How Good Is Our Service - June 2023

Monthly Performance Report

On this page you will find information on:

• Assets and Facilities
• Customer and Business Support Services
• East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust
• Education
• Finance & Audit
• Health and Social Care Partnership
• Housing
• Land Planning and Development
• Legal and Democratic Services
• Neighbourhood Services
• Organisational Transformation
• Place and Community Planning
• Roads and Environment

Assets and Facilities

Property Maintenance

Voids performance has dropped in June to 87% from 89.9% in May, however this remains a positive figure and is above our target of 85%.  Improvement measures implemented continue to have a positive impact on turnaround times and our objective is to maintain and improve performance going forward.

Property Maintenance have achieved our target of 100% for Gas Servicing in June with 378 properties serviced in the month. We continue to achieve our target each month and we are confident this will continue throughout the remainder of the year.

The Smoke & Heat alarm installation programme has reached its conclusion and we have achieved our plan of visiting all properties across the estate in line with Government targets with more recent installations meaning 97% of properties are now fitted with Smoke & Heat alarms. The remaining properties have been no access and the service will utilise the council’s No Access Policy to assist in meeting our legal obligations and we will continue to schedule these installations as and when tenants make contact.

Kitchen, Bathroom, Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes are ongoing and progress continues in carrying out reactive and refurbishment works across the education and non-housing stock, with decoration works ongoing across the school estate.

Facilities Management

The rollout of the new FM structure is nearing conclusion and employee displacement meetings are continuing with the aim of securing suitable alternative positions for displaced employees. Recruitment of all vacant positions is on-going and will continue during the summer period. The service is investigating advertising opportunities during the Canal Festival to promote vacant positions and career opportunities.

A revised Primary, Secondary and Nursery school menu was implemented in May following a review of responses from the catering consultation exercise. Feedback from stakeholders was received following implementation of the menu and a further review is underway. A revised menu will be released at the start of the new term in August. 

The uptake of free school meals in Primary schools for the month of June was below target which is an annual trend as pupils attend trips and visits to Secondary schools and therefore not present during the lunchtime service. The target was exceeded in Secondary schools and good progress continues to be made in this area. Our focus remains on improving the uptake in the lower performing schools. The Service continues to work with suppliers to source alternative food products, ensuring the menu complies with the revised regulations and meets all nutritional standards.

The service was awarded the Food For Life Served Here Bronze Award in December and we continue to work with the Soil Association to achieve the Silver award status.

Estates

The Estates service have robust measures in place to monitor performance with regards gas safety compliance across the Operational Estate. Officers continue to progress reactive repairs across the Education and Operational Estate on a daily basis with over 150-200 repairs processed on average every month through Property Maintenance or our external contractors. Estates Management are undertaking repairs and refurbs across a number of educational properties during the summer holidays.

The Quality Assurance team continue to inspect cleaning standards across the educational estate, with over 40 assets inspected and reports produced monthly. 

Estates Management continue to market vacant premises within the non-operational estate. At present the non-operational estate is over 95% occupied. 

Officers continue to progress disposals with colleagues in Legal Services to ensure that capital receipts are delivered and ongoing liabilities i.e. non-domestic rates, utilities, security etc are reduced. The sale of 18 Strathblane Road, Milngavie recently concluded.

Development & Investment

The Service continues to progress a wide range of capital projects both in pre-construction and construction phases. Good progress continues to be made in delivering Phase 2 of the Allander Leisure Centre (est. completion November 2023). Boclair Academy Phase 2, Brookwood Villa and Woodland View School, Kirkintilloch were all successfully completed and handed over to the Council in June 2023.

Projects at Balmuildy, Milngavie and Bearsden Primary Schools are all progressing towards planning applications. Following Council approval in December, a feasibility review into the development of a new-build replacement primary school and community facilities on the Westerton Hall site, incorporating a new Westerton Primary School, and an assessment of the feasibility of a new-build school on the existing site, is now underway and will report back to Council later in the year. The project at Twechar Canalside, forming a new Community Outdoor Pursuits Centre and affordable housing development, continues to progress through it’s pre-construction phase.

At Lennoxtown High Park, planning approval has now been received and a combined Stage 1/2 report seeking for the tendered construction sum and commencement of construction work was approved by Council in June 2023. Works will commence in August 2023.

Development proposals for the next phase of the Council’s Affordable Housing Investment Programme (comprising up to 11 sites across the area) are nearing completion of RIBA Stage 3, with a Stage 1 Report due for consideration by Council in September 2023.

Capital projects across the Council’s existing Affordable Housing stock, including kitchen and bathroom replacement, roof replacement, external wall insulation projects and central heating replacement continue to progress across the area, as have a wide range of projects across the operational estate, including the installation of two modular classroom units at Bishopbriggs Academy and the roof replacement at Craigdhu Primary School.

The Service continues to develop the next phase of a buildings decarbonisation strategy for the school estate, operational estate and for the existing affordable housing stock, with a variety of surveys, pilot projects and further feasibility reviews planned throughout the financial year and due to inform the next update to the Council’s Corporate Asset Management Plan and Strategic Housing Investment Plan in 2024/25.

Health & Safety

Procedures, instructions, information and training have been prepared in order to comply with Scottish Fire and Rescue Services change of policy regarding UFAS attendance. All council buildings, operational and non-operational have been considered for the process and H&S team supported by Estates have now closed the engagement process with services and external partners and is ready to deliver and train relevant employees for its implementation on the 1st of July 2023. For the non-operational estate, leafleting will provide information and support change in tenanted buildings. Further work will continue through the Fire Risk Assessment process annual cycle.

Research was carried out to determine the most user-friendly AED model for public access use. Further research was carried out into “the circuit” and how the system operates and how we can best locate the units, to help save lives. This allowed the health and safety team to have more insight into determining the most suitable locations for the units to be positioned at the proposed sites. 

Report to Council has now been prepared for the approval of the updated H&S Policy, Fire Safety Policy and 5 supporting policies. The policies will introduce a systematic approach to managing health and safety throughout the Council, including relevant policies and procedures that support the provision of a safe working environment by developing appropriate plans, implementing them, verifying their effectiveness, and taking corrective action if necessary: a Plan, Do, Check, Act approach for achieving continuous improvement.

Health surveillance annual cycle has started again from April, to coincide with the financial year. Up to the end of May we have had 107 employees from a total of 530 attend health surveillance appointments.

The team has been working in collaboration with Property Maintenance to help develop an effective gas safety management system to conform with Gas Safe requirements, to have a robust system to manage gas compliance and safety. In addition to policy work, sample of work in progress reviews were conducted on site and identified areas to be improved upon such as equipment supply, including consumables, PPE, certificates, immediate availability to technical information and workbooks. Regular meetings were held in advance of the inspection to discuss compliance, constructive feedback and set smart objectives.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Achieved 100% compliance for Gas Servicing with focus on this continuing going forward.
• Positive level of performance in void turnaround times with 87% properties completed within our target timescales
• Kitchen, Bathroom, Central Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes ongoing with positive feedback being received from tenants across all contracts.
• Continue to monitor and improve processes within Voids to ensure turnaround times exceed our performance target.
• Assess and improve functionality of Total Mobile and the integration with Servitor to enable a more streamlined and efficient service. Continue to monitor and increase levels of performance in non-emergency reactive repairs
• Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery.
• Continue to utilise robust reporting mechanisms for enhanced performance and service delivery.
• Continue to carry out the installation of Smoke & Heat alarms for tenants and residents in East Dunbartonshire.
• Progress decoration works across school estate.
• 100% of Operational Assets requiring a Gas Safety check within the year’s anniversary of the previous check are completed.
• Schedule in the upcoming Gas Safety Checks, which are required during July and August with contractors.
• Progress the installation of the defibrillators across the Council’s Operational Estate.
• Implement new processes on the back of the UFAS Guidance change imposed by the SFRS.
• Continued progress in the delivery of capital works in the Council’s existing Affordable Housing estate, including kitchen/bathroom replacement.
• Improve uptake of nutritious school meals.
• Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery.
• Reduce FM overtime.
• Progress recruitment exercises to fill identified vacant FM positions.

Customer & Business Support Services

Revenues and Benefits

• The team issued:
  
  • 2300 Council Tax bills, 1900 reminders, and 1900 Benefits notifications.
  • Almost 1000 Non-Domestic Rates bills and 500 NDR reminders.
  • Almost 350 crisis grants and community care grants were awarded under the Scottish Welfare Fund.
• The team dealt with 2800 telephone enquiries in June.

Shared Services

• The Residential Team added 100 service agreements to Carefirst for clients moving into care homes or for supported living services within their own homes. The team completed the yearly financial reassessment exercise for almost 400 care home residents and will now complete the process by issuing the new assessment to Power of Attorneys.
• The Homecare Team added almost 350 service agreements to Carefirst for clients receiving a homecare service or a direct payment. The team are supporting the Planning & Commissioning Team by processing variations from a new initiative.
• The Transport Team have completed the information gathering for Round 2 with the Procurement Team putting it out for tender.
• The Direct Payment Audit Team - 33 direct payment audits finalised for clients receiving self-direct support (28 standard and 5 finals). 
• The EMA Team have updated the information on the website for the new academic year in preparation for applications in the first week of July.

ICT Services

• ICT Services are working closely with the Business and Digital Change Team to implement M365. This includes:
  
  • Migration of remaining users to M365 Outlook
  • Migration of users telephones to M365 including Homecare colleagues.

• The Infrastructure Team completed the roll out of Network upgrades in 8 primary schools including enhanced Wi-Fi capability.
• The Infrastructure Team completed the proof-of-concept phase for the new Wide Are network with the installation of new circuits at 2 primary schools and Mugdock Country park
• The ICT Security team completed the annual PSN IT health check with our security partner.
• The ICT team completed the upgrade of our network monitoring server which provides advanced capabilities.

East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust

Leisure Centres

Period 3

Target: 90,512
Actual: 93,473

Detail	Actual	Allander	Kirkintilloch	Leisuredrome
Wetside	35,806	15,347	7,731	12,728
Dryside	57,667	24,438	15,308	17,921
Total	93,473	39,785	23,039	30,649

Libraries

For period 3 there were 28,454 visits in person digital usage was 57,715, totalling 85,971. This represents 111% of the overall target for the period.

Visits in person continue to increase and exceed targets. Digital usage, rather than falling off slightly, as was anticipated, as visits in person increase, continues to exceed last year’s performance.

In the same period last year, the actual performance was 75,736. This year’s target of 77,490 was set 2% higher. Actual performance of 85,971 is 13% higher than last year’s actual figure.

Period 3

Target: 77,490
Actual: 85,971

Detail	Actual	Target	Actual as % of target
Physical	28,454	24,693	115%
Digital	57,517	52,797	109%
Total	85,971	77,490	111%

Museums

For period 3 there were 1,952 visits in person and digital usage was 3,782, totalling 5,734. This represents 152% of the overall target for the period. 

Visits in person to the Lillie Art Gallery were boosted by participation in Milngavie Week, which was re-introduced this year. Visits in person to the Auld Kirk Museum were 40% higher than period 2. This can be attributed to the popularity of an exhibition which focused on the refugee experience in Scotland, and also a number of school visits, which are becoming more popular.

Period 3

Target: 3,771
Actual: 5,734

Detail	Actual	Target	Actual as % of target
Physical	1,952	1,384	141%
Digital	3,782	2,387	158%
Total	5,734	3,771	152%

Sports Development

Term time class membership dropped slightly this month to 2,851 members this month in the lead up to the school holidays. This tends to happen at this time of year as many children transition from nursery to primary and primary to secondary school.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Leisure Centres

The EDC Free Access Scheme continues to be very popular across all three centres with a significant level of uptake among EDC school pupils, particularly secondary aged pupils for the Gyms. EDLC Operations Managers and staff are working closely with EDC Education to identify those pupils either due to be leaving school this summer or transitioning between primary and secondary school. General Gym Direct Debit membership is also rising following the investment in new equipment at all three centres and boosted by the new Allander Leisure Centre bedding in as a facility.

Key staff from all centres undertook training from EDC Health & Safety Team on Unplanned Fire Alarm Signals (UFAS) new national Fire & Rescue Scotland arrangements, in place from July 1st, 2023.

KLC – Streetleague, the Employment through Sport charity signed up for continuing the partnership with the Centre for another two blocks of training.

ALC – The new Allander hosted the Scottish Nationals & Masters Pickleball Championships 2023 over 3 days, welcoming over 150 players from all over Scotland and beyond all vying to win a National title across a range of events. The Championships received positive coverage on STV, Sky News and online media.

LD – Planning continued for celebrating the Centre’s 50th anniversary with staff working with EDC Communications Team to develop a programme of activities and events.

Sports Development

For the first time since pre-covid, we were able to provide primary schools rugby across all areas of East Dunbartonshire following the recruitment of Adam Dunford to the Bearsden & Milngavie locality.

Many summer camps are fully booked before the start of this year’s Summer Holiday Programme with limited spaces still available for some weeks later in July and August.

Education

Key Achievements and Areas of Focus

School Planning and Improvement

• The final pre-planning application consultation event was held for the new Balmuildy Primary, including discussion of the new design and gathering community feedback.
• The Council approved statutory consultation on relocation of the Secondary Wellbeing Support Service (SWSS). The Education Service will now proceed with the consultation and next steps.
• Boclair Academy Phase 2, which is the permanent car park and drop off/pick up spaces was completed and handed over to the Council. The final phase of landscaping and removal of the temporary car park will be completed by the end of summer.
• Planning and brief development for the Bearsden & Milngavie Primary refurbishments and decant projects continues to make good progress. 
• Placing Request Appeal hearings were held towards the end of June. Education presented the case for refusal of places to the panel. Detailed information will be shared in a future report to the Education Committee.

Early Years and Supporting Families

• A national thematic visit on 1140 hours expansion by Education Scotland took place at Oakburn Early Years Centre (ELC). Initial feedback on approaches was very positive.
• 82 families were supported through a range of interventions including 1:1 support, group parenting programmes and support from Family Champions. 
• The work of the ASN playscheme working party has concluded, resulting in an increased offer for primary school aged children attending Campsie View playscheme and a new summer offer for secondary pupils attending Campsie View and Merkland Schools.
• The 22/23 professional learning offer for all ELC and providers was highly evaluated. The majority of practitioners are now undertaking a small test of change using the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) process to measure the impact on children. Practitioners reported that Nurture and Language and Communication Friendly Establishment training are having the greatest impact on settings and children. ELC managers indicated that professional learning has improved equity for children, through improved practice, interactions, an increase in audits being conducted and the use of PDSA.
• 16 teachers completed the Early Years Teacher Professional Learning Community (PLC) evaluation and feedback was very positive. The community shared practice on areas such as planning/documenting, literacy, numeracy, Froebelian approaches (learning through activity/enquiry), block play, outdoor play and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Primary, Secondary and Special Schools

• Children’s Rights: All pupil forum members achieved the Dynamic Youth award in recognition of their personal achievement and skills development. The pupil forum has been working on a change to their name to reflect rights and is now known as the “My Rights – My Choice” forum.
• The Scottish Schools Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE) presented Head Teachers and Officers with high level findings from the pupil mental health survey, completed by almost all children and young people in P6-S6. The provision of school level data will support schools to ensure that the needs of children and young people are being met through the curriculum, whole school approaches and targeted interventions. 
• Child Protection Inter-Agency Referral Discussion (IRD): Audits identified the need to improve information sharing with education partners in the IRD process. Five schools participated in a pilot and were directly involved in IRD’s between January to March. Evaluations of the pilot led to an awareness raising session in preparation of rolling out the IRD process from April to June. An additional ‘drop-in’ session was available to support all Child Protection Co-ordinators with any aspect of the IRD process and an evaluation was completed in June 2023. A key area of focus will be in incorporate findings in the 23/24 training programme.
• St Nicholas’ Primary ski team won British Indoor Junior Champions in the National Schools Snowsports event.
• Holy Trinity Primary achieved Gold accreditation in the Reading Schools Award Programme, noting that the school created “an incredible reading environment for learners”.
• Millersneuk Primary participated in the Scottish Finals of the Euroquiz and were awarded 5th place in Scotland.
• Two young people from S3 in Kirkintilloch High School won the National Better Burger Challenge, creating a unique and healthy meal.
• Turnbull High School is the first school in the Council to receive the We Care Schools Award in recognition of good practice in identifying and supporting young carers.
• A teacher at Turnbull High School received the Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School award in the National Teaching Awards.
• The secondary team led an interactive workshop with career advisors to enhance the very good work that is already in place to support our young people making the best choices for their career pathways. This follows the publication of ‘Summary Statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations’ in June, which highlighted that the Council has the highest percentage of young people in a positive destination a year after they left school.
• Several schools celebrated the achievements of our young people in Secondary schools both within the Senior Phase and the Broad General Education. Awards ceremonies celebrated academic and vocational accomplishments both within school and the local community.

Educational Psychological Services (EPS)

• Language and Communication Friendly Environments (LCFE) training was carried out with Early Years establishments in collaboration with the Speech and Language Therapy Service. Two ELC shared how they had implemented LCFE using the PDSA process. An audit of support needs was carried out and this will be used to plan further training next session.
• Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) Training Level 1 was delivered to 22 Health, Social Work and Education professionals by NVR Innovations. NVR is an approach which works with adults to manage children and young people who show distressed or violent behaviours. It can be used with parents and within educational settings. Feedback from participants was very positive. Participants indicated that they would be able to use the approaches/tools of NVR within their practice with immediate effect. Level 2 training is planned for next session, as part of developments in the Whole Family wellbeing Fund (WFWF).
• Data has been collated for the Primary Schools’ nurture intervention. This will be analysed in July and a report produced which will set out key achievements in relation to core nurture children, whole school nurture, and longitudinal data on the impact of the nurture group one year on.

Skills for Life, Learning and Work

• Over 70 adult learners attended a learning celebration the East Dunbartonshire Campus to celebrate achievements over the last year. The learners included adults who undertake literacy and English Speaking for Other Languages classes and included a number of Ukrainian learners. Learners produced and read stories from a new book of short stories which they have been working on. 
• The latest phase of the Modern Apprenticeship programme was launched with up to 24 new opportunities in the areas of Early Years, Health and Social Care, Roads, Climate Ready Streetscene, Building Standards, Electrician, Architecture Technician, Building Standards and a graduate apprenticeship in Civil Engineering.
• Young people as part of the Positive Achievements programme participated in a canoeing and camping expedition to Inchmurrin Island in Loch Lomond as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. Feedback from the young people on improving confidence and skills was very positive.

Finance & Audit

The month of June saw the Finance Team progressing work on systems including the Oracle Fusion General Ledger replacement and completing year end deliverables, with the drafting of the annual accounts, the submission of these to the external auditors, Mazars, for audit. The draft accounts have also been published on the Council’s website.

The Council continues to deliver against an ambitious capital programme supported largely by borrowing. Where this remains the case, the Council continues to plan to incur increasing revenue costs through servicing this debt.

The annual internal audit report and opinions for the Council and the HSCP for 2022/23, were presented to the respective audit committees in June. Work on the 2023/24 plan is progressing, with recently completed audits including NDR Billing & Collection and work on the HSCP Bad Debt Provision. Work nearing completion includes ICT Back Ups, Glasgow City Region City Deal and HSCP Workforce Planning. 

The Corporate Fraud Team have been focusing on progressing National Fraud Initiative matches which has been received. These are being prioritised, with higher risk matches being worked through first. Investigations are also being undertaken as a result of referrals received and vetting of applications continues for services such as Housing, Education, Licensing and Estates to secure the gateways by preventing fraud or error entering the system. 

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• A key achievement has been the drafting of the Council’s accounts and sharing these with the external auditors in line with agreed timescales.
• Mugdock Country Park Draft Unaudited Accounts were presented to the Joint Management Committee meeting on 20th June.
• The Oracle Fusion General Ledger system replacement is continuing to be progressed, with Workstream Leads across Finance and Corporate Procurement liaising with the external implementation partners who are supporting the project. The Project Board has identified Data Cleansing as a key piece of work which will be supported in the coming months.
• The Treasury team continue to monitor cash flow closely, ensuring that there is liquidity for all Council activities. Additional borrowing continues to be taken in line with the Council's capital programme expenditure.
• Year end audit opinions have been presented to the Council’s Audit & Risk Management Committee and to the HSCP’s Performance, Audit and Risk Committee.
• Work has continued on the 2023/24 Internal Audit Plan, with work progressing across a number of Council and HSCP services.
• Corporate Fraud are investigating allegations received, focusing on suspected fraud or error within Education, Housing and Revenues Services and on National Fraud Initiative match.

Health and Social Care Partnership

The HSCP and its staff continue to work hard to ensure quality delivery of the Council’s operational delivery of statutory social work services, which are integrated with NHS services under the strategic governance of the Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) Board.  Service quality and outcomes associated with these specific social work services are the main focus of this report with particular reference to three identified performance indicators in accordance with East Dunbartonshire Councils strategic approach to business improvement planning.

The wider objective is that improved customer and organisational outcomes can be achieved through successful integrated planning and collaborative delivery of health and social care functions, under single management, with a combined budget, working to a single set of outcomes and operating to a single Strategic Plan. The impact and performance of all of these integrated health and social care services overall are reported on a quarterly and annual basis to the HSCP Board and through agreed representation and reporting arrangements, to the Council.

During June 2023, the HSCP has performed above target on two of its identified performance indicators, with one indicator performing slightly below target. Work is ongoing on implementing the 2023-24 Annual Delivery Plan actions.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Key Achievements:

• The Care at Home Service had an unannounced inspection from the Care Inspectorate and received a grade of 5 (very good, major strengths) in all areas that were inspected.
• Launch of East Dunbartonshire Youth Health Survey which enables young people aged 12 to 25 years old to tell us their views on their health and wellbeing needs
• Turning Points mobile harm reduction service visited 3 sites during the month to provide an outreach service for delivering WAND – Wound Care, Assessment of injecting risk, Naloxone, Dry blood spot testing

• Promotional activity in support of:
• Carers week
• Cervical screening week
• Child safety week
• Diabetes week
• Healthy eating week
• Men’s health week
• Loneliness awareness week
• Love your lungs week
• Scottish breastfeeding week
• Volunteers week

Areas of Focus:

Children and Criminal Justice Services:

• Respond to the “Children at Risk of Harm” joint inspection outcomes.
• Supporting Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children to begin their recovery and live in safety in nurturing placements in East Dunbartonshire.
• Work is ongoing to redress the balance of care by reviewing out of authority placements and continuing the Foster Carer recruitment campaign.
• Continue to develop as a Trauma Informed organisation
• Update and implement new Child Protection Procedures
• Ongoing implementation of Children’s House Project model, Year 3
• Continue to develop tier 1 and tier 2 service for Children for children and young people with mental health challenges

Adult Services:

• Continue to ensure that we provide Self Directed Support training to Social Work and Health practitioners to instil confidence and knowledge about the options amongst the workforce. 
• Continue to implement our Digital Health and Care Actions, seeking to link traditional telecare with telehealth monitoring and technology enabled care. Aiming to maximise the experience of remote technology and implement the Analogue to Digital Telecare Transformation by 2024.
• Continue to optimise opportunities for people to remain living at home, active and independent in their community, to support the ongoing shift in the balance of care away from residential or nursing care in a care home until it is essential to meet the outcomes of the individual and/or to manage risk. Numbers of people being admitted to long term care are not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels but are rising, as is the complexity of those being supported in the community.
• Continue to respond to the needs of carers, enabling them to continue their caring role and enjoy a life of their own, as equal partners in care and refresh the HSCP Carers Strategy.
• Continuing to provide multi-disciplinary intensive, support and assurance for all care homes and other registered care services across adult services in the area in line with refreshed Scottish government guidance and direction.
• Continue to pursue achievement of compliance with target timescales for adult protection cases.
• Taking forward the Allander Resource Centre - Learning Disability day services –Development of community based services, employability, volunteering and community based model of support.
• Implement the 23/24 actions of the Social Support for Older People Strategy and associated commissioning delivery plan.
• Refresh HSCP Learning/Intellectual Disability Strategy
• Delivery of Medically Assisted Treatment Standards, (MAT Standards) 6 -10.
• Review of in-house accommodation-based support services for adults with Learning Disability.

HSCP Wide:

• Development of a recruitment strategy for ED HSCP and wider Social Care workforce in East Dunbartonshire.
• Continue delivery of a range of measures to support staff wellbeing and support options.
• Continue to pursue options for the engagement and involvement of local people and individuals in service development and design.

Housing

The Housing Service is made up of 4 teams, Estates, Rents, Strategy & Systems along with Homelessness and there are currently 62 members of staff working within these teams.

Housing manages 3821 social rented properties, 3770 of these are mainstream accommodation and 51 are used for Homeless Temporary Accommodation. The service also manages 65 Lead Tenancies which are rented from either private landlords (46) or Housing Associations (19), to assist with accommodating homeless households.

At present, the Housing list for East Dunbartonshire has 3405 applications, made up of the following:

General Waiting list 2596 applicants waiting (25 currently on offer)

(Applicants who have somewhere to stay i.e., they are owner occupiers, a tenant of a private let, stay care of family etc. This queue allows the applicant to choose which area, house type etc they would like to move to).

Transfer waiting list 584 applicants (25 currently on offer)

(Council or Housing Association tenants who are looking to move to another Council or Housing Association property, either for a different size, or, for a different area. This queue allows the tenant to choose which area, house type etc. they would like to move to).

Priority waiting list 244 applicants (38 currently on offer)

(Homeless)

(Applicants who have no accommodation or will have nowhere to stay within the next 2 months. This queue does not allow the applicant to choose area or house type).

Priority waiting list 7 applicants (2 currently on offer)

(Urgent medical)

(Applicants who are unable to remain in their current home due to their medical condition. This queue allows the applicant to choose which area, house type etc. they would like to move to).

Within the last month, 29 properties have been let or re-let; 17 mainstream, 10 new builds (Rob Roy Place, Kirkintilloch), 1 HRH-HRA (temp accommodation changed to mainstream) and 1 buy back (bought from open market).

All 29 off these were general need properties.

They were let to the following queues:

• 9 were let to applicants on the transfer queue
• 6 were let to applicants on the general waiting list queue
• 14 were let to applicants on the priority homeless queue

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Strategy & Systems

Key achievements

• The new IHMS implementation is well underway, with functional testing progressing in all modules. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) training has been delayed due to additional functional testing, we are hoping to have this more on track by the end of August.
• New Systems Officers are assisting with the data cleansing of the current Saffron IT system, to ensure a smooth transition when migrating to the new system, while also assisting with the day-to-day processing of the direct debits and the set up of rent accounts.
• Performance Monitoring Officers are completing monthly performance statistics and continue to update Smartsheet with new dashboards and sheets for Officers to work from.
• Work is continuing on the Digital Telecare switch and the Project Board continue to ensure the successful transition of analogue telecare to digital telecare throughout the sheltered complexes.
• Allocations policy review has been initiated and an action plan has been put together, detailing key milestones in reviewing this intricate policy.
• The CHR review has had approximately 1750 responses so far from the 3200 sent out. Cancellations will not go ahead until the middle of July, to allow any late submissions to come in. Once complete, this will mean that our waiting list is accurate and up to date.
• New Housing Estates Adviser is now in post and working with the sheltered wardens and concierge to ensure a robust service is provided to tenants and residents.

Areas of focus

• IHMS – User Acceptance Testing progression.
• CHR Housing Application waiting list review being completed.
• Performance monthly monitoring.

Housing Operations – Estates

Key Achievements

• 12 new Anti-social cases received and all 12 of these cases resolved within the month received.
• 10 nominations to Registered Social Landlords being considered for allocation of their stock.
• Monthly Housing Liaison meeting attended to discuss cases with Social Work, Antisocial Team and Police Scotland.
• Monthly meeting with Police Scotland and Community Safety to discuss more serious anti-social cases.
• Monthly attendance at East Dunbartonshire Hoarding & Self-Neglect Working Group

Areas of focus

• Improve void re-let times through joint working with void team.
• Percentage of tenancies refused was 44%. This is an increase from 11% in May.
• Percentage of tenancy sustainment was 91% which is a decrease from 97% in May.
• Involvement in internal audit on management of housing dampness and mould.
• Identify training needs for team.
• Void rent loss has increased, joint working with the void and rewire/asbestos teams continues.

Housing Operations – Rents and Tenant Participation

Key Achievements

• 11 tenants assisted and successfully awarded payment from Hardship Fund towards rent payments, totalling £12,912.11.
• Active Tenant Rent Arrears were £1,219,572.37 which is a decrease of £63,479.63 on same period as last year (week 13).
• Tenant Participation Working Group held at Twechar Healthy Living Centre. This was attended by tenants, tenant representatives, elected members and EDC staff.
• The Rents Team continue to support the change team with the development of the IHMS (NEC).
• Housing Officers continue to utilise all avenues to maximise rental income and reduce rent arrears, while also providing advice and assistance to tenants who engage and need additional support.

Areas of focus

• Reducing active tenant rent arrears continues to be a priority for the Housing Service. Appointments at Kirkintilloch Job Centre resumed to assist tenants in receipt of the Universal Credit housing element.
• Former Tenant Arrears are £791,455.69 with the team continuing to work on former rent arrears to bring this figure down.

Homelessness & Prevention

Key Achievements

• 45 appointments arranged - 24 homeless applications taken. 
• 12 out of hours calls taken.
• 1 application taken from Ukrainian household living with host in the area.
• 0 anti-social complaints
• 3 awards on Homeless Hardship Fund

Landlord Registration

• 19 new registrations
• 91 renewals
• 0 cancellations
• 0 HMO applications received/granted                     
• 3 STL applications received/granted           

Project 101 (support service for people aged between 14 to 25)

• June’s Chance to Chat group had 3 young people in attendance.
• 11 successful cooking sessions held (9 at Project 101 and 2 at Drymen Road (multiple occupancy accommodation).

Land Planning and Development

Land Planning & Development have progressed a number of significant work streams during June 2023 in line with the Business Improvement Plan commitments. 

Land Planning Policy

• The Land Planning Policy Team carried out a consultation on the draft Participation Statement for Local Development Plan 3, between May and late June and the responses are now being considered. Concurrently, the team has been promoting to community groups the opportunity to prepare Local Place Plans for their area. The team has also been undertaking various streams of work relating to 20 Minute Neighbourhoods including responding to a Scottish Government consultation and cross-service discussions on the use of the tool which has been devised in conjunction with the GIS Team. 
• The Team has been implementing the Circular Economy Strategy; particularly regarding green skills and developing informational and promotional resources to be implemented in the coming months.
• Work is continuing on the new Active Travel Strategy. 

Sustainability Policy

• Work on the Climate Action Plan and Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy is continuing. Work is under way to identify opportunities for emissions reduction across the Council’s own estate and operations and across the whole of East Dunbartonshire. These will inform the development of pathway options to achieve net zero emissions at corporate and area-wide levels. While good progress has been made in preparing the LHEES, work is currently delayed at the final preparatory stage due to data sharing issues affecting all Scottish local authorities and as a result of changes to the LHEES guidance and methodology set by the Scottish Government. Progress is being made in resolving this issue and we are continuing to work towards the target of presenting the Draft LHEES to Council by the end of 2023. Evidence work for the Climate Action Plan is now largely complete and an Evidence and Options Report is currently being prepared and will be reported to September Council. Following agreement on the preferred options to achieve net zero and adapt to the effects of climate change, the Draft Climate Action Plan will be prepared for public consultation.
• Work is underway to identify priority projects for inclusion in the Council’s new Greenspace Strategy, which will replace the Green Network Strategy and Open Space Strategy. Opportunities for improvement of open space, increasing tree cover, expanding peatland restoration and wetland creation are currently being assessed in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. Audit work on play facilities is now underway and surveyors are continuing to assess play areas and facilities across East Dunbartonshire. The outcome of the assessment will inform the priority actions on play to be included in the draft Greenspace Strategy.
• Procurement for the delivery of a Community Carbon Literacy Training Programme is currently under way. This will provide an important foundation for building community capacity to take climate action in East Dunbartonshire. The Sustainability Policy Team is currently assessing further initiatives that could be developed to further support community climate action.

GIS Team

• The team has carried out GIS analysis for the many council teams. This has included a variety of map production work, calculating distances to determine travel time distances to key services and creating web apps and data dashboards, which help to understand spatial data more effectively.
• The team have also created a number of maps which will be used in consultations across East Dunbartonshire. The team have also been working on enhancing the work previously done for EDCs walking and wheeling network, for the Active Travel Strategy.
• The team has developed a 3D map of East Dunbartonshire, this shows all the buildings across the region and also holds information about height and area these buildings cover. This data has also been joined with our 20-minute neighbourhood work, with each building given a colour based on their score from that project. This tool will be showcased to other teams in the coming weeks.
• We have been assisting B&DC with their work on transferring IDOX to a Managed Service.
• The team have been working with the Roads department to create a number of new web apps to help when they are out in the field and need to view information, such as gully placement. We have also been working in collaboration with roads to help amend their gazetteer to match ours, to ensure consistency across council departments. This has been a large body of work recently, as we highlighted over 300 historic differences between the Gazetteers. Most of these have now been fixed on either side, with a couple questionable ones being raised to the Improvement Service for clarification.
• The GIS Team have updated key spatial data for IDOX users to ensure they are using the latest data. The team are at the final stage of preparing a users groups release ready to go live.
• The team are also working with the Telecare team to utilise ArcGIS Field Apps for reporting updates to older residents Wi-Fi upgrades across East Dunbartonshire while they are out in the field.
• The team have also set up a number of Surveys for the Child Protection team, alongside this they have developed custom Web Hooks. This ensures that Child Protection are instantly notified when a submission is made, so they can respond to incidents quickly if needed.
• The team have completed the Street Naming and Numbering for a number of projects over the past month. All road adoption requests have also been successfully processed during this period.
• The team continues to provide technical support to Community Protection and Development Applications to improve efficiency and ensure we are in line statutory guidance and regulations through IDOX.

Business Support

• Working with numerous public sector agencies to ensure all support mechanisms to help business and create jobs are fully utilised, including development of new skills & technologies. Cost of doing business continues to be a concern and resources to help and inform businesses continue to be priority with combined support materials available through. The proposed Visitor Levy is likely to cause resource and possibly financial issues for businesses which deal with the visitor economy. 
• The team is working on three projects funded by UK Shared Prosperity fund that encourage digital take up or enhancement, carbon reduction and additional support for Social Enterprises. The Digital Development Grant and Green Business Support will be launched in the next couple of weeks. Legal are still considering the Terms and Conditions for the Social Enterprise Grant as well as grand conditions to be issued with Digital and Green Support grant once applicants have been approved
• The Business Gateway National Review continues but in the interim services continue to be delivered as usual. National Programme delivery is now being considered as part of the overall review. It is likely that Digital Boost funding will no longer be available and Local Authorities will be expected to provide this support with the exception of Webinars which will be picked up by Business Gateway National.
• The team is in the early stages of developing an inward investment proposition and currently working on a number of enquiries in conjunction with other relevant teams.

City Deal Team

• The team continues with a range of work to ensure the delivery of the Council’s City Deal project, including the preparation of the different stages of business cases (in-line with City Deal & HM Greenbook requirements) which are required to unlock the funding from the region.
• Work is ongoing on the Westerhill Masterplan and the Westerhill Development Road for which the design contract is now underway.   The project team are currently analysing the responses received during the consultation on the various route options.
• Work continues on the next stages of the design process for Bishopbriggs Town Centre and Bishopbriggs Park as well as on the application to the UK Levelling Up Fund process. 
• A803 feasibility and options work progressing as part of Outline Business Case development. Preparation for forth coming consultation on A803 Route Corridor Improvements as part of project develop. 

Regeneration & Town Centres Team

• The project to improve Regent Gardens in Kirkintilloch Town Centre has moved to the construction stage. The construction work will take several months and works are expected to complete early 2024. On the Campsie Memorial Hall in Lennoxtown - funding has been secured from Regeneration Capital Grant Fund and work continues to develop the project with RIBA 3 design to take place following procurement of design team.
• Work to prepare for the Shared Prosperity Fund has been ongoing. Projects have been identified and are being developed for implementation over the next 2.5 years.
• The Lennoxtown Main Street Improvement Project is ongoing to develop outline designs.
• Working ongoing to support Milngavie BID as it moves towards re-ballot, and the Kirkintilloch BID Streeting Group.

Traffic & Transport Team

• A works contractors for Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project has now been appointed. Four Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) have been promoted to support aspects of the new design and are subject to public consultation.
• Feasibility and design works are progressing on a range of active travel infrastructure projects included in the Local Transport and Active Travel Strategies.
• Work is progressing on key functions of the team including: working on a range of Traffic Regulation Orders at various stages of the statutory process, liaising with the network operator and maintenance contractors of the public electric vehicle charging network and continuing to assist in resolving access issues.

Development Management:

• During the reporting period the planning side of the team has determined 43 applications and validated 61 applications.
• The Building Standards team have received 93 building warrants and approved 136 applications. 
• The Enforcement Team opened 13 new cases and closed 3.
• The Development Applications team presented Reports to the meeting of the Planning Board and provided a planning advisor for this months meeting of the Local Review Body
• The Team continue to provide applicants including the Councils Major Assets and Housing teams with pre application advice and support.
• Both Planning and Building Standards teams continue to offer support and informal advice to customers through our morning duty service Monday to Friday.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Appointment of Canniesburn Toll contractor
• Commencement of construction work on Regent Gardens

Legal and Democratic Services

Performance against all indicators for Legal Services for June is 100%.

Legal Services continues to support services across the Council in the delivery of projects, contracts and otherwise to manage legal risk.  This includes advice and work on confidential matters that cannot be included in this report.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• During June, the Team processed 4 contract form reviews, 4 Contract award letters, 18 taxi licence applications, and 11 grants.
• Supporting the City Deal team with negotiating ground investigation contracts.
• Purchase of 40 Kentigern Terrace for Council social housing stock.
• Section 75 agreement for 18 Strathblane Road which relates to a residential development of 8 flats and contributions for education, open space and affordable housing.
• Contracts concluded in this period has included contracts for asbestos removal upstands at Gartconner Primary School, consultancy services in relation to review of roads policy and Rollerbeats agreement concluded to provide disco roller skating for the Canal Festival.
• Providing support to Education on a number of confidential matters and providing advice for a significant number of placing appeal hearings.
• Support to quasi-judicial Boards including seeking approval to consult on the Draft Statement of Licensing Policy for the Licensing Board.
• Registration of Births, Deaths & Marriages – Customer Services and the Council’s Registrar, provided services to 397 customers – including the registration of 80 births, 182 deaths & 31 marriages.
• Democratic Services administered 1 full Council, 2 Committees & 3 quasi-judicial Boards.
• Democratic Services administered 5 Placing Request Appeals Committees (approx. 80 cases) over 3.5 days of virtual meetings.
• Information Management – Received 99 FOIs / EIRs of which 95 were allocated within 24 hours. 15 Subject Access Requests were received In June.

Neighbourhood Services

The Waste Team has continued the frontline service operations for the collection of over 400,000 assorted household bins over the month of June, providing residual, recycling, food, garden and special waste collections on behalf of the Authority. The team has also managed the waste and recycling collections from over 500 of our local commercial premises.

The Waste service have continued to work with our Clyde Valley partners through the period on the treatment and disposal contract for all residual household waste. The Council processed 1871 tonnes of waste through this contract in June, ensuring our waste undergoes treatment for recycling extraction prior to being sent through an Energy from Waste process.

The Fleet team continue to manage the transport operations including the Councils Goods Vehicle Operator Licence and compliance across all services. This includes provision and management of the maintenance workshops, annual testing, statutory inspections and management of Drivers in line with obligations and conditions laid out in the Councils commitment to the Scottish Traffic Commissioner.

Fleet Management has worked in partnership with services and officers from procurement in order to specify, tender and procure further vehicles and associated items of specialist plant, suitable for service users’ needs and to coincide with Lease contracts terminating through the financial year. Tenders are currently out for the replacement of specialist vehicles, plant & equipment for Greenspace and Streetscene, Waste Management and other front-line services.

Replacement vehicles continue to filter through from suppliers for Roads and Environment, Property Maintenance and Social Services. The team at Fleet Management continue working to transfer systems and equipment and arrange the de-fleeting and disposal of the outgoing vehicles.

The fleet service continues to support and manage Transport Operations for the provision of Additional Support Needs Transport service for Education and Integrated Health and Social Care, including delivery of school meals on behalf of the authority. This service has provided additional support for other services throughout the period. 

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• There were 1871 tonnes of residual waste collected and disposed of at Mavis Valley through the Clyde Valley Residual waste contract. This is a 6.5% reduction in waste arising from the same period last year.
• The good weather in June saw 10449 resident visits to the Household Waste & Recycling Centre and led to 636 tonnes of civic waste processed for further treatment and recycling.
• Following on from the recent advertising campaigns for food waste participation, the teams collected and processed 229 tonnes of food waste from the Kerbside throughout June.
• There was a total of 17.92 tonnes of Electrical goods collected for recycling or reuse as part of the Councils WEEE (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment) contract in the period.
• Officers continue to work with Procurement and Digital Transformation teams to progress and tender a new digital system for modernising the waste service.
• Delivery of Statutory Fleet Maintenance and Management services throughout the period.
• The service continues to recruit in order to fill vacant posts however this continues to provide challenges for some trades due to market conditions.
• Officers have recently concluded a tender for the replacement of key front line waste vehicles in order to replace some ageing trucks. This work will form the first phase of the project and it is anticipated the new vehicles will be delivered in the new financial year.
• Support Council services in the delivery of ASN Transport including the distribution of essential supplies for vulnerable individuals throughout the period including meals for early year’s facilities and lunch clubs etc.
• Continued work on the management of Capital programme for the replacement of fleet assets through the financial year.  
• Continued support to front line service operations through the provision of in-house fleet maintenance function including work on horticultural and construction plant equipment.
• Management of Fleet Operations in compliance with Operator Licencing legislation with a DVSA Operator Compliance Risk Score of Green 03 for both Traffic and Compliance and a 100% first time pass rate for annual tests.

Organisational Transformation

Overview of progress

During June, the B & DC Team have continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of key strategic digital development programmes and projects.

The Team continues to support our corporate business systems, ensuring incidents are resolved promptly and that all systems remain supported and upgraded in line with an agreed plan. We also ensure our systems are reliable and resilient, scalable and flexible, standardised, value for money and secure.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Development commenced for a new booking solution for Desks, pool cars and bikes. 
• Work on our new Customer Relationship Management system and website is progressing well
• Work continues to progress on the delivery of Oracle Fusion Phase 1 – Procurement & Finance modules. CRP2 sessions have been successfully completed and the project team are beginning to work towards Data migration cycle 3.
• Initial procurement stage underway inviting potential suppliers to express interest in a solution for our Waste Modernisation project. Once complete the next stage will be to invite those interested parties to tender for the contract.
• Procurement activities have been completed on the BACS system to upgrade the technology to a cloud-based system. Work is now underway to outline the project plan and delivery timeline
• Migration of our Virgin Media customers to a new digital telecare solution has been successfully completed. The team are now exploring options for a complete migration of East Dunbartonshire’s analogue estate
• Work continues to evaluate the Shared ARC bidders. Scotland Excel have been working closely with the early adopters and the Digital Office. The next step is to finalise any outstanding clarifications on the Terms and Conditions and then to agree a timeline for implementation.
• Work continues on our Enterprise Architecture project. Data collection and analysis work is complete after over 30 interviews conducted with EDC staff. A set of IT Principals have been drafted and are currently awaiting feedback and review comments from internal stakeholders.
• Implementation of the Councils new M365 Power platform is underway. The platform will provide the foundations for redeveloping Legacy Lotus Notes Systems allowing Lotus Notes and its associated cost to be decommissioned.
• The IHMS team continues to work closely with the Housing service to test and configure the new Integrated Housing Management System (IHMS).

Strategic Commissioning 

Overview of Progress

The Strategic Commissioning Team’s priority last month remained on supporting and managing the commissioned market and intervening if/where necessary as the lasting impact of covid, on-going recruitment & retention issues, acute and other demand pressures together with the cost-of-living crisis requires a focused and responsive oversight. 

Additionally, the team continued to support the progression and delivery of HSCP priorities aligned to the annual delivery plan 23/24.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Commenced development of Scotland Excel’s Care and Support National Framework. The current framework is due to expire 31st March 2024 with the new one commencing 1st April 2024. All local requirements including revised terms and cost / budgets implications will be captured / reflected accordingly
• Negotiated and secured residential placements for a number of local children following provider notification to withdraw from Scotland Excel’s national framework after rate negotiations failed. Locally negotiated / agreed rates are in line with current budget provision
• Engaged in local and national discussions with other HSCP’s, Scotland Excel and Cosla regarding a national care home provider who served notice and thereafter, retracted its intent to withdraw from the National Care Home Contract (NCHC) and wider on-going discussions regarding the National Care Home Contract which albeit very late, has now been agreed by the care home sector. Discussions are focussed on the proposed review of the NCHC and cost of care calculator that is due to commence this year and conclude by 31st March 2024.
• Continued to progress and successfully transition individuals with complex and challenging behaviours into local supported accommodation services
• Progressed review of Direct Payment contracts which involved reviewing current process, reviewing contract terms and benchmarking across the market. Agreed outcome will streamline approach whilst strengthening governance and oversight arrangements
• Progressed contractual negotiations with day care providers in line with agreed Older People’s Social Supports Strategy and underpinning commissioning delivery plan 
• Progressed the remaining Scottish Living Wage uplifts in line with nationally agreed approach
• Supported progression of the Alcohol & Drugs National Residential Framework ensuring local requirements are captured / reflected accordingly

Procurement

Overview of Progress

During June, the Procurement Team continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of various projects, including ongoing support to a number of strategic procurements/projects, particularly in relation to City Deal, ICT, Business & Digital Change and various Capital projects. 

In particular, the Team was heavily involved in daily workshops and Solution Design meetings as part of the implementation of a replacement for the Oracle Financial system. This has placed a significant demand on the resources of the Team. The Team also continuously works to manage and support the operational activity in terms of the buyers work centre and payment processing.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Providing ongoing support to the City Deal team in relation to Contract requirements and alternative procurement route options
• Supported key Capital, Business & Digital Change projects such as Oracle Fusion upgrade, IHMS Consultancy, Netcall Liberty, school estate Professional Fees, school summer maintenance works, Vehicle Purchases, whilst supporting workforce of the future planning and Business As Usual workstreams.
• Participation in extensive meetings and workshops in order to scope, identify, cleanse and prepare for the implementation of the Oracle Fusion upgrade
• Completed the contract award process for the Council’s Social Care & Educational transport requirements for commencement August 2023
• Completed renewals for support and maintenance of business critical systems to facilitate remote working
• Supported the transition/implementation of the Managed Stores Service, including the technical requirements for integrations and e-invoicing on Iproc
• Ongoing data analysis in preparation of the 2022-2023 Annual Procurement Report to include alignments with Organisational Climate Action Planning, Circular Economy Strategy, Community Wealth Building & the City Region Community Wish List planning
• Implemented Procurement process considerations fin alignment with the Health & Safety Management of Contractors Policy (HSP05)
• Commenced review of Contract Standing Orders for alignment with Organisational changes, financial management and Procurement governance.

Human Resources & Organisational Development

Overview of progress

The Human Resources & Organisational Teams lead on workforce centred activities including, policy development, resourcing, workforce and succession planning, workforce analytics, people development, Job Evaluation, attendance and wellbeing improvement as well as providing strategic and operational employee relations support including case management and partnership working.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Continued support for employees and managers on HR policy based and guidance noted, with support in attendance on ER case work
• Continued engagement with the Trade Unions on strategic and operation HR initiatives.
• Promotion of Health and Wellbeing Campaigns
• Development work with Cosla on Talentlink, the recruitment portal supporting Myjobscotland. 
• Within Payroll Services, the team have maintained and processed the payover of 6 payruns within timescales, with the completion of a series of statutory reports and preparation of year end/annual returns.
• The People Development team delivered sessions across 15 sessions across 9 topics including SMART Working, Corporate Induction, H&S, EDC Policy sessions & Leadership skills.
• Additionally, there were a further 2 sessions, 1 on Promoting Positive Behaviour Adults & 1 on Promoting Positive Behaviour Children, delivered internally within HSCP by Social Work, plus 5 external sessions, across Child Protection & REHIS Food Hygiene. In total 198 delegates received training, across 13 topics, via 22 sessions in June 2023.
• Working on LGV Apprenticeship, NEC4 and compliance with certifications.
• Consultation with Health & Safety to review completed risk assessments and identify skills gaps and future legislative requirements.

Place and Community Planning

Community Protection Service

Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Community Safety Teams

The Community Protection Service delivers on a broad statutory remit, with delivery measures centred on protecting public health and safety, well-being and consumer protection. During the course of June 2023, the service continued to engage in the local Co-Production arrangement with Police Scotland. This resulted in a significant amount of joint work and coordinated activity to protect local communities across the East Dunbartonshire area. The service also continued to develop intelligence led approaches for all areas of work in order to target local public health, community safety and consumer protection activity towards the areas of greatest need, risk and priority.

The Environmental Health Team was engaged in the delivery of essential public health services throughout the reporting period in order to protect the community from hazards in the environment and to regulate and facilitate the growth of responsible businesses. The service was in demand for a range of service requests from the public as well as responding to internal partners in Planning and Licensing for new developments and seasonal events respectively. The service was involved in two food safety incident responses in June which required action to investigate and ensure consumers within East Dunbartonshire were not put at risk.

The Trading Standards Team was engaged in the delivery of essential consumer protection and licensing services to local consumers and businesses to maintain and protect a fair-trading environment in East Dunbartonshire. Priority activity in June included work to develop the recently introduced East Dunbartonshire Trusted Trader Scheme, with focus being placed upon local business participation. Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Products compliance work was delivered during the reporting period. The Licensing Advisers and Trading Standards Officers in the team also continued to deliver a wide range of routine inspection and project activity at a range of business premises across the area.

The Community Safety Team continued to deliver a broad range of front-line work for the benefit of local communities during the course of the reporting period, working closely with a range of colleagues and key partners to successfully deliver appropriate interventions and to make our local communities safer. Officers from the team were engaged in the delivery of services in relation to community engagement/support, antisocial behaviour, youth disorder, neighbour disputes, environmental incivilities, dog control, decriminalised parking enforcement, fly-tipping, mediation, pest control and mobile CCTV. The Community Wardens have also been developing further links within the local communities they serve, getting involved in a number of initiatives and events that have been taking place across the Council area.

Community Planning and Partnerships Team

The team continue to deliver the resettlement agenda, supporting individuals and families to successful integration and empowerment of displaced individuals, by providing a tailored case management approach.

Using a community learning and development approach, the team continue to connect, engage, and involve communities in decision-making processes, particularly those affected by inequalities, to ensure their voices are heard and needs met.

Through effective partnership working with the Grants Advisory Committee, a revised community grant scheme was launched 26th June 2023. The team have been actively promoting the grant scheme through various channels. We have been providing dedicated support to individuals and organisations, addressing enquiries and clarifying application requirements promptly.

Through the targeted work within our Locality areas, the team continue to promote lifelong learning, skills development, and community empowerment. This includes the delivery of Pockets, Places, and Prosperity programme within our Locality areas.

The team remain steadfast in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and actively collaborating with local organisations to plan and deliver initiatives targeting discrimination.

Community Testing/ Vaccination Team

The team have been working diligently to ensure the smooth delivery of the vaccination programmes to our community. With the experience gained from previous winter programmes, we have developed comprehensive plans to ensure the safe and efficient delivery of the winter vaccination programme for 2023. Our focus remains on protecting the health and wellbeing of our communities during this critical time.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Community Protection Service

Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Community Safety Teams

• Delivery of effective services on a flexible basis in order to meet all statutory requirements and duties in relation to public health, community safety, consumer protection and licensing enforcement matters.
• Delivery of local Co-Production activity between Community Protection and Police Scotland, with particular focus on effective tasking processes and the delivery of joint action plans and work to protect the communities of East Dunbartonshire.
• Delivery of Business Improvement Plan activity relating to Community Protection - actions being implemented in accordance with set targets in order to deliver effective services in line with relevant corporate outcomes and with positive performance being reported.
• Delivery of regulatory services that assist with economic recovery and that are designed to support local businesses and communities.
• Response to Food Alert for Action issued by Food Standards Scotland in relation to doner meat being provided which was deemed to be unsafe – EH Team contacted and visited relevant businesses, but no produce was found.
• The Greater Glasgow and Clyde Joint Health Protection Plan detailing public health arrangements between the health board and their partners including the local authority (Environmental Health) was approved by Council.
• Officers had to serve notice on a landlord due to a defective sewerage pipe discharging waste onto the front of a property.
• The service sent out correspondence to local properties who rely on private water supplies to offer assistance should the supply fail in the prolonged warm and dry weather.
• Continued delivery of targeted patrols within our local communities aimed at tackling an increase in reports of low-level incivilities (particularly dog fouling and littering).
• Delivery of patrols by our Community Wardens to tackle the problem of youth disorder and antisocial behaviour within our communities, with particular focus currently being within the Hillhead and Bishopbriggs Retail Park areas as well as a number of our primary schools.
• Delivery of interventions and appropriate outcomes for a number of young persons referred to the Early & Effective Intervention Group which is coordinated and chaired by the Community Safety Team.
• Youth diversionary football sessions in Lennoxtown, Milton of Campsie and Hillhead are continuing, with numbers in attendance on the increase. Sessions will run until at least September 2023 and over 70 children participated during a recent week.
• Newly formed ED Trusted Trader Scheme promoted within East Dunbartonshire by the Council and local partners - the scheme is overseen by Trading Standards and aims to increase customer confidence by helping people find reliable traders, promote good practice within local businesses, protect residents from doorstep crime, and help generate business for local companies.
• Delivery of metrological inspection work at weighbridges across the district.
• Delivery of local Trading Standards activity as part of a wider coordinated West of Scotland product safety project with a cost-of-living focus.
• Delivery of on-going workplan activity by Trading Standards to maintain local business compliance with legislative requirements relating to tobacco and nicotine vapour products.
• Delivery of targeted activity by the Licensing Advisers to maintain local business compliance with legislative requirements relating to relevant licensing conditions.

Community Planning and Partnership Team

• The team are actively engaged in collaboration with stakeholders and partners to deliver priorities of our Locality area communities.
• Launched round one of the community grant schemes on 26th June. Team colleagues continue to offer targeted, responsive support to applicants.
• Delivered Pockets, Places and Prosperity programmes in Auchinairn, Hillhead and Harestanes.
• In collaboration with children and young people integrating into our communities, planned an engaging, interactive focus session to ensure the voice of “new scots” children and young people voices are heard.
• Continue to support Empowered to create an interactive and engaging 16 Days of Action campaign to raise awareness of domestic abuse, enabling increased understanding of how to report and where individuals can access support.
• Focused on developing lived experience forum using human approach.
• Collaboratively work with partners to coordinate a successful funder fair, meeting the identified needs of the local community and third sector organisations.

Community Testing/ Vaccination Team

• Conducted an assessment to identify suitable venues for the winter vaccination programme.
• Preparation underway to deliver the winter vaccination programme, commencing September.

Roads and Environment

The Roads and Environment Service continues to oversee the maintenance function and safe operation of the adopted public carriageway/footway network, adopted open spaces (including trees) and cemeteries within East Dunbartonshire. In addition, the Service also oversees the management and operations of Mugdock Country Park.

This Service area is divided into five portfolio groupings:

1. Roads Network Operations

2. Roads Technical & Engineering

3. Streetscene Technical Support (including Bereavement and Arboriculture)

4. Streetscene Operations (including grounds maintenance, street cleansing and cemetery operations)

5. Mugdock Country Park

Each team has specific areas of responsibility; however, they all operate, and function collectively as required. Within their own areas, each team has several service accountabilities contributing to local outcomes.

The various sections within the portfolio groups continue to progress both revenue operation/maintenance work and internally and externally funded capital projects with colleagues in Procurement and Finance. Several projects are time specific due to the external funding conditions to it is very important to make best use of the time available to bring these projects to fruition for the benefit of local communities.

Roads Network Operations Team (including Street Lighting)

The team continue to deliver both planned and reactive maintenance to both carriageways, footways, and street lighting assets. The Service is almost at full numbers in terms of resources available with vacancies for one Roads Technician (Utilities) and one operative post vacant. The service will continue to try to achieve full capacity going forward, but recruitment continues to be challenging within a very competitive market. The other issue is now retaining trained staff and succession planning. On a positive note, the Roads Network Operations & Streetlighting Teams are currently recruiting for three and two Modern Apprentices respectively.

The 2023/24 capital programmes for carriageway, footway resurfacing programme and lighting projects has now commenced with road space booked and work programmed in as per the Roads Resurfacing Programme Technical Note with an update issued in early July and the next scheduled for October.

The Service continues to work with an external survey consultant (Gaist). The collection of full carriageway and footway condition data is now completed and is being analysed. Once analysed the information will be utilised to update the current survey scores and also utilised to inform future work programmes.

Finally, the Service continues to work with an independent external consultant to undertake a full internal Review of Roads Operational Policy and the associated procedures with a view to updating the relevant documents. Again, it is envisaged that this exercise will be completed by September.

Roads Technical & Engineering

The Roads Development, Structures, Traffic, Flood Risk and Drainage Teams continue to work on and contribute to multiple projects including Road Coring, Flood Defence Maintenance, Bridge Inspection/Replacement and Signalisation/TRO Projects across various area. The Team is also coordinating with external contractors to delivery multiple traffic surveys with the information used to determine the next steps for various proposals. This information is used as evidence to either support the need for action or validate the decision not to take forward a proposal if it is not supported by evidence.

The Service is now operating a full capacity following recent staff changes with several newer members of the team familiarising themselves with the Council area and taking forward individual projects including gateway features, replacement bridges, signalised junctions, and other important road safety features.

Streetscene Operations

The three geographical based teams continue to work on their summer grounds maintenance programmes including grass cutting operations, Herbicide treatment, Care of Gardens service, play area inspections etc. The teams are also undertaking street cleansing of all adopted council roads and pavements including litter collection, mechanical sweeping, and servicing of street litter bins. In addition, the team also continues to manage the Councils tree stock carrying out surveys with the Ash Dieback Survey about to commence and the result will inform what action the Council need to take to address this important issue. The team manages and performs burials in the eight operational cemeteries.

Streetscene Technical Support Team

The team continue to work with community groups regarding Environmental Improvement Projects including path improvement, play area renovations, amenity planting, cemetery, and allotment development.

Mugdock Country Park

The team are now working on the summer season. The team are monitoring the quarry area during the usual increased visitors to this location now and throughout the summer months. The monthly visitor number continue to exceed expectation and the team area focused on enhancing the visitor experience to the country park.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

Roads Network Operations Teams (including Street Lighting)

The Roads Network Operations completed all programmed carriageway and footway safety inspections.

During the inspections and as a result to public feedback the service identified 207 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council carriageways. We have completed 179 repairs on time (about 86.47%), which complies with council service level agreement and road maintenance policy. This is greatly improved from May 2023 (85%) and April 2023 (72% within SLA). The team are still working to improve how defects are identified, recorded, and repaired which is one of the main aims of the Roads Improvement Plan.

All carriageways and footways Safety Inspection between 01/06/2023 and 30/06/2023 have been successfully completed.

The carriageway & footway resurfacing program works undertaken in June include.

Town	Carriageway Resurfacing February to April 2023	Date Completed
Torrance	Torrance Road	June/July
Bishopbriggs	Huntershill Road	June
Lennoxtown	Campsie Road (3 sections)	June
Milton of Campsie	Laburnum Drive	June
Kirkintilloch	Waterside Road	June
Lennoxtown	Crow Road	June
Kirkintilloch	Glasgow Road	June
Milngavie	Baldernock Road	June
Bearsden	Wyvis Avenue	June
Milton of Campsie	Birdston Road	June

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Town	Footway Resurfacing February to April 2023	Date Completed
Milton Of Campsie	Lochiel Drive	June
Milngavie	Crossburn Avenue	June/July
Bishopbriggs	Allander Gardens	June
Kirkintilloch	Newdyke Avenue	June

Street lighting repairs continue, albeit with reduced available resources.

• The tender for external support has now been completed and contract awarded for assistance with street lighting electrical works at times of peak workload, comprising electrician and mobile elevated work platform vehicle.
• Responses to various enquiries / complaints continue, as required
• Site visits and inspections of developer’s road lighting installations continue at various locations Council wide.
• Assessment of coal tar testing results for future lighting renewal works.
• Monitoring and processing of street lighting energy invoices continues.

Roads Technical & Engineering Teams -

Traffic

• Officers are assisting with preparations for the Cycling World Championships, part of which will come through Lennoxtown, Torrance, and Bearsden. There will need to be a series of closures of Crow Road, Lennoxtown to remove cat’s eyes as these are hazardous to cyclists and to reinstal them between and after the races to protect road users.
• Procurement is ongoing for the gateway project for Milton of Campsie.
• Snagging is completed for the flat-topped speed table in Manse Road, Bearsden, with additional signage and bollards to follow.
• Pedestrian crossings at Wester Cleddens and Angus Avenue, Bishopbriggs and Kilsyth Road, Kirkintilloch are now live. Signalisation of Milton of Campsie Cross and Station Road at Drymen Road, Bearsden are under early preparations.
• Welcome to Lennoxtown gateway sign now installed.
• Disabled Persons Parking Places in the recent TRO will become enforceable at the end of August. The next round of TROs has been sent to statutory consultees.
• Clachan of Campsie Temporary TRO is now permanent and will be effective from 21 August.
• Attendance at various regional and national meetings related to road safety.
• The team are providing technical support for City Deal projects, Canniesburn Toll, Lennoxtown Main Street and Cycling Connectivity Corridors.
• The team are working through various locations installing new or replacing street signs as per customer requests.
• The team continue to assess areas for potential traffic calming and pedestrian crossings.
• Responding to Planning Applications.
• Responding to Lining Requests and refreshing faded road markings
• Commenting on various licences i.e., street trader licences, public entertainment licences and occasional licences.
• Dealing with various requests for temporary road closures.

Development

• Participated in national RAUCS meeting.
• Inspection of utility and infrastructure on sites currently being constructed.
• Site meetings to inspect developments and identify remedial works prior to adoption by EDC
• Assist planning with development applications, distribute to officers for their comments on developments.
• Process adoption enquiries from internal and external departments.
• Coordination of future works, road openings and temporary traffic management permits.

Flooding and Drainage

• River Glazert Restoration Project, Lennoxtown - Detail design report being finalised. On-going. CAR licence and Planning to commence when report is finalised.
• Kelvin Tributaries River Restoration Project – Draft Statement of Requirements being reviewed and Consultant to be appointed.
• Climate Ready Park – Out to Tender.
• Golf View FAS, Bearsden – JBA report is being examined by Officers. On-going.
• John Muir Way – Re-routing of Path at Glazert Water / Weir – Awaiting contractor award and standstill period. Works to commence Mid July.
• Civils works continue to be undertaken by our drainage team and our framework contractor George Leslie at various locations.

Structures

• 2023/24 General and Principal inspections programme commenced and ongoing.
• Review & response to abnormal load requests.
• Capital programme for 2023/24 is in progress.
• Luggie Park cyclic maintenance of footbridges underway.
• Acre Valley bridge, Lennoxtown tree removal and masonry repairs complete.
• Marina footbridge, Kirkintilloch, graffiti removal and localised repainting complete. Bridge pressure washing and vegetation clearance underway.
• Footbridge replacement at Bute Rd, Kirkintilloch (Merkland Nature Reserve), commenced 10th June. Estimated 4-week programme.

Greenspace & Streetscene Teams

Streetscene Operations

• Summer cyclical works ongoing
• Street cleansing and mechanical sweeping; removal of fly posting and uplifting of fly tipping, mechanical street sweeping and installing replacement or additional bins. Includes cleaning of precinct areas.
• Graffiti removal.
• Summer bedding preparation, planting and watering.
• Ongoing cemetery operations, digging and carrying out interments, installing headstone foundations, benches including verti-draining of areas to improve percolation.
• Care of Gardens maintenance ongoing
• Checking and clearance of culverts
• Play park inspection
• Herbicide works in open spaces, including Japanese knotweed treatment.
• Roads herbicide works commenced.
• Education and Leisure Trust pitch maintenance ongoing including goal post removal; School sports marking.
• Preparation of routes for the UCI World cycling event.
• Housing tidy-ups, on request.
• Responding to Customer Service Requests and complaints.
• Removal of dead animals and excess waste at recycling centres.
• Recruitment for vacant positions.

Streetscene Technical Support

• Contract awarded in relation to the upgrading of the Canal towpath, Kirkintilloch via Scotland Excel framework - works now ongoing with stakeholders.
• Etive Park Play upgrade complete.
• Lenzie Moss Path upgrade completed – area now being monitored for any snagging works
• Open Space audit work for input into the Grounds Maintenance System ongoing for Milngavie & Bearsden.
• Play Park Accessibility Work Study ongoing.
• Order raised for the EDC Annual Independent Play Inspection for FY23/24 – this to be undertaken in July
• Play Park defect repair work completed in advance of above inspection
• Scanning of cemetery ledgers, to import into the Council’s Epilog Cemetery Management System, work ongoing.
• Cemetery Management Rules – internal review now ongoing
• Headstones/Memorials – plan being developed around improving the inspection process – tender being prepared
• Fence Works – multiple sites where works are being undertaken to repair, replace or refurbish a variety of fences across the district.
• Cairnhill Woods - location for Forest Schools agreed
• Sports Pitches – summer renovation works being undertaken.
• Sports Pitches Leisure Trust and Education – new contract to commence from end of July
• Tree Condition Survey of Southfield Woodland complete – works being ordered.
• Team working with City Deal Team and Consultants in relation to masterplan of Bishopbriggs Public Park.
• Input into Additional Capital investment for drainage, active travel/access and footway surfacing.
• The team continues to respond to high volume of open space, tree and bereavement enquires, along with planning application consultations and complaints.
• Planning application responses and support to Planning Team ongoing
• Ash Dieback Surveys – progressing with a road side survey – will commence end of July
• Tree Surveys ongoing at Gavins Mill/Lennox Park
• Allotment and Food Growing Officer commenced in June on a two-year contract.
• Carved Log Seat installation for Run Walk, Cycle East Dunbartonshire at Christine’s Way
• Carved Log Seat for Milngavie Development Trust @ Milngavie Library Pond
• Harestanes wildflower meadow in 7000m2
• Heather Avenue 3,000 wildflower plugs planted
• Bishopbriggs Park, Mains Park, Callieburn Park main paths all tarred
• Working with Run Walk Cycle ED to develop a Fairy Trail in Redmoss Estate Woods in Milton of Campsie
• War memorial repair to Bearsden War Memorial carried out.
• Assisted a number of Community Groups with Litter Picking resources across EDC

Mugdock Country Park

• Mugdock events during June 2023:
  
  • Guided walk – Strathblane to Lennoxtown
  • Bumblebee Safaris
  • Marvellous minibeasts of the Moss, Lenzie
• What’s On Guide for June – December 2023 has been circulated round schools and advertised on the Park’s website and facebook
• Countryside Ranger sessions took place with schools and community groups including pond dipping, minibeast hunts and shelter building
• Ongoing maintenance tasks include repairing boardwalks and paths, grass cutting, strimming, tree works, dealing with fly tipping, herbiciding, bin emptying, cleaning tasks, drainage issues
• Patrols are carried out around Mugdock Quarry regularly to monitor unauthorised access to the site
• Visitor Ranger project with Scottish Water based at reservoir site is progressing with ‘boots on the ground’
• Land management tasks carried out by Park staff and volunteers include work on SSSI (site of special scientific interest), tree guard repairs, fence repairs, whacking bracken and removing other invasive species
• Project work continuing with review of signage to the Park and within the Park, progressing update of Walled Garden, improvements to Courtyard, replacement bbq shelters, stonework at Mugdock Castle