Argyll and Bute TSI Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 19 August 2025
Back to Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group — 19 August 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: 19 August 2025 Prepared by: Caryl Mclean Scottish Government, TSI and Policy Activity 1. TSI Scotland Network is working on seven third sector relevant policy areas ahead of submission to both main parties for their respective manifesto deliberations in October and December 2025. Key policy positions will be ready by end August 2025. ABTSI’s CEO is working on two groups – rural and Public Service Reform. 2. This follows meetings in May and June 2025 with Jenni Minto MSP in her capacity as Public Health Minister, Labour leader Anas Sarwar MSP and the SNP’s head of policy. 3. The TSI national two-day conference is confirmed for 28th and 29th October 2025. Day one will focus on practice and operational improvement issues and day two will focus on policy and engagement with key change makers and stakeholders at local and national levels. 4. Finally, the TSI Scotland Network improvement workstream on data and telling our collective story is very near publishing a common dataset for all TSIs to use and the CEO will bring more details in due course. This fits in well alongside our strategic review process. HR Support - building sustainable back-office services For a number of years the TSI has used the services of a freelance HR adviser who has served the TSI well by providing support for strategic HR. Unfortunately, the adviser retired in September 2024. The CEO has been able to recruit a freelancer who is now actively supporting a member organisation and we have in turn brought on board Glasgow GCVS to provide professional HR guidance for our freelancer should it be required. Our goal is to build a flexible and responsive HR service for our many small organisations as well as to be a central source of knowledge and expertise. As well as conversations with Glasgow GCVS we have started a dialogue with others who may be open to sharing an HR function. The key in any deal is to be able to draw a core level of support but not pay for more than we need as well as being able to upscale support to groups in crisis. It may well be that we share an HR professional on an SLA basis for say one day a week but that professional in effect builds a team of freelancers upon whom we could draw when the demand exists.
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Page | 2 Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund (years 5 and 6) The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund (year 5) has completed the local consultation and engagement process. We will be looking to expand the panel membership this year if possible and it is expected that applications will open around 15th August and close in mid-September with grants being disbursed in October 2025. The amount of £285k is similar to last year and there has been no change in local and national priorities. However, for this year there is an expectation that 80 per cent of grants will be awarded for both years 5 and 6 and this will allow Scottish Government to test the benefits of multi-year funding agreements. TSI - Strategy Review 2026-2031 Four tenders were received for the review work as previously reported. They have now been scored and are being checked before contract award. The strategy tender that will lead to the new 2026-2031 strategy will be awarded, subject to due diligence. The TSI team have been involved in discussions about how they can take elements of the strategy work into local communities and have also been advising on which local partners might wish to host localised engagement events or focus groups alongside existing events. We are also actively exploring an apprenticeship subject to cost. Community Directory and Funding Platform refresh Alongside the strategy refresh and the national work on data now is also a good opportunity to review our Community Directory (an online resource providing information on local groups and organisations across Argyll and Bute) as well as our TSI Funding Platform. More information to follow. Wellbeing Development Manager The Walking Development Coordinator, Eleanor Balfour, is now in post and is in the process of meeting volunteer groups to stimulate healthy walking activity across Argyll and Bute. A meeting organised by the Wellbeing Development Manager was held to review the success of the physical activity and prevention workstream and also to devise models for successful continuation. Attendees included two third sector partners – LiveArgyll and MACPool activity hub in Lochgilphead. A toolkit for promoting collaborative conversations such as world café and other techniques has been printed and will be circulated to trained advocates.