Updates

Community Planning Partnership Board Meeting at Ochiltree Community Hub

The members of the Community Planning Partnership Board met on 28 November 2024 for a development session, at Ochiltree Community hub.

This session was an opportunity for partners to get together to share their thoughts and opinions on how the board operates - working together to discuss what is going well, and where there are areas for improvement.

The session was facilitated by Kathlynne Hewitson, People & Culture Manager, Organisational Development, East Ayrshire Council. Partner representatives included NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Ayrshire College, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, EA Health and Social Care Partnership, SPT, Scottish Government, the Third Sector Interface and local communities and businesses.

Those in attendance were asked four questions:

1. 1.          What are you passionate about in your role as a CPP Board Member?
2. 2.          If you could change one thing about the CPP Board what would it be and why?
3. 3.          Imagine yourself in a years’ time. What successes do you want to be talking about?
4. 4.          What additional information and support do you need to fulfil your role as a CPP Board Member?

Here are some of the key messages from the discussion groups:

• Board members from different backgrounds, both personally and professionally, agreed that Board meetings are valuable in allowing them to come together and work on shared issues that affect them and their communities.

• More joint development sessions, for example with the officers across the partnership delivery groups, would help us to make sure that we’re making progress against the things that really matter. Take time to reflect!

• We need to think about how we communicate with the communities we serve – what do people think community planning is? Is the term ‘community planning’ outdated?

• How do we let people know about all the good work that’s going on? And how they can influence that agenda going forward.

• It would be good to have more involvement from young people across our community planning structures, allowing them to contribute their thoughts and opinions – it’s all about their futures after all!

• And involving people who have lived experience of some of the issues that we’re trying to address.

• Understanding our communities, using the information that we have – whether from Community Led Action Plans, our combined data resources, our knowledge and experience as people who live and/or work in East Ayrshire – is essential to ensure that we are focusing on what is really important.

• Given reducing resources and additional pressures on people’s time, let’s get smarter about using our meeting time better, building on those good relationships that are the key strength of our CPP, reducing duplication and bureaucracy wherever we can.

These are some of the priorities and challenges that we will inform our work plan over the months ahead.

For more information on how we take these things forward keep an eye out for future Blogs – and more details around the CPP board, participation and members can be found on the community planning website

The Community Planning Partnership would like to thank the staff of Ochiltree Community Hub for making us so welcome in their brilliant facility and for accommodating our meeting.