Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface (TSI) Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 7 May 2025
Back to Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group — 7 May 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Report: MAKI Area Community Planning Group Paper: Third Sector Interface (TSI) Date: 7/5/25 Prepared by: Caitlin McNeill 1. In-person visits in 2025 After taking a bit of time settling in to my role as Third Sector Support Advisor, I will now be making some trips to visit local organisations over the coming months. If any groups would like an in-person meeting, would like me to attend an event or anything else, please get in touch with me. I will also schedule some drop-in sessions throughout MAKI for anyone who would like a chat or to get to know more about how the TSI can support your organisation. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. 2. Scottish Government, Parliament, the TSI landscape and policy activity TSI CEO has been working with TSI colleagues across Scotland to lobby the Scottish Government on third sector issues including fair funding, investment in prevention and our sector’s role in the Public Service Reform agenda. An updated briefing is being produced and forms the basis of an emerging ‘manifesto’ for the third sector. A TSI national two-day conference is being arranged for October/November 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 peers. 3. Poverty Alliance Campaign – Scotland Demands Better This emerging new campaign includes a coalition of over 40 national organisations and TSIs will be supporting the engagement process with local groups across Scotland. The Scotland Demands Better campaign is seeking to activate a broad range of civil society organisations over the coming months to show support for greater action to address poverty and inequality. This activation will culminate in a demonstration in Edinburgh on 25th of October. There is strong evidence to show that a range of policies to address poverty are broadly supported by the public, but there is little sense of a unified movement pressing for greater action to deliver change. This campaign hopes to bring more coherence to the calls and to develop a greater sense of a unified anti-poverty movement. TSI CEO has joined the Poverty Alliance coordinated Scotland Demands Better steering group. The emerging key policy calls are: • A safety net that meets the cost of living (or) A Minimum Income Guarantee to provide a dignified life • Decent jobs for all (who need them) • Accessible and affordable services that meet people’s needs.
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4. Community Wealth Building priorities and legislation The Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill was published on 20th March 2025 by the Scottish Government and highlights new duties to be placed on local authorities and specified community planning partners. The Bill aims to ensure consistent implementation of the community wealth building (CWB) model across Scotland.The Bill provides a CWB statement, provisions relating to the preparation of a CWB action plan, guidance on CWB and a list of specified public bodies that must have due regard to the guidance. The Scottish Parliament’s Economy and Fair Work Committee is running a ‘Call for views’ until 23rd May, to help inform its examination of the Bill during stage 1 of the process to decide if it should become an Act. The TSI will respond pending Board input. 5. Work of the Wellbeing Development Manager Following on from the Board’s decision in February the Wellbeing Development Manager, in partnership with other local partners, has now recruited a Walking Development Coordinator subject to satisfactory references. Their role will be to stimulate healthy walking activity in volunteer led groups across Argyll and Bute. 6. Trauma Informed training All TSI staff including our Positive Destinations team have now attended Trauma Informed training sessions and the CEO has in addition attended the Scottish Trauma Informed Leaders Training (STILT) course. All courses are designed to raise awareness of the 5 R's of becoming trauma-informed which are - Realizing - Recognizing - Responding - Resisting, and - Relationships The focus is on understanding the impact of trauma, identifying signs, providing supportive responses, preventing re-traumatization, and prioritizing strong, trusting relationships. We will be working on identifying which team members need to progress towards level 2 which is Trauma Informed Practice, but this is likely to mainly involve our Positive Destinations mentors.