Agendas, reports and minutes

Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Education, Children and Adult Services Committee held in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Friday, 18 November 2016 at 9.30 am.

Present:

Highland Council:

Ms C Caddick, Mrs I Campbell (Vice Chair), Miss J Campbell (Substitute), Mr A Christie, Dr I Cockburn (Substitute), Mrs M Davidson, Mr M Finlayson, Mr H Fraser, Mr S Fuller, Mr K Gowans, Mr A Graham, Mrs D Mackay, Mr W Mackay (video conferencing), Mr G MacKenzie, Mrs B McAllister, Mr D Millar (Chair), Mrs M Paterson, Mr M Rattray, Mr G Ross, Ms J Slater, Ms K Stephen

Religious Representatives:

Ms M McCulloch 
 
Youth Convener:

Mr C Maclennan 
 
Non-Members also present:

Mr R Balfour, Mr A Baxter, Mr G Coghill, Mr B Fernie, Mr J Gray, Mr M Green, Mr D Kerr, Mr R Laird, Mrs L MacDonald, Ms L Munro, Mr M Reiss, Mr J Stone
 
In attendance:

Mr B Alexander, Director of Care and Learning
Ms I Murray, Commissioning Officer, Care and Learning Service
Mr M Mitchell, Finance Manager, Finance Service
Ms M Wylie, Third Sector Interface
Miss J MacLennan, Democratic Services Manager, Corporate Development Service
Miss J Greene, Administrative Assistant, Corporate Development Service

An asterisk in the margin denotes a recommendation to the Council.  All decisions with no marking in the margin are delegated to the Committee.

Mr D Millar in the Chair

Business

The Committee AGREED to suspend Standing Order 20 to allow Agenda item 3 to be re-considered.

1. Apologies for Absence
    Leisgeulan

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr B Gormley, Mr A MacLean, Mrs F Robertson and Mr G Smith.

2. Declarations of Interest
    Foillseachaidhean Com-pàirt

The Committee NOTED the following declarations of interest:-

Item 3 – Mr A Baxter, Mrs I Campbell, Dr I Cockburn, Mr M Green, Mrs B McAllister, Mrs L MacDonald, Mr G MacKenzie, Mrs M Paterson, Mr G Ross (all non-financial) and Mr K Gowans (financial and non-financial)

3. 3rd Sector Culture and Leisure Funding 
    Maoineachadh Spòrs agus Cultair an 3mh Raoin

The following Members declared non-financial interests in this item but, having applied the test outlined in Paragraphs 5.2 and 5.3 of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, concluded that their interests did not preclude their involvement in the discussion:-

Mr A Baxter – Parent of two pupils at Lochaber Music School
Mrs I Campbell - Board Member of Strathpeffer Pavilion
Dr I Cockburn – Board Member of Ullapool Museum and Member of Wester Ross Sports Council
Mr K Gowans – Director of High Life Highland
Mr M Green – Director of Nairn Community Centre and High Life Highland
Mrs B McAllister – Member of Highland Disability Sport and Inverness Area Sports Council
Mrs L MacDonald - Director of Nairn Community Centre
Mr G MacKenzie – Board Member of Puffin Pool
Mrs M Paterson – Member of Puffin Pool
Mr G Ross – Member of Highland Disability Sport

Mr K Gowans also declared a financial interest on the basis that his wife was an employee of High Life Highland but, having applied the test outlined in Paragraphs 5.2 and 5.3 of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, concluded that his interests did not preclude his involvement in the discussion.

There had been circulated Report No ECAS/73/16 dated 9 November 2016 by the Director of Care and Learning providing an overview of the decision-making involved in determining the allocation of funding for 3rd sector Culture and Leisure based on the agreed Council priorities.

The Chair drew attention to the Council’s focus around health and wellbeing and services for children and confirmed that the Sub Group, in considering the allocation of funding to 3rd sector Culture and Leisure groups, had taken this into consideration.  Furthermore, there had been unanimous support to protect facilities in rural areas. As a consequence, there had been limited amounts available to disperse to the remainder of the organisations. The Sub Group had therefore sought to maximise funding by ring-fencing money for Adult Learning, Village Halls and, in regard to sport development, for Sport Councils.

In regard to the recommended allocations for funding, it was explained that discussions were taking place with Youth Highland concerning their allocation and it was hoped that some backroom support could be provided to them to help mitigate the impact. The offer of this assistance had still to be considered by the Youth Highland Board so the Committee were therefore asked to defer determination until these negotiations had been completed.

In addition, and whilst funding for 2017/18 for the Aviemore Highland Resort was in place, their contract to provide swimming pool facilities in the Badenoch and Strathspey area was due to finish at the end of 2016/17 and therefore, at this stage, their funding allocation for 2018/19 needed to be removed.

During discussion, the following issues were raised:-

• the discussions with Youth Highland were welcomed and it was hoped that the Chair would be able to advise on how these were progressing at the Council meeting on 15 December 2016, bearing in mind that these discussions could potentially affect the remainder of the budget available for 2017/18 and 2018/19;
• the decision to reduce 3rd sector funding had been taken in December 2014 and, in recognising the uncertainty this had caused for organisations, it was suggested that a short life Working Group should be established to examine how the Council could support the 3rd sector on a more equitable and fair footing in the future. In welcoming this proposal, there was consensus that support for the 3rd sector cut across all Services and a corporate approach needed to be considered;
• assurances were sought that High Life Highland was simply being used as a conduit to allocate grants to Sports Councils. In this regard, and while the proposal was to ring-fence money for sports development, it was suggested that Sports Councils themselves were best placed to decide how funding should be spent;
• an update was sought as to the discussions which had taken place with Nairn Community Centre and in this regard it was confirmed that Officers had met with them to discuss a possible business plan. In this respect, assurances were given  that the Centre’s funding would continue until November 2017;
• following on from the above, it was also highlighted that Nairn Sports Club would not receive any funding and it was felt that Nairn was therefore losing out on funding completely;
• it was suggested that in future a process similar to that currently followed by the Inverness Common Good Fund Grants Sub-Committee should be used and that it would perhaps be better to devolve the allocation of grants to Ward level where local knowledge could be taken into consideration. This would also provide an opportunity to drive forward local arrangements and encourage community empowerment;
• assurances were sought that the Council would assist those organisations detrimentally affected in finding alternative sources of funding;
• there was a need to recognise that the Council was facing further cuts in the region of £40-70m over the next 2-3 years and, whilst any decision reached on 3rd sector funding for 2018/19 would give a degree of certainty to these organisations, this might be subject to further amendment; and
• there was general appreciation that Members had now been given the opportunity to re-examine this issue and to reflect on it in more detail. As such, it had to be acknowledged that the process had initially lacked clarity and some of the decisions taken might have been better addressed at Strategic Committee level given the subsequent impact. It was also essential in future the criteria was clearly set out with a scoring system in place from the outset.

Thereafter, the Chair, seconded by Mr G Ross, MOVED the recommendation within the report that High Life Highland should allocate money to Sports Councils for sport development.

As an AMENDMENT, Mr A Christie, seconded by Mr A Graham, moved that the money proposed to be allocated to High Life Highland for sports development should instead be re-allocated to Sports Councils.

On a vote being taken, the MOTION received 11 votes and the AMENDMENT received 11 votes, with no abstentions, the votes having been cast as follows:-

For the Motion:
Mrs I Campbell, Miss J Campbell, Mrs M Davidson, Mr M Finlayson, Mr H Fraser, Mrs M McCulloch, Mr C Maclennan, Mr W MacKay, Mr D Millar, Mr M Paterson and Mr G Ross.

For the Amendment:
Mr A Christie, Mrs C Caddick, Dr I Cockburn, Mr S Fuller, Mr K Gowans, Mr A Graham, Mrs B McAllister, Mr G MacKenzie, Mr M Rattray, Mrs J Slater and Ms K Stephen.

There being an equality of votes, the Chair exercised his casting vote in favour of the MOTION which was therefore carried.

Decision

The Committee AGREED:-
 
Notice of Amendment i. the funding allocations for 3rd sector culture and leisure services as detailed in the report, subject to the funding for Youth Highland being deferred and the funding for Aviemore Highland Resort for 2018/19 being removed; and
* ii. the establishment of a short life Working Group in consultation with Group Leaders to review the process for the funding of 3rd sector organisations in the future.

The meeting concluded at 10.30 am.