Venue: via MS Teams
No. | Item |
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Welcome and Apologies (Joe McKay) Minutes: Joe welcomed everyone to
the meeting and apologies were noted. Joe advised that Marlene Baily and Laura
Evans are the Police Scotland Community representatives and Brian Gibson has
now retired. He welcomed the newly appointed Area Community Planning Group
(ACPG) Chairs and that it was great to see a youth member as the vice chair of
OLI ACPG. Joe gave special thanks to Joanna MacDonald for all her hard work and
efforts for leading outcome four of and also chairing the Child Poverty Group
on behalf of the CPP and wished her all the best in her new role. Joe also
welcomed Cllr Robin Currie to his first CPP MC meeting as Leader of the
Council. Joe encouraged new members to look at the online CPP Welcome Pack. (Welcome Pack for CPP) |
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Approval of last minutes and review of actions (Rona Gold) PDF 587 KB Minutes: Minutes
of the last meeting were approved as a true and accurate record of the meeting. Outstanding
actions were updated as follows:- Issue
of the national recovery report to CPP MC - action to be marked as complete as
this has been circulated to members. ACPG
format to ensure youth engagement - Discussion are ongoing with Rona and Stuart
McLean to consider and move forward on this. MAKI
membership update and attendance - Shona advised that the MAKI ACPG February meeting
discussed this and they agreed to issue a survey to partners to see what the
barriers are to attending meetings. Results expected to be presented to the
April/May meetings and a further update can provided as required by Shona to
the CPP MC. Partners
to forward details of all groups sitting under the 6 outcomes. Action - Rona
asked for responses by 19 March 21 with details of all the partnership groups
that sit under each outcome. |
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Cross Cutting Themes |
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Community Wealth Building (Samantha Somers) PDF 503 KB Minutes: Following on from the presentation on CWB to the
committee in December, Samantha gave an update on the work looking at what CWB
means and what is happening in Ƶapp, led by Fergus, Morag and Kirsteen.
Details of proposed workshops and attendees were including in the meeting pack.
After the workshops there will be a map created of what is happening which will
also identify any gaps. The committee was asked to input to the draft proposal.
Cllr Currie asked when the workshops will be held and if the wider community
was included and was advised that the dates had not yet be set and that some
community groups had been included in proposed attendees under each pillar. John felt it was important to have community
groups and youth represented in the workshops. Pippa agreed it would be helpful
to invite attendees from community groups, especially those involved in recent
community asset transfer / requests and community trusts. Kirsteen noted the
need for wider participation had already been raised by both herself and
Cathleen Russell at the previous meeting, and there is a need for much wider
community participation. Action - comments on inclusions to workshop attendees to be forwarded to
Samantha. Fergus added that Council
procurement have written a paper on CWB which is very informative and this
would be forwarded to the CPP. Action - Fergus to provide CWB paper to cppadmin to distribute to
committee. The proposal for 5 CWB workshops
was agreed, with the recommendation to look at wider participation. |
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Update on Child Poverty (Joanna MacDonald) Minutes: Joanna noted that the Child
Poverty Action Group (CPAG) last met on 17 February 21 and meets on a monthly
basis, at this meeting the priorities for the next 6 months were agreed, including
recovery from the pandemic and new work extending support for children and
young people, and an impact assessment on the plan has been completed. To
ensure the plan was informed there was close liaison between education, young
people, NHS, HSCP and the Local Authority. Joanna also noted delight at the
support received from the Poverty Alliance, led by Peter Kelly, and links to
the third sector that underpins this work. This outcome links to outcome 5 and
6 in relation to healthy, independent lives and safer stronger communities, aswell as the links to outcome 4 which Joanna Leads. The
CPAG are trying to link into work across the other outcomes. Joanna will provide the CPP with
the written handover being prepared for the new Chief Officer taking over from
her. In the interim, the outcome deputy will chair the CPAG. Joanna gave thanks
to Mandy Sheridan of Ƶapp Council for being a driving force
coordinating and moving the CPAG forward in positive way. Recruitment is
underway for a new project assistant for child poverty, which reflects the
ambition to meet requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child. Cllr Currie added that the
Council sees child poverty, and poverty, as a high priority. He said that
monies are now coming through from the Scottish Government to assist the
Council to take more action on this. Joanna said she is incredibly proud of the
work being done “behind the scenes” to make it easy to support people around
poverty in a dignified way, saying that there was great proactive work on this
within Ƶapp. |
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Update on Climate Change (Samantha Somers) Minutes: Samantha provided an update on
the Climate Change Working Group. They are creating an interactive web
directory showing climate change action around Ƶapp, and have been provided
a wealth of information on this from community groups and partners. The webpage
is scheduled to go live at end March. Samantha thanked partners for information
received so far and encouraged them to continue to forward examples to her,
noting the recent announcement by Argyll and the Isles Coast and Countryside
Trust (ACT) to establish a climate change hub in Blarbuie
and two satellite hubs in Bute and Cowal. ACT are keen to present to the committee on
this in the future. Joe added that the Fire Service have plans to install
electric charging points and solar panels in stations - so there is lots of
good work going on in the community. Action - Samantha to send link to partners to climate webpages once
live. Partners to forward examples of good climate change proactive work to
Samantha to include on website. Ian asked if the group was
looking at coastal erosion, as the last council study on this was in March
2015, stating concern that in coming years it is predicted that some areas on
the east of Kintyre and the B842 will be under threat from rising water. Fergus responded that coastal erosion is a
major concern for Ƶapp and that any sea level rise will impact our
communities and infrastructure adversely. Ƶapp Council are looking
at flooding impact action plans for towns and roads where they can and
highlighting the issue to the Scottish Government. This is a huge problem
nationally that needs addressed. Stan agreed with the scale of
problem. He advised of Adaptation plans being drawn up in the Western Isles and
that it would be useful to look at these.
Action - Samantha to contact Western Isles to access their plans to
inform the CPP MC. |
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Update on Digital Inclusion (Martin Turnbull) Minutes: An update was provided by
Samantha, on behalf of Martin Turnbull. In Ƶapp the response to
tackle digital exclusion has focussed on two projects - Connecting Scotland and
Digital Connections. Despite issuing a significant
number of devices there still remains a steady flow of requests for support. Via Connecting Scotland, national
programme, there have been 360 devices and “mifi”
packs issued. A further 19 devices and packs have been awarded by Connecting
Scotland to help meet the high levels of need. Digital Connections is a local
partnership project in Ƶapp run by Inspiralba.
It was established at the start of the pandemic to respond quickly to digital
needs. 220 refurbished devices have been purchased and over 150 devices donated
by the local community and businesses. There has also a been a healthy response
from the community and businesses to an appeal for devices that can then be
recycled and redistributed to families and individuals in need, and discussions
are at a very early stage in exploring the viability of developing a project
which will access and recycle end of use devices. More information on this
project is at Cllr Currie highlighted a range
of good news stories in the council budget that included setting up a fund of
£250,000 to tackle digital exclusion. The eligibility criteria to apply is
currently being worked on and news on this will be issued once finalised. |
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Matters Arising from Area Community Planning Groups (Stuart McLean) PDF 240 KB Minutes: Shona
noted her report which detailed discussion across the four ACPG meetings held
in February. These were held virtually and well attended. MAKI ACPG raised an
action to the CPP relating to youth engagement. Shona will advise MAKI ACPG
that this is already being taken forward by the CPP. Kirsteen noted the survey
taking place about partners ability to attend the MAKI ACPG meetings and
suggested a central calendar of all area partnership meetings would be useful
to prevent conflicting clashes in diaries for partners. Kirsteen also noted
that the updates for each committee can be similar and for those attending all
4 ACPGs they experience hearing the same messages repeatedly. She asked if
agendas can focus on local planning, updates and involvement of partners,
rather than standard updates. Alison agreed this was a really
important point for the CPP, as part of the recovery work involved a duty to
empower community planning groups to respond to local recovery agendas. Alison
would be happy to be involved in discussions to review how the ACPGs identify
priority areas for agendas. Shona said there are meeting with chairs and vice
chairs in advance of agenda setting for the next round of meetings in August
and that comments made would be taken on board to try to standardise agendas
with increased local content. Kirsteen
suggested creating a calendar of partnership meetings so the people who
attend almost all partnership meetings don’t get repeatedly invited to
clashing meetings on the same day. Kevin highlighted the importance
of the youth voice, and noted that the OLI ACPG vice chair is also part of the
local youth forum. Joe agreed it was great to have a diverse attendance at
ACPGs and that he would like to meet with the OLI vice chair to discuss her
views alongside those of the Members of Scottish Youth Parliament who are part
of the CPP Management Committee. Willie said he would be grateful
for any suggestions from partners on how to improve youth involvement in Dunoon
ACPG. Joe also asked if we can speak to the Council’s Community Learning on how
best to engage with young people. Shona confirmed that they are aware of this
and are preparing information to assist with this. Action - Rona to set up meeting for Joe, OLI vice chair and MSYPs on how to
involve youth in community planning.
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Update on Wild Camping (Fergus Murray) Minutes: Fergus noted how the pandemic
exacerbated issues that have been in existence for some time around wild
camping. A group has formed, including representatives from landowners, private
sector and council services, to develop an action plan identifying key matters
to take forward. A survey was also undertaken with over 150 responses received
from community trusts and individuals, which will be used to identify future
hotspots and how best to respond to those. The Council announced in the budget
a substantial fund to address the staycation pressures moving forward,
including the current recruitment of 4 wardens to supplement existing support
and provide resource to hotspots. Fergus added that a webpage is being
developed to inform and educate visitors and manage expectations of what is
available in the area and they are also linking that into social media channels
used by motorhome owners. Work is being undertaken with
partners and businesses looking at identifying a network of where waste
disposal points and fresh water can be obtained to ensure communities are not
overburdened. Working closely with the National Park, portaloos are to be
installed at Duck Bay that will be maintained by the Friends of Loch Lomond.
Permanent interventions include improvements to facilities in Tobermory and
Gigha. Fergus noted that this is a
critical period for preparations in the run up to lockdown easing, and latent
demand will undoubtedly put pressure on the area, especially as some tourism
and other local businesses have noted they will not open fully when
restrictions are eased. This will add more pressure to informal camping sites
despite the best efforts underway to mitigate this. Tourism provides support to
lots of other essential services in communities, and is hugely important to
Ƶapp - unemployment has doubled in the area due to lack of current
jobs in tourism. Ian asked if the strategy is
being broken into action for specific areas, or a general area wide approach.
Fergus advised the intention is to create a map with specific guidance for each
area identifying waste disposal, potable water etc. Cllr Currie added that he
has had discussion on this across all council areas and has information on
identified hot spots and the resolutions needed that he will share with Fergus.
He also noted the budget allocation to be utilised by the staycation
initiatives, providing facilities and marketing to visitors for the summer.
John wanted to recognise the fantastic work being done on this by Fergus and
his team and suggested the use of interactive apps could be explored to get the
information out and that motorhome suppliers could be contacted to get service
points updated to on-board satnavs. Fergus agreed that was useful and
confirmed they are exploring the use of social media channels and apps to share
information. Pippa wanted to emphasise the
tight timescales to put facilities in place for this season, and that some work
will roll into future years. There is the opportunity for community groups and
development trusts to align these plans with existing facilities. Pippa
encouraged them to engage with Fergus’s team on this, and to be aware that
although there is a need to ensure that communities have access to a range of
services across an area, not all services may be available in all areas in the
short term. |
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Update on A83 (Pippa Milne) Minutes: Pippa advised that there has been
a lot of work on the A83, with bunding and the reopening of some parts of the
trunk road, but the key focus is on provision of a permanent solution and maintaining
pressure on that. The Council Leader and local MSP have written to the Scottish
Government asking for that permanent solution to be delivered within next
parliament. The response to this is to be shared with the CPP. Pippa asked
partners to add their voice to this to maintain the pressure and get this
accelerated as much as possible. Fergus said that the uncertainty
around the A83 is challenging for area businesses as it is a vital trunk road.
He noted that Transport Scotland have been attending economic forum meetings
and they are to report back on options for short term mitigation to secure the
A83 is open as much as possible, and the delivery of a permanent solution. It
is expected that the government will announce the preferred option for this in
the next few weeks. Local business pressure groups also been formed as this is
a top priority for the local private sector. Willie thanked the Council for
the maintained pressure on Scottish Government as there have been a few recent
instances where the A83 has been closed, and ferry services stopped, literally
cutting Dunoon off. He welcomes any action to move this forward rapidly. He
added that the Old Military Road (OMR) is also in very poor condition. Cllr
Currie said the A83 is the main road into most of Ƶapp, the road to
23 islands, access to the western isles and large parts of highland area - it
is a major road. He felt if this was happening in the central belt a solution
would have been found. Ian asked when the last survey of the OMR had been
undertaken as it was unfit for purpose and in terrible condition. Shona said
the A83 has been discussed at the ACPG chairs and vice chairs meeting and Shona
has written to the Scottish Government looking for an updated response on the
A83. Action - Robin and Shona to share response to their letters to Scottish
Government via cppadmin. CPP partners
are then to write to Scottish Government regarding the permanent solution to
the A83. |
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Outcome 5 & 6 Updates - Healthy independent lives and safer stronger communities |
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Community Safety (Laura Evans and Sheena McLean) PDF 1 MB Minutes: Sheena spoke about the Community
Safety Strategy 2021-2023 which has been developed in partnership with Police
Scotland, who have lead responsibility for Outcome 6. The strategy will be
overseen by the Community Safety Partnership Tasking and Coordinating Group, an
unincorporated partnership of agencies and organisations with membership drawn
from the public sector, third sector, community organisations and partnerships
that have an interest in the Argyll & Bute Community Planning Partnership
Outcome 6: People Live in Safer and Stronger Communities. The strategy was
developed by consulting with members and the responses were collated to ensure
intelligence analysis informed the decision the theme and trends for 2021-
2023. Meetings are held at the end of
every quarter and the purpose of the group is to provide a forum where members
involved in the delivery of Outcome 6 and related community safety activities
can meet to exchange information and discuss matters relating to ongoing
community safety risks and good practices. Statistics will be collated and
analysed to identify any risk and improvements, and if necessary, ad hoc
specific meetings will be held to focus on any risk to the community. Laura advised the group is
chaired by Marlene Bailey, Police Scotland and the vice chair is Dave Graham,
Coastguard. The 5 main areas of concern identified are:
Laura advised that through
monitoring these measures, and increased membership, the aim is to reduce
offending, and they are keen for the CPP to approve the strategy and add value
to the existing work. John noted that the strategy is a
first class document, and expressed his major concern regarding the sharing of
indecent images of children and young people. The Police have seen a rise in
quarter 3 (reporting quarter) from 34 recorded crimes to 78, and a large number
of those involved those aged 10 to 15, which should be a major wake up call to
us all. John asked the press for support on getting messaging out on that and
said communication has gone out recently to parents. Pippa commended the innovative
partnership work being done on the strategy by Sheena and Laura, adding that it
was good to see in the delivery plan good outcome measures. Her only additional
comment was to add to the terms of objective: is it possible to get feedback
from communities on how safe they feel, and feedback from victims of domestic
abuse on how it was dealt with and the support available? Can we get sense of
the extent of those suffering abuse, and who are coming forward? John agreed
fully with Pippa’s comment, and highlighted there are a number of surveys
ongoing at the moment around how safe do you feel in community and interaction
with the Police, but it is right to consider something from the wider
partnership, victims and survivors of domestic violence. John noted that
although he reports on recorded incidents of a crime that is only a small
portion of what is going on. If people do not want to go to Police or social
services, how can we support third and voluntary sector if people wish to
report to them, and how we can work better with those organisations? John requested an amendment to
page 5 of the document, changing: “Our vulnerable groups are supported and
included” to read “Our communities are supported and included”. The CPP
approved the strategy with the minor amendment included. |
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Suicide Prevention Steering Group (Alison McGrory) Minutes: Alison noted that this matter
needs high level commitment and leadership. This was taken on by Joanna and CPP
support is sought to identify a new chair to replace her and maintain the momentum
on this group, which meets monthly, as a priority. CoSLA have identified 5 clear actions that are to be taken forward. These are
in the group action plan and sub groups have been set up to address each action
area. The overarching theme is “safer
community” and an existing app is being investigated to see if it can be
customised for Ƶapp citizens. Action - Any volunteer to take the lead on this please contact Rona.
Alison to send information to Rona to explain the role. |
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Covid 19 Impact and Building Back Better |
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Building Back Better as CPP cross cutting theme? (Rona Gold and Kirsteen Murray) Minutes: Kirsteen outlined the proposal to
have the Building Back Better (Communities) (BBB(C)) work stream into the CPP
as a cross cutting theme. The BBB(C) was originally set up to address the impact
and learning experienced by community groups and those in communities following
the initial Covid response, and to use that to
strengthen more resilient communities in the future. Six engagement sessions
were held with community groups involved in the response and also those members
of the community who experienced very challenging circumstances during the intial lockdown period. The outcome from these sessions was
priority themes that informed the creation of an action plan. The last meeting
of the group discussed next steps and felt that to be successful the work needs
real partnership effort, including across the area planning groups, and that it
this fits well as a cross cutting theme under the CPP. Rona added that this work does
not move out from the council overall recovery strategy, but recognises that
who we need to work with is best achieved via Community Planning. Fergus, as
Chair of the Argyll Recovery Group asked for clarification on how the
relationship between this work and the wider work on recovery themes would look
in the future. Rona responded that this was about making better links with
ACPGs and having conversations with communities to create improved
communication routes as part of the recovery strategy within the CPP. This is
based on conversations and feedback received from engagement with community
groups. Kevin asked for clarity on how
that will facilitate efficient communications and ideas when the CPP only meets
every 3 months, when recovery moving faster than that. Rona provided
reassurance that the BBB(C) working group meets fortnightly and that will
remain, and they will be reporting to the CPP, the recovery group of the
Council and ACPGs. Shona asked for clarification on how that will be taken
forward with APCGs as agendas are already agreed for April/May. Rona noted that
the ACPGs action plans are due for revision and in the discussions for revising
the plans the recovery from Covid will be included. Action - Rona and Shona to meet to plan out how to work into ACPG plans. |
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Joint strategic needs assessment highlighting impact of Covid (Sarah Griffin) Minutes: Sarah gave a presentation on her
analysis looking at the impact of Covid. She noted
that the data was produced in December but as new evidence is emerging updates would
be needed. Sarah was asked to look at this by the HSCP to revise their
strategic joint needs assessment to identify health and social care needs in
the population of Ƶapp, taking into account the impact of Covid 19 using the Scottish Government framework to look at
the “4 Harms” of Covid 19 - direct impacts, other
health impacts, societal impacts and economic impacts. Included in the presentation is
data showing the rolling 7 day rate of confirmed cases in Ƶapp lower
than the Scotland averages, and the evidence around long Covid
is still emerging (10% expectation of cases). Sarah noted how the impact on
health and social care provision has included reduced visits to GPs, A&E
and Out of Hours service, reduction in emergency and planned admissions to
hospital, reduction in outpatients, reduction in cancer diagnosis and reduction
in cardiovascular services. Societal impacts have been enormous due to school
closures, increased online abuse of youth, increased domestic violence against
women and girls, and the impact of shielding and loneliness and increased
inequalities for vulnerable groups. However, support for community resilience
has increased. Joe thanked Sarah for
her very interesting presenting. John also thanked Sarah for her valued
presentation and requested that it be sent to members of the CPP. ACTION - cppadmin to share the presentation slides to CPP MC. |
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Social Mitigation (Alison McGrory) Minutes: Alison advised that the Social
Mitigation strategy is going to the NHS Highland Board at the end March and
this will be shared in due course. In normal times this would focus on the delivery
of health and wellbeing and prevention of problems before they arise. The
social determinants of health, occupation and housing are all tied up with
health outcomes so the key outcomes in the strategy include income
maximisation, education, child poverty, improving mental health, person centred
work and building capacity in communities. She added that it is important to
empower communities to support this and the strategy has overlaps with the
Building Back Better objectives discussed earlier. Willie asked about the provision
of proof that you have received a vaccine. Alison advised that decisions on
that sat at a very high level in UK and Scottish Governments and that it was
not a matter within the remit of the CPP. |
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Promotion and consideration of Gaelic (Cristie Moore) PDF 243 KB Minutes: Cristie
submitted a paper to the committee on her remit to promote and support the
growth of Gaelic in Ƶapp and to deliver the Gaelic Gathering, which has
a first planning meeting on 11 March. If you would like to get touch with
Cristie, sign up to the Gaelic newsletter or share what you are doing around
Gaelic, you can contact her at cristie.moore@argyll-bute.gov.uk. Cllr Currie said he would like to have sight
of what all the partners in CPP are doing to promote Gaelic and to identify any
areas of overlap and where assistance can be provided from a combined resource.
Joe noted that development of Gaelic is supported by SFRS and Martin would be
keen to share the UHI Gaelic Plan to see how it fits with Cristies
work. Rona advised that Cristie will be in post for 18 months and that the
remit includes support to community planning partners. Action - Partners are asked to
share information on their Gaelic plans to cppadmin and any items for the
Gaelic newsletter to Cristie. |
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AOCB Minutes: Rural Growth Deal - Derek McCrindle
noted the good news in the recent UK Budget announcement to accelerate the
rural growth deal payments and asked how future discussion could support this.
Pippa responded to advise that a lot of the deals were originally over 15
years, and it was good news that these are now to be delivered over 10 years.
She added that there is nothing that partners can do at the moment as the focus
is to develop the business cases which will take a year to 18 months to
complete. |
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CPP Bulletin (Nicola Reaney) Minutes: CPP
Bulletin - Nicola thanked partners for the
good news stories already submitted for inclusion in the CPP Bulletin and
encouraged further submissions of content from partners. Nicola noted that she
will email the committee members to ask for feedback and suggestions on how we
can continue to improve the bulletin. Action - Nicola to email members for feedback on CPP Bulletin. |
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Close Minutes: Joe added thank all committee
members for their input and support papers and advised the next meeting will be
held on 30 June 2021 at 10.00 via MS teams. |