Development of a Community Concordat
North Lanarkshire Council · 31 October 2022
Back to Communities Committee — 31 October 2022 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Communities Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐Yes ☒ No Ref SP/LP Date 31/10/22 Development of a Community Concordat From Stephen Penman E-mail penmanste@northlan.gov.uk pollockle@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07947 997750 Executive Summary In 2020, it was agreed by the previous Community Empowerment Committee, following a recommendation by the chief executives of North and South Lanarkshire Councils and NHS Lanarkshire, that it would be useful to develop a Community Concordat with communities, primarily facilitated through the Community and Voluntary Sector to agree shared values and approaches to working together to improve lives through, for example, the effectiveness of North Lanarkshire’s Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIPs) and their governance arrangements. In January 2022, the committee approved a one-off allocation of £60k to fund this work. VANL has been leading in the engagement and development work to progress this on behalf of the North Lanarkshire Partnership (NLP) Strategic Leadership Board This report provides an update on the progress to date and an overview of delivery priorities and timescales Recommendations It is recommended that Committee (1) Acknowledges progress with the development of the Community Concordat and revisions to the original approach The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Enhance participation, capacity, and empowerment across our communities Ambition statement (20) Improve the involvement of communities in the decisions, and development of services and supports, that affect them
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1. Background The Community Empowerment Committed previously approved funding (January 2022) to support the collaborative development, agreement and implementation of a Community Concordat. The concordat will essentially be an agreement or commitment between North Lanarkshire stakeholders, which sets out shared values and approaches to empowering and investing in local communities to support improved wellbeing, equality and sustainability. The concordat will provide a basis for supporting approaches across the community planning partnership and with community boards to ensuring joint delivery of the priorities set out in the nine Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIPs). It was agreed that the Concordat would be developed consultatively with the following local stakeholders: • local residents; • the community and voluntary sector (CVS); • public bodies serving North Lanarkshire (including North Lanarkshire Council, NHS Lanarkshire, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service); • businesses serving North Lanarkshire where possible. Once the Concordat has been developed, it will be formally agreed by North Lanarkshire Partnership’s Strategic Leadership Board, Community Boards and relevant committees of the Council and NLP partner organisations 2. Report 2.1 Community Concordat The work to jointly develop and agree a Community Concordat between stakeholders aims to establish shared values and approaches to empowering and investing in local communities. This supports more effective collaboration to improve local wellbeing, equality and sustainability and ensure effective delivery of the LOIPs. For the purposes of this collaborative development and engagement work, North Lanarkshire Partnership stakeholders are defined as being, North Lanarkshire residents, elected members, Community and Voluntary Sector (CVS) serving North Lanarkshire, New College Lanarkshire, business sector serving North Lanarkshire, and North Lanarkshire Partnership organisations. The concordat will essentially be an agreement or commitment between North Lanarkshire stakeholders, which sets out shared values and approaches to empowering and investing in local communities to support improved wellbeing, equality and sustainability. The concordat will provide a basis for supporting approaches across the community planning partnership and with community boards to ensuring joint delivery of the priorities set out in the LOIPs.
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2.2 Outcomes It is anticipated that the Community Concordat approach will enhance trust and joint working between stakeholders to improve the wellbeing of communities and people. It should underpin collaborative approaches and result in: • improved confidence in working collaboratively and trust between North Lanarkshire Partnership stakeholders; • improved collaboration between NLP stakeholders in delivering: o The Plan for North Lanarkshire with a focus on associated plans covering key issues such as the climate emergency; digital inclusion; mental health and wellbeing; and tackling poverty; o the nine North Lanarkshire LOIPs; and • a clear and shared commitment by NLP partner organisations to further invest in community wealth-building and community-based and led initiatives to improve people’s well-being, strengthen equality, inclusion, sustainability, and deeper levels of collaboration. 2.3 Approach The Concordat is being developed using an Appreciative Inquiry approach, which is a positive, strengths-focussed method to helping different groups identify opportunities for improvement, agree priorities and work together to achieve these. Working closely with the council’s Community Partnership Managers, VANL, as third sector interface, is hosting and managing this project as part of its intermediary support role for Community Planning and as an NLP partner. VANL is leading in the management and development of the Concordat through employing a co-ordinator for 12 months and commissioning appreciative inquiry training and guidance. NLP partner organisations are supporting planning and delivery through a Community Concordat Working Group convened by VANL. Group members include: • managers from the council’s Communities Team; • senior Health Improvement staff; • senior staff from Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue; • the Communications Officer for Health and Social Care NL; and, • VANL’s CEO, Senior Manager Community Development and Community Concordat Co-ordinator 2.4 Progress update Early work was undertaken between January and March 2022 to develop the project proposal, with initial engagement with partners and throughout April and May 2022 VANL appointed a Community Concordat Co-ordinator for 12 months (employed by VANL) and independent, external Appreciative Inquiry support from “Appreciating People”. Progress to date includes: • A survey was undertaken throughout April-June 2022 to assess support for a Community Concordat, key values and current views regarding community planning in North Lanarkshire and improvement priorities. The findings from this survey will inform drafting of the Concordat and have been used to shape further community engagement activity.
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• Appreciating People have delivered Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator training for 22 staff from NLP partner organisations. This is to enable staff from across the partnership to use this approach when working with communities to develop and implement the concordat. This also builds in sustainability for the delivery of the initiative ensuring that staff have skills and capacity to build these positive working practice and approaches into the culture of their organisation and ongoing work with communities • Community Concordat Focus groups have been planned across the nine community board areas. Three initial Concordat Focus Groups have been delivered using the Appreciative Inquiry approach, however following feedback from facilitators and partners through the training, the discussion questions have been reviewed and changed and these three sessions will be rerun along with the outstanding ones in the remaining six areas. This will ensure consistency of information gathered. At the time of writing, around 169 people had signed up for the focus groups. • A stakeholder “Concordat Design Event” will take place on 25th of October, which will use an Appreciative Inquiry approach to draw on the feedback from the focus groups to co-design a written and visual representation of the Concordat. 2.5 Review of approach Following collaborative training sessions and dialogue with partners as well as feedback from initial focus groups the approach to date has been reviewed and the following changes to the process have been agreed • The use of the term ‘concordat’ will be changed to something that is clearer to local people around its purpose and meaning. It was felt that the term concordat could be a barrier to participation due to a lack of understanding of the term. • Reviewing the discussion questions from the first three locality workshops to ensure they focussed on positive ways of working together for a better North Lanarkshire and do not focus overly on challenges and priorities. This is so that this exercise can complement rather than duplicate other recent and future engagement for example to develop and deliver the Local Outcome Improvement Plans. • Developing wider approaches to local engagement including conversations with people in their own organisation and taking longer to do this. 2.6 Next Steps Timeline Action November 2022 following the Concordat Design Day on 25th October, a final draft of the concordat will be prepared with supporting implementation plan for final review by the Co-ordinating Group. December 2022 the final concordat and Implementation plan will be referred to NLP SLB for comment and approval. Jan/Feb 2023 The concordat will be shared with NLP partner organisations for endorsement.
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Timeline Action March 2023: Once fully agreed, the concordat and Implementation Plan will be designed for public launch. A second survey will be conducted to assess stakeholder views of the process of developing the community concordat, with a report published in spring/summer 2023. From April 2023 NLP partners to promote and support implementation of the concordat. A stakeholder survey will be undertaken to assess the impact of the concordat one year after approval, with findings reported to SLB, Community Boards and NLP partner organisations to support review and any improvements to the implementation process. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Improved confidence in working collaboratively and trust between North Lanarkshire Partnership (NLP) stakeholders. 3.2 Improved collaboration between North Lanarkshire Partnership stakeholders in delivering: • The Plan for North Lanarkshire with a focus on associated plans covering key issues such as the climate emergency; digital inclusion; mental health and wellbeing; and tackling poverty; • the nine North Lanarkshire Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIPs); and 3.3 A clear and shared commitment by North Lanarkshire Partnership organisations to further invest in community wealth-building and community-based and led initiatives to improve people’s well-being, strengthen equality, inclusion, sustainability, and deeper levels of collaboration. 4. Supporting documentation None Stephen Penman Head of Strategic Communication
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? An integrated Fairer Scotland Duty/Equality Impact Assessment was carried out during the development of the strategic Framework for Working withCommunities. Data gathered through the ongoing engagement with communitieswill be vital in informing/shaping future locality community planning linked to the LOIPs. If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer-scotland- duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? A one off budget allocation of up to £60k was identified within the Communities division in the financial year 2021/22 to fund the work outlined in this report. This funding was to cover the following :- • a temporary Project Co-ordinator employed by VANL for 12 months: £30,000. • two independent Appreciative Inquiry Facilitators commissioned and managed by VANL: £30,000. The funding was added to the Council’s current funding arrangements for VANL and progress monitored through already established liaison mechanisms between the Council and VANL.
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5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e-mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Digital approaches are utilised as required to maximise participation
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Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Regular communication across partnership structures, with community boards and updates provided to NLP SLB and Committee as required 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? The approach outlined within this report contributes to the controls associated with the corporate risk - engagement and consultation with communities, partners and stakeholders on the shaping and delivery of services.