S Quinn, Director of Children’s Services and J Dougall, Head of Head of Health & Social Care (West Renfrewshire), Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership.

J McLaughlin, DWP; K McIntyre, Engage Renfrewshire; M Gilligan, Skills Development Scotland; S Quinn, O Reid and R Cooper (all Renfrewshire Council); F Burns, L Mullen, and J Dougall (all Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership); Chief Inspector D Falconer, Police Scotland; and S Graham, West College Scotland.

S McLellan RAMH; F Watson, Renfrewshire Leisure; S Graham and T Slater (both Renfrewshire Council).

H Cunningham, Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership.

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

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of the Improving Life Chances Group held on 5 September 2019.

DECIDED:  That the Minute be approved.

There were no matters arising.

The Rolling Action Log was submitted for approval.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the updates be noted; and

(b)  That the Rolling Action Log be approved.

K McIntyre, Community & Partnership Manager, Engage Renfrewshire gave a verbal update on the three-year System Change Initiative to promote young people’s emotional wellbeing and address emotional coercive control in adolescent relationships.

The update advised that Phase 2 of the project had been ready to start, however, due to uncertainty following the announcement of the Right for Renfrewshire programme, this had been put on hold until a proposal could be submitted to the National Lottery by February 2020 to provide reassurances in terms of the Council’s commitment to the initiative.

F Watson, Sport & Health Services Manager, Renfrewshire Leisure, gave a verbal update on the Active Schools Survey.

The update advised that information for October to December was currently being collated; that they had been working closely with schools in relation to potential initiatives and the collation of data for analysis; that feedback forms had been improved; and that the development of an online survey was being considered.

There was discussion on how involvement in sport and other activities improved a child’s life chances and how partners could work together to encourage and sustain children and young people’s participation in activities, together with encouraging volunteers to support clubs.

M Gilligan, Skills Development Scotland gave a presentation relative to the current and future skills demand within Renfrewshire.

The presentation provided statistical information for Renfrewshire in relation to the economy, the current demand for skills, skills shortages and gaps, population forecast, future job opportunities and the future demand for skills.

It was noted that Renfrewshire had strong opportunities in relation to population growth and innovation and investment through the City Deal initiative.  However, there was a need to be mindful that people were not left behind.  It was also noted that, although Renfrewshire had higher than average employment, it had lower than average salaries.

DECIDED:  That the presentation be noted.

There was submitted a report by J Dougall, Head of Health and Social Care – West Renfrewshire providing a progress update against Year 2 (2019/20) of the Renfrewshire Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Strategy.

The Renfrewshire GBV Strategy outlined how the Renfrewshire GBV Strategy Group aimed to achieve its vision that “Renfrewshire was a place where GBV was not tolerated and where victims, perpetrators and communities were supported to address its causes and consequences”.

To achieve this vision, the Strategy set out four key priorities of ensuring strong partnership working; providing high quality local services which met the needs of victims and perpetrators; improved the knowledge, skills and behaviour of local workers; and improved the knowledge, skills and behaviour of the wider community.  Annual action plans for each year of the three-year Strategy were produced which outlined how the Partnership would work towards the achievement of the four priorities.

The progress review of the Year 2 Action Plan found that the majority of actions were on track to be completed by the end of April 2020.  A summary of the main achievements to date and the priority areas for action were outlined in the report.

This Group was asked to consider how gender inequality and gender-based violence was addressed within their organisation; how their organisation could support the four key priorities; and how the Group wished to be kept informed of the Gender-Based Violence Strategy Group.

DECISION:

(a)  That the report be noted; and

(b)  That consideration be given to how gender inequality and gender-based violence was addressed within partner organisations; how they could support the four key priorities; and how the Group wished to be kept informed of the Gender-Based Violence Strategy Group.

S McLellan, RAMH gave a presentation on social isolation in Renfrewshire.

The presentation advised that, to find out how people experienced social isolation and loneliness in Renfrewshire and to find out how to build connectiveness, RAMH worked with a range of Renfrewshire support services and designed a six-month project called ‘Connectedness in Our Communities’.

The aim was to work with people most at risk of social isolation and gather information about their experiences of loneliness and isolation; understand what promoted connectedness; and generate ideas about how to build social connections.

S McLellan advised a Renfrewshire Health and Wellbeing Survey was completed in 2017/18 which showed that one in 14 (7%) residents felt isolated from family and friends, and that this rose to 15% in the most deprived areas.  In response to the survey, Renfrewshire’s Health & Social Care Partnership Strategic Planning Group had been asked, in its capacity as a Renfrewshire Community Planning Group, to take forward the agenda, as Social Isolation was one of the Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership’s six priorities for 2020/21, and report back to the Executive Group in March 2020 on how it would implement the report findings.  As a result, a short-life working group had been established which involved representatives from the HSCP, Council, third sector and community groups to explore the key area of loneliness and isolation. 

Discussion took place on how to improve partnership working and how to ensure that key staff had access to information or a directory of key contacts.  It was agreed that S Quinn, J Dougall and S Graham meet to explore staff access to information and developing a directory of key contacts and report back to a future Group meeting.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the presentation be noted; and

(b)  That S Quinn, J Dougall and S Graham meet to discuss staff access to information and developing a directory of key contacts and report back to a future meeting of the Group.

There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to a timetable of meetings for January to December 2020 and the key areas of focus for the Group for that period.

Discussion followed in relation to the Council and Health & Social Care Partnership joint report which was prepared annually for the Scottish Government relative to Child Poverty. It was agreed that there need to look at the development of the report. 

DECIDED:

(a)  That the timetable of meeting for January to December 2020 and key areas of focus for that period, as detailed in the report, be agreed; and

(b)  that in relation to the Council and Health & Social Care Partnership joint report which was prepared annually for the Scottish Government relative to Child Poverty. It was agreed that there need to look at the development of the report.