PERTH AND KINROSS COUNCIL 6(ii) 16/437 5 October 2016 COMMUNITY PLANNING PARTNERSHIP UPDATE Report by Senior Depute Chief Executive (Equality, Community Planning and Public Service Reform) PURPOSE OF REPORT To provide an update on the work of the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) since the last update to Full Council on 22 June 2016. 1. BACKGROUND / MAIN ISSUES 1.1 The Council and the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) Board approved key principles for establishing Local Community Planning in November/December 2015 (reports 15/535 and 15/573 refer). This constitutes a major change in programme for the Council and its Community Planning Partners. Council requested that an update on progress be provided in October 2016. 2. UPDATE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF LOCAL COMMUNITY PLANNING 2.1 CPPs have new statutory duties to tackle stubborn inequalities where these exist, which will be captured in a strategic Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP). In practice, the LOIP will be the new iteration of the Community Plan/SOA. At local level it will be delivered via multi-agency Locality Teams working to agreed Locality Action Plans and overseen by an Action Partnership in each of the five localities. Action Partnerships comprise community representatives, councillors and community planning partner services. 2.2 Action Partnerships will hold their first meetings between 26 September and 6 October 2016. The Ambition for Local Community Planning 2.3 The ambition is that Action Partnerships will become genuinely representative and credible forums in the eyes of communities. By April 2017 they will be working to deliver on a Locality Plan, based on evidence from the Story of Place which identifies assets, priorities and needs in the locality. Partners will increasingly be working with communities and each other to deliver wellintegrated services that meet local needs.
Roles and responsibilities 2.5 A key responsibility for Action Partnerships is to identify inequalities in their area. They will: Identify communities who experience poorer outcomes as a result of socioeconomic disadvantage Publish a Locality Plan setting out the priorities for improving outcomes in the locality and set out how this will be achieved Ask locally based staff from all Community Planning Partners to work together to carry out the locality plan Report to both the CPP Board and to the local community about the delivery of the Locality Plan. Membership 2.6 In collaboration with PKAVS and Scottish Community Development Centre, seven community events were held to raise awareness and seek local views about the development of local Community Planning. The feedback from local communities informed our thinking around how to determine community representation: community members were keen that there should be equity among members of the partnerships; that the Action Partnerships would not duplicate the work of existing local organisations such as community councils; and that the community representation should be as broad as possible, both geographically and demographically. Attempting to balance the need for thorough knowledge of the existing local work with the need for wide representation, we concluded that community representation would initially be drawn from existing partnerships and groups, to avoid duplication and build on existing strengths, but that within 12 months, community representatives will apply and be recruited by the wider community. 2.7 Elected members were asked to decide on up to six representatives from an equal balance, there will also be spaces for up to six community representatives on the Partnerships. When they first meet to discuss local priorities, the chair and lead officer will be the only service representatives present, with other service reps brought in as required to tackle local priorities. 2.8 The Chair and Lead Officer are senior officers from CP Partners. The chairmanship will transfer to a community representative as soon as practicable and within the first 12-24 months. 2.9 While places on the Action Partnership are limited, the meetings will be open for the public to attend as observers, as part of our commitment to transparency. Governance 2.10 We responded to the consultation on the Guidance and Regulations on the Community Empowerment Act and have ensured that implementation is aligned with the draft Guidance and Regulations.
2.11 The Chairs and Lead Officers of all five localities have undertaken a series of workshops, to develop their roles and the practical vision for how Action Partnerships will develop. Chairs and Lead Officers met with locality community capacity building workers and local elected members in preparation for the first meetings. The Project Team has developed meeting documentation including standing orders, membership arrangements, and code of conduct. 2.12 Action Partnerships have 100,000 of Perth & Kinross Council funding over their first 2 years, agreed at the Council s budget meeting in February 2016 (the Minute of 11 Feb 2016 refers). This is to be divided equally among the five Action Partnerships. We have been awarded an additional 55,000 to support participatory budgeting in localities via the Scottish Government s Community Choices Fund. It was expected that Action Partnerships would allocate a substantial part of their funding using participatory budgeting, where the public decides how funding should be spent, within an agreed set of criteria; with the addition of the Community Choices Fund money, participatory budgeting becomes a requirement. To support this, training has been arranged for 1 November 2016. This training will be open to all Action Partnership members as well as elected members who are not directly involved in Action Partnerships. Budgets will be held and monitored by Perth & Kinross Council on behalf of the Action Partnerships. Communication 2.13 The Community Empowerment Working Group s Communications sub-group developed key messages to be shared with the public about the role and powers of the partnerships, and to inform people about opportunities to get involved in their local community. The report from the community events in May and June was shared widely, and those who attended were sent a copy of the report with information on how the feedback from these events had shaped the Action Partnerships as they now stand. 2.14 Stories of Place have been prepared for all five localities have been uploaded to the wiki to be publicly accessible. They will be used in early meetings of the Action Partnerships. 2.15 We are working more closely with colleagues implementing Health and Social Care integration to make sure we are aligning both elements in the shift to locality working. This includes close links between the Communications subgroups of the Community Empowerment Working Group and of the Health and Social Care Partnership. 2.16 The CPP Conference held at Perth Concert Hall on 20 September 2016 launched the idea of locality working and Action Partnerships to over 200 staff from Perth & Kinross Council and its partners. An ongoing programme of Organisational Development activity with all CP Partners will now be required
to support services to enable greater collaboration between services and with communities, so that locality priorities can be addressed. Next Steps 2.17 The following actions are planned to support implementation over the coming weeks: Action Partnerships will start work in late September / early October. Action Partnerships will identify their priorities by January 2017 and will then begin preparing their Locality Action Plans A workshop on Participatory Budgeting is planned for Action Partnership members on 1 November 2016, to explore how this can be used to deliver change and address local priorities Action Partnerships may undertake participatory budgeting from January 2017 to address their identified priorities Action Partnerships will be consulted on the development of the refreshed Community Plan to ensure that it reflects their developing Locality Action Plans. 3. COMMUNITY PLAN 3.1 The Community Empowerment Act (Scotland) 2015 ( the Act ) states that Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) must publish a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP). The LOIP will supersede the current Community Plan / Single Outcome Agreement 2013-2023 in setting out the vision for Perth and Kinross, and can continue to be referred to as the Community Plan. 3.2 A project plan including time scales to refresh the Community Plan was agreed at the 2 September 2016 meeting of CPP Board. A refreshed Community Plan is an opportunity to be bold in setting out the difference we want to make in Perth and Kinross. Following work such as Place-based Scrutiny, Stories of Place, and Join the Conversation, we are better informed about the needs and circumstances in our localities than we were three years ago when the Community Plan was last refreshed, and the LOIP will reflect that. A revitalised Community Plan will be more accessible to the wider population, clearer about the differences we will make, and clearer that a better Perth and Kinross means a targeted approach to communities to make sure we are effective in improving quality of life where improvement is needed most. 3.3 The LOIP will sit alongside the five Action Plans developed by the Action Partnerships; both plans will be focused on tackling inequalities at both a Perth and Kinross wide level and at community level.
3.4 A project team of officers has been appointed to develop a draft Community Plan which will go out to consultation to communities early 2017. Elected members will have an opportunity to comment on the draft Community Plan in early 2017. The final draft will be brought to Full Council for approval before being signed off by CPP Board in September 2017. The Community Plan must be submitted to Scottish Government by October 2017. 4. COMMUNITY PLANNING PERFORMANCE 4.1 The CPP Board held 2 September 2016 agreed a new performance management framework for the Partnership. As part of the CPP s commitment to continuous improvement, current performance monitoring and reporting arrangements were reviewed, and opportunities for development were identified. Best practice highlighted by the most recent Audit Scotland Reports in November 2014 and March 2016 were considered in developing the new framework. The new framework will help ready Community Planning Partners to monitor and assess an ambitious public service reform agenda in Perth and Kinross. 4.2 Under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 CPPs must publish a progress report each year which: Assesses whether there has been an improvement in achieving the outcomes identified in the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (Community Plan). Reports on how the Partnership has engaged with communities (not just community bodies) over the year and how effective this approach has been. 4.3 Currently a single Annual Report covers performance against both the Perth and Kinross Community Plan and Perth & Kinross Council s Corporate Plan. The 2015-16 Annual Report will be presented in its current format in 2016. The 2017/18 Annual Report against the new Community Plan/ Local Outcomes Improvement Plan will be a statutory requirement and will need to be presented to the Scottish Government. The 2016-17 Annual Report will report against the Community Plan/SOA only, rather than being combined with a report on the PKC Corporate Plan. These changes will help ensure the Annual Report is a collective document with shared ownership by all CP Partners. 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 It is recommended that Council: (i) Notes the progress made in the above areas.
Author(s) Name Designation Contact Details Rosa Huczynska Community Planning Policy Team Leader Ext 77858 Approved Name Designation Date John Fyffe Senior Depute Chief Executive (Equality, Community Planning and Public Service Reform 27 September 2016