Lynne O’Brien, Barnardos; I McLean, Bridgewater Housing Association; A McNiven, Engage Renfrewshire; S McLellan, RAMH; K Graham, Renfrewshire Wide Credit Union; and J Cram, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership.

A Clark, Create; A Fraser, Linstone Housing Association; J Wilby, Paisley West & Central Community Council; S Cruickshank, Renfrewshire Access Panel; and K Taylor, Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau.

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities Thematic Board held on 1 June 2016.

DECIDED:  That the Minute be approved.

The Rolling Action Log was submitted for approval.

DECIDED:  

(a)   That the updates be noted; and

(b)   That the Rolling Action Log be approved.

There was submitted a report by the Lead Officer which provided detail on the three year progress for the Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities Thematic Board element of the Local Outcome Improvement Plan.

The report indicated that Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership was committed to ensuring that resources were deployed wisely to achieve best value. An open and rigorous performance culture had been embedded within the partnership which promoted collective responsibility for achieving the outcomes. It was noted that clear accountability and reporting was an important aspect of the approach being taken.

Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities Thematic Board was responsible for delivering four outcomes of the Renfrewshire Community Plan 2013-2023, supported by ten performance indicators.  It was noted that of the ten indicators, eight were on track to be delivered successfully at the end of Year 3. One indicator had a “warning” impact measure status and one had an “alert” impact measure status, both of which required remedial action. The position with those indicators and remedial action being taken was outlined within the report.

The Forum For Empowering Communities had a significant number of key achievements to report in Year 3, including significant increases in the number of volunteers recruited and placed, action to improve local environments and significant engagement of the third sector in strategic partnership projects and programmes such as the Paisley bid for UK City of Culture 2021, Tackling Poverty and the establishment of the Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

The report also highlighted key areas of prevention in respect of the Forum for Empowering Communities Thematic Board element.

During discussion, S McLellan provided a brief overview of the new local authority living wage commitment which had been agreed in the local government settlement for 2016/17 and highlighted the impact of the commitment for the care sector.

He advised that the Scottish Government and Local Government had provided resources to contribute to the commitment for 2016/17 within the £250 million Health and Social Care monies. However, care providers in the public and voluntary sector were not consulted before ministers announced that they would be expected to meet 25 per cent of the cost of introducing the higher rate of pay for their staff.   He intimated that the increase could have an "eroding effect" on service provision.

He advised that discussions with the Council were helpful but it was still an ongoing issue. 

It was also noted that such a significant shift in policy for adult social care was likely to have a knock on effect on children’s services and L O’Brien indicated that she would provide an update for the Forum for a future meeting.

After discussion A McNiven intimated that it was important to track the development of this issue and a report should be brought back to a future meeting.

DECIDED:

(a)   That the Year 3 performance of impact measures against our targets be noted;

(b)   That it be agreed that the performance report be submitted to the meeting of Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership Board to be held on 21 September 2016; and

(c)   That a report be brought back to a future meeting of the Board which tracked the development of the living wage commitment.

There was submitted a report by the Chair of Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities Thematic Board (the Forum) relative to proposed content for a Renfrewshire Community Empowerment Toolkit.

The report advised that the Forum had proposed that a Renfrewshire Community Empowerment Toolkit be developed in order to assist community groups who were considering asset transfer, purchase of abandoned, neglected or detrimental land or participation requests.

At the Community Empowerment Community Planning Conference on 20 May 2016, community groups heard presentations on the Community Empowerment Act, the experience of community groups who had been involved in community planning arrangements and a national organisation supporting communities.  Some initial discussion took place at the conference regarding the views of local groups on implementation of the Act.  After the Conference an outline Toolkit was developed, a copy of which was attached as an appendix to the report, and Members were invited to discuss and comment on the proposed content and provide input on any sources of information for inclusion within the Toolkit.

DECIDED:

(a)   That the outline content of the proposed Community Empowerment Toolkit for be agreed; and

(b)   That it be agreed that the finalised toolkit would be submitted for approval to a future meeting of Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities.

A presentation was given by A McNiven in relation to the City of Culture Community Engagement workstream.

The presentation gave a brief overview of the ethos behind the UK City of Culture bid; detailed the anticipated processes and timescales; outlined the competition; highlighted some of the events that Paisley hosted; summarised the community engagement and participation work currently being undertaken; and drew attention to the vision and step changes that were being developed to articulate what they wanted to achieve from the delivery of UK City of Culture.

DECIDED:  That the presentation be noted.

A McNiven gave a verbal update on the progress of the Tackling Poverty Action Plan which was approved by Council and the Community Planning Partnership Board in June 2015.

DECIDED:  That the verbal update be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive of Engage Renfrewshire relative to feedback from the Renfrewshire Community Planning Conferences 2016 Regeneration Conference events.

The report advised that a programme of Community Planning Conference events focused on the Paisley UK City of Culture bid, Community Empowerment and Regeneration and took place between March and June 2016 at venues in Paisley, Johnstone and Renfrew.  Third sector organisations played a significant part in planning, supporting and presenting at events, which were well attended by communities in Renfrewshire.

The report noted that the feedback from the community planning conferences would be used to gather evidence of involvement to strengthen the UK City of Culture 2021 bid; influence the development of the bid and the implementation of the Community Empowerment Act in Renfrewshire; and assist with the way in which communities were engaged in the significant physical regeneration of Renfrewshire taking place over the next decade. 

Feedback from the final conference events held on the subject of Regeneration on 20 June 2016 were attached as an appendix.

Feedback reports from the members who had been present at the various Thematic Boards were submitted in respect of:

- Greener Renfrewshire Thematic Board;

- Jobs & the Economy Thematic Board;

- Safer & Stronger Renfrewshire Thematic Board;

- Children & Young People Thematic Board;

- Community Care Health & Wellbeing Thematic Board; and

- Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership Board.

DECIDED:  That the feedback be noted.

There was submitted a proposed timetable for meetings of the Forum for Empowering Communities Thematic Board for the period January 2017 to June 2017.

DECIDED:  That the timetable of meetings until June 2017 be approved.