Annual Report 2019 | Overview

Introduction

Glasgow Community Planning Partnership published the ten year Glasgow Community Plan in October 2017, with an associated Community Action Plan published in March 2018. This Annual Report provides an update to progress made by partners between April 2018 and March 2019.

Glasgow's Community Planning Partnership (GCPP) brings together public agencies, the third sector, and the private sector, to work to improve the city, its services, and the lives of people who live and work here.

As a city, we have come a long way. We have emerged from our post-industrial decline to become a modern, outward looking, confident City. We achieved this by working together - to identify shared priorities and joint actions that have begun to make real progress in tackling the many social issues that perpetuate inequality across Glasgow. There is however, much more that we need to do to ensure that everyone can share in the City's success.

The Glasgow Community Plan builds on years of community engagement and partnership working and sets out our shared priorities and focus areas to push further for the city. It highlights the role that the CPP will have in complementing existing strategies and is supported by the Community Action Plan. This sets out specific activities that the CPP are responsible for progressing, alongside its role in supporting a range of citywide partnership working. This Annual Report will demonstrate the progress made by the city/GCPP across its priority and focus areas between April 2018 and March 2019.

Our Shared Priorities

Glasgow's Community Plan articulates both the three focus areas and the two priorities agreed collaboratively by our citizens and our City partners.  These are;

Childcare
Transport
 
And
 
Economic Growth
Fairer More Equal
Resilient Communities

This Annual Report also provides an update on Equalities and Locality Planning.

What You Told Us

Our consultation process highlighted specific issues that should be targeted across the identified areas. These were used to inform the detail of our Community Action Plan which was published on 1st April 2018 and comprises of 20 areas across the 3 focus and 2 priority areas.

Key messages gather during the consultation phases included;

• A strong desire that local communities should be at the heart of decision making and empowered to not just offer views on decisions but to actively shape and participate in them.
• There was strong support across all of the Focus Areas; Economic Growth, Fairer More Equal Glasgow and Resilient Communities
• There was similarly strong support for the two priority areas; Childcare and Transport
• Economic Growth - Called for action on creating more jobs and opportunities, supporting the links between education, skills and training, the need for employability programmes and apprenticeships. References were also made to support with start-up investments for Business and SMEs, tackling ill health and supporting businesses
• Fairer More Equal Glasgow - There was less consensus in this area on where to focus activity which reflects the breadth of issues. The areas highlighted include additional support for children identified as struggling or from deprived backgrounds, tackling homelessness and meeting housing needs, mitigating the impact of welfare reform, improving community engagement and empowerment, tackling prejudice and promoting greater equality and diversity.
• Resilient Communities - this area received the strongest support across our consultation and calls for action have been focused on greater community engagement and empowerment as well as improving the local environment. There was a very clear message that local communities should have a role in shaping and designing public services which included greater consultation and increased power over budgets. There was also references to addressing antisocial behaviour.
• Transport - this was raised as an issue that required action within all of the focus areas which strengthens its place as a key CPP priority. Specifically issues of accessibility, affordability and connectivity. Both public transport and cycling were referenced.
• Childcare - this was also a recurring theme referenced across the focus areas. Issues around increasing and expanding provision, greater flexibility, including wrap around and holiday provision and cost were highlighted as requiring addressed. A range of innovative proposals were suggested including focusing on outdoor facilities, co-establishing with care homes and services for older children.

The Community Plan and its associated Community Action Plan, is a 'living' document that will change and evolve in line with the needs and ambitions of the city's communities and partners.

What We Did

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act afforded the GCPP the opportunity to consolidate the achievements of its previous approaches (Regeneration Outcome Agreement and Single Outcome Agreement). Whilst the requirement to provide a Community Plan (referred to in the Act as a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan) is not new, additional responsibilities are placed on specific organisations and more partners are identified.

Whilst the Community Plan highlights the areas that the Partnership will have an overview of, the Community Action Plan provides an opportunity to build on the partnership working to date, to push this further and to deliver more for our local communities. In the first instance therefore, the Community Action Plan has included a range of opportunities for the organisations involved in the CPP to strengthen their joint working.

This has been progressed through a range of activities which we refer to as Cultural Change Programme;

Leadership

Senior Leaders from across GCPP organisations have recognised the importance of working together to be a successful city and have committed their organisations to the required new ways of working. They speak passionately about what it means to work for and with the city and how only by working in partnership and with each other can we as a city realise our collective ambitions.

Multi Partner workshops

A series of multi-partner events were held throughout 2018/19. These events brought together key stakeholders from public, private and third sector organisations involved in our Glasgow Community Planning Partnership (GCPP) in keeping with the strong direction set by the leaders of respective organisations attendees were challenged to think beyond organisational silos and foster a climate of joint working and partnership.

At the most recent event in spring 2019 attendees used the time to;

• To consider how the partnership is building on historical success and what progress is being made against the Glasgow Community Plan (GCPP Wall)
• Critically assess the difference this was making in communities and challenge ourselves as a partnership to do even more and push ourselves further
• To consider the importance of culture change and shared leadership and develop a programme which delivered ever increasing levels of joint working
• To consider how the partnership could more effectively use assets such as property, employees and fleet to deliver the priority and focus areas
• To consider how as partnership we could really put citizens and communities at the heart of what we as a city are trying to achieve

Governance and Monitoring Arrangements

A product of an earlier multi event held in October 2018 was the creation of a governance and monitoring process for tracking the delivery of the Glasgow Community Plan and supporting Community Action Plan. A key component of these new arrangements was the creation of a senior officer network from across for partnership who supported the delivery of priority and focus areas. This newly established monitoring process which went live in February 2019 is formally reported on a quarterly basis and reports are publicly available for consideration.
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