Agenda item

The Board had before it a report by Gail Woodcock (Localities Programme Manager, ACH&SCP) which brought to the Board’s attention the ongoing consultation relating to the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act and sought agreement that a formal response to the consultation be submitted on behalf of the ACH&SCP. The report also suggested a process for supporting responses to future consultations on behalf of the ACH&SCP.

The report recommended:-

that the Board –

(a)          Note the consultation on the draft guidance in respect of the Community Empowerment Act and the timescales involved, which mean that it was not possible to bring a full draft consultation response to the IJB for approval prior to the consultation response deadline;

(b)          Instruct the Chief Officer to develop and provide an appropriate response on behalf of the ACH&SCP to the current consultation relating to the Community Empowerment Act, in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB;

(c)          Delegate to the Chief Officer the responsibility for responding to future relevant consultations on behalf of the ACH&SCP, in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB, bringing draft consultation responses to the IJB or appropriate committee if appropriate and when time permits.

Gail Woodcock spoke to the report and advised that the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act imposed duties on Community Planning Partnerships (CPP) and partners around the delivery of improved local outcomes and the involvement of community bodies at all stages of the community planning process and this was of particular interest to the IJB as locality planning was a key element of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act. Ms Woodcock explained that differences in terminology between the two acts may prove to be problematic as the Community Empowerment Act defined localities as natural communities, whereas the Public Bodies Act deemed localities to be artificial boundaries. She further advised that the ACH&SCP had been engaging with CPP colleagues on how services would be planned and delivered at locality, city and regional levels and that work was ongoing to develop a Participation and Engagement Strategy to ensure that communities had a voice during the process as this would provide added value to decision making. She also noted that Part 5 of the Community Empowerment Act set out the framework for the asset transfer process and this would be of interest to the IJB as physical assets were a key enabler to deliver many of the services that the ACH&SCP was responsible for.

Thereafter members requested that all future consultation responses be published on the Partnership’s website for public inspection; and Judith Proctor advised that IJBs were statutory partners of CPPs and she confirmed that the Chair would represent the IJB, with support from the Chief Officer on the Aberdeen City Community Planning Partnership.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to note the consultation on the draft guidance in respect of the Community Empowerment Act and the timescales involved, which mean that it was not possible to bring a full draft consultation response to the IJB for approval prior to the consultation response deadline;

(ii)           to instruct the Chief Officer to develop and provide an appropriate response on behalf of the ACH&SCP to the current consultation relating to the Community Empowerment Act, in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB;

(iii)         to delegate to the Chief Officer the responsibility for responding to future relevant consultations on behalf of the ACH&SCP, in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB, bringing draft consultation responses to the IJB or appropriate committee if appropriate and when time permits; and

(iv)         to request that all consultation responses made on behalf of the IJB be published on the ACH&SCP website.