Supplementary Pack 1
Argyll and Bute Council · 5 November 2025
Back to Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group — 5 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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Kilmory, Lochgilphead, PA31 8RT Tel: 01546 602127 Fax: 01546 604435 DX 599700 LOCHGILPHEAD 3 November 2025 SUPPLEMENTARY PACK 1 MID ARGYLL, KINTYRE AND THE ISLANDS AREA COMMUNITY PLANNING GROUP - ON A HYBRID BASIS IN THE DAVAAR SUITE, KINTYRE COMMUNITY CENTRE, CAMPBELTOWN AND BY MICROSOFT TEAMS on WEDNESDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2025 at 10:30 AM I enclose herewith an updated report in respect of item 12(b) (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Update) and item 12(j) (Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface (TSI)) which was not included on the Agenda for the above meeting. Douglas Hendry Executive Director UPDATED REPORT AND ADDITONAL ITEM 12. PARTNER UPDATES (b) Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Update (Pages 3 - 10) (j) Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface (TSI) (Pages 11 - 12) Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group Councillor Anne Horn (Chair) Contact: Julieann Small, Democratic Services Assistant - 01546 604043 Public Document Pack
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Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands CPG Briefing Report Q2 2025/26 Performance & Activity Report From: 1st July 2025 To: 30th September 2025 Page 3 Agenda Item 12b
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Introduction Welcome to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Community Board Performance Report. This performance report is designed to provide citizens, stakeholders and partners with information relating to Community Board based activity undertaken by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Whilst using historic statistical benchmarking data, consideration must be taken of the random nature of fire related incidents and events, and how this can pose difficulties in interpreting emerging patterns and trends. This is of specific relevance where Community Board level data is analysed due to the relatively small number of actual incidents/events that occur in Community Board areas. However, regardless of statistical anomalies, emerging patterns and trends in fire related incidents and events can assist the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Community Planning Partners plan and implement preventative intervention initiatives to target reducing fire related incidents and events. About the statistics within this report The activity totals and other statistics quoted within this report are published in the interests of transparency and openness. They are provisional in nature and subject to change as a result of ongoing quality assurance and review. Because all statistics quoted are provisional there may be a difference in the period totals quoted in our reports after local publication which result from revisions or additions to the data in our systems. The Scottish Government publishes official statistics each year which allow for comparisons to be made over longer periods of time. Report Generated on 24/10/2025 Page 4
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Mid Argyll Q2 2025-26 Page 5
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Kintyre & the Islands Q2 2025-26 Page 6
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South Kintyre Q2 2025-26 Page 7
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Community Safety & Engagement Argyll & Bute Fire Skills In September we held our first Fire Skills course in Argyll & Bute. The course proved a success, thanks to the commitment and teamwork of the young participants. They took part in practical activities aimed at building confidence, learning new skills, and working together. Their enthusiasm made the experience positive and impactful. Thanks also go to partner organisations Developing the Young Workforce, Live Argyll, Scottish Ambulance Service, and Argyll & Bute Education for their support. Station Open Days This summer, fire stations in Helensburgh, Lochgoilhead, Tobermory, and Oban welcomed the public for a series of open days. Visitors had the chance to meet local crews, explore fire and rescue equipment, and take part in activities focused on safety and awareness. The events helped strengthen ties with the community and offered valuable insights into the work of our teams. We’re grateful to our youth volunteers and partner organisations support, and everyone who donated to local charities. Your support made a real difference. We look forward to welcoming you again at future events. Page 8
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Road & Water Safety During this reporting period, we’ve continued collaborating with partners across Argyll & Bute, including Police Scotland, the RNLI, and local businesses, to support road and water safety campaigns across the local authority area. We remain active in the Partnership Approach to Water Safety (PAWS) and regularly attend Argyll & Bute’s quarterly safety meetings. Our Community Action Team and local crews have also delivered Water Safety Scotland presentations in schools, helping raise awareness and promote safer behaviours around water. We supported this year's World Drowning Prevention Day at Lomond Shores, Loch Lomond, by providing water safety information and demonstrating a simulated water rescue using our dedicated water safety resources. Community Action Team • Post Domestic Incident Response (PDIR) following every domestic incident: Offers homeowners a free safety check and installation of alarms where applicable. • Representation on Multi Agency Risk Assessment (MARAC) for those affected by domestic violence. • Continue to support ‘Make the Call’ campaign and On Call recruitment drive for retained and volunteer stations within Argyll and Bute • Engaging with communities utilising Summer/Autumn Thematic Action Plans TAP (Thematic Action Plan) • Establishing “Referral Pathways” with our partnership agencies. Empowering new referral groups to help us arrange Home Fire Safety Visits for some of our most vulnerable groups in our communities. Page 9
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Page | 1 Report: MAKI Area Community Planning Group Paper: Third Sector Interface (TSI) Date: 5 November 2025 Prepared by: Caitlin McNeill Introduction This report covers the period from 21st July 2025 to 17th October 2025. A New Third Sector Network for MAKI On the 2nd of October, Caitlin McNeill (TSI) and Antonia Baird (Community Development), with Jo Wheeler (ABCAN), hosted the first meeting of a new network at TALC in Tarbert. There was a great attendance from all over MAKI. There were presentations from The GRAB Trust and Tayinloan Youth Club and after small-group discussions and feedback sessions, it was decided that the group would be beneficial and a further meeting would be held in March. The meetings will likely be held in-person. We were grateful to those attending and contributing to the session. HR advice and building sustainable back-office services 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. 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 to make final decisions on who to fund. 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. Page 11 Agenda Item 12j
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Page | 2 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/. 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. This work was derived from the seven third sector relevant policy papers as reported last quarter and this is being formatted ahead of publication hopefully next week. ABTSI’s CEO worked on two groups – Rural issues and Public Service Reform. Following on from TSI 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 ABTSI’s CEO along with other third sector representatives met with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley Anne Somerville MSP in August. It was a high-level meeting but all parties were able to impress upon the Cabinet Secretary that TSO resilience was fragile because of the unstable and unpredictable funding environment combined with high demand. The TSI national two-day conference took place on 28th and 29th October 2025 at the SECC in Glasgow with over 120 TSI staff attending each day from around the country. Day one was focused on practice and operational improvement issues and day two focused on policy and engagement with key change makers and stakeholders at local and national levels. For day one the Head of Regulation at OSCR agreed to be our keynote speaker and for day two the government minister for public service reform, Ivan Mckee MSP. ABTSI was part of three TSIs helping to organise the event, with the CEO drafting the agenda, Janis helping on conference delivery and Lauren helping on conference booking. Finally, our work with the Poverty Alliance project, Taking Action on Rural Poverty, is doing really well. As well as working together on facilitating the voice of lived experience in local policy design work we have also worked together on a presentation to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs in early October about challenges in rural Scotland. Page 12