Agenda item

Consider report by Service Director Customer & Communities.  (Copy attached.)

6.1    With reference to paragraph 14 of the Minute of 17 June 2021, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Customer & Communities providing an update on progress in implementing the recommendations of the Place Making report considered by Council in February 2021.  It proposed a framework, based on initial engagement with Area Partnerships and partner organisations, for transforming joint working with Communities across the Borders.  The report explained that the experience of joint working with Partners and Community Resilience Teams during the pandemic showed how small but significant interventions could come together to improve people’s lives.  The proposals aimed to build upon that experience, and the lessons learned, to transform the working relationship between the Council and the communities it served.  The proposals also built on the Place Principle agreed between CoSLA and the Scottish Government, in particular:

          “A more joined-up, collaborative and participative approach to services, land and buildings, across all sectors within a place, enables better outcomes for everyone and increased opportunities for people and communities to shape their own lives.”

6.2     The proposals set out in the report aimed to make the Place Principle a reality for people in communities and provided a baseline for how we recognised and valued the importance of place in the way decisions were made.  It provided a challenge to the assumptions that were made about places without community participation by asking for answers to straightforward questions before decisions were taken about what to do and what to stop doing.  Details were provided of progress from the first preparation and planning phase, and gave proposals for the next phase based on engagement with, and feedback from, Area Partnerships and Community Planning Partners.  Members discussed the report in detail and emphasised the need to work with all communities and were pleased to note the additional resources including staffing which were being provided to support this work.  Some concerns were expressed regarding the initial short list of communities and it was noted that the criteria would continue to be developed.  It was appreciated that this work would take place over a number of years but Members encouraged officers to progress this work as soon as possible.

DECISION

AGREED:-

(a)     to note progress since February Council and the feedback from Area Partnerships summarised at Section 4 and detailed in Appendices 1 to 5 to the report;

(b)    to endorse the proposed draft joint principles set out in Section 5 for discussion and refinement with Area Partnerships and Partners;

(c)     to endorse the proposed Framework as set out in the report;

(d)    to endorse the proposed draft criteria set out in the report for prioritising community-based place making activity and the associated proposed communities identified for discussion and refinement with Area Partnerships and Partners;

(e)     to support proposals on how Council  resource would be deployed to support this work in a way that supported and complemented partnership and community resources;

(f)     how Service Redesign activity, as agreed by Council in June 2021, would form part of the proposed Place Making arrangements as set out in the report; and

(g)    the next steps and outline action plan contained in the report.