Public performance reports

Neighbourhood Planning/Community Led Planning

Led by the Community Planning Partnership, Neighbourhood Planning aims to improve outcomes for residents in some of our most deprived communities. Key to this is supporting communities to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood. This is achieved through intensive work with local people to identify their priorities, support them to act where they can and help develop partnerships with service providers. Communities work alongside other stakeholders to bring about positive change and improvements to help shape the development and growth of their local area. Together they make the most of our shared resources to improve their areas. We now have nine completed neighbourhood plans (Burnhill, Fernhill, Springhall and Whitlawburn, Cambuslang East, Blantyre, Hillhouse/ Udston/ Burnbank, Whitehill, Sturtherhill and Birkenshaw, Fairhill (to be replaced by a Hamilton South ward plan) these can be viewed at: Community Plan and Neighbourhood Plans

In terms of highlights of progress during 2023-24: -

Fernhill (Rutherglen)

£25,000 of Participatory Budgeting (PB) money was awarded to local groups and organisations in Fernhill during 2023-24. The Fernhill stakeholder group identified projects based on suggestions from around 100 residents, with over 300 people participating in the PB vote. The theme that scored most highly in the PB vote was improvements to local parks and play facilities for children and young people. Sheildaig Drive play area was one project to benefit under this theme seeing improvements to equipment and play surfaces

Burnhill (Rutherglen)

In 2023-24, £5,000 of Participatory Budgeting money was made available to local groups and organisations in Burnhill. Improvements to the High Backs area of Burnhill topped the poll in the PB voting, with the communities using the monies awarded to create a community garden and space, along with the refurbishment of buildings to be used as a coffee hut, community pantry and an open air stage for group activities. In response to local concerns about fly tipping in the area, the Burnhill Youth Activism Group received £500 through the PB exercise. The money was used to design and distribute flyers to local residents providing information on the problem of fly tipping in the High Backs and wider Burnhill area and to host an information and networking event to promote the campaign.

Cambuslang East

£45,000 of Participatory Budgeting money was made available to local groups and organisations in Cambuslang East during 2023-24. One group that received popular backing from the community in the PB vote (229 votes), and a sizeable award (£3K) was ‘Family Fun Time’. ‘Family Fun Time’ is a weekly group that runs in the North Halfway Hall and provides a variety of informal learning activities for families and children such as team building exercises, STEM activities and various fun games which help with literacy and numeracy. In addition to fitness and creative activities the group also hosts information sessions inviting speakers from organisations such as Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, NHS and South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture Services.

Hamilton South

In 2023-24 £21,000 of Participatory Budgeting money was made available to local groups and organisations in Hamilton South. The Low Waters Lot Community Group topped the PB poll and received £3,000 to refurbish Hutchison Street Park (locally known as “Hutchy Park’). Working in partnership with SLC Community Engagement Team and Grounds and Maintenance Service, the group progressed work to redevelop the site into a community garden, recreational space and growing area. The long term ambition is that the garden will encourage residents to grow more of their own food, as well as provide a tranquil space for recreation, and community activities. It is also hoped that the planting of trees and hedgerows will increase the presence of wildlife such as butterflies and birds which will add to the local biodiversity.

Whitehill (Hamilton)

£29,000 was awarded to residents and groups in Whitehill through Participatory Budgeting during 2023-24. A partnership between Whitehill Fun Day Steering Group and Hamilton Academical Community Trust was successful in securing an award of £1,000 to provide free tickets to Hamilton Accies FC games for local young people, as well as free catering for all those who attended the matches. The Whitehill Activity Group also received funding through PB to provide a programme of activities and events for families during school holidays, including bus trips. The Group also led on a successful campaign to keep open the Whitehill Neighbourhood Centre as a hub for neighbourhood activities and services for future generations.

Hillhouse, Udston and Burnbank (Hamilton)

In 2023-24, £7,000 of Participatory Budgeting money was made available to local groups and organisations in Hillhouse, Udston and Burnbank. Hillhouse Link Tenants and Residents group used a PB award to expand the Hillhouse Recreational Space, increasing opportunities for food growing on the site. The project has continued to engage a wide range of local residents from local school communities to neighbourhood groups and interested individuals. Locally grown produce from the project is now being used to supply the Hillstop café. The group are also hoping to establish an apiary (collection of bee hives) during 2024, with assistance from the learning community at John Ogilvie High School and other partners. Again, the ambition of the project is that local produce will be sold through the Hubs and the Hillstop café.

Blantyre - Blantyre Futures

£45,000 was allocated to community groups through the Participatory Budgeting process during 2023-24. Among the projects to receive PB funding was ‘Friends of The Calder’, a conservation project looking to protect the plant and wildlife along the River Calder, and that promotes the riverbank area as a place for recreation. Part of the PB monies secured by the project will be used to promote more proactive engagement with young people, with project volunteers giving regular information talks at local schools, to encourage more young people to take part in nature conservation and to volunteer for activities, such as regular litter picks.

Strutherhill and Birkenshaw (Larkhall)

In 2023-24, £27,000 was made available to local groups to be allocated through Participatory Budgeting. The Skylark Early Learning Centre in Strutherhill received £4,300 to spend on projects to improve future life skills and the health and wellbeing of young children. Part of the PB funding was used to deliver the ‘Play on Pedals’ scheme, to teach under 5s how to cycle in a safe environment. The group were also successful in securing PB money to advance their plans to develop a local community and sensory garden at the centre, delivered with help from the Unpaid Work Team, through the Community Payback programme.

Community Led Planning

The Community Led Planning process enables communities to identify local priorities and produce an action plan that helps people to take realistic steps towards the change they want to see. As at 31 March 2024, there are 13 community led plans either existing or in progress. The most up to date list of Community led plans is available on the Community Planning website.

Community Asset Transfer (CAT)

Community Asset Transfer (CAT) is delivered by the Community Engagement Team, along with SLC Property Services on behalf of South Lanarkshire Council, as part of the wider Community empowerment agenda. CAT is a process whereby local community groups can apply to take over underutilised buildings and facilities currently in Council ownership, to better employ these resources for the direct benefit of the communities they represent. During 2023-24, eight applications for Community Asset Transfers were received from local community groups or organisations, as of 31 March 2024, five applications for CAT have been approved and two are still pending a decision. More information on Community Asset Transfer is available on our website.

Blantyre Soccer Academy were successful with a Community Asset Transfer request in February 2024 to take over ownership of Larkfield Hall and adjacent football pitches. The acquisition has provided extra spaces for young people to take part in sports and social activities, and allowed the soccer academy to expand and provide further opportunities for local youngsters. The CAT has also allowed for the creation of a new hub in the Stonefield area of Blantyre (an area of high deprivation) for community groups and activities to use. The ‘Keep the Heid’ project, is an example of an initiative that uses the Hub for the benefit of the local community, promoting mental and physical wellbeing among men in the Blantyre area. 

Community Participation Requests

Participation requests are a formal way for community bodies to ask to be involved in council decisions and to put forward their ideas on how local services could be changed to improve outcomes for the community. Through the process requests can be made to a range of public bodies including South Lanarkshire Council, NHS Lanarkshire, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue, etc. During 2023-24, no participation requests were received by Community Planning Partners. See more information on Community Participation Requests.

Volunteering

During 2023-24, the Community Engagement Team funded Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire (VASLAN) to develop volunteering opportunities locally, which has led to the recruitment of 728 new volunteers; with 1,591 volunteering placements facilitated; and 11 organisations achieving a quality standard award. In addition to new volunteer numbers, during the past year a further 21 organisations are working towards a Quality Standard, with 377 new Saltire volunteer registrations; 20,088 Saltire hours logged; 5 Saltire Group Administrators approved; and 274 Saltire Certificates issued.

Community Partnerships

The aim of Community Partnerships is to provide an intermediate level of engagement and decision making between the Neighbourhood Planning Stakeholder Groups, Community Councils and the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) board and strategy groups. The ambition for the new structure is to enable future strategy agreed by the CPP board to be more directly related to the needs/ characteristics of each partnership area, by providing greater opportunities for local stakeholders and communities to scrutinise, engage and contribute to the decisions of the CPP board and management. As of 31 March 2024 two Community Partnerships (Rutherglen-Cambuslang and Clydesdale) have been established, while a further two (Hamilton and East Kilbride) are still in the process of development. The Community Planning Partnership continues to employ a dedicated member of staff (Community Development Officer) to actively engage with the partnership stakeholders, to support the running of the two established Partnership groups, and to assist with the work of finalising the governance structures and membership for the two new partnerships during 2023-24.

Community Wish List

The Community Wish List is a scheme whereby local communities can make direct requests, or ‘wishes’, for specific types of support from Council accredited suppliers or contractors to the benefit of community groups, projects, or local good causes. The main advantage of the Wish List is that it is the communities themselves that make the requests (or wishes), which are then forwarded onto accredited local suppliers, who provide the goods and services in response. During 2023-24 34 individuals, groups and organisations across South Lanarkshire were successful in receiving an award (or had a wish ‘answered’) though the Wish List, to the value of £27,900 for the recipients. A list of the organisations who have benefited from the Wish List, and examples of the types of help provided, are available from our website.

Challenging Poverty

Reducing poverty and tackling inequalities and deprivation is the overarching priority for the Community Planning Partnership going forward from 2023 as this becomes more prevalent among a greater proportion of the South Lanarkshire population due to the cost of living crisis. The current Community Planning Partnership model involves a wide range of national and local organisations who are working together to tackle the underlying causes of poverty linked to themes such as Food Poverty, Energy Poverty, Financial Inclusion/ Exclusion, Low Pay and Digital Exclusion. More detail on activities undertaken by the Community Planning Partnership linked to each specific poverty themes, and notable achievements during 2023-24, are provided below:-

Food Poverty

The Community Engagement Team (CET) has a shared responsibility with South Lanarkshire Council Community resources to develop a strategy towards alleviating food poverty on behalf of the Council. The team continues to deliver on actions in the South Lanarkshire Good Food Action Plan 2020-25, both through promoting local/ community food growing and through supporting emergency free food provision in response to crisis. During 2023-24 the CET supported several projects to increase participation in community food growing through the use of PB funding in several of the neighbourhood planning areas (see bullets under Neighbourhood Planning above).

The Community Engagement Team also provided funding to foodbanks in South Lanarkshire to deliver emergency food aid to residents over the past year. During 2023-24 49,777 households received assistance from the 7 food banks, with 86,832 people being fed through emergency parcels, an increase of +17% compared to 2022-23. During 2023-24 local food banks also provided 1,485 supermarket vouchers to food bank users, allowing recipients a cash first alternative to food parcels, and providing access to healthier items such as fresh meat and vegetables.

Fuel Poverty/ Digital Inclusion

The Community Planning Partnership continues to co-ordinate the development of strategy to respond to issues such as Fuel Poverty and Digital Exclusion through dedicated task groups, that bring together experience from various public services, specialist originations and the local third sector. During 2023-24 work began on developing dedicated action plans by both groups to address these types of poverty. The ambition is to have the action plans to tackle Fuel Poverty and Digital Exclusion completed by mid-2025.

The Community Engagement Team also support work to alleviate local energy poverty by providing funding direct to local money advice services such as the Citizen Advice Bureaux (CAB). During 2023-24 the four South Lanarkshire CABs together dealt with 3,649 enquiries related to energy advice/energy debt/reducing energy costs, securing £124K in financial gains for hard pressed households, a +122% increase on 2022-23.

Living Wage Campaign Group

The Living Wage Campaign Group is a pan-Lanarkshire group whose focus is to try and maximise the number of businesses/ organisations who pay the Living Wage locally. The kind of activities supported by the group during 2023-24 has centred around providing information and support to local employers outlining the benefits of paying the Living Wage. Examples of the work undertaken by the group include co-hosting (with North Lanarkshire) the annual Living Wage Week (November 2023) which comprises a series of events and regular communications. The latest statistics on the payment of the living wage locally show that there were 169 accredited Living Wage Employers in South Lanarkshire as of 31 March 2024, the fourth highest total of the 32 Scottish council areas, after Glasgow, Edinburgh and Highland.

Financial Inclusion

The Financial Inclusion Network (FIN) is led by the Community Engagement Team and brings together various SLC services and partners with an aim to mitigate the negative impacts of low incomes and financial exclusion on individuals, families and communities. As of 31 March 2024 the network (FIN) has around 250 members representing over 50 organisations across South Lanarkshire. During 2023-24 CET staff actively supported the FIN members through regular (weekly) networking communications online (social media) signposting events or subjects related to financial inclusion.

During 2023, the FIN held two networking events hosted by the Community Engagement Team on behalf of the Community Planning Partnership and SLC. The 2023 FIN Annual General Meeting event (3 May 2023) was held in the Whitehill Neighbourhood Centre and attracted wide representation from council services, other public service partners and local third sector organisations with 27 stalls, and 70 people attending. A follow-up networking event (4 October 2023), that was open to the individuals and the wider community, was held in the Hillhouse and Earnock Community Centre; 22 stalls were provided by public service partners and third sector organisations, with 50 people attending

The Community Engagement Team also support financial inclusion more directly through funding to local services dealing with financial/ debt advice. The four South Lanarkshire CAB’s together dealt with 5,042 enquiries related to money advice during 2023-24 and 2,254 enquiries relating to debt advice, an increase of +97% since 2022-23, securing financial gains of £429,000 for service users.

Period Poverty

The Community Engagement Team, on behalf of SLC continue to administer the Scottish Government funded Period Positive initiative to communities across South Lanarkshire to ensure continued access to free sanitary provision, including to women households on low incomes. Thanks to the initiative 54,551 sanitary products were distributed from 174 separate locations across South Lanarkshire during 2023-24.

Child Poverty

The Community Engagement Team and the Community Planning Partnership continue to have responsibility for co-ordinating local child poverty action on behalf of South Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire through the Local Child Poverty Action Report (LCPAR). The LCPAR is a regular (annual) statutory reporting requirement placed on the Council and NHS Boards to outline the achievements of local public services to tackle child poverty over the previous year, and to outline plans going forward. A review of the South Lanarkshire LCPAR 2023-24 was made by Public Health Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, which generally commended the content of the 2023-24 report, citing several examples of good practice, with two examples given below:-

• During 2023-24 the Local Child Poverty Strategy Group (co-chaired by South Lanarkshire Children Services Partnership and Community Engagement Team) in partnership with COVEY (a local third sector organisation) were successful in securing CPAF (Child Poverty Action Accelerator Fund) monies to set up the ‘Paths away from Poverty’ programme. The aim of the programme is to improve the lives of families and children living in financial hardship where there is a young person in the household with a disability. The CPAF funding has been used to develop a holistic support model for the families, using a dedicated key worker. The role of the key workers are both to provide wrap around support, acting as an intermediary for the families/ children to access services and benefits, and also to gather evidence to better understand the barriers faced by such families. As of 31 March 2024 the project is supporting 5 families, with a long term goal to have engaged with at least 10 families across South Lanarkshire by March 2025. It is hoped that the project will not only contribute to securing a better quality of life for the participating families, but that the evidence gathered will inform good practice for service planning going forward.
   
• Another initiative to have been established in 2023-24 as part of the wider Child Poverty response, are the SLC Family Support Hubs. The hubs provide an opportunity for an early social work response to families potentially at risk of poverty through targeting pregnant women, babies, children and young people up to 18 years, to prevent an escalation to poverty. The hubs bring together specialist staff one place, with a wide range of skills necessary to provide intensive whole family support. In the first year of operation, the Family Support Hubs have responded to 61% of the total referrals to Children and family social work. The hubs are community facing and offer access to better support for families in Cambuslang, East Kilbride, Hamilton and Lanark. The hubs have had such a positive impact on families, that families themselves are now the second largest referrer to this support and in the past year.

Further information

There are many ways to get involved in your local community and influence the work of the partnership, for example, through volunteering, joining a local action group or making a participation request. If you would like to get involved, email communities@southlanarkshire.gov.uk or phone 0303 123 1017

All Neighbourhood Plans and the Community Plan 2022- 2032 can be found on the CPP website: Community Plan and Neighbourhood Plans

Community Planning Partnership Annual Outcome Improvement Report 2022-23

South Lanarkshire Volunteering Strategy 2022-24

Shaping Places for Wellbeing-Local Government Improvement Service

Engagement Strategy

Information on local Community Asset Transfer, and CAT applications/ approvals South Lanarkshire Council webpage on Community Asset Transfer Community Asset Transfer

Further information can also be found in the Improvement and how we compare page on the council's website.

Twice a year, performance reports are presented to council committees on progress against the Resource Plans. In addition, reports detailing progress against the Council Plan Connect Outcomes are prepared. See Quarter 2 (September) and Quarter 4 (March - year end) performance reports for further information.

More information on our outcomes can be found in the Council Plan Connect and also the Annual Performance Spotlights.

Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) allows councils to work together, to use performance information in a way which will help understand variations, share knowledge, expertise and good practice, with a view to making improvements. For more information and links relating to this framework go to the 'Benchmarking' paragraph on the Improvement and how we compare page on our website.

The information contained within this report reflects the position for 2022-23 based on the data available at the time of publication (February 2025)