Over the last year, my colleagues and I have been attending the eight Area Partnership meetings in the North West, supporting our members, who are Voluntary Sector Reps and who attend and represent their Voluntary Sector colleagues in the area.
The meetings are attended by organisations and local people who work/live in the area and have an interest in working together to tackle issues; the attendees include Police Scotland, Scottish Fire & Rescue, Health & Social Care, Community Councils and Elected members. Most have standing agenda items at the meeting, with the opportunity to feedback their experience of the area since the previous meeting and any new issues.The Voluntary Sector did not have an agenda item, which made it difficult to feedback issues affecting the sector locally. I have been working with Community Planning on this issue and together with the Reps have been lobbying for a change.
We are happy to feedback that six of the eight Area Partnerships have agreed to have a Voluntary Sector standing agenda item, with the other two likely to come on board by the end of the year.
We are really pleased with this outcome and want to exploit it as much as we can. We will be in contact with members over the next few months to come up with the best way to gather your feedback. In the meantime, please continue to let us know your issues and help us make the most of this opportunity.
MJG