Agendas, reports and minutes

Note of Meeting of the Chief Officers’ Group held in Committee Room 1, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road on Tuesday 2 February 2016 at 11.00 am.

Present: 
 
Representing the Highland Council (HC):
Mr S Barron
Ms M Morris
Mr B Alexander
Mr S Black
Ms C McDiarmid

Representing Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE):
Ms C Wright
Mr R Kirk

Representing the Highland Third Sector Interface (HTSI):
Mr I Donald

Representing High Life Highland (HLH):
Mr I Murray

Representing NHS Highland (NHSH):
Mrs J Baird
Ms C Steer

Representing Police Scotland (PS):
Supt R MacKillop

Representing Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS):
Mr J MacDonald

Representing Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH):
Mr G Hogg

Supporting the Chief Officers Group:
Ms E Johnston
Mr P Mascarenhas
 
In attendance:

Mr S Dalgarno, Development Plans Manager
Ms D Ferguson, Senior Ward Manager
Mr W MacKinnon, Ward Manager (videoconferencing)
Miss M Murray, Committee Administrator, Corporate Development Service
Miss J Green, Administration Assistant, Corporate Development Service

Mr G Hogg in the Chair

Business

Preliminaries

The Chair proposed that, if partners were in agreement, item 5 be considered after lunch to allow Ms D Ferguson and Mr W MacKinnon to take part in the discussion.

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr G Moir, Mr D Yule, Ms M Wylie, Ms E Mead, Ch Supt J Innes, Mr S Hay, Mr J Pryce and Mr M Devenney.

2. Chief Officers’ Group – Note of Meeting

The Note of Meeting of the Chief Officers’ Group held on 11 November 2015 had been circulated and was APPROVED.

3. Community Planning Board – Minutes of Meeting

The draft Minutes of the Community Planning Board held on 2 December 2015 had been circulated and were NOTED.
 
4. 2016/17 Budget Changes and Implications

Partners gave a verbal update on their budget situation for 2016/17, highlighting any implications for partnership working.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the verbal updates;
ii. AGREED that it would be helpful for the CPP to talk publicly about the combined impact of the budget reductions on Highland as a whole;
iii. AGREED that it was important to be clear about the scale of the budget reductions when discussing how to resource community planning going forward and that local community planning experiments had to be affordable;
iv. AGREED that further consideration be given to pooling resources and sharing services to mitigate the impact of the budget reductions;
v. AGREED that it would be helpful to know whether particular geographical areas or services were going to be affected in order to establish whether there were any viable options for a sustainable community response;
vi. AGREED that reduction in preventative spend may not be avoidable although it was acknowledged the difficulty this caused given that it could lead to savings in the longer term;
vii. NOTED that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service might have capacity to assist partners in delivering outcomes and that officers were open to suggestions;
viii. AGREED that an update on opportunities for property rationalisation be sought from the Highland Public Sector Property Group for a future COG meeting;
ix. AGREED that an update be sought from Steve Westbrook, Director of Economic Intelligence Unit, UHI, on the work previously undertaken on the potential impact of public sector cutbacks;
x. AGREED that consideration be given to a piece of work on the impact of the downturn in the oil and gas industry; and
xi. AGREED that budget papers be shared with partners as soon as possible.

6. How to strengthen future agendas in terms of economic priorities

Charlotte Wright, Director of Business and Sector Development, HIE, gave a presentation and led a discussion on how to strengthen future agendas in terms of economic priorities.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the presentation;
ii. AGREED, in relation to the downturn in the oil and gas industry, that consideration be given to an employment fair in East Ross;
iii. AGREED that a joint presentation on the economy take place at the Community Planning Board on 18 March 2016, incorporating the information presented to the COG as well as the wider issues raised during discussion and seeking recommendations on areas of focus for partnership action - eg an integrated approach to growing the care sector;
iv. AGREED that further consideration be given to procurement by partners, including how to maximise social value regionally from spend on goods and services, and that discussions take place with the Council’s new senior management arrangement for Procurement in that regard; and
v. AGREED, in relation to fuel poverty, that it was important to improve links between the different strands of work.

7. Community Justice Governance

There had been circulated Report No COG/04/16 by the Director of Care and Learning, Highland Council which updated Chief Officers on progress in relation to the redesign of Community Justice in Scotland, transition arrangements and plans for future governance of Community Justice in Highland.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the report;
ii. AGREED that consideration be given to how the Community Justice Committee would fit in to the Safer Highland Structure (ie similar to the committees dealing with the protection of children and vulnerable adults); and
iii. AGREED that relevant partners consider what decision-making powers would be delegated to the Community Justice Committee and how that would link in to other governance processes within their organisations.
 
8. Local Development Plan Actions and Update

There had been circulated Report No COG/05/16 by the Director of Development and Infrastructure, Highland Council, which sought approval for a minor revision to the responsibilities of the Chief Officers’ Group and Community Planning Partnership Board in the preparation of Development Plans in Highland.  Subject to approval of this revised approach, the report also presented Outcomes and Spatial Strategy for the West Highland and Islands Local Development Plan Main Issues Report for approval.

The Group:-

i. AGREED the revised responsibilities for COG and CPP Board engagement in endorsing Local Development Plans and Action Programmes in Highland, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report;
ii. AGREED the Outcomes and Spatial Strategy for the West Highland and Islands Local Development Plan Main Issues Report, enclosed at Appendix 2 of the report, subject to “Economic Growth Encouraged” being amended to include leisure/outdoor pursuits, and NOTED the Main Issues Report and accompanying documents at www.highland.gov.uk/whildp; and
iii. NOTED that the annual Development Plan Newsletter would be shared with the COG and CPP Board as an Agenda Note following its publication.
 
9. Breakthrough Achievements
 
i. Verbal updates were provided in relation to the proposals by Chief Officers to offer employment to Highland’s care leavers and fill retained firefighter vacancies through a partnership approach to recruitment.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the position and that updates would continue to be provided to partners;
ii. NOTED that steps would be taken to try and monitor how many firefighters were being recruited as a direct result of the partnership approach; and
iii. AGREED, in relation to retained firefighter vacancies, that consideration be given to news coverage following the next recruitment exercise.
  
ii. The Group was asked to propose further potential achievements that all partners could collaborate on.

Following discussion, during which Dementia Friendly Highland and social isolation and loneliness were considered, the Group AGREED that NHSH progress a piece of work on social isolation and loneliness and that consideration be given to what the breakthrough achievement would be.

5. Community Empowerment Act

i. Pioneer Enabling Collaborative Leadership Programme

At the Chief Officers’ Group on 11 November 2015, an extended session had been facilitated by members of the Pioneer team.  In that regard, there had been circulated Report No COG/01/16 by Nick Wilding and Chris Bruce, Pioneer Facilitators, which reflected on that session and asked the COG to commit to continuing the work.

The PowerPoint presentation from 11 November 2015 had been circulated for information.

Having offered feedback on the November 2015 session from members’ personal and collective perspective, the Group AGREED to:-

i. not proceed with the collaborative leadership challenge at this time;
ii. seek a place for  a representative from NHS Highland to attend the national Pioneer Peer Learning session in April; and
iii. provide the feedback raised at the meeting to the Pioneer Facilitators that the COG sought external and independent challenge with a preference for a mentor to observe and challenge the group instead.

ii. Local Community Planning Experiments – Next Steps

The Head of Policy and Reform gave a presentation on the drivers for localism, the statutory requirements for localism, the principles and values of the local experiments and ideas for proceeding with the experiments.

Ms D Ferguson and Mr W MacKinnon provided examples of the community planning arrangements in Lochaber and emerging in Skye.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the presentation and the examples provided;
ii. NOTED that Ms D Ferguson would circulate the Lochaber Community Development Plan and the self-evaluation template, previously used by the Lochaber Partnership, to the Head of Policy and Reform;
iii. AGREED to draft an evaluation framework based on the principles and values of the local experiments and requirements of the Community Empowerment Act 2015 and
iv. AGREED to form a group, with the following representation, to provide support and guidance to areas to progress with local community planning arrangements:-

Mrs J Baird, NHS Highland
Ms C McDiarmid, Highland Council
Mr P Mascarenhas, Highland Council
Mr B Alexander, Highland Council
Mr R Kirk, HIE
Mr J MacDonald, SFRS
Supt R MacKillop, Police Scotland
Mr G Hogg, SNH

iii. Implementing the Community Empowerment Act: taking forward the new CPP duties

There is re-circulated Report No COG/27/15 by the Head of Policy and Reform, Highland Council, on the implementation issues arising from the new legal duties for the CPP.

The Group AGREED:-

i. that representatives at a Chief Executive or appropriately senior level from the five statutory bodies meet to agree how to share the responsibility for community planning; and
ii. to revise the remit of the Health Inequalities Group to include provision of advice and support to reflect the new socio-economic duty and locality plan requirements.

iv. Participation Requests

There had been circulated Report No COG/02/16 by the Head of Policy and Reform, Highland Council, which explained that the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 put in place a new legal duty for the majority of community planning partners to respond to the rights of community bodies to make participation requests.  The Chief Officers’ Group, at its meeting in August 2015, agreed that a partnership approach should be taken to designing a process to consider these requests rather than several separate approaches being used for community bodies in Highland.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the suggested approach;
ii. AGREED to commit officer input from relevant partners to the ongoing development of the process;
iii. AGREED that a representative from NHS Highland attend future meetings of the multi-agency officer group; and
iv. AGREED that the process should consider how communities were supported to develop and manage their input to the process.

v. Asset Transfer Requests Update

There had been circulated Report No COG/03/16 by the Head of Policy and Reform, Highland Council, which explained that the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 provided for community bodies to request ownership, lease, management or use of publicly owned buildings or land whether or not they were available for sale or deemed surplus to requirements by the owning body.  It was likely that partners would need to refresh their asset transfer policy and process to meet the new purpose and approach the Act brought.  As the CPP Board had agreed that there should be a common process for Highland the COG was asked to consider and comment on the issues raised in the report and to commit officer time to developing common asset transfer policies.

The Group:-

i. NOTED the issues raised in the report;
ii. AGREED to commit officer time to developing common asset transfer policies; and
iii. AGREED to expand the role of the multi-agency officer group for participation requests to include asset transfer requests.
  
10. Future Agenda Items – Community Planning Board

The Group AGREED the following list of items for the Community Planning Board on 18 March 2016:-

• Quarterly Progress Reports (Q3 2015/16) for all CPP themes
• Presentation on the Economy
• Breakthrough Achievement – Social Isolation and Loneliness
• Community Justice Governance - Verbal Update
• Local Community Planning Experiments – Next Steps
• CPIP Report
• Scottish Care Leavers Covenant
• Living Wage Arrangements across the CPP (could include in the Presentation on the Economy)
• Syrian Refugees Update

 It was further AGREED to defer the following item to the Community Planning Board on 30 June 2016:-

• Update on Participatory Budgeting

11. Future Agenda Items – Chief Officers’ Group

The Group NOTED the following list of items for future meetings of the Chief Officers’ Group:-

• The Scope for a Salary Sacrifice Scheme for HLH Membership
• HIE Youth Survey
• Partnership Approach to Improvement Methodologies
• The ongoing work within the Council and in partnership to continue to support the closing of the gender pay gap in Highland
• Progress Report on the Implementation of the Community Empowerment Act 2015 including outcomes from the multi-agency officer group

12. Future Meeting Dates

The Group NOTED that the following meeting dates had been notified for 2016:-

21 April
19 May
11 August
11 November

The meeting ended at 3.10 pm.