Agenda item

Consider Action Plan items relevant to Community Planning Partnership.  (Report and appendices attached)

Copies of a report on the Best Value Assurance Report 2019 by the SBC Service Director, Customer & Communities, had been circulated.  The report presented the findings of the 2019 Best Value Assurance of Scottish Borders Council, and the findings that related to the Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership.  The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 introduced the statutory duty of Best Value.  The Best Value Assurance audit of Scottish Borders Council and the Community Planning Partnership in 2019 had been undertaken by Audit Scotland, with the Controller of Audit presenting the Report to the Accounts Commission as part of the requirement to do so at least once during the five-year audit appointment.  The Assurance Report (Appendix 1 to the report) provided a range of findings for the Community Planning Partnership following an intensive process of scrutiny of the governance, Community Plan 2018, Draft Locality Plans, participation and asset transfer requests, engagement, and participatory budgeting.  The Community Planning Partnership welcomed the scrutiny of the 2019 Best Value Assurance audit, providing an opportunity to further strengthen its ambitious Community Plana and Draft Locality Plans with valuable external perspectives.   In response to the audit findings, Senior Officers had developed an Action Plan and this was detailed in Appendix 2 to the report.  Jenni Craig, SBC Service Director Customer & Communities, explained that the timescales had slipped due to Covid, with the original BV audit report in October 2019 and the Action Plan then agreed at Council.  However, there was a need for the Community Planning Partnership to be aware of the contents.  There had been some criticism of how slowly the Partnership had progressed and implemented the Community Empowerment Act and also the Community Plan and Locality Plans.  There were improvements to be made and a review was now in place for Area Partnerships and how there could be closer working with the Third Sector and communities.  There were a number of actions within the plan which should take the Partnership forward and strengthen community empowerment and engagement.  There was one recommendation for the Community Planning Partnership and 10 actions identified for the Partnership to improve.  In order to address this, the review of Area Partnerships would look at how they could be utilised or changed to progress community empowerment and how the Community Planning Partnership could best support this.  What had been flagged up was the level of resource required and the Partnership needed to have a focussed discussion on this challenge.  It was pointed out that the Community Planning Partnership was currently disengaged with communities and the process of developing Locality Plans seemed to sit separately from what communities were trying to do and there needed to be a way to bring the two parts together.  Rob Dickson advised that the Covid response had demonstrated a much closer connection and the aim was to build on that experience to tighten the connection between the Strategic Board and communities.  This lack of connection was not just apparent in the Borders but was being experienced elsewhere.  Angela Cox added that it had been a struggle to pull everything together to have a coherent voice as a Partnership but work on that would continue.  A change was potentially needed to the Community Planning structure to make this happen. 

AGREED:

(a)     to note the findings contained within the Scottish Borders Council Best Value Assurance Report dated October 2019 (Appendix 1 to the report, page 40, paragraphs 129 0 145) which related to the Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership;

(b)     to accept the recommendation detailed at Appendix 1 to the report, page 51, within the Best Value Assurance Report for the Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership;

(c)     to note the Best Value Audit Action Plan (Appendix 2 to the report), which contained 10 proposed actions for the Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership;

(d)     that whilst there had been an impact on the timescales within the Best Value Action Plan due to Covid19, these 10 actions were now being progressed by the CPP Joint Programme Board, and that progress on these actions would be reported to the CPP Strategic Board for scrutiny on a 6 month basis; and

(e)     to also ensure that progress and performance reports to the Community Planning Partnership and the public would be more comprehensive and accessible.