Agendas, reports and minutes

Note of Meeting of the Chief Officers’ Group held in Committee Room 1, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Thursday 2 February 2017 at 2.00 pm.
 
Present:

Representing the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA):
Mr G Moir

Representing the Highland Council (HC):
Mr S Barron
Mr B Alexander
Ms A Clark

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

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

Representing High Life Highland (HLH):
Mr J Martin

Representing NHS Highland (NHSH):
Ms C Steer

Representing Police Scotland (PS):
T/Supt C Gough

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

Representing the Scottish Government (SG):
Ms D Mackinnon

Representing Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH):
Mr G Hogg

Representing Skills Development Scotland (SDS):
Ms S Campbell

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

In attendance:

Ms C McDiarmid, Head of Policy and Reform, Highland Council
Mr S Dalgarno, Development Plans Manager, Highland Council
Ms R Barbour, Graduate Planner, Highland Council
Miss M Murray, Committee Administrator, Highland Council

Mr S Barron in the Chair

Business

Preliminaries

The Chair welcomed Ms D Mackinnon, Deputy Director and Head of Local Government, Scottish Government, who had recently taken over from Jonathan Pryce as Location Director for Highland.  Ms Mackinnon summarised her role and indicated her intention to become actively involved and establish a support team at Longman House, Inverness.  She would be meeting with key politicians with an interest in the area and suggested that it might be useful to have one to one meetings to get to know community planning partners and their remits.  Contact details would be provided at the end of the meeting.

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Ms M Morris, Mr S Black, Mr W Gilfillan, Mr I Murray, Mrs J Baird, Dr H van Woerden and T/Ch Supt Philip MacRae.

2. Chief Officers’ Group – Note of Meeting

The Note of Meeting of the Chief Officers’ Group on 11 November 2016 was APPROVED.

In relation to item 2 and the schedule for providing support to the Board and COG, T/Superintendent C Gough explained that discussions had taken place with Assistant Chief Constable A Cowie and T/Chief Superintendent P MacRae, both of whom saw the matter of Police Scotland chairing the Board as a local divisional issue and were content that it would be managed as such.

The Group NOTED the position.

3. Community Planning Board – Minutes and Action Sheet

The draft Minutes and Action Sheet of the Community Planning Board held on 16 December 2016 were NOTED.

There were no matters arising.

4. West Highlands and Islands Local Development Plan and Action Programme

There had been circulated Report No COG/01/17 by the Development Plans Manager, Highland Council, which presented the West Highland and Islands Proposed Local Development Plan (WestPlan) for consideration, endorsement, and referral to the CPP Board.  The Group was asked to consider the outcomes that the plan sought to address, the implications of the plan for services provided by all CPP partners and the actions for delivering the plan collaboratively.  Particular areas for coordinated action in the plan were:

• a major economic development opportunity at Fort William following the recent acquisition of the Rio Tinto Smelter Site, and
• a major refurbishment and expansion of the Kishorn Yard.

Following discussion, particularly in relation to the opportunities, risks and challenges associated with the acquisition of the smelter site in Fort William, the Group:-

i. AGREED the key elements of the proposed West Highland and Islands Local Development Plan (WestPlan) outlined in section 2 and Appendices 2 and 3 of the report;
ii. AGREED that further discussions take place on respective partners’ roles in collaboratively delivering the WestPlan, particularly the areas for coordinated action, to inform the contents of the Action Programme.  In particular, it was AGREED that further discussions take place with SNH on specific aspects including the Alcan Estate, Kishorn and the potential housing allocation at Staffin, and that Marie Law, District Manager, be included in any further discussions regarding NHS infrastructure/service requirements in Lochaber;
iii. AGREED that the finalised Action Programme be referred to the CPP Board for approval alongside the proposed WestPlan document;
iv. NOTED the next steps for preparing and delivering the Local Development Plan; and
v. NOTED that there would be ongoing discussions regarding the potential service implications associated with the acquisition of the smelter site in Fort William and that partners could contact the Development Plans Manager if they wished to be involved.

The Group AGREED to consider item 6 at this stage.

6. Feedback – Additional COG on 25 January 2017

The Acting Head of Policy, Highland Council, gave a verbal update on the additional COG held on 25 January 2017 in conjunction with Community Partnership Chairs/lead officers.

Feedback from the meeting was that the use of language was important and documentation needed to be less focused on the needs of partner organisations and readily understood by communities.  In addition, clarity was required in terms of what the COG and Board expected from Community Partnerships and the relationship between the three groups.  It had also been suggested that consideration be given to a further development day, which related to item 5 on the agenda.

There had been a number of suggestions as to how to improve the Toolkit for Community Partnerships, which would be updated accordingly and circulated.  In addition, discussion had taken place on the CPP website, the structure of which was now in place, and a link would be circulated so that partners could review and populate their relevant sections.

Following discussion, particularly on the potential format of a further development day, the Group:-

i. NOTED the update; and
ii. AGREED to support a further development day for Community Partnerships.  In particular, it was AGREED that there might be merit in a practical session on engagement and contributions from other CPPs so that Chairs/partners could learn from what was working well in other areas.

5. Supporting More Community Action

There had been circulated Report No COG/02/17 by the Head of Policy and Reform, Highland Council, which explained that, at its meetings in May and August 2016, the COG had provided views to inform the work underway to redesign Highland Council.  It had also attended and supported the event with community bodies in November 2016, “Redesigning for Community Action”.  The report shared the feedback from that event and invited partners to consider how best to co-design the best possible future in community action and community planning.

In addition to the report, the Head of Policy and Reform tabled notes for discussion, both on the infrastructure requirements that had been identified for supporting more community action/community-run services and on the idea of a Community Gateway to provide a support or brokerage service for community bodies.

Following discussion, both on the form a Community Gateway might take and the Government’s offer of supporting a U.Lab event in Highland as a way of supporting the changes in the CPP, especially the emerging Community Partnerships, the Group:-

i. NOTED the feedback from the event on supporting more community action;
ii. AGREED to sign up to the concept of a Community Gateway/Bridge and that the Head of Policy and Reform work with the previously established Community Gateway/Small Grants Subgroup to develop the idea further, taking into account the points raised during discussion, and report back to a future meeting of the COG;
iii. given that there was not a consensus behind the model, AGREED not to take up the Government’s offer of supporting a U.Lab event in Highland and that further consideration be given to the development of Community Partnerships.

7. Developing the Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP) – Update

There had been circulated Report No COG/03/17 by the LOIP Subgroup which explained that the November 2016 Chief Officers Group and December 2016 CPP Board had considered a development plan for producing a LOIP by October 2017.  This was a requirement for CPPs under the Community Empowerment Act and would replace the SOA.  The report provided an update on taking the LOIP forward in Highland and set out a proposed structure for engaging with Highland communities as part of the development process.  

Following discussion on the merits or otherwise of the approach set out in the report, the Group AGREED that further work be undertaken to develop a short set of high level strategic outcomes that would then form the basis of engagement with communities.

8. Review of Purpose and Role of COG

The Chair explained that, in light of the new arrangements and development of Community Partnerships, it had been agreed to review the purpose and role of the Chief Officers’ Group.  The review demanded that some obvious questions and opportunities be addressed, including how the CPP best delivered its potential; how to recognise community empowerment and local democracy within CPP structures; how to make sense of an expanded membership, including the concept of core members and ad hoc members for specific issues; how to avoid duplication of attendance and business at the COG and the Board; how the COG supported Community Partnerships; and how to address the remit and synergy potential of the theme groups.  To aid discussion, a graphic was tabled which showed the range and complexity of the current arrangements.

Following discussion, the Group AGREED that:-

i. for an interim period of one year, the purpose and role of the COG should be defined in four ways:

1. a catalyst and support for Community Partnerships;
2. an engine for the Community Planning Board – its “action arm”;
3. to simplify/modernise the thematic groups; and
4. to collaborate on emerging issues;

ii. following the interim period, once Community Partnerships were active and effective, the role of the COG be further reviewed and redefined; and
iii. a short paper seeking agreement of the above principles be presented to the Board on 15 March 2017.

9. Future Agenda Items

The Group AGREED the following:-

Community Planning Board – items proposed for 15 March 2017

• Active Highland Strategy Update
• Breakthrough Achievements Update
• West Highlands and Islands Local Development Plan and Action Programme
• Purpose and Role of Chief Officers’ Group
• Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP) Update
• Overview of Economic Outlook
• Community Justice Plan
• Delivering Partnership Outcomes - Quarterly Progress Reports (Q3 2016/17) for all CPP themes

Chief Officers’ Group – items proposed for 26 April 2017

• Potential impacts of the vote to leave the European Union and any contingency plans partners may have in response
• Development of Community Gateway/Community Access to Small Grants
• Improving access for older people to reduce isolation, promote inclusion and maintain good health and wellbeing (transport as part of the solution, report from Older People’s Improvement Group and consider HITRANS as a member of the CPP)
• Presentation: Modern Apprenticeship Expansion
• Regional Skills Assessment and School Leaver Destinations
• Collaborative paper on COG work to support Community Partnerships

In relation to the Board on 15 March 2017, the Chair highlighted that Elected Member input might be limited as purdah commenced on 13 March.

The Group NOTED the position.

10. Future Meeting Dates

The Group NOTED that the next meeting was scheduled to take place at 2.00 pm on Wednesday 26 April 2017 in Committee Room 1, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, and that dates for the remainder of the year would be arranged in early course.

The meeting ended at 4.40 pm.