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Only by working together can we support and empower our communities to do more for themselves - that was the resounding message taken away from the first Enabled Communities Workstream Board.

Set up following the launch of the Council's five-year business plan, the board is one of five newly established boards formed to ensure services work more closely together to speed up transformation.

Held on Tuesday, May 21st, the inaugural meeting saw Project Managers from Council of the Future projects aligned to the Enabled Communities workstream come together for the first time.

Kenny Gillespie, Head of Housing Services, and Senior Responsible Owner of the Enabled Communities workstream, said a key role of the board was to help ensure projects "build trust and empower communities".

He said: “To do that, we need to know more about our customers and the people we serve, including the services and assets they value most. In turn, communities need to know that many of the services they receive will look different in the years ahead. We need to engage communities in these discussions so that we can begin to co-design and co-produce solutions, mindful of our business plan. This board will help us do that, as it provides a way to combine the knowledge and expertise of officers from different community facing services, giving us the cross-cutting skills needed to take things forward at pace and as one council.

“There will be difficult conversations, especially if things don’t look like they are on track, but knowing early on what the potential issues may be provides us with an opportunity to get ahead of them and find solutions together, as our biggest strength is the desire we all have to make it happen.”

Discussions regarding how success could be measured by the board were had, with attendees feeding back their thoughts on what they felt success would look like for the workstream.

David Mackay, Head of Education, and Chair of the Enabled Communities Workstream Board, said: “We have to focus on what is the ultimate benefit to the community and put in place measures that are ambitious yet realistic and quantifiable. We will agree these together at our next workstream board as a way to record success.”

The next Enabled Communities Workstream Board will meet on July 25th.

Workstream Board Presentation (PDF, 716KB)