Agenda and minutes

Andrew Campbell welcomed everyone to the meeting and encouraged the new people to take an active part in discussions.

 

The Management Committee wished to pass on their good wishes to Neil Wallace who has been promoted to Inspector at Strathclyde Police, Oban.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 August 2004 were accepted as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting of the Community Planning Partnership held on 2 July 2004 were noted.

Muriel reported that guidance on the three-year Regeneration Outcome Agreements (ROAs) had been received and an initial draft must be submitted to Communities Scotland by 31 October 2004 and the final ROAs, for approval by Ministers, submitted by 20 December 2004.  A small working group has been set up to prepare for the submission.  It was noted that the ROAs would be based on the business plans of the SIPs and that most of the background work has already been done.

 

It was noted that a Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) had been established to bring improvements to Scotland’s most deprived areas.  It particularly focuses on the most deprived 15 per cent of areas (known as data zones) identified by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004.  The CRF fund replaces the existing Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) and the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund (BNSF) programmes.  The CRF potential grant allocation for 2005/06 for Argyll and Bute was £986,000.  The ROAs would provide a strategic and operational framework for delivery of the key objectives of the CRF.

 

The following points were noted:

 

·             Soroba was not eligible and transitional funding would need to be put in place.

·             Deprivation in Argyll and Bute was low compared to Scotland.  However, deprivation was hidden as 20% of settlements in Argyll and Bute had fewer than six houses.

 

Andrew Campbell felt it would be useful if there was a layman’s guide on ROAs, highlighting relevant issues for Argyll and Bute.  It was also noted that we need to show what positive things are happening within our area.

Muriel attended the Advisory Group meeting and found it to be very valuable.   The key issue was how to improve access in rural communities. Pat advised that the Timebank Initiative may assist in closing the opportunities gap.  It was agreed that Brian or Muriel would attend the next meeting on 14 November 2004.

 

It was agreed that if we are going to make community planning work it should be driven by operational services and that we should be using the CPP forum to explore areas of commonality between partners.  It was agreed that it would be useful if partners could provide details of their capital proposals over the next five/ten years so that linkages and co-location issues could be identified. 

Lolita reported that she had received no feedback and would follow up and report back to the next meeting.

Eddy Graham of IBP Strategy and Research gave a presentation on the Citizens’ Panel process and provided details of feedback received from panel members.    He advised that the Citizens’ panel had been refreshed and that 335 new panel members had been recruited. 

 

A discussion took place on what methods of consultation should be used, how the results should be disseminated and how to advise Panel members what action had been taken.  It was agreed that:

 

      (i)            future questionnaires should have thematic unity and be specific and focused

    (ii)            all partners should obtain feedback from staff in their organisations regarding what questions would be useful to include in the questionnaires

   (iii)            it was important that the Citizens’ Panel was given recognition for its valuable contribution 

  (iv)            there should be a method of advising the Citizens’ Panel what action had been taken as a result of the surveys

 

The Management Committee thanked Eddy for his presentation and was pleased with the more professional approach taken by his company.

It was agreed to take cognisance of the views of the SIP People’s Panel and test their views against the Community Planning Citizens’ Panel.

The next questionnaire would be issued in January 2005.  It was agreed that the consultants would issue a template with a broad outline theme and ask partners to suggest relevant questions/issues.  The suggested theme “taking part in the community” would include questions on community safety, equality issues, health, volunteering and green issues.   The consultants would advise on the structure of the questions to ensure that data collected was meaningful.

Paper to follow after Bute and Cowal Area Partnership Meeting on 8 October

Brian reported that the current model for the Bute and Cowal Pilot project was problematic as it was too bureaucratic, under-resourced and replicated structures already in place.  Brian reported that Pauline Livingstone had resigned from Argyll CVS due to the pressure imposed upon her regarding the pilot project.  It was agreed that a letter of thanks would be sent to Pauline. 

 

It was also agreed that the involvement of community reps at all levels of the CPP structure had not been implemented for various reasons and that there was perhaps merit in changing the basis of community representation to a scrutiny role.  It was agreed that this would need to be discussed in further detail.

The Management Committee noted the following action agreed by the Bute and Cowal Area Partnership.

• That due to the limited resources available no new Level 1 structures would be formed, but that existing structures such as Community Councils, Community Care Forums etc. be used in areas where gaps are identified.
• That Level 1 Support staff identify appropriate Community Reps to sit on the Area Partnership.
• That publicity is put on hold until the Area Partnership had something to promote.
• That the Community Reps be paid childcare, travel expenses, etc. from the CPP budget allocated for this purpose as no other funds were volunteered by partners.  Should this budget be spent, partners would have to top-up the budget as part of their annual contributions.
• That George McKenzie and Lolita would meet with Level 1 support workers to discuss an appropriate way forward.

Andrew advised that he and Lolita had met with Lynda Syed, the Council’s Communications Manager, where it was agreed that Lynda would prepare a revised paper on an appropriate way forward for the CPP Communication Strategy which would be tabled at the next meeting.

Theme Group 1:

The Choose Life Action Plan would be discussed at the next Theme Group meeting on 18 October 2004.

 

Theme Group 2: The next meeting scheduled for 18 December would take the form of a facilitated workshop to discuss how the Theme Group could become the “operational arm” of the Local Economic Forums.

 

Theme Group 3: Only a few people attended the meeting in October which was proving to be problematic.  The next meeting is scheduled for 21 October 2004.

Andrew felt that the Audit Scotland’s Draft Community Planning Indicators did not add value to community planning and some of them were inappropriate to rural areas.   It was therefore agreed that a response would be sent to Audit Scotland outlining our concerns in this regard.

Dr. Andrew Goudie, Head of Finance and Central Services at the Scottish Executive, was unable to attend the meeting but agreed to come along to the next Management Committee meeting on 8 December 2004.  

 

The issues to be raised with Dr. Andrew Goudie would be discussed at the CPP meeting on 5 November and it was agreed that we should reinforce the difficulties facing Argyll and Bute.

It was agreed that the Choose Life Action Plan would be added to the Agenda.

(a)      Volunteering Strategy: Pat circulated copies of the Volunteering Strategy for information.

 

(b)      Clinical Strategy: Josephine reported that the Clinical Strategy had been  discussed in great detail with Argyll and Bute Council and that a paper was going to the Health Board for agreement on 8 November 2004.  It was noted that the Strategy was within a financial context and that the year-end overspend would be in the region of £30 - £45 million.

(c)      Rural Partnership Fund:  It was agreed that Brian and Lolita would be delegated to assess the applications once they are received.

(d)      Argyll CVS:  Brian advised that Peter Minshall had been appointed as Chief Executive of Argyll CVS and would start on 4 November 2004.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 8 December 2004.