Prior to the commencement of the meeting, the Chair intimated that this meeting of the Local Partnership would be recorded and that the recording would be available to watch on the Council's website.

John Anderson (Howwood Sports and Hobbies); Anne-Marie Balfour (Elderslie Community Council); Steve Banks (Lochwinnoch Community Council); David Blair (Renfrewshire District Scouts); Margaret Dundas (Brookfield Community Council); Councillor Gillian Graham; Ian Andrew (Houston Community Council); Stirling McGee (Renfrewshire Youth Voice); Councillor David McGonigle; Fiona Stewart (Kilbarchan Community Council) and Brenda Whitelaw (Howwood Community Council).

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

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of this Local Partnership held on 23 June 2022.

Under reference to item 3 of the Minute, it was noted that Lamont Farm had been awarded £500 and not £1,000 as stated in the Minute.

DECIDED: That, subject to the above amendment, the Minute be approved.

John Kennedy, Renfrewshire Council, and Scott Paton, Celebrating Renfrewshire Steering Group gave a presentation which provided an update in respect of the Celebrating Renfrewshire Fund 2022/23 which allocated grant funding via a participatory budget process.

The presentation outlined how participatory budgeting operated and gave a brief description of the role of the youth-led steering group and advised of the outcome of the planning sessions and the final priorities.

The presentation then advised that 15 applications had been received relating to The Villages Local Partnership area seeking funding of £39,650.20. Using the Council’s in-house voting platform, over 2,000 local young people had voted, with 242 votes being recorded in the Villages area. Full details of the awards made were provided. A voting results announcement event, planned and organised by young people, had been held at the UWS Student Union on Friday 28 October 2022. It was noted that an evaluation of the process would now be undertaken, appropriate recommendations made for the future and planning for the next round initiated.

DECIDED: That the presentation be noted.

Annabelle Armstrong-Walters, Chief Executive’s Service, gave a presentation on the Winter Connections Programme, a network of local places where people could connect to others in their community in the coming winter.

The presentation highlighted the purpose of the Winter Connections Fund which would provide assistance to local groups to help cover the additional costs in making venues, activities and sessions available as part of the Winter Collection Programme. The presentation outlined the timeline and next steps for the Programme.

DECIDED: That the presentation be noted.

Alan McNiven, Engage Renfrewshire, provided a summary report relative to the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund 2022/23.

The Local Partnership was advised that the Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund was now in its second year and Engage Renfrewshire had been allocated just over £550,000 to distribute to the third sector for new applicants and also previously awarded projects.

A brief overview of the aims, key priorities and target audience of the Fund was provided. It was noted that the deadline for applications was 31 October 2022, that successful groups would be notified in early December and that the Fund was oversubscribed.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

Isobel Sinclair, Communities and Housing Services gave a presentation in connection with the Building Communities Approach.

An overview was provided of the four main areas of responsibility and the wide range of activities undertaken by Communities Learning & Development Section. Reference was made to the delivery of universal services, targeted provision, community capacity and connected communities initiatives and future partnership working with Local Partnerships.

DECIDED: That the presentation be noted.

Roz Smith and Pauline Moss, Chief Executive’s Service gave a presentation on Climate Change.

During the presentation a definition of Climate Change was provided, while reference was made to the local impacts of Climate Change, the progress and achievements, to date, of Scotland’s Climate Action, Renfrewshire’s Plan for Net Zero.

It was highlighted that Renfrewshire’s Plan for Net Zero was Council-led but was for the area as a whole and required everyone to participate in order to achieve the ambitions. In addition, it was also highlighted that the local aim of working towards Net Zero by 2030 was to ensure the whole of Renfrewshire was a safer, healthier, greener and fairer place for everyone to live, work and spend time in and that repeated small individual actions, repeated on a large scale could have a big impact in tackling climate change. On that basis it was deemed critical to identify key sources of emissions to be targeted to enable progress to be monitored using an open and transparent process. The importance of knowing the starting baseline for emissions in order to work to collectively reduce emissions was also emphasised. In this connection, the evidence used to determine the emissions baseline which would be used to monitor future progress and achievements was outlined.

A summary of the avenues via which local communities could get involved was provided.

DECIDED: That the presentation be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to a collaborative programme between Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Councils to recruit new member to a strengthened Local Action Group (LAG) for the Greater Renfrewshire and Inverclyde (GRI) rural areas.

The report intimated that, between 2014 and 2020, the former European funded LEADER programme had invested £1.7 million, which leveraged £2.8 million match funding and generated £4.5 million for the area. The LEADER programme ceased in 2020 with the UK withdrawal from the European Community and the Scottish Government had been interested in how the approach to rural support and intervention might be enhanced and had invited submissions from former LEADER areas for projects to test new approaches to delivering community-led local development and now, in 2022/23, to identify how LAGs might be strengthened with more diverse representation.

The report provided detail on recruitment, membership and the role of LAGs and requested that Local Partnerships help publicise the recruitment opportunity.

DECIDED: That the Local Partnership help publicise the recruitment opportunity.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the funds allocated by this Local Partnership in 2022/23 and the spend against this budget. A table setting out the funds allocated together with the feedback received from local organisations was appended to the report.

The report noted that the Celebrating Renfrewshire Fund for this Local Partnership for 2022/23 was £23,609.

DECIDED: That the budget monitoring and feedback report be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the terms and conditions in relation to the acceptance of grant funding from Local Partnerships.

The report intimated organisations awarded grant funding were required to sign terms and conditions and were required to provide satisfactory feedback information to evidence that funds awarded had been spent in accordance with the purpose for which it was requested and to provide information on the benefit to the local community.

The report advised that there had been instances where organisations had been awarded funding but had not submitted satisfactory feedback. Local Partnerships had flexibility to determine criteria by which funding was awarded from its budget and the report proposed that as part of this criteria, organisations which did not provide satisfactory feedback on the use of an award from this Local Partnership in any year should not be considered for award of funding in the next year, should they apply. If agreed, this would apply from the 2023/24 funding round and any subsequent funding rounds. 

DECIDED:

(a) That it be agreed that organisations that did not provide satisfactory feedback on projects awarded funding by this Local Partnership in 2022/23 would be ineligible to be considered for the award of funding by this Local Partnership in 2023/24; and

(b) That it be agreed that this criteria would apply in subsequent funding rounds of this Local Partnership unless otherwise agreed.

DECIDED: That meetings of the Local Partnership be held at 6.00 pm on 27 February, 22 May, 18 September and 11 December 2023.