Elected Member Briefing - Community Planning Partnership update

This Briefing Note provides an update on activity within the Community Planning Partnership covering the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), Annual Performance Report (APR) and Local Action Partnerships (LAPs).

Briefing Information

1. Legislative Context

Part 2 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 places a duty on Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) to:

Identify socio-economic inequalities that lead to poorer outcomes for residents and agree the actions necessary to tackle them. This is then written up into a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP)
Produce an Annual Performance Report (APR) which summarises the work done over the last 12 months to deliver the outcomes of the LOIP
Identify those localities which experience the poorest outcomes and develop a Locality Plan setting out how they will be tackled. This process is typically referred to as local community planning. In Perth and Kinross this has been delivered through Local Action Partnerships (LAPs) since their creation in 2016.

2. Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP)

The current LOIP was approved by the Community Planning Partnership in 2022. Following a period of review in 2024/25 a revised version is being finalised. The main change is a shift of focus from 5 priorities to 3 as below:

Poverty - led by the Anti-Poverty Task Force
Employability - led by the Local Employability Partnership
Health & Wellbeing - led by the Health & Wellbeing Partnership

The role of the CPP will be to support the work of the three thematic partnerships listed above, with a particular focus on:

Coordinating cross-cutting activity
Unblocking problems and removing barriers
Ensuring effective and constructive accountability
Ensuring adequate resourcing of activities
Promoting links and facilitating collaboration

An update on the revised LOIP will be presented to the CPP Board on 12 June.

3. Annual Performance Report (APR)

The APR provides a summary of the activity delivered over the previous 12 months to deliver the outcomes set out in the LOIP. Given the review process that the CPP has been focusing on during the 2024/25 reporting period, this year's APR focuses on summarising these activities. The APR also includes a number of short examples of "community planning in action" i.e. projects or pieces of work which have been delivered between partners over the last 12 months (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025).

The APR will be formally signed off by the CPP Board at their meeting on 12 June.

4. Local Action Partnerships (LAPs)

Report 15/535 (Microsoft Word - Community Planning - The Journey Over the Next 5 Years) set out proposals for establishing local community planning arrangements in Perth and Kinross. This report was also tabled at the CPP Board in late 2015. This was a universal approach, seeing the establishment of 5 (eventually 7) Local Action Partnerships (combinations of different multi-member wards) which brought together services, elected members and community representatives. Each LAP was given an initial Locality Plan, which summarised the evidence and data on socio-economic inequality for that area and set out some initial actions that the LAP could seek to deliver. The Council provided an annual budget which was to be used to allow the LAP to invest in those actions. Each LAP had a chairperson and a lead officer, which was typically a senior officer from a CPP member who would support the chair and the effective running of the LAP.

4.1 Core Issues

Levels of engagement from community groups and elected members have varied over the years and recurring issues included:

Uncertainty over what inequality was and how it presented at a locality level
Uncertainty over roles and cross over with other community groups including community councils
Lack of ownership of the Locality Plan as LAPs had not been involved in their initial development
Inability to agree a change of approach or a new Locality Plan as required

As a result of this, LAPs have struggled to gain traction or deliver their specified role around local community planning. Soon after their establishment, LAPs were tasked with overseeing the delivery of two rounds of Community Choices Participatory Budgeting (PB) funding in 2016/17 and 2017/18. From 2018/19, the LAPs also took on a role around the Community Investment Fund (CIF), being asked to get involved in the Ward Panel decision making process.

4.2 COVID-19 Response

Upon the first national lockdown, LAPs agreed to open their budgets to small funding bids from existing and new local groups who were offering support services to their local communities. Following the end of the lockdown period a number of LAPs introduced ongoing grant application processes to allow them to continue to invest in local projects and groups. This has resulted in their remaining core budgets being significantly reduced (for those LAPs which have remained active).

4.3 Current Position

Since the end of the COVID-19 response, LAPs have struggled re-establish themselves, beyond using any remaining budget to support local projects. Some exist in name only and of the two that continue to meet, engagement and activity is limited. The link to the CPP Board which existed up to 2020 was not restored following the end of lockdown as it proved challenging to get LAPs to review and update their Locality Plans to make that link constructive.

4.4 Locality Working

The Council and CPP are now seeking to improve our approach to local community planning, following an evidence-based locality model that is more closely aligned with the Community Empowerment Act. This approach will be focussed on those localities which the data tells us have the greatest need and will not be a universal approach across Perth and Kinross. As a result, the intention is that there is no direct support from for LAPS from the Council and CPP in terms of budget and officer time. Any useful initiatives or infrastructure created by the LAPs in their communities will be retained and built on through the Locality Working model. For those LAPs that have continued to meet, a CLD worker can provide advice and guidance on how to establish themselves as an independently constituted body should they wish to continue as a standalone group. Alternatively, any individuals who wish to remain involved in community activity will be offered help to contact suitable alternative groups in their locality. Individual LAP members will continue to be able to volunteer for initiatives like Ward Panels for CIF if they so wish.

The Locality Working model is being developed as part of the Fairer Futures Programme and builds on some initial locality-based work which commenced in 2022. The Fairer Futures Programme is a Scottish Government funded initiative which seeks to roll out our locality approach further and use this as a model for (initially) tackling issues around poverty and inequality in our communities. This proposal was discussed and agreed at the CPP Board meeting on Thursday 20 February. The roll out of the Locality Working model began in Highland Perthshire and has also been implemented in Coupar Angus and North Perth. Additional localities have been identified (Perth City, South Crieff, Rattray and Alyth) on the basis of the evidenced need and will be implemented as capacity and resources allow. An Elected Member briefing on this rollout will be issued in the next few weeks. Those localities which the evidence tells us do not face such significant challenges in terms of socio-economic inequality will still have access to capacity building support and general advice through the Community Learning and Development Service and TSI. This will include advice and guidance on access to funding.

Any remaining LAP funds will be available to the Locality Working groups established as part of the Fairer Futures Programme.

Last modified on 12 June 2025