P056.2(3) Community Boards and Partnership Communications Strategy
North Lanarkshire Council · 6 February 2023
Back to Communities Committee — 6 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Communities Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref SP/MC Date 13/12/22 P056.2(3) Community Boards and partnership communications strategy From Stephen Penman, Chief Officer, Strategic Communication and Engagement E-mail penmanste@northlan.gov.uk costellom@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07725 289559 Executive Summary This report provides an update on key progress linked to supporting the development of the Community Board model including updates on the 9th cycle of Community Boards meetings which took place throughout November and December 2022 • progress with the delivery of the 9 Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIPs) and the implementation of an associated Monitoring and Management Framework and Partnership delivery approach • Progress with the Community Board Development Programme • Work to continue development of a Partnership Communications Strategy As previously agreed by committee, reports on the work of the nine Community Boards are provided to the committee relating to each committee cycle. Progress is also reported to the North Lanarkshire Community Planning Partnership Strategic Leadership Board to reflect the statutory nature of the boards in community planning terms in providing local governance for the LOIPs. This report covers cycle 9 of the Community Board meetings. The process and focus of reporting on the work of the Community Boards will continue to be reviewed and elements included within the Local Outcome Improvement Plan monitoring and management framework from 2022/23 onwards. Recommendations It is recommended that committee members recognise work to continue to develop and improve the integrated approach to supporting the local Community Board model 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 1.1 Community Matters – A Framework for Working with Communities 1.1.1 Community Matters - A Framework for Working with Communities sets out the Community Planning Partnership’s commitment to engaging with communities underpinned by a set of principles and approaches designed to deliver on key priorities associated with working with communities which included the creation of Community Boards. The framework was approved by the Policy & Strategy Committee at its meeting in March 2020. 1.1.2 The Community Boards are integral to supporting community participation and providing a single coordinated approach to governance for local communities, reflecting statutory and regulatory requirements. The boards continue to develop in a manner consistent with influencing and delivering the Plan for North Lanarkshire outcomes at local level. This is being driven through the Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIPs) for each of the nine areas, ensuring a partnership focus on supporting service design, delivery and community action reflecting both the ambitions within The Plan for North Lanarkshire and the priorities and circumstances of individual areas. The LOIPs are published on the North Lanarkshire Council website and have been circulated to all Community Boards. 1.1.3 A monitoring and management framework for the delivery of the LOIPs is now in place along with supporting partnership delivery approach through the establishment of Local Partnership Teams. This will be used to inform reporting to Committee, the North Lanarkshire Partnership (NLP) Strategic Leadership Board and individual Community Boards 1.1.4 The ninth cycle of Board meetings has now taken place; an example of an agenda is included in Appendix 1. Table 1 – Cycle 9 Community Board Meetings Area Meeting Date & Time Location Shotts 22/11/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Northern Corridor 23/11/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Cumbernauld 24/11/2022 at 6.30pm Webex Coatbridge 29/11/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Wishaw 30/11/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Kilsyth & Villages 01/12/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Motherwell 06/12/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Airdrie 07/12/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx Bellshill 08/12/2022 at 6.30pm WebEx
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2. Report 2.1 Community Boards – Cycle 9 2.1.1 Representation at Community Board Meetings 2.1.1.1 At the ninth cycle of Community Board meetings, attendance reflected a good mix of partners, elected members, community groups and local people at all Board meetings. Approximately 194 people attended the ninth cycle of meetings with 58 community organisations and 67 Community representatives in total represented. 2.1.1.2 A broader range of community representation is generally in evidence at Community Board meetings. New organisations attended 5 of the Community Boards in Cycle 9. 2.1.1.3 Efforts continue to further extend the reach of community involvement in the work of the Community Boards. As stated within previous reports to committee, not all community organisations’ identity is place-based. There is therefore a need to ensure that people who come together because they share characteristics and identity also have a platform where they are heard and can influence both decision- making and the realisation of the Plan for North Lanarkshire. 2.1.1.4 The categories of participants in Cycle 9 Community Boards are as set out in Table 2 below: Table 2 - Participants (Cycle 9) Participants at Community Boards (Cycle 9) Community Councils Tenants and Residents Associations Historical/Cultural Groups Community Forums MSYP/Youth Fora Police Scotland Scottish Fire & Rescue NHS Lanarkshire Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire NL Disability Access Panel Elected Members Council Officers Faith Groups Parent Councils Local people/residents Voice of Experience Forum Community Organisations 2.1.2 Participation in meetings 2.1.2.1 The meetings were live streamed on the Council’s YouTube Channel and received over 920 (as of 17/1/2023) views across 7 Board areas ranging from 48 in Kilsyth to 105 in Wishaw.
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Technical issues were incurred at the Cumbernauld and Shotts Community Board meetings and unfortunately the meetings were not able to be recorded or live Streamed at this cycle. 2.1.3 Agenda items 2.1.3.1 During Cycle 9, eight out of nine Community Boards had agenda items put forward by community groups and organisations in advance of board meetings. Examples of agenda items put forward included traffic safety issues, graffiti, and removal of dog bins; Tarbothie Community Garden Survey; Development of a Community Concordat, Community Boards, and partnership communications strategy: Monitoring and Management Framework; Chryston Community Hub, Renaming of Health Centre; Education of young people in Northern Corridor area, Future Board meetings and Festive tree/decorations; Belziehill Junction; Tower demolition work and Airdrie Action Partnership Christmas Appeal. In addition to the agenda items above, local community groups provided updates in some boards such as Fortissat Youth Forum and Livingston Park Group in Kilsyth as well as up-dates provided by some local organisations about some local Cost of Living Community Drop-ins. 2.1.3.2 Council officers were also asked to attend or provide updates to board meetings in response to agenda items and issues raised by community representatives. Council and Community Planning Partnership Partners will continue to be invited to attend in relation to specific agenda items raised. External organisations are also invited to attend Board meetings in response to agenda items raised by communities as required. 2.1.4 Opportunities to provide updates and share views As previously reported, all nine Community Boards endorsed LOIPs which have been published and can be accessed via this link. Community Board agendas are now organised around LOIP priorities and updates from communities and partner agencies are linked to priorities where possible to ensure clear focus on progress towards achieving actions to address the key priorities that were identified by local communities. Local people can also raise ad hoc issues or share local information through the Community Matters section on the agenda. Positive progress has been made with subgroups meeting to progress agreed actions to address local priorities where this is the most appropriate mechanism. Work is ongoing and meetings are taking place and scheduled with local community groups and organisations to further develop subgroups. 2.1.5 Special Board Meetings 2.1.5.1 No Special Board meetings were requested in advance of Cycle 9 Board Meetings. However, two community Boards requested Special Board meetings to be arranged following this cycle of meetings.
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2.1.6 Community Board Local Development Programme (LDP) Projects 2.1.6.1 Community organisations requested a positional statement regarding outstanding Local Development Programme projects. The LDP report continues to be split by Community Board area detailing the status of projects and was circulated in advance of Cycle 9 meetings. The project proposal form identified in previous reports to committee, continues to be utilised to record LDP project ideas and suggestions put forward from local communities. LDP continues to be a set item on the agenda at all Community Board meetings and is subject to a separate report to this committee. 2.1.7 Involving Communities 2.1.7.1 Cycle 9 meetings saw continued involvement of seldom heard voices in Community Board meetings, including Who Cares? Scotland, supporting Care Experienced Young People, the Voice of Experience Forum that enables older people to put forward opinions on local services and NL Disability Access Forum and Lanarkshire Muslim Women and Families Alliance. A new community organisation has been established within the Moodiesburn area in response to a gap identified through the LOIP with members now attending the Northern Corridor Community Board to represent the area. The Community Partnership team will continue as a priority to proactively work with local community groups and people with lived experience to support this objective. 2.1.8.2 As reported previously there has been a decrease in the level of youth representation noted at Community Board meetings although Fortissat Youth Forum continue to be involved in the Shotts Community Board. As reported previously, part of the Youth Participation structure that was noted and approved at the Education, Children and Families Committee on Tuesday 13th September 2022, CLD Youth Workers and Community Partnership Team will engage with young people through the 9 local youth voice groups to ensure that young people are active participants in the Community Boards. This will be subject to further discussion with CLD and Community Partnership Team in relation to progressing this. Since the previous report, young people have become more involved within LOIP subgroups such as Youth Participation and Engagement. 2.1.8.3 The research into the lived experiences of North Lanarkshire’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people will be subject of a report ‘Advancing Race Equality to the Wellbeing and Tackling Poverty Committee in February 2023. This report sets out the progress in relation to advancing race equality in North Lanarkshire and the future plan including in our communities. The Community Board Members development programme is developing equality and diversity information to support the work of the boards. Information will include guidance and resources as well as specific topic areas for example equality impact assessments, unconscious bias, barriers to inclusion etc. The Lanarkshire BSL Steering Group met in November 2022. The North Lanarkshire members of the group expressed frustration at their lack of representation on the Community Boards. The preferred platform for on-line meetings for Deaf BSL users was identified as Zoom as they are more familiar with the platform and the quality of
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the signal seems better which is highly important for visual quality. Unfortunately, Zoom is not supported by the Council as it is not deemed a safe platform over which to arrange meetings. The group were keen to progress face-to-face meetings. A Lanarkshire BSL conference is being planned to take place in May 2023 which will be an opportunity for the Community Board members to engage directly with this community and begin to explore how their inclusion can be supported. 2.2 Moving Forward 2.2.1 Community Board Chairs Significant progress has been made from the second cycle of meetings where one Community Board meeting (Airdrie) was chaired by a community representative to a position where eight of the nine Community Boards were chaired by community representatives. In cycle 9, six out of the nine meetings were chaired by Community representatives. This was partly due to last minute issues where the Chair was unable to attend but it is hoped that moving forward all meetings will be chaired by Community representatives. 2.2.2 Community Board Development Programme The Council’s Talent, and Organisational Development (TOD) team in conjunction with the Community Partnership Team have created an online Hub offering all Community Board Members access to a wide variety of learning resources with a focus on the key requirements identified in the Training Needs Analysis previously undertaken with Board members. The resources will be available on the Hub 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and are accessible from any device. The resource has been developed to offer a blended learning experience, reaching out to a range of learning styles. Progress is being made in the further roll out of the portal which was highlighted and welcomed at the recent NL Strategic Leadership Board. 2.2.3 The Role of Heads of Service as Community Coordinators As previously reported, Community Coordinators are in place and attending their designated Community Board Meetings. The Community Coordinator’s update continues to be a standing item on all Community Board agendas as well as participation in discussion relating to a range of local matters. Community Coordinators meet with key senior partners between Board cycles to discuss common matters, any leadership action required, and to collectively consider input to future meetings. There was one change of Community Coordinator at this round of Board Meetings, Fiona Whitaker has now taken over the role at Kilsyth and Villages Community Board from Nicole Paterson who has moved on to a new role out with the Council. 2.2.4 Future Board Meetings
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The next cycle of Community Board meetings will be held in February/March 2023. All Board meetings up to Cycle 9 have taken place online via Cisco Webex. A hybrid approach is being investigated that would enable local people to attend face-to-face if they are able to or continue to attend online or observe the proceedings via the live stream on the Council’s YouTube Channel. The Cycle 10 meeting dates are set out in Table 3 below. Table 3 – Community Board Meeting Dates (Cycle 10) Community Board Day Date Shotts Tuesday 21/2/2023 Northern Corridor Wednesday 22/2/2023 Cumbernauld Thursday 23/2/2023 Coatbridge Tuesday 28/2/2023 Kilsyth & Villages Wednesday 01/3/2023 Wishaw Thursday 02/3/2023 Motherwell Tuesday 07/3/2023 Airdrie Wednesday 08/3/2023 Bellshill Thursday 09/3/2023 2.2.5 Local Outcome Improvement Plans – Partnership Delivery, Monitoring, and Management Framework As previously reported, an online LOIP monitoring, and evaluation framework is now in place. This is a management tool that will be used by community planning partners to ensure that progress towards addressing key priorities that were agreed with local communities is monitored, recorded, and reported. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Delivery of LOIP outcomes and increased levels of engagement with local communities and partners, resulting in generally positive impacts on communities across a variety of priorities and key issues identified through effective locality planning and the implementation of the Community Boards, particularly in areas where further consultation has been required. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 – Example of Cycle 9 Community Board Agenda. Stephen Penman Chief Officer Strategic Communication and Engagement
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5. Impacts 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? If yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ The Community Boards and locality planning processes will continue to be delivered within the available resources of the Council and Community Planning Partners. 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? 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 ☐
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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? 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? Live streaming of Meetings was advertised via @MyTown twitter pages. Live streaming of Board Meetings received 920 views (as at 17/1/2023) via the Council’s YouTube Channel. No objections were received regarding live streaming and future meetings will continue to be live streamed to encourage a wider reach. 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? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e., does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in- Service or ex-Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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Appendix 1 Community Board Agenda (Cycle 9) AGENDA (example) 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Apologies 3. Minute of previous meeting and matters arising 4. Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP) - Local Priorities 5. Community Matters- 6. Local Development /Investment i.Local engagement/consultation ii.Funding opportunities 7. Standing Agenda items i.Community Coordinators Up-date ii.Local Development Programme (LDP) Up-date 8. AOCB • NL Litter Bin Strategy • Scottish Parliamentary Inquiry into Community Planning • Budget Planning Meetings 9. Date and time of next meeting - TBC