PO48.1 - Activity to Increase Participation and Engagement Levels Across North Lanarkshire
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.
Page 1
North Lanarkshire Council Report Communities Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref JO’N/HL Date 06/02/23 PO48.1 – Activity to Increase Participation and Engagement Levels Across North Lanarkshire From Janie O’Neill, Chief Officer of Education (South) E-mail liddleh@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07973726496 1. Background 1.1 Active & Creative Communities (ACC) was established on 1 April 2021 following the insourcing of services from the former Culture & Leisure North Lanarkshire. ACC provide a range of important services including museums, creative arts, events, libraries, sport and leisure. Following further structural changes in June 22, ACC now includes the provision of Active Schools and outdoor education for North Lanarkshire young people. Executive Summary This report provides an update on recovery within Active & Creative Communities, linking to overall efforts to increase participation and engagement through a range of social, cultural and leisure activities. Efforts support work towards an Active Scotland, which focuses on a vision where more people are active, more often and in a range of ways which exercise the body and the mind. Recommendations It is proposed that the Communities Committee: (1) Note attendance/active participant numbers during the recovery period of 21/22 and endorse ongoing plans to increase participation as noted in paragraph 2.4. (2) otherwise, endorse the contents of the report. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities Ambition statement (15) Encourage the health and wellbeing of people through a range of social, cultural, and leisure activities
Page 2
2. Report 2.1 The Plan for North Lanarkshire sets a direction for ACC which works towards a priority where our focus is on Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Our Communities. Much of the work undertaken within the service area over the last 18 months has focused on an overall drive which seeks to encourage health and wellbeing across all age ranges and needs by allowing access to a range of social, cultural and leisure activities. 2.2 The Active & Creative Communities Strategic Activity Framework, approved at Community Empowerment Committee in August 2020, highlights a number of challenges that arise from inactivity across the United Kingdom, with specific challenges noted for North Lanarkshire. A World Health Organisation (WHO) and Scottish Government improvement target set in 2019 required that North Lanarkshire improves its activity levels by 6.15% by 2030 in order to meet WHO guidelines. It is recognised that activity means something different for every individual and the ACC approach supports the Active Scotland Outcome Framework where activity means moving – be that taking part in formal sporting activity, attending an arts class or music venue, or maintaining positive mental health through reading or participating in a chorus group. 2.3 The recent integration of Active Schools and Outdoor Education into ACC has added an additional focus on the overall move towards increasing participation. We continue in positive discussions with sportscotland on our funding agreement for 2023-27 – a key focus on this agreement is the critical provision of high quality opportunities for young people to take part in sport & physical activity before school, at lunchtime and after school. Our Outdoor Education programme continues to grow in popularity with our schools. 2.4 The table below outlines participant numbers across the main service areas of ACC. Due to the impact of COVID, comparisons are provided with 2019/20 as the last full year, unrestricted by lockdowns or closures. Overall, while numbers are encouraging and continue to increase, they reflect an ongoing move towards full recovery during 21/22, with some areas still to fully return to pre-pandemic levels. The area where there remains the biggest impact on footfall/participant numbers is within the Community Libraries team. This reflects an overall trend across Scotland, with the Scottish Libraries Information Council (SLIC) reporting a decline in visits to libraries over the last two decades – a combination of changing habits and lifestyle choices. North Lanarkshire has reflected the growing trend to transform libraries into a service which supports services provided at the heart of our communities – the library is increasingly the place to access learning, employability support, public interest presentations or as a source to access information from partner providers. The launch of the new immersive experience in Motherwell Library in 23/24 is an excellent example of this. Such work is having a positive impact on the use of libraries overall, with trends in 22/23 showing a significant improvement in comparison to the previous year.
Page 3
Active & Creative Communities – Active Participants/Footfall 2019/20 and 2021/22 2019/20 2021/22 Variance Comment Active NL (membership) 21,876 (drop to 9,566 in 20/21) 25,133 +14.8% At P7 of 22/23, membership currently 35,097 Community Libraries 1,357,969 421,672 -68% While mirroring national trends, a review of service provision is underway. Predicting circa 700,000 for 22/23. Creative Resources (Events and Arts) 191,695 163,527 -14% Reduction in footfall primarily due to use of Airdrie Town Hall as vaccination centre. Museums & Collections (in person visits, ancestry and learning engagements) 757,568 680,218 -10% Based on 22/23 figures to date, we anticipate an improvement on 19/20 outturns. School Term – 19/20 School Term – 21/22 Active Schools – extra curricular clubs only 221,584 140,745 -36% Following lockdown for much of 20-21, this was a period of recovery and a return to extra curricular activities. Outdoor Education Programme launched in 20/21 – 29 schools in attendance 93 schools in attendance +220% To date in 22/23 – 108 schools are due to attend.
Page 4
2.5 Overall the position for 2021/22 show positive signs of recovery, with further improvement predicted for 2022/23. While there remains a need to focus on a wider review of aspects of service delivery in certain areas, it is also recognised that many of the services provided by Active & Creative Communities may be affected by the current cost of living crisis. We continue to work with colleagues to attempt to offer attractive, cost-efficient offers to our community, wherever possible. 2.6 Financial Position 2.6.1 For some aspects of the service (Active NL and Creative Resources/Events) variance in participation rates have a significant impact on overall budgets and the income targets set for each. We continue to work closely with Financial Solutions to manage overall income and take corrective action where possible. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Supporting health and wellbeing through access to a range of social, cultural and leisure activities. Janie O’Neill Chief Officer for Education (South)
Page 5
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? 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? For some aspects of the service, reduction in footfall equates to reduction in income. This is being closely managed with Financial Solutions. 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?
Page 6
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? We work with Corporate Communications to promote activities and offers. Very successful approach thus far. 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 ACC Risk Register comprehensively covers all project/programme risks and is managed appropriately. 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.