About you
3. What is your name?
Name
John Whitfield
Consultation (page 1 of 3)
8. What action has been taken at a local level to improve community participation and collaboration between partners since the requirements of the 2015 Act came into force? Can you provide examples of success?
Please provide your views
The Sutherland Community Partnership (SCP) and Helmsdale Locality Group (HPG) were formed.
I cannot find examples of success.
They have both been hugely bureaucratic and pretty useless for our community council. SCP was attended in online sessions by numerous paid folk who just appeared to be on box-ticking exercises. HPG in particular became a talking shop. When we tried to change its frequency and focus, little changed. We have given up on both.
I cannot find examples of success.
They have both been hugely bureaucratic and pretty useless for our community council. SCP was attended in online sessions by numerous paid folk who just appeared to be on box-ticking exercises. HPG in particular became a talking shop. When we tried to change its frequency and focus, little changed. We have given up on both.
9. What progress has your CPP made in tackling inequalities since the 2015 Act? How are you responding to the current cost-of-living crisis?
Please provide your views
Not aware of any.
10. To what extent has your CPP adopted a preventative approach in seeking to tackle inequalities? Can you provide examples of success?
Please provide your views
No.
11. How have Local Outcomes Improvement Plans and locality plans reduced inequalities? Can you provide examples?
Please provide your views
No.
Consultation continued (page 2 of 3)
12. What are the challenges faced by CPPs to the effective planning and delivery of their outcomes? How has the Act changed how community planning partners deliver their services?
Please provide your views
If the Scottish Government really wanted to empower communities, they should give more power, money and support to community councils. We have no power, very little money and are fed up of obstruction by the local authority and Scottish
government agencies and departments.
government agencies and departments.
13. What role did your CPP have in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic? What has the legacy of the pandemic been to approaches to community planning?
Please provide your views
During the pandemic, each community Resilience Group got going pretty quickly and coordinated with other groups. The Sutherland Resilience Call every few weeks was a very good way of sharing information during these difficult times.
14. Does the existing guidance for Community Planning Partnerships need to be updated?
Please provide your views
Yes.
15. How does community planning align with other strategies and planning requirements?
Please provide your views
No idea.
Consultation continued (page 3 of 3)
16. Do partners in your CPP contribute resources to enable the delivery of outcomes?
Please provide your views
Not obviously.
17. Has inclusion as a planning partner changed the way your organisation works, spends its budget and makes decisions?
Please provide your views
No.
18. Does the statutory membership of Community Planning Partnerships need revisiting?
Please provide your views
Yes.