Agendas, reports and minutes

A meeting of the Community Planning Board will take place in the Council Chamber, Highland Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Wednesday 4 March 2015 at 10.00 am.

As a Community Planning Partner, you are invited to attend the Board meeting and the business to be considered is noted below.

Business

1. Apologies for Absence

2. Minutes

There are circulated for approval Minutes of the Community Planning Board held on 5 December 2014.

3. Presentation: “Gaelic – Language of Opportunity”/Gaelic Strategic Planning and Development in the   
    Highland CPP

Following agreement at the last Board meeting, Mr R Maclean, Gaelic author and broadcaster, will give a presentation on “Gaelic - Language of Opportunity”.

In addition, there is circulated Report No CPB/01/15 by the CEO of Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Gaelic Development Manager which outlines the outcomes from the first meeting of the Short Life Working Group on Gaelic.

The Board is invited to consider the issues arising in the presentation and agree:-

i.  the overarching Statement of Ambition as set out in section 3.2 of the report;
ii.  that a Thematic Policy Group on Gaelic Strategic Planning and Development be established within the CPP; with a
    Remit to be drafted for the Board by the Short Life Working Group;
iii. that Lead Officers will represent partners on the Gaelic Strategic Planning and Development Thematic Policy
    Group; and
iv. that work be done to identify how the Gaelic Strategic Planning and Development Thematic Policy Group can
    support the work of the Highland Strategic Culture Board.

4. Delivering Partnership Outcomes

The following updates are provided by Responsible Officers on the current delivery plans for the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA), the partnership’s agreed strategic priorities and developing partnership working:-

i.    Economic growth and regeneration (Martin Johnson, HIE)
ii.   Employability – (Stuart Black, HC) 
iii.  Early Years/children (Bill Alexander, HC)
iv.  Safer and stronger communities (Julian Innes, Police Scotland)
v.   Health inequalities and physical inactivity (Cathy Steer, NHSH)
vi.  Outcomes for older people (Jan Baird, NHSH)
vii.  Environmental outcomes (George Hogg, SNH)
viii. Community learning and development (Bill Alexander, HC) 
ix.   SOA Development Plan (Carron McDiarmid, HC) 
x.    Maximising collective resources, shifting to prevention and re-allocating resources between partners for best
       value (Bill Alexander/Derek Yule, HC) (verbal update)
xi.   Workforce planning and skills development (Martin Johnson, HIE) (to follow/verbal update)

The Board is asked to scrutinise the progress reported.

5. Audit Scotland Report: Community Planning – Turning Ambition into Action

There is circulated Report No CPB/02/15 by the Head of Policy and Reform which summarises the key findings from the national Audit Scotland report on community planning.  It identifies the implications for the Highland CPP and considers how the CPP can take forward the recommendations in the audit report.  A report will also be provided to the Council’s Community Safety, Public Engagement and Equalities Committee and its Audit and Scrutiny Committee.

The Board is invited to:-

i.  note the findings in the national audit report and that for some areas the Highland CPP can demonstrate it has
    made good progress, particularly around leadership and challenge in the CPP and the ability to absorb national
    structure changes into CPP processes.  The audit findings also affirm the need to continue to work on the CPP
    priorities around joint resourcing and performance reporting;
ii. agree that new attention is turned to the local arrangements for community planning, including how they influence
    and reflect the SOA priorities and how they can be streamlined. This could be taken forward as a review that
    should take into account:-

    a. the area-based community planning being developed in areas of multiple deprivation and in the rural
        communities benefitting from HIE’s account-managed approach;
    b. the lessons from the approaches in Lochaber and the Badenoch and Strathspey for local community planning;
    c. the potential for District Partnerships to evolve for local community planning (reported separately to the Board)
        and the potential review of the Council’s Area Committees;
    d. the need for locality/neighbourhood profiling using partnership data, rather than single agency data to start to
        understand local characteristics better and for working with communities on local interventions and service
        changes;
    e. the work already in train to localise the SOA on specific themes;
    f.  the approach to creating Development Plans;
    g. the challenges and support for elected members and non-Executive Board members in ensuring effective local
        community planning, including how to enable and support more community participation;
    h. identifying further local democratic experiments, as recommended by the Strengthening Local Democracy
        Commission; and
    i.  the requirements of the community empowerment legislation – enabling communities to participate and
        challenge, supporting asset transfers, formalising performance reporting and reviewing how to resource the day
        to day management of the CPP; and

iii. subject to agreement of ii. above, agree that the review should take place during the current SOA period to
    2017/18.  The timescale for achieving different elements of the review will be dependent upon a number of factors
    such as legislative requirements, the pace of community development and local interest, capacity and agreement
    to try new approaches. 

6.  Local Democratic Experiments

i. Participatory Budgeting

Mr P Mascarenhas, Community and Democratic Engagement Manager, will undertake a presentation, accompanied by a video clip, on participatory budgeting.

The Board is asked to note that the Council is likely to pursue the approach in 2015 in some areas and that partners are invited to participate where they are able or willing.

ii. Developing Local Community Planning

There is circulated Report No CPB/03/15 by the Head of Policy and Reform which highlights the current drivers for localising decision-making and in a partnership context.  These drivers challenge the earlier approach adopted for the CPP which focused on localising arrangements for particular themes.  The evolution of District Partnerships as local community planning forums is worth exploring but there are several issues identified to date for the Board to consider.

The Board is invited to:-

i.  note the current arrangements for local community planning by theme and by place and the drivers for re-thinking
    local community planning;
ii. note that the scope of District Partnership business is expanding and in some cases this is leading to some
    duplication of work with the Council’s Area Committees. Area Committees are to be reviewed, with the approach to
    that review to be considered by the Council in mid-March, with potential for that to contribute to a review of local
    community planning arrangements; and
iii. agree to enable the development of proposals locally for local community planning. It would help if these
    proposals could be mindful of the issues identified in paragraphs 2.7 to 2.11 of the report.  The Board is asked to
    enable staff, non-executive Board and Elected Members to be creative in their proposals to encourage local
    experiments, noting the pace of change may vary across the region.  Up-dates on proposals and how they might
    be supported can be provided to Board meetings, with those requiring changes to governance schemes to be
    approved through each partners’ governance arrangements.

7. Membership of the Highland CPP

There is circulated Report No CPB/04/15 by the Head of Policy and Reform which deals with the requests for fuller engagement with the Highland CPP from the Cairngorm National Park Authority and Skills Development Scotland.

The Board is invited to agree that a chief officer and Board Member be invited from both the Cairngorm National Park Authority and Skills Development Scotland to participate in the COG and Board meetings of the CPP, subject to their contribution to those meetings as set out in paragraph 4.1 of the report.

8. National Public Health Review Consultation/Engagement – Highland Community Planning Partnership
    Response

There is circulated Report No CPB/05/15 by the North of Scotland Public Health Network Co-ordinator, the Head of Health Improvement and the Director of Public Health and Health Policy, NHS Highland which sets out the background to the national Public Health Review and explains that the CPP Chief Officers’ Group, at its meeting on 23 February 2015, agreed to a draft response being developed by the Public Health Directorate of NHS Highland.  Given the very tight timescales, it was agreed to circulate the draft response prepared by NHS Highland and use this as the basis for generating further comment from the CPP.  The final response from the CPP will be generated according to the timetable set out in the report.

The Board is invited to note the action in relation to the consultation/engagement on the national Public Health Review and provide any comments on the draft response from the CPP by 10 March 2015.

9. Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 3 June 2015 at 10.00 am in the Council Chamber, Highland Council Headquarters, Inverness.