A McNiven, Chief Executive, Engage Renfrewshire.

M Mathieson, Barnardos; K Taylor, CAB; A McNiven, Engage Renfrewshire; J Wilby, Paisley West & Central Community Council; S Cruickshank, Renfrewshire Access Panel; and N Hansen, ROAR.

K McIntyre and S Miller (both Engage Renfrewshire); L Ritchie, LEAP; F Capaldi, Police Scotland; S McLellan, RAMH; S Graham, S Tkacenko and C MacDonald (all Renfrewshire Council); R Robertson, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership; N Hughes, Save the Children; and M Gallagher, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

A Clark, Create; S Duncan, Leap; and L Devine, Save the Children.

There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities Group held on 21 March 2018.

DECIDED:    That the Minute be approved.

DECIDED:  There were no matters arising from the previous Minute.

The Rolling Action Log was submitted for approval.

DECIDED:

(a)  That actions RF.27.02.15(5) and RF.09.02.16(4) be removed from the Action Log as they were now complete; 

(b)   That the updates be noted; and

(c)   That the Rolling Action Log be approved.

F Capaldi, Police Scotland gave a verbal presentation in relation to how Police Scotland tackled crime within our community. He highlighted murder and violence statistics; outlined the current status of the drugs scene within Renfrewshire; and detailed some of the current scams that older people were experiencing.

Discussion took place in relation to the Forum contributing to the intelligence network and assisting with community cohesion.

DECIDED:   That the verbal presentation be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the Year of Young People 2018 (YOYP2018)

The report advised that the meeting of the Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership Executive Group held on 26 March 2018 agreed that each partner organisation would identify a Champion within their own organisation for the YOYP2018 and collate information relating to this activity.

The report proposed that Renfrewshire Forum for Empowering Communities nominate a Champion to celebrate the contribution of young people to the third sector.






It was proposed that the Forum itself would act as Champion for the third sector with information being collated relating to: activities taking place within organisations; how young people were listened to within their organisations; how organisations were celebrating YOYP2018; what arrangements were in place for young people to be Board Members of third sector organisations; and what activities were being co-ordinated by other third sector organisations.  This was agreed.

DECIDED:

(a)   That it be agreed that the Forum would be YOYP2018 Champion for the third sector;

(b)   That it be agreed that Members of the Forum provide information on activities taking place within their organisations to celebrate YOYP2018;

(c)  That it be agreed that Members of the Forum provide information on how young people were listened to within their organisations, including arrangements for young people to be Board Members; and

(d)  That it be agreed that information be collated on the wider third sector in Renfrewshire on how they were celebrating YOYP2018 and that this information be included within the overall activity of partners within Renfrewshire.

N Hansen, ROAR spoke to the Forum about older people’s wellbeing and staying mobile and connected. She indicated that consultation had consistently highlighted transport and meeting places as barriers.  She also advised that it had taken a long time for older peoples’ health/falls and community safety to be recognised as important within other organisations but hoped that the Forum would assist with disseminating information and sharing good practice.  She outlined the six public health priorities set out by the Scottish Government and COSLA to improve the health of the population and to reduce the unacceptable variation in life expectancy that existed across Scotland. 

There then followed a general discussion.  The Forum agreed that it was important that housing associations were involved in the discussion.  It was proposed that the Forum would raise the issue within the Community Planning structure and submit a report to a future meeting detailing examples of good practice within other organisations in relation to older people’s wellbeing.
 
DECIDED:

(a)   That it be agreed that the topic of older peoples’ health/falls and community safety be raised as an issue within other groups of Renfrewshire Community Planning;

(b)   That it be agreed that a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Forum detailing examples of good practice in relation to older people’s wellbeing; and

(c)   That the verbal presentation be noted.

The Partnerships Planning & Development Manager gave an update on the progress of the Local Governance Review.

DECIDED:   That the verbal update be noted.

Under reference to Item 8 of the Minute of the meeting of the Forum for Empowering Communities Group held on 21 March 2018 there was submitted a joint report by Engage Renfrewshire and the Chief Executive’s Service, Renfrewshire Council relative to the Community Empowerment Action Learning Programme.

The report indicated that the Improvement Service and Scottish Community Development Service had supported community planning partnerships to develop community empowerment and engagement by facilitating a two-day action learning workshop which took place February and May 2018.

The report advised that information which had been collated from the Forum For Empowering Communities Group meeting held on 21 March 2018 had helped shape input to the second Action Learning Set session.  It was noted that discussion during the second session had been structured around what communities said community planning partnerships were doing well or could improve upon and emerging themes about what enabled/hindered good community practice.  It was noted that the output from the workshop session would be circulated to all community planning partnership organisations to provide an information source regarding good practice and challenges in community empowerment and participation.

Following the Action Learning Set workshop, it was agreed that the Renfrewshire attendees would follow up discussions with colleagues from Inverclyde, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnerships in order to inform planning of future community engagement work.

DECIDED:

(a)   That the content of the Action Learning Set workshop and arrangements for circulation be noted; and
 
(b)   That it be noted that further action would be carried out on behalf of the Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership to inform community engagement.

The Community and Partnerships Manager, Engage Renfrewshire advised that during March 2018 Big Lottery Scotland had awarded £1 million to a collaborative bid between Dartington Service Design Lab, Renfrewshire Council, Engage Renfrewshire and third sector partners for a project to improve emotional health and wellbeing and address issues around coercive relationships during adolescence.  She advised that this was a three-year project which aimed to support work which prevented problems from occurring rather than just dealing with the consequences.

A core element of the Early Action System Change initiative was working with children, young people, families and communities to design a system of services that supported prevention and early intervention to improve emotional well-being and healthy adolescent relationships.  Members were advised that an information session would be held on 20 August 2018 at the offices of Engage to outline the aims of the initiative and to detail how partners could get involved in the design and development phase.

DECIDED:   That the verbal update be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the timetable of meetings for the Forum for Empowering Communities Group for the period September 2018 to December 2019.

DECIDED:   That the timetable of meetings from September 2018 to December 2019 as indicated within the report be agreed.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Forum for Empowering Communities Group was scheduled to be held on Monday 3 September 2018 at 2.00pm.