Leader Report
North Ayrshire Council · 25 June 2025
Back to North Ayrshire Council — 25 June 2025 and its agenda
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Official Information Official Information LEADER’S REPORT For the period covering: 5 May – 15 June 2025 The attached report gives a summary and brief details to Council, of meetings and events attended by the Leader of North Ayrshire Council, Councillor Marie Burns.
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 1 Official Information Official Information LEADER’S REPORT For the period covering: 5 May – 15 June 2025 VISIT BY UK GOVERNMENT PERMANENT UNDER SECRETARY, 7 May On 7 May I attended a working lunch as part of a visit by the UK Government Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Alex Norris MP. The visit was part of a wider visit by the Minister to Scotland, to look at town centres and to discuss housing and Plans for Neighbourhoods. It is hoped that the visit will lead to further investment into regeneration to improve local areas for our communities. FLAG RAISING EVENT, VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY, 8 May On 8 May I attended a flag-raising event at Cunninghame House as part of a tribute to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe. This was one of many tributes and events that were held throughout North Ayrshire to mark this special day. AYRSHIRE ECONOMIC JOINT COMMITTEE SUB COMMITTEE AYRSHIRE SKILLS INVESTMENT FUND, 12 May On 12 May, I attended an online meeting of the Ayrshire Economic Joint Committee (AEJC) Sub Committee Ayrshire Skills Investment Fund (ASIF). The ASIF is part of the Ayrshire Growth Deal (AGD), aiming to enhance skills for innovation and inclusive growth, boosting Ayrshire’s economy and creating lasting job opportunities. The Sub Committee were asked to consider various proposals for grant awards for 2025/2026. ASIF launched in October 2023 with £3.5 million provided to address skills gaps, aiming to upskill 1,000 residents by 2028 in engineering, digital, visitor economy and clean growth, focusing on priority groups, females, young people, people in low-paid employment, people with long-term disabilities and health conditions. NHS AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN AUDIT AND RISK COMMITTEE, 15 May On 15 May, I attended an NHS Audit and Risk Committee (ARC) meeting where attendees discussed various internal and external audit papers. The Committee also received a Counter
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 2 Official Information Official Information Fraud Update report and reviewed and approved the ARC Annual report for onward submission to the Board. ELECTED MEMBER DEVELOPMENT SESSION, 15 May Later on 15 May, I attended an Elected Member Development session on Cyber security. Delivered by North Ayrshire Council’s Cyber Security Team, the session provided a useful update on the current cyber security threat landscape and how it affects the Council. The update also provided some real-world examples together with advice on how we can all better protect ourselves and the Council against the ever-present threat of cyber-attack. ARRAN LOCALITY VISIT, 20 May On 20 May, together with North Ayrshire Council Chief Executive, Craig Hatton, I visited the beautiful island of Arran as part of the series of our locality visits. The first stop was to see the new tennis courts near the library in Brodick. The tennis courts are a North Ayrshire Council and KA Leisure partnership project which involves community volunteers and some of the Active Schools team. While there, we also visited the bowling club which is adjacent to the tennis courts and which are being redeveloped. Our second stop was to meet members of the Arran Development Trust (ADT) at Rowarden, Lamlash and view the recently built 18 homes built as part of an affordable rental homes project. ADT is a community-led membership organisation that works towards resolving issues around the need for more affordable land and social housing on the island. This project has been led by members of the Arran Taskforce which includes the Scottish Government and North Ayrshire Council. This affordable housing project aims to tackle the affordable housing crisis and will also help keep families and residents living on the island. Some of the funding for the project has come in the form of £1.512m from the Rural & Islands Housing Fund. From there, we then took a small boat ride over to the Holy Isle. Holy Isle has an ancient spiritual heritage stretching back to the sixth century and offers retreat breaks. The island is divided into several areas, some of which are reserved for birds and animals, others for our native tree-planting programme. The Holy Isle Project is run entirely by volunteers. Our last stop on the island was to Arran Outdoor Centre to meet some of the centre instructors, a tour of the facilities and to meet some of the children from all seven Arran primary schools who were attending a residential at the facility. My thanks again to everyone involved in these visits and for setting time aside to meet with us.
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 3 Official Information Official Information VISIT TO SCOTTISH MARITIME MUSEUM, 21 May On 21 May, in my role as Older People’s Champion and together with Councillor Chloé Robertson, North Ayrshire Council’s Young People’s Champion, I visited the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine to meet with members of the Irvine Seniors Forum Discovery Group and members of the Irvine Youth Legacy Centre. The Scottish Maritime Museum is currently working alongside both groups on an exciting intergenerational community-led exhibition project, all focussed on the theme of “A Call to Action for the Oceans”. The plan is that they will be working together, with help from the Museum and Keep Scotland Beautiful to create an impactful exhibition that helps inspire others to think about what actions they can take to protect our oceans and the climate. This is all part of a bigger plan at the Scottish Maritime Museum for a whole summer of action for the climate. I would like to thank Jennifer Pless for inviting me along and to all the Group members who I met with during the visit. WEST ROAD CENTRE OFFICIAL OPENING, 22 May On 22 May, I was delighted to attend the official opening of the West Road Centre in Irvine. Officially opened by Provost Anthea Dickson, The West Road Centre will act as a centre for outpatient services for the all-age Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS) and the Neuro- CAMHS team (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), providing a modern, bespoke space for individuals to receive the support they need. The building, which is owned by North Ayrshire Council, was previously used by North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s Children and Families Service. It has recently undergone an extensive refurbishment to create a calm and welcoming environment designed specifically to suit the needs of clients and staff teams, with a treatment room, kitchen area, clinical rooms, and a sound-proof therapeutic room that can be used for activities such as music therapy. The new centre will not only be of great benefit to those in our communities who use these services, but the re-purposing of the West Road building also helps to deliver on our ambition for council-owned premises to be utilised in the best possible way to deliver service improvements across the board.
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 4 Official Information Official Information ELECTED MEMBER DEVELOPMENT SESSION, 28 May On 28 May, I attended an Elected Member Development session on Business Recovery and Sustainability and to find out how North Ayrshire Council is supporting businesses to reduce costs and decarbonise through the adoption of green technologies and processes. My thanks to the NAC business team for continuing to help our local businesses after what has been a challenging time for many of them after COVID. CORPORATE HEALTH AND SAFETY GROUP MEETING, 29 May On 29 May, I attended a meeting of the Corporate Health and Safety Group. Attendees received a Health and Safety Performance update for Quarter four of 2024/2025. It was noted that there has been a considerable increase in incidents compared to Q4 23/24, but this is due to more incidents being recorded since the introduction of the new assure systems in October 2023. Individual Health and Safety reports were also provided for each Directorate within the Council. COSLA LEADERS’, 30 May On 30 May I attended a meeting of COSLA Leaders’ through in Edinburgh at Verity House at which, the First Minister for Scotland, John Swinney MSP opened the session with an address acknowledging the important of continued joint working between the Scottish Government and COSLA. Agenda items including the following items: • Scottish Government Programme for Government 2025-26 • Pay Update • Health and Social Care Service Financial Viability & Service Renewal Framework • Keeping the Promise Local Perspectives Report • Care Leavers Payment • myjobscotland Strategic Review – Way Forward • Digital Office Annual Report • Local Government Data Platform Update • Historical Child Abuse Redress Scheme – Financial Report • Local Government Finance Update
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 5 Official Information Official Information North Ayrshire Council (NAC) is involved in the collaborative approach to the refresh of the National Digital Strategy and continue to feedback on draft documents. NAC is also involved in the ‘digital to be state’ and will be reviewing the Digital Maturity Assessment opportunity in summer 2025. NHS AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN BOARD MEETING, 2 June On 2 June, I attended an NHS Ayrshire and Arran Board meeting where attendees received and discussed reports relating to Performance Governance, Healthcare Governance and Board Governance, including a report on Critical care interim changes in NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Board members also received annual reports for the Area Clinical Forum, Pharmacy Practices Committee and Corporate Equalities Committee. Board members also approved the South Ayrshire Integration Joint Board strategic plan 2021- 31 refresh as well as approving the minutes from Integration Joint Board meetings held for East, South and North Ayrshire Councils in February 2025. IRVINE LOCALITY PARTNERSHIP MEETING, 2 June Later on 2 June, I attended an Irvine Locality Partnership held at Redburn Community Centre. The Partnership approved an expression of interest Community Investment Fund (CIF) application from Impact Arts, an organisation that works to tackle inequalities in Scotland through creative engagement, including through visual and digital arts and music. The Group have recently or are currently, delivering a range of services in North Ayrshire, including: Art Therapy and Dyadic (Whole Family) Art Therapy, Art Wise (our Whole Family Wellbeing Programme), Cashback to the Future youth arts programming, One-off commissioned place- making and regeneration projects, including public art and creative consultation. The partnership also approved a request for grant funding from the Irvine Common Good Fund to support the Irvine Incorporated Trades, Marymass Festival and Irvine Joint Wards Old Folks Committee. There were also verbal updates on Locality priorities including an overview of Youth, Education and Active Schools, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue update, KA Leisure, Irvine Community Council Chair update and an update on the Review of Locality Planning in general. Once again, I would like to thank everyone who attends and for their invaluable contributions to these meetings.
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 6 Official Information Official Information VISIT TO XLCC COMPANY, 4 June On 4 June, together with North Ayrshire Council Chief Executive, Craig Hatton, I visited the company XLCC at Hunterston to meet with their Chief Executive, Ian Douglas. This was followed by a visit to their Training Academy based at Arkwright Way in Irvine. XLCC is an independent British company founded in 2020 to address the critical infrastructure needs of the global energy transition. To meet this need, XLCC’s mission is to engineer, manufacture, install and maintain necessary marine and project management capabilities for High Voltage Direct Current Cable (HVDC). The Business Support and Development team at North Ayrshire Council are providing and have provided a range of support including: • Technical supply chains: Assisting XLCC with aspects of their supply chain providing viability of local and national supplier. NAC supported these businesses to engage with XLCC. • Skills Development: Bringing together key stakeholders that included, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, the University of Strathclyde and Ayrshire College and NAC employability team to support XLCC workforce development. North Ayrshire Council in conjunction with Scottish enterprise supported XLCC with their apprentice training centre My thanks to Ian Douglas and his team for the invitation to visit them and hear more about this exciting project which will have a positive impact on our local area with the creation of thousands of new jobs, including the construction phase. COMMUNITY PLANNING PARTNERSHIP BOARD MEETING, 5 June On 5 June, I chaired a meeting of the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) Board held in the Garnock Committee Room in Cunninghame House. The meeting began with a workshop session enabling community partners to brief each other on their respective areas of work and to explore any future joint working. This was followed by several verbal updates on the following: • Fairer Futures Workshop: Community perspectives on Child Poverty in North Ayrshire. This update included information on the newly released child poverty figures for 2023/24. This showed a drop in North Ayrshire, after housing costs, from 29.2% in 22/23 to 24.3% in 23/24, the biggest drop of any local authority. • Community & Learning development Strategic Plan update
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 7 Official Information Official Information • CPP Self-Assessment • Child Poverty and Cost of Living and CHES Board members were also provided with an update on the Locality Planning review. AYRSHIRE SHARED SERVICES JOINT COMMITTEE, 6 June On 7 June, I chaired the first part of the hybrid Ayrshire Shared Services meeting held in Cunninghame House. The first item was an update on the Ayrshire Civil Contingencies Plan and to update the Joint Committee on progress made on the 2025/26 Plan. The Ayrshire Civil Contingencies Team has provided civil contingencies services on behalf of the 3 Ayrshire Councils since it was established in 2008. NHS AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN HEALTHCARE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE, 9 June On 9 June, I attended an NHS Ayrshire and Arran Healthcare Governance Committee where attendees received reports on patient safety and patient experiences. Several assurance reports were also discussed covering the following subjects: • Learning Disabilities Ward • Maternity Services • COVID-19 Inquiries update The Committee also were also asked to consider and note progress on various Governance reports covering Acute Services, the Area Drug and Therapeutic Committee, the Paediatric Clinical Governance Group, the Prevention and Control of Infection Committee, the Primary and Urgent Care Clinical Governance Group and the Research, Development and Innovation Committee. The Board also discussed the Strategic Risk Register and undertook assurances that work was being done to manage strategic risks which fall under the Committee’s remit.
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LEADER’S REPORT • • • 8 Official Information Official Information NHS AYRSHIRE AND ARRAN WALKROUND, 11 June On 11 June, in my role as NHS Ayrshire and Arran Non-Executive Board member, I attended a Quality & Safety Walkround at University Crosshouse hospital to find out more about the NHS A&A H Recruitment & Resourcing and challenges faced currently by the team and expectations for retention of staff in future years. COSLA SPECIAL LEADERS’ MEETING, 12 June On 12 June, I attended a special meeting of COSLA Leaders’ to discuss Local Government Pay for 2025/26. FINALLY On behalf of all the Elected Members, I would like to thank all the staff in North Ayrshire Council and our community partners for their invaluable work since the start of 2025 and for their continued support in helping to deliver on a range of Council priorities. I hope many of you will be able to enjoy a holiday or rest over summer recess and look forward to working with you again later in the year. Councillor Marie Burns Leader of North Ayrshire Council