 2018 at 2pm

·         Thursday 22 November 2018 at 2pm

·         Thursday 7 March 2019 at 2pm

·         Thursday 13 June 2019 at 2pm

9.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

Kathleen Glazik from Scottish Government gave details on the “Democracy Matters” consultation which had recently been launched by the Scottish Government as part of the Local Governance Review.  The idea was for conversations with communities, with some funding available to communities who wished to lead conversations.  The link to the local governance review, including the democracy matters consultation was - https://beta.gov.scot/policies/improving-public-services/local-governance-review/

Noted.

 

 

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