Community planning: Turning ambition into action Antony Clark, Audit Scotland.

Community planning: Turning ambition into action

Antony Clark, Audit Scotland

223 September 2015Wellbeing Leaders Group - Northern Ireland

The presentation

• Community Planning in Scotland

• What is it trying to do?

• The A, B, C, of making community planning work

• Where is it really making a difference?

• Areas of ongoing challenge

• What does this mean for Northern Ireland?


Community Planning in Scotland


So what is Community Planning trying to do?

• Plan for place

o Show community leadershipo Understand community needs and wisheso Map local assets and resources

• Organise for outcomes

o Agree shared improvement prioritieso Effective governance structureso Share resourceso Align planning and performance management

• Involve communities

o Engage with local peopleo Treat them as a resource and asseto Mobilise the third sector

• Drive public service reform:

o Promote preventiono Address inequalitieso Deliver integrated local services

The A, B, C, of making community planning work

What kind of things do you need?

5

• Shared leadership and trust

• Jointly owned vision for change

• Political engagement and support

• Clear roles and responsibilities

• Good governance and an ability to challenge each other

• Shared and aligned resources

• Community engagement and involvement

• Good relationships with businesses and the third sector

• Effective performance management

• Willingness to change



Where is it really making a difference in Scotland?

Everywhere, up to a point.

But here are some practical examples:

•Glasgow – a real focus on things that matter to local people

•North Ayrshire – multi-agency problem solving

•West Lothian – co-located, integrated public services

•Scottish Borders – jobs and sustainable communities

Health inequality in Glasgow


The focus of Glasgow CPP


A clear focus on the major challenges facing local communities


North Ayrshire CPP

Multi-agency problem solving:

West Lothian CPP


‘Joint working is how we do things around here’

Innovative joined-up services (partnership centres, co-location and Job Centre Plus)

Scottish Borders CPP


Addressing the challenges of an ageing population in a low wage poorly connected economy


What’s the overall direction?

• There is real energy and drive across Scotland to improve Community Planning

• Partners and CPPs:

o Understand each other, and their areas better now

o Know what resources they have to improve outcomes

o Recognise the importance of prevention

o Are engaging better with communities

o Have started to join-up complex national reform agendas


But, much more still to do…

• Leadership, scrutiny and challenge remain weak

• Many CPPs are still not clear about what they are trying to achieve

• Confusion over local or national focus of community planning

• Competing priorities and accountabilities have not gone away

• There is no framework for assessing the performance and pace of improvement of CPPs

• More focused and targeted improvement support is needed

Implications for Northern Ireland

• Rare opportunity to design outcomes and well-being in to new arrangements

• Leadership is key, but it’s about more than individuals

• Governance and accountability structures do matter

• Clarity about national vs. local is essential

• Culture eats strategy for breakfast!

• Some tricky issues:o investing in prevention against backdrop of reducing resourceso reconciling long-term outcomes approach with legitimate concerns about

mainstream public serviceso community empowerment? o measuring and reporting progress against outcomes


Community planning: Turning ambition into action Antony Clark, Audit Scotland.

Documents

community planning workwhere

local peopletreat

local peoplenorth ayrshire

real focus

wishesmap local assets

shared leadership

major challenges

clear roles