Agendas, reports and minutes

Note of Meeting of the Chief Officers’ Group held in Committee Room 1, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Thursday 21 April 2016 at 11.00 am.
 
Present: 
 
Representing the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA):
Mr G Moir

Representing the Highland Council (HC):
Mr S Barron
Ms M Morris
Mr B Alexander
Mr S Black
Ms C Campbell
Ms A Clark

Representing Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE):
Mr J Gibbs

Representing the Highland Third Sector Interface (HTSI):
Ms M Wylie

Representing High Life Highland (HLH):
Mr I Murray

Representing NHS Highland (NHSH):
Ms D Jones
Ms C Steer

Representing Police Scotland (PS):
Ch Supt J Innes

Representing Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS):
Mr S Hay

Representing Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH):
Mr S Sandison

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

Ms M Murray, Committee Administrator, Corporate Development Service

Also in attendance:

Mr R Mair, CBE

Mr S Barron in the Chair

Business

Preliminaries

The Chair welcomed Ms A Clark, the Council’s Acting Head of Policy, and Mr J Gibbs, Area Manager – Inner Moray Firth, HIE, to their first COG.  He also welcomed Mr R Mair, who was in attendance to discuss the Commission on Highland Democracy.

He went on to pay tribute to Ch Supt J Innes, who was retiring on 12 May 2016 and had been an outstanding Divisional Commander and a great champion of joint working.

Ch Supt Innes responded in suitable terms and provided details of the Rock Challenge, one of the best examples of how partners had worked together and made something happen for young people.  From a Police perspective, it reduced drug and alcohol misuse, crime, truancy and bullying and, as the CPP went forward, it would be useful to try and capture that and better understand the implications for each partner agency.
 
1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr W Gilfillan, Mr D Yule, Ms C Wright, Ms E Mead, Dr H van Woerden, Mr J Pryce, Mr G Hogg and Mr M Devenney.
 
2. Chief Officers’ Group – Note of Meeting

The Note of Meeting of the Chief Officers’ Group held on 2 February 2016 had been circulated and was APPROVED.

Matters Arising

Item 4ix – the Director of Development and Infrastructure explained that Mr S Westbrook, Director of Economic Intelligence Unit, UHI, had attended a recent meeting of the Highland Economic Forum and given an update on some of the work previously undertaken on the potential impact of public sector cutbacks.
Item 4x – the Area Manager – Inner Moray Firth explained that HIE had been working with the Pace group with a view to holding an oil and gas event in May.  He undertook to liaise with the Director of Business and Sector Development regarding an economic analysis of the downturn and provide an update by email.
Item 5v – the Community and Democratic Engagement Manager explained that a report on Asset Transfer Requests had been presented to a recent meeting of the Communities and Partnerships Committee and a meeting was scheduled to take place with the Leader of the Council to discuss how to take it forward.  The Community Ownership Support Service was providing support to develop the policy and it was intended to bring together officers from the CPP early in May.
Item 7ii – the Director of Care and Learning explained that discussions would take place with Ch Supt J Innes with a view to putting Community Justice governance on the Safer Highland agenda.
Item 9i – the Area Manager - Service Delivery gave an update on the recruitment of retained firefighters, highlighting that, of 71 applicants to join the stations identified, 4 had come from partner agencies.  Work was also ongoing to identify how many existing firefighters were employed by partners and he would report on that at a future meeting.  The next phase of recruitment would commence in May/June 2016.  He would engage with partners’ media officers in that regard and encouraged partners to promote it. 
 
3. The Commission on Highland Democracy

The Council was in the process of establishing a Commission on Highland Democracy. This would build on the National Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy which published its findings in 2014, and would continue conversations locally about what kind of democracy was wanted in the Highlands.  Approximately 12-14 people would sit on the Commission and it would be independently chaired by Mr R Mair CBE, the former Chief Executive of COSLA and resident of the Highlands.  The circulated report, presented to the Council on 10 March 2016, set out the context for a Highland Commission and the sort of questions the Commission might wish to consider.  It was hoped that the Commission would be established by the end of May and would collect evidence for up to six months.

Mr R Mair addressed the Group, providing a detailed explanation of the drivers, remit, composition and timescale of the Commission, as well as the anticipated issues.

The Chair briefed the Group on the Redesign Board established by the Council to rethink how it prioritised and delivered services.  The end result was expected to be a better informed budget process between December 2016 and February 2017, followed by a report in March 2017 which, it was anticipated, would lead to a restructure of how the Council went about its business.  The Board, which comprised 16 Elected Members and was Chaired by the Convener, would meet fortnightly and engage widely with staff, partners, communities and people who had faced similar difficulties.  Ms C McDiarmid, Head of Policy and Performance, would work full-time to support it, hence Ms A Clark’s appointment as Acting Head of Policy.  Although the Board was a separate body with different terms of reference, it would have to be closely aligned with the Commission on Highland Democracy.

Following discussion, the Group NOTED:-

i. the report and that a Commission on Highland Democracy was in the process of being established; and
ii. the position regarding the Redesign Board established by the Council.
 
4. Audit Scotland Report: Community Planning - An Update

There had been circulated the Audit Scotland Report “Community Planning – An Update”.

The Chair summarised the key messages and recommendations and drew particular attention to paragraphs 49, 66 and 68.

Following discussion, the Group:-

i. NOTED the report, its findings and recommendations;
ii. AGREED that it would be helpful, when preparing the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan, to focus on a small number of achievable key priorities; and
iii. AGREED to feed back to the Scottish Government that the CPP would welcome greater input from its Location Director.
 
5. Implementing the Community Empowerment Act

i. Statutory Guidance and Regulations for the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015                                                                      

There had been circulated the Consultation on Draft Guidance and Regulations for Part 2 Community Planning of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

The Chair summarised the Guidance and drew particular attention to paragraphs 7-10, 46, 82 and 117-118.

Following discussion, the Group:-

i. NOTED the draft guidance and its implications for Highland;
ii. AGREED to feed back to HIE the need for Director level commitment on the COG and Director and Board level commitment on the Community Planning Board;
iii. AGREED that partners aim to draft individual responses to the Consultation by the COG on 19 May 2016 with a view to holding a workshop session to formulate a partnership response;
iv. AGREED that the CPP should also respond to the separate Consultations on the Draft Regulations for Asset Transfer and Participation Requests and that this would also be discussed on 19 May; and
v. noting that the Head of Policy and Reform was fully committed to the Council’s Redesign Board, AGREED that partners consider whether there was anyone within their organisation who could coordinate and refine the partnership responses.
  
ii. Local Community Planning Experiments – An Update           

There had been circulated Report No COG/06/16 dated 11 April 2016 by the Acting Head of Policy, Highland Council, which provided an update on how to progress local community planning experiments within the context of the community planning duties contained within the Community Empowerment Act along with duties contained within the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013.

Following discussion, during which statutory partners supported the model in the report and committed to attending the small working group, the Group:-

i. NOTED the discussions that had taken place to date in relation to taking forward local community planning experiments;
ii. NOTED the discussions with key groups that were required prior to finalising proposals for the June Board;
iii. AGREED that the small working group continue in order to develop the arrangements and self-assessment framework further and report back to the next COG.
iv. AGREED that, in terms of next steps, engaging with the Third Sector was fundamental; and
v. AGREED that it was necessary to clearly define the boundaries, infrastructure, remit and governance arrangements of the District Partnerships/local community planning partnerships.

iii. SEP Index – Targeting Partnership Action                              

There had been circulated Report No COG/07/16 dated 12 April 2016 by the Head of Health Inequalities, NHS Highland, and the Acting Head of Policy, Highland Council which provided an update on further work undertaken in relation to the SEP Index and recommended how to utilise this Index to target partnership action, including Locality Planning.

Following discussion, the Group AGREED:-

i. to recommend to the CPP Board, at its June meeting, that the SEP Index and the communities identified in Appendix 3 of the report be used to inform priorities for development of locality plans to meet the requirements of the Community Empowerment Act;
ii. that discussions take place with District Partnerships and any other relevant local structures to raise awareness of the SEP Index and consider its uses to tackle inequalities;
iii. to provide the Director of Care and Learning with a clean copy of the report to share with other authorities;
iv. that a detailed analysis of the data for Badenoch and Strathspey be undertaken and an explanatory paragraph included in the report to the June Board.
  
iv. Participatory Budgeting Update                                                

There had been circulated Report No COG/08/16 dated 12 April 2016 by the Acting Head of Policy which highlighted progress in the development of participatory budgeting (PB) in Highland.  It set PB in the context of the requirements of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, particularly the requirements to develop local democratic structures and involve communities in decision-making around resources.

In addition, the Community and Democratic Engagement Manager played a short DVD of a recent participatory budgeting event in Nairn.

Following discussion, the Group:-

i. NOTED the statutory requirement for public participation in decision-making, including resource allocation, and that statutory guidance on this Part of the Act was awaited;
ii. NOTED the arrangements for rolling out participatory budgeting across Highland;
iii. AGREED that partners consider how they might contribute to the participatory budgeting process; and
iv. AGREED to explore with the relevant bodies the possibility of an element of LEADER, National Lottery and SSE Wind Farm funding being allocated through participatory budgeting.
  
v. Taking forward the shared duty on Community Planning – feedback from Chief Executive discussions

The Chair explained that discussions had not yet taken place with other Chief Executives.  However, he took the opportunity to brief the Group on the staffing situation within the Council, highlighting that there had been a reduction of 341 staff as a result of the recent voluntary redundancy initiative as well as further reductions arising from agreed savings.

As previously advised, the Head of Policy and Reform would be working full-time to support the Redesign Board and he thanked her for her efforts and patience in supporting the CPP.  The Council was now in a different position in terms of the extent to which it could resource the COG and Board and it was an opportunity for at least the four other statutory partners to share the workload, which involved development of agendas, production of reports, following up decisions and collation of work for joint submissions.  It was suggested that partners identify a named person within their organisation.  Alternatively, partners could put in money to employ someone.  It was further suggested that organisations could take it in turn to take the lead.

Following discussion, the Group:-

i. NOTED the position and that all partners needed to do more to support the CPP; and
ii. AGREED that statutory partners identify a named person within their organisation to support the CPP.
  
6. Community Planning Improvement Programme – Final Report

There had been circulated Report No COG/09/16 dated 30 March 2016 by the Chief Officer, Highland Third Sector Interface, which explained that the Community Planning Improvement Process had now been completed and a Plan (appended to the report) had been drafted for consideration and adoption by the Highland CPP.

Following discussion, the Group:-

i. NOTED that Improvement 1 (CPP to develop a coordinated approach to community capacity building) sat with the CLD group and Improvement 2 (Increase understanding about the District Partnership and the CPP role) was underway and would resolve itself as local community planning experiments progressed;
ii. AGREED, in relation to Improvement 5, that “Engagement Strategy” was a more appropriate description than “Marketing Strategy”;
iii. AGREED to recommend to the Board that, subject to the revisions discussed, the overarching plan be agreed in principle and that the CPP focus on Improvements 3 (CPP to agree the long term vision in relation to the Third Sector Interface) and 5 (Develop an Engagement Strategy that informs the community about the roles and functions of the CPP that also takes account of rurality);
iv. AGREED, subject to agreement by the Board, to oversee the progression of the plan and commit staff resources to the improvement process.
 
7. City-Region Deal

The Director of Development and Infrastructure gave a presentation on the City-Region Deal covering the rationale; vision; Head of Terms agreement; funding package; projects; impact; leadership and governance; and next steps.  In that regard, there had been circulated, for information, a brochure and the Heads of Terms agreement.  A diagram setting out the local governance arrangements was tabled.

The Group NOTED the presentation.
 
8. Scottish Care Leavers Covenant

There had been circulated Report No COG/10/16 dated 8 April 2016 by the Director of Care and Learning, Highland Council, which explained that the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant had been produced by an alliance of children’s organisations as “a bold step to make the changes needed to give care leavers the bright and better future they deserve.”  It set out a cross-sector approach to implementation of Part 10 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, by supporting corporate parents to deliver changes in action and practice to bring consistency to entitlement and support to young people.

The Group AGREED to recommend to the Community Planning Board that it sign up to and endorse the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant.
 
9. Breakthrough Achievement – Social Isolation and Loneliness

At the Chief Officers’ Group on 2 February 2016, the Group had agreed that NHS Highland progress a piece of work on social isolation and loneliness and that consideration be given to what the breakthrough achievement would be.  In that regard, there had been circulated Report No COG/11/16 by the Head of Health Inequalities, NHS Highland.

The Head of Health Improvement explained that NHS Highland had started work on a campaign involving a pledge system to encourage individuals and organisations to commit to and record action to help reduce social isolation and loneliness.  When people registered they would be asked if they worked for a public sector organisation and, if so, which one.  She tabled a number of infographics that had been developed and explained that partners’ logos could be incorporated.

Following discussion, the Group AGREED to recommend to the Board that a breakthrough achievement for 2016/17 would be to sign up to a campaign that would see 1 in 3 staff in partner agencies sign a pledge to take action to reduce loneliness and social isolation.
 
10. Volunteer Week

The Chief Officer, Highland Third Sector Interface, gave a verbal update on Volunteer Week which, it was explained, would focus on getting new people involved in Third Sector governance.  It was highlighted that sitting on a Third Sector Board was an opportunity for junior members of staff in particular to expand their skill set.  Information would be circulated in due course and support was sought in terms of promoting the benefits for both staff and employers.  In addition, if partners had any ideas in mind for Volunteer Week, the HTSI could provide advice and support.

Following discussion, the Group AGREED:-

i. to promote the benefits of involvement in Third Sector governance, subject to clarification of the guidance relating to public sector staff becoming office bearers; and
ii. that the possibility of linking Volunteer Week with the campaign to reduce social isolation and loneliness be explored.
 
11. Future Agenda Items – Community Planning Board

The Group AGREED the following list of items for the Community Planning Board on 30 June 2016:-

•  Quarterly Progress Reports (Q4 2015/16) for all CPP themes
• Presentation on the Economy, including City-Region Deal
• The Commission on Highland Democracy
• Audit Scotland national report: Community Planning – An Update
• Implementing the Community Empowerment Act:-

           - Report(s) on partnership responses to Consultations on Draft Guidance and Regulations for a) Part 2 Community
             Planning; b) Asset Transfer Requests; and c) Participation Requests
           - Local Community Planning Experiments – An Update
           - SEP Index - Targeting Partnership Action
           - Participatory Budgeting Update

•  CPP approach to tackling fuel poverty
• Community Planning Improvement Programme
• Scottish Care Leavers Covenant
• Breakthrough Achievement – Social Isolation and Loneliness
• Syrian Refugees Update
• National Park Partnership Plan

 12. Future Agenda Items – Chief Officers’ Group

The Group AGREED the following list of items for the Chief Officers’ Group on 19 May 2016:-

• Workshop re partnership responses to Consultations on Draft Guidance and Regulations for a) Part 2 Community Planning; b) Asset Transfer Requests; and c) Participation Requests
• Local Community Planning Experiments – An Update
• National Park Partnership Plan
• Living Wage arrangements across the CPP
• 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

 It was further AGREED that the following item be deferred to a future meeting:-

• The Scope for a Salary Sacrifice Scheme for HLH Membership

 13. Future Meeting Dates

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

19 May
11 August
11 November

It was further NOTED that Mr G Moir would chair the meeting on 19 May.

The meeting ended at 2.55 pm.