MINUTES of MEETING of the RURAL SOUTH WEST AREA COMMUNITY PLANNING FORUM held in the STRATHENDRICK SUITE, BALFRON HIGH SCHOOL on MONDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2012 at 7 p.m.
PRESENT:
ArnpriorIain Breakenridge, Arnprior CC
BalfronJean Browning, Balfron CC
Paul Henke, Balfron CC
Ann Johnston, Balfron Station Residents Group
BuchlyvieMargaret Sparkes, Contact the Elderly
DrymenJohn Gleave, LLTNP Community Partnership
FintryCicely Roy, Fintry C.C
KillearnMargery Burdon, Killearn CC
Daye Tucker, KCFC
StrathblaneMargaret Vass, Strathblane CC
Sheena Turner, Strathblane Lunch Club
Alan Hutton, Strathblane CC
Marian Lever, Strathblane CC
Elected Members:
Councillor Graham Lambie
Councillor Ian Muirhead
Officers:
Pam Campbell, Forum Support
Janet MacCallum, Support Officer
Barbara Allan, Service Manager, Stirling Council
Also present:
Bob Jack, Chief Executive, Stirling Council
Chris Sutton, Service Manager Strategy, Stirling Council
Fraser McMurdo, Stirling Council Youth Services
Sergeant David Hannah, Central Scotland Police
Jennifer Kerr, Stirlingshire Voluntary Enterprise
David Niven, Programme Co-ordinator (Change Fund)
Apologies:
Victoria McAra, Stirling Council
Kevin Findlater, Central Scotland Police
Pat Scroggie, Central Scotland Police
Bob Sparkes, Buchlyvie CC
1. Welcome and Introductions
Pam Campbell introduced herself and welcomed everyone to the meeting, advising the Forum of housekeeping procedures. Pam welcomed Bob Jack and Jennifer Kerr who would both be giving presentations. Pam advised that Chief Executive Bob Jack would address the Forum first, followed by questions.
- Forums Role & Way Forward for Stirling Council
Bob Jack thanked the Forum for inviting him to the meeting, noting that it had been two years since he last attended during which time national and council financial restraints had been significant. Bob Jack noted that the revenue support grant had been held level, however there was to be a cut of £24m in the four years following the current year. Stirling Council currently have a net budget of £214m, with 50% of this being staff costs. Consequently half of the financial savings will need to come from reductions in the cost of employment. There had been pay freeze over the last two years for local authority employees, however the biggest percentage of the Council budget is on education. Education pay and conditions are set independently of the local authority and the council has limited scope, as the ratio of teaching staff to children cannot be changed.
Social care is approximately 25% of the budget with demand rising, which leaves us with a challenging agenda as not much can be done with education and we are limited to what we can do with social care so budget cuts would have to come from other services.
Bob Jack noted that if education continue to be protected there would be nothing left for other services, as we have realised savings of £24m over the last few years but it will be harder now to find another £24m.
Bob Jack highlighted the National Government Reform next spring of the Police and Fire Service, noting that our point of entry for contacting these services will be at a lower level. He also noted that the National Public Service Reform showed a greater integration between local authorities and NHS and that the three authorities within Forth Valley work well with NHSFV. Stirling/Clacks as one interface, with Falkirk being another.
The landscape is changing at national level and therefore we need to look at changes at a more local level. A joint statement from the Scottish Government and Cosla regarding community-planning notes that we need to develop a new plan for 10 years from next April and we are currently in discussion with regard to a Single Outcome Agreement for Stirling.
The Forum was asked to note that community planning is not just about Stirling and the community but needs to be about involving people in the community. Community Planning needs to help us engage citizens and communities to work together.
Q. - Councillor Lambie asked what impact the 1% reduction in council tax had on the budget.
A. £450,000 to implement a 23p a week reduction, which would be carried forward each budget.
Q. Forum Member Alan Hutton asked what impact the council tax freeze has had on council budgets.
A, Government has made a commitment not to increase council tax, however we could increase council tax but this would mean we lose the revenue support grant, which would probably result in an increase of at least a 10% in council tax bills.
A member of the Forum said that volunteers feel vulnerable and communities need support and would not like to see anymore support withdrawn. Why can a basic grade worker not approach direct and cut out the middle manager as volunteers cannot be responsible for managing people and the community councils need resources to manage. Could Community Councils not be like the Parish Councils in England?
Bob Jack noted that we are not looking to reduce support but would look at delivering in different ways. He advised the Forum that the Council is currently looking at the role of service managers who would have a corporate position with broader remit. A challenge for service managers will be to hold a corporate position and work in different ways managing relationships between council and communities. He further advised that senior management has contracted by 50% over the last three years. The English system is not a unitary system and community councils and parish councils do not have the same powers, community councils do not have tax levying powers and could not employ people, however the Community Empowerment Bill might change this.
A question raised by the Forum was could we follow the European model?
Bob Jack noted that local government in Europe is much smaller and is not always responsible for education/social care.
Following discussion people were asked what communities were interested in and at what level would they like to have influence over. It was noted that the problem would be getting people to participate.
Bob Jack noted that Stirling Council was currently working with Volunteer Scotland to promote work with volunteers, which hopefully would lead to the potential for people to express an interest in what they would like to volunteer to do. The thing that needs to change is the way public sector professionals operate as people come with problems and expect the council to fix rather than as a community fixing things themselves.
Bob Jack stated that he had expressed his own views tonight and that Elected Members are the ones who decide on the way forward and hopefully by October we will have Mandate to work too.
Members of the Forum noted that there was no education representative at the meeting.
Pam Campbell reminded members of the Forum that the meeting on Outcomes for Stirling, was being held next Monday at 7.00 pm. This meeting is to look at the proposed SOA for Stirling and will inform how Stirling Council, Central Scotland Police, Forth Valley Health Board and other community partners, deliver services.
3. Reshaping Care for Older People (RSCOP)& Change Fund Up-date
Pam introduced Jennifer Kerr who gave a power point presentation highlighting the national background of Change. The Change Plan and corresponding Change Fund is a four-year programme and involves representatives from four partners, Local Authority, NHS Forth Valley, Third Sector and Independent Sector. Representatives from three of the partners’ make up a support team, whom meet on a weekly basis to support and facilitate the change plan. The plan is sent to the multi-agency partnership working group made up of a representative from all partners who discuss and make a recommendation on the change fund allocations to the decision group who make the final decision on the proposal.
RSCOP aims to reduce unplanned admissions to hospital for people aged 75+, reduce delays in discharge and improve early diagnosis and support for dementia. It is also hoped to improve outcomes for carers and enhance the opportunities for people to reside at home and receive end of life care there. RSCOP focuses on improving outcomes for older people and research has shown that older people would prefer to remain in their communities in older age and be supported to be independent at home for as long as possible. Allocation of 20% of the change fund will be to support carers in the community. One of the key principles is to make older people realise they are an asset and not a burden and supporting and caring for older people is not just a health or social work responsibility.
Jennifer further stated that we could be faced with challenges when shifting care and services provision into communities and away from institutional provisions. These include financial sustainability and joining up multi-agency strategic and operational plans.
Jennifer highlighted the Change Plan has four themes that prioritise activities in reshaping the care for older people; i.e. avoiding hospital admission, effective flow through hospital, proactive care and support at home and reshaping care home use. There are also four core-crosscutting themes in the plan:
- Community capacity building, lead Jennifer Kerr
- Dementia care, lead James Cassidy
- Support for unpaid carers, lead The Princess Royal Trust for Carers
- Palliative Care, lead still to be confirmed.
Jennifer advised the partnership recognise it needs to enhance service user involvement. They also recognise the need to find ways to work with communities and their older people to be responsive to local needs within limited resources. It would like to set up mechanisms for ongoing involvement in planning and communication with communities. So as a starting point, the partnership Support Team would like to know if the Forum communities had any plans or ideas for supporting older people and how they could support or assist with developing these plans.
In bringing her power point presentation to a conclusion Jennifer said that the next steps will be to meet with individual community groups who are interested and have plans but also will be approaching communities where statistics tell us that there are high levels of older persons, especially with high levels of need.
If anyone is interested in more information or to discuss their plans, contact the Support Team or the communities’ team can also put you in touch with them.
Contact details for Support Team Members
Anne KnoxDavid Niven
Change Fund Engagement OfficerProgramme Co-ordinator (Change Fund)
Stirlingshire Voluntary EnterpriseSocial Services
01786 43000001786 443083
Following discussion the following points were noted:
- Anne Knox will be contacting community organisations in the near future to research lunch clubs in the area. She will be writing a report that recommends a transparent and sustainable way to provide these types of activities across Stirling. University of the Third Age, which has been running for 8 years, is setting up a group in the Callander area. The U3A has a website
- Community to consider all options locally but also note that there are some larger third sector organisations providing services across the area who could be of assistance to their local areas. The Change Plan is about a new process of making decisions as partners on a long term basis more than it is a temporary fund. All applications are therefore discussed and all options considered which takes time.
- If interested in Change funding, should be aiming to make an application within next 6/8 months. Parts of the Forum area are not geographically best placed to use Forth Valley Hospital and use Glasgow hospitals, which causes problems for discharge.
- The provision of frozen meals for the elderly has raised the profile for older people in the area and more groups are talking to each other to support elderly and their needs.
MOWS were a means of accessing older people, whereas knocking on doors without a reason could be seen as people being nosey. Frozen Meals do not provide a regular reason to visit someone.
- Contact the Elderly raised the issue of day care costs at Cherrybank, increasing to a daily cost of £48.00. Chris Sutton explained the process of people being financially assessed for day care provision.
Due to time constraints the Agenda could not be completed. There were no community updates and the PACT report was tabled for noting. The minutes of 21 May 2012 and the Area Action Plan would be approved at the next meeting, which is scheduled for the 19th November 2012.
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