Community Services Business Improvement Plan

Community Services has corporate responsibility for the delivery of both strategic and operational services, including delivery of the Council’s statutory duties across a number of functional areas.

The work is delivered by three service areas within the strategic grouping:

• Community Protection
  • Environmental Health
  • Trading Standards
  • Community Safety
• Community Planning and Partnerships
  • Community Planning
  • Resettlement
  • Public Health and Vaccination
• Housing
  • Housing Estate and Operations
  • Homelessness and Prevention.

Community Protection Service

The Community Protection Service delivers the Council’s statutory remits in relation to Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Licensing Enforcement, along with frontline service delivery on Community Safety matters, including Decriminalised Parking Enforcement. The Service is responsible for the delivery of functions which corporately support the work of the Council and make significant contribution to the delivery of a number of local outcomes – in particular local outcome 4 relating to safer communities. The Service is actively engaged in a Co-Production arrangement with Police Scotland, with teams working innovatively together to deliver targeted joint services across the local communities of East Dunbartonshire and enhance community protection. The Community Protection Service plays a leading role in the work of the ED Community Safety Partnership, co-ordinating activity between partners to deliver effective and efficient services, with particular focus on delivery in areas where the greatest inequalities exist.

During the course of the recent years, service delivery by Community Protection was heavily impacted by the need to provide an extensive and on-going public health response in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. However, delivery of work on all of the core community protection activities and priorities that the service is responsible for delivering on has since resumed, The service is therefore committed to the further development of all core work throughout the course of 2024-25, whilst also placing focus on any areas of regulatory activity that it can still deliver to assist our local communities in the route out of the pandemic and in dealing with the effects of the cost of living crisis.  

The Service is comprised of three teams, all of which have a distinct remit in terms of delivering statutory community protection duties for the Council across the local area, with the primary overall objectives being to promote public health, public safety, wellbeing and consumer protection:

• The Environmental Health Team enforce a wide range of statutory duties in relation to food safety, public health in terms of nuisances and communicable diseases, occupational health and safety, noise pollution, air quality and contaminated land.  This essential public health service is provided through the delivery of planned interventions to local businesses, reactive responses to public health complaints and assessment of environmental conditions within the district. Services are delivered in order to protect the community from hazards in the environment and to regulate and facilitate the growth of responsible businesses
• The Trading Standards Team enforces a wide range of consumer protection and licensing legislation and provides advice services to local consumers and businesses in order to maintain fair trading in East Dunbartonshire. The Team delivers risk based, targeted, and intelligence led programmes of enforcement work, with priority given to activities closely aligned to local outcomes under the LOIP
• The Community Safety Team delivers a wide range of critical work across the local area, including services in relation to antisocial behaviour, low level crime and community safety, decriminalised parking enforcement, control of dogs, fly-tipping, domestic night noise and the pest control function. The team works closely with range of colleagues and key partners to deliver enforcement activity, as well as providing early intervention, prevention and diversionary activities.

Community Planning & Partnerships Service

Community Planning & Partnerships collaboratively drives community planning initiatives focusing on delivering the Locality Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), Locality Plans, resettlement agenda, and community development. The goal is to enhance community well-being through strategic planning, fostering change and ensuring effective resettlement.

The Community Planning & Partnership Team is actively engaged in the coordination and delivery of community planning with a range of partner agencies working together to support and drive positive change on local priorities in East Dunbartonshire. They are focused on supporting the Council and the Community Planning Partnership’s strategic direction and local partnership working through the effective development of the East Dunbartonshire Community Planning Partnership framework to add value and address gaps in inequalities.

A key focus of the team is community capacity building and coordination of local service delivery. Further, the team plays a lead role in the development of policies and strategies concerning the Equality Act (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations, the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, the requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations (The CLD Regulations are subordinate legislation made under Section 2 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980), Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act, including the Local Outcome Improvement Plan and Locality Plan. This work is adaptable to local need and includes advice, signposting and support with funding, training, confidence building, engagement and delivering the Community Grant Scheme and Strategic Partnership Agreements.

The Resettlement Team works with people who have recently arrived in East Dunbartonshire through the UK Government and Scottish Government’s resettlement programmes.  They provide case management resettlement support ensuring individuals integrate into our communities, and play a lead role in the development of strategies concerning 1951 UN convention relating of the status of refugees, European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) 1951, the Convention was given direct effect in domestic law through the Scotland Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Public Health and Vaccination Team collaborates with greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS to deliver the vaccination programme for covid including winter flu and pneumococcal vaccination regimes across East Dunbartonshire. Work is in collaboration with other council departments supporting public health and specifically health protection through a partnership with Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Board.  The team adopts a flexible approach aligning with the programme of the NHS and Scottish Government to ensure safe access to vaccinations for all local residents.  

Housing Service

The Housing Service provides a broad range of services aimed at improving outcomes for residents and communities within East Dunbartonshire. A number of stakeholders are involved in the design and delivery of services, including tenants and residents, Registered Social Landlords, other Council departments and the Scottish Government.

The Local Housing Strategy provides the strategic direction, together with policies and plans to enable the Council and its partners to invest in the delivery of high-quality affordable housing and housing related services, across all housing tenures, to meet identified need within the locality. The Service is separated from Housing Performance and Strategy, and from Rent, and the two broad teams below are key parts of Community Services.

The Housing Operations and Estates Teams work across all areas of East Dunbartonshire, delivering effective housing estate management, anti-social behaviour, neighbour nuisance and tenancy dispute services. The Service works in partnership with other agencies, to ensure that tenants and customers live in well-maintained neighbourhoods, where they feel safe. The Service works with others to ensure that people looking for housing, get information that helps them make informed choices and decisions, about the range of housing options available to them. 

The Housing team are committed to ensuring continuous improvement in the housing service, through the achievement of performance standards and business/improvement planning. 

The Service works closely with all Community Planning Partners and contributes to the Council’s corporate objectives set out within the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan 2017-2027 by:

• Providing an efficient and effective Housing Management service, working in partnership with other agencies to ensure that tenants and other customers live in well maintained neighbourhoods where they feel safe
• Increasing the supply of affordable housing and meeting housing needs by implementing the Local Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plan, working in partnership with The Scottish Government to maximise grant funded income to the council and registered social landlords
• Meeting the requirements set out in the Scottish Social Housing Charter and ensuring continuous improvement in the delivery of the housing service
• Preventing and alleviating homelessness to ensure that homeless people get prompt and easy access to housing options, help and advice; are provided with suitable, good quality temporary or emergency accommodation when this is needed; and are offered continuing support to help them resettle into permanent accommodation
• Improving housing quality in both the public and private sector, by investing in and delivering effective maintenance programmes to take account of housing quality and home safety needs; along with implementing the Council’s Scheme of Assistance to ensure improvement in the quality of private sector housing.

The Homelessness & Prevention Team provides services to people who are experiencing homelessness, or, who are threatened with homelessness. They are committed to ensuring that customers receive a high quality and responsive service. The service works to ensure that homeless people, who can often be vulnerable or have complex needs, get prompt and easy access to housing options, as well as help and advice; are provided with suitable, good quality temporary or emergency accommodation when this is needed; and are offered continuing support, including housing support, to help them resettle into permanent accommodation. The team is responsible for overseeing the prevention/housing options agenda.

This Team is also responsible for the management and monitoring of Landlord Registration, Houses of Multiple Occupation, Short-term let Licences and mortgage to rent applications.

The key strategic priorities for Community Services can be summarised as follows:

• Delivery of statutory responsibilities by Environmental Health and Trading Standards to improve and protect public health and consumer protection, in line with local and national priorities
• Revisions to the regulatory frameworks for Environmental Health and Trading Standards, including effective responses to any changes / impacts that result from matters such national reviews, changes to working models, legislative changes and workforce planning pressures
• Contributing to the creation of safer communities across East Dunbartonshire through effective deployment of frontline resources and delivery of intelligence led activity to tackle a wide range of community safety issues
• Delivery and development of activity across the East Dunbartonshire area in relation to the growing agenda of Decriminalised Parking Enforcement
• Development of partnership working and jointly resourced activities such as Co-Production with Police Scotland to deliver effective targeted services and maximise efficiencies where possible
• Advancing in compliance with the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and embracing new community planning structures, the service priorities, and addressing inequality.  The focus extends to ensure the effective implementation of Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP) and Locality Plans, striving to enhance community wellbeing through inclusive and equitable strategies
• Moving forward the service, is actively navigating through a range of corporate policies and requirements encompassing areas like Community Learning and Development (CLD), Child Poverty and Community Empowerment.  This inclusive approach aims to address and integrate diverse aspects, fostering a comprehensive and impactful organisation progression
• Advancing the agenda of fairness and equalities the service is dedicated to promoting inclusivity and equity as integral elements of ongoing progress
• Implementing the coordination of the new local service structure which will be based around Neighbourhood Communities and community engagement with capacity building
• Advancing the resettlement agenda, the team is actively working towards strategic goals to ensure positive resettlement outcomes, including effective integration
• Facilitating the community vaccination programme to promote public health and well-being
• Providing an efficient and effective Housing Management Service, supporting tenants through engagement and mitigating the impact of welfare reform, cost of living and current social circumstances
• Working across teams, with colleagues and partners, meeting the housing duties placed on the Council and the needs of those in the communities by increasing the supply of affordable housing and continuous improvement in housing service delivery
• Preventing and alleviating homelessness while also providing a Housing Options Service. Progressing the Scottish Government’s Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan through reducing homelessness along with minimising the length of time households spend on our homelessness waiting list and living in temporary accommodation
• Preventing and alleviating homelessness to ensure that homeless people get prompt and easy access to housing options, help and advice; are provided with suitable, good quality temporary or emergency accommodation when this is needed; and are offered continuing support to help them resettle into permanent accommodation
• Improving the quality of housing conditions, both in the public and private sector. Ensuring required standards in terms of Houses in Multiple Occupation, Landlord Registration and Short Terms Lets. Regular liaison with Registered Social Landlords and with Private Sector Landlords.