Argyll and Bute TSI Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 11 November 2025
Back to Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group — 11 November 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Page | 1 Report: Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group Paper: Third Sector Interface (TSI) Date: 29 October 2025 Prepared by: Caryl Mclean TSI Scotland Network work TSI Scotland Network has now published a summary manifesto which has been sent to all the main political parties ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2026. The TSI national two-day conference took place on 28th and 29th October 2025 at the SECC in Glasgow has over 120 TSI staff attending each day from around the country. Finally, TSI work with the Poverty Alliance project, Taking Action on Rural Poverty, is progressing well. Local strategic partnerships 1. Funding platform – Argyll and Bute Council It was raised last quarter that the council was looking to develop a near competitor to our database and funding platforms, which was a spin-off from their Aspiring Places project database. ABTSI’s CEO and Database Manager met with the Council’s lead for this service to discuss commissioning and collaboration opportunities. This led to a presentation to Councillors in late September and we made a very specific ask to collaborate together as firstly public finances are in short supply and secondly duplication of services does not sit well with the public particularly as other core public services remain stretched. I will be writing to the council to explore next steps. 2. Joint Strategic Plan 2026-2031 and the role of the third sector The TSI is jointly hosting an engagement event with the HSCP on commissioning and prevention efforts on 13th November. Expectations are moderately low given the financial challenges faced by the HSCP. Internal matters, contracts, sector support and strategic action plan delivery 1. HR advice and building sustainable back-office services
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Page | 2 Last quarter it was reported that we were in discussions about strengthening our HR freelancer offer for TSOs and this quarter there has been further call for such services from more organisations. In parallel discussions have been ongoing with others in the sector (EDAS, Community Enterprise, Social Enterprise Scotland and others) about whether we could collectively deliver a combined value for money service and a development day is planned for 12th November. 2. Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund (years 5 and 6) The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund (year 5 and 6) reference panel met on 12th October. All successful applicants applied for two-year funding. In summary, 19 organisations have been fully funded for 2 years with 44 out of 71 receiving funding at some level for both Year 1 and Year2. The panel was chaired by ABTSI’s CEO as fund administrator and as well as representatives from the National Lottery, the council and the NHS we were joined by two lived experience representatives. This year’s funding round forms part of the government’s multi-year fairer funding evaluation pilot programme. 3. TSSA departure Our Third Sector Support Adviser (TSSA) for Helensburgh and Lomond, Caryl McLean, is leaving. The post will be advertised in due course and most probably we will be looking to interview in December or early January. 4. Strategy review 2026-2031 – now known as Community Voices Our consultants SKS have been working hard on devising and distributing the survey that will provide the lead in questions to more detailed focus group work on a sector and TSI strategy and state of the sector report. This can be accessed here:- https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/argyllbute. Please distribute across your networks including friends and family as many of us use community services at some level. Some groups have also offered to host focus groups for which they will be paid. Full details of the programme as a reminder accessible from our website:- https://www.argylltsi.org/community-voices-speaking-up-for-argyll-and-the-isles/. We are planning to hold three meetings (dates tbc) of the strategic advisory group and some board members have expressed an interest in supporting this work.