Agenda and minutes

Councillor Rowley welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Apologies had been received from Councillors Tatler and Turnbull (SBC), and Prof. Griggs (SOSE).

Consider Minute of Meeting of the Community Planning Strategic Board held on 10 June 2021.  (Attached)

2.1       Copies of the Minute of 10 June 2021 had been circulated. 

DECISION

AGREED to approve the Minute.

2.2       With reference to paragraph 2.2, which in turn referred to paragraph 11 of the Minute of 4 March 2021 (the update on the TSI) Mrs Hume advised that the Communications Officer post had been a one year contract and the situation was now under review on how to take this forward in relation to funding the post.  Contact details were available on the TSI website.

DECISION

NOTED.

Proposed review of Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership – discussion led by Netta Meadows, SBC Chief Executive.  (Attached)

Copies of a scoping paper by SBC Chief Executive, Netta Meadows, had been circulated giving details of a proposed review of the Community Planning Partnership to understand and address the current challenges facing the Partnership.  Mrs Meadows explained that, following the last meeting of the Board, she had spoken with a number of partner organisations’ Chief Officers on how the Partnership was working, including the sub-Groups that fed into it, and suggested a review/reset to assess the way it was working, making sure the terms of reference were still fit for purpose.  There had been a number of changes due to the pandemic which had led to increased partnership working, so this was an opportunity to ensure that the right structure was in place to create space for the future.  It was intended that the scope of the proposed review would cover a review of the current legislation and policy landscape; terms of reference, membership and governance arrangements; and a refresh of the Community Plan and Action Plan.  It was anticipated that the review would be concluded by the end of 2021 and outcomes presented to the Strategic Board in Spring 2022.  The review had been discussed and endorsed at the CP Programme Board.  Mrs K. Hamilton welcomed the review and in particular wanted to see a strengthening of input from the health area.  The proposed National Care Service was likely to have a big impact on Community Planning so this review fitted in well.  Mrs Hume welcomed the opportunity for the TSI to be more engaged in future, Superintendent Forrester echoed this, welcoming in particular the opportunity to incorporate Partners’ strategic and local plans.  The Chairman confirmed that with the landscape changing so much over the last few years, this was an ideal time for a review.

DECISION

AGREED that a review of Community Planning be undertaken and that an update paper with further details would be brought to the next meeting of the Board. 

Update from Shona Smith, SBC Communities & Partnership Manager, on the Key Priorities and Action Plan 2020/21.  (Attached)

With reference to paragraph 3 of the Minute of 10 June 2021, copies of an updated CPP Key Priorities and action Plan 2020/21 had been circulated.  Ms Shona Smith, SBC Communities & Partnership Manager, presented the details, advising that there had been further updates since this version had been published.  Ms Smith gave details:  Connecting Scotland Phase 3 was now open; Connecting Borders had SOSE, BAVS, and SBC working together; and the Anti-Poverty Strategy which had had significant from CP partners and was due to be considered by Council on 23 September.  Ms Smith also requested that the Key Priorities and Action Plan be included in the review as it currently did not contain targets and milestones so should be reviewed to ensure effective performance monitoring.  Mrs Meadows advised that this would ensure that the right things were being measured against the right outcomes.  As a Partnership, there was a need to move beyond the response to Covid and this was the right time to reflect on the Action Plan to give us some really good indicators and make it much smarter.  Councillor Bell expressed particular concern about the Best Value Action Plan which had been produced in response to a review by the Accounts Commission 2 years previously and this needed to be followed up as there had not been enough progress.  Councillor Bell also referred to the meaning of RAG status which should not be seen as judgemental but as a reality check on the current position for actions.  Mrs Meadows confirmed that the review would pick up on this and ensure that there would be really clear RAG markers, with updates provided timeously.  Members of the Board supported including this in the review to ensure that progress was monitored and performance measured in an efficient and effective way.  

DECISION

AGREED to include the Key Priorities & Action Plan within the review of the Community Planning Partnership, with Partners encouraged to participate in the review and feed in examples of best practice. 

Presentation by Fraser McKinlay, The Promise Scotland

5.1       Fraser McKinlay of The Promise, Scotland, joined the meeting and explained that The Money Workstream formed part of Plan 21-24 #KeepThePromise, which was designed to bring to life the approach described in the Independent Review of Care reports, ‘The Money’ and ‘Follow the Money’.  The Money workstream aimed to demonstrate that the human and economic cost modelling (HECM) approach in the care system was doable and it was about investing more strategically in children and families; using public money differently to deliver better results for children and young people, families and communities; and would be an integral part of Change Programme One, published by The Promise at the end of June 2021.   Working across three levels, this took a people centred approach to how money was used differently, and establish how money and resources were currently used and to what end (the human and economic cost); develop models for how money could be used better in future, to deliver better outcomes and better value for money; and understand the strategic investment required to move from the current position to where we needed to be, considering innovative models of investment as appropriate.  The approach would cover local places and families, service based, and national services/systems.  A bespoke approach was planned for the Scottish Borders, integrating with children and families services.  This would include –

·         Cross-partnership working

·         Gathering data on current costs and services

·         Service design and what needed to change

·         Pooling resources

·         Good governance to ensure accountability and transparency

·         Support from The Promise Scotland team. 

5.2       In response to a question around how this work tied in with the consequences of the Feeley Report on Adult Social Care, Mr McKinlay commented that there were a number of different versions of public service delivery and change around the care system needed to happen.  Until something specific came out of the current consultation on the proposed National Care System, work on The Money approach would continue as it was flexible and adaptable enough for any future changes.  With regard to the three local authorities involved in the work, it was helpful to have this spread of scale, rurality, etc.  The RSLs role in housing and care in the Borders was different from elsewhere and it would be helpful to test the proposition set out in national reports in a variety of local contexts.  This would very much be a partner based discussion as all were spending public resources on people.  The Care Review had laid bare the challenge of being in the care system and how disjointed it was in terms of how money/resource were used by various partners on the same families.  It made sense to take a family based view as part of a partnership review.   Mrs Hume referred to the work carried out by the Third Sector which was never costed, yet those sorts of activities with volunteers working with families was critical.  An example was given of a rounders game organised in a local village.  Mr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Consider report and Plan from SBC Service Director Children & Young People’s Services.  (Attached)

Copies of a report by the Service Director Children & Young People on the Community Learning and Development (CLD) Partnership Plan 2021-24 had been circulated.  Oonagh McGarry, CLD Team Leader, and Susan Hunter, Youth Borders, joined the meeting and gave a presentation on the Plan.  The Plan was a statutory requirement for local authorities to identify the CLD needs of target individuals and groups within the local authority area, and publish plans every 3 years containing information about the provision of community learning and development.  The Plan aimed to benefit those most impacted by Covid-19, in particular:  young people, with a particular focus on supporting positive transitions in a broad range of contexts; adults of all ages, with a particular focus on those most at risk of isolation or experiencing multiple disadvantage; and geographic communities as identified in the Scottish Borders Covid-19 Index.  By working collaboratively, the Scottish Borders CLD Strategic Partnership aimed to put CLD values into action and improve outcomes for learners and communities through the provision of co-ordinated, collaborate and targeted CLD interventions.  This would be achieved by partners working together to deliver actions that addressed the agreed improvement priorities in the Plan.  The objectives of the Plan were to reduce inequalities, recover from Covid-19, and develop the CLD partnership.  The improvement priorities in the Plan covered:

1.    Learning and Employability

2.    Health Inequalities

3.    Digital inclusion

4.    Covid-19 impact and recovery

5.    Participation and engagement

6.    Workforce development

The Partnership would monitor progress using the CLD outcomes framework.  Measures and lead organisations had been agreed for most actions.   Partners would work together over the coming months to finalise monitoring and evaluation processes, which would include the setting of targets.  Covid-19 had impacted on the Partnership’s ability to involve learners and communities directly in developing the Plan.  Evidence of need had been drawn from a range of surveys of Borders residents and extrapolated from national data.  Additional community/learner engagement would take place in year one of the Plan, which would inform priorities and actions in years two and three.  A ‘Statement of Unmet Need’ was included in the Plan which would not be met by the current identified actions, mainly due to reducing budgets/resources in partner organisations.  The Board expressed support for the work of the CLD Partnership and the Chairman thanked those responsible for the production of the Plan.   

DECISION

AGREED:

(a)       to approve the CLD Strategic Partnership Plan 2021-24 and recognise that it supported deliver of key CPP priorities for learners and communities in the Scottish Borders;

(b)       that Partner members reflected this Plan within their own organisational plans and continued to make available the existing resources which were required for the delivery of the Plan;

(c)       to reflect on the statement of unmet need and support CLD partners to explore how these areas of need could be addressed throughout the lifetime of the Plan;

(d)       to receive an annual report on progress of the Plan;

(e)       to consider the contribution of the CLD sector and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Update on the Work of the South of Scotland Regional Economic Partnership.  (Briefing paper attached)

Copies of a briefing paper on an Update on the Work of the South of Scotland Regional Economic Partnership had been circulated.  The paper by Douglas Scott, SBC Senior Policy Adviser, who had joined the meeting, gave information on the South of Scotland Regional Economic Strategy Partnership, the development of the Draft South of Scotland Regional Economic Strategy and its initial delivery plan. Anthony Daye, SOSE, spoke of the journey over the last 12 months.  Quite a lot of young people had input to the Strategy, which was pleasing for the future.  The next stage involved approval of the Strategy and then delivery of it.  The Chairman thanks all partners and officers who had been involved in developing the Strategy.

DECISION

AGREED to note the updated on the Regional Economic Partnership and that a copy of the final version on the Regional Economic Strategy would be issued to everyone in due course.

Borderlands City of Culture 2025 – Expression of Interest.  (Report attached)

8.1       Expression of Interest for Borderlands City of Culture 2025

Copies of a report by the SBC Service Director, Customer & Communities, had been circulated.  The report explained that the UK City of Culture was a UK Government programme, administered as a competition by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS).  The competition had been run every four years and the current one was for the UK City of Culture 2025.  For the first time, the competition was open to areas and places joining together to apply for the title to be awarded to their local area.  There were three stages to the competition with the first one being the submission of an expression of interest with a decision made on a ‘long list’ of six at the end of September 2021.  In late June 2021, South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) identified the opportunity to submit a South of Scotland expression of interest for the City of Culture 2025 with the deadline for applications being 19 July 2021. Following deliberations it was considered the most effective approach was to submit a bid for the Borderlands area.  This led to an expression of interest being submitted by SOSE on behalf of the five Local Authority areas of Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Carlisle City, Cumbria, and Northumberland who make up the Borderlands Partnership.  The bid was aligned to the theme of a Just Transition to Net Zero.  By using the Borderlands region’s heritage, culture and creativity, the bid aimed to create opportunities for future development and hopefully bring investment into the region.  The UK Government was providing £40,000 to each bid that made the ‘long list’ of six applicants for the next stage of the competition. It was considered that more resources were likely to be required in addition to this award to develop an exciting and innovative plan of cultural activities for the year that would be a key feature in the longer application required for the next stage.  The Director explained that should the decision at the end of September be favourable, there would be a huge amount of work required to put in the long application and contributions would be anticipated from all partners to this application.  SOSE was co-ordinating the bid.

DECISION

AGREED to:

(a)      endorse the Expression of Interest for Borderlands to be UK City of Culture 2025 that was submitted to the UK Government by SOSE on behalf of the five local authority areas of Dumfries & Galloway, Scottish Borders, Carlisle City, Cumbria and Northumberland, which make uop the Borderlands Partnership; and

(b)       begin to consider what the CP Partners may contribute by way of time, resources and activities to the Borderlands City of Culture 2025 should the bid be successful.

8.2       Fire Alarms

With reference to paragraph 8.3 of the Minute of 19 November 2020, Mrs Hume raised the issue again of the forthcoming changes to fire alarm requirements for private properties which would come in to effect from February 2022.  Previously, it had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for 18 November 2021 at 2:00pm online via MS Teams.  The meeting will be livestreamed to the public.

It was confirmed that the next meeting of the Board would be held on 18 November 2021 at 2pm via MS Teams, and would be livestreamed.  Mrs Hume submitted her apologies for the meeting and advised that one of the other Chairs would represent the TSI in her place.

DECISION

NOTED.