How Good is Our Service - February 2025

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Voids performance has increased in February to 90% from 88.1% in January and exceeds our target of 85%.  We continue to monitor this area closely with our priority being to improve performance moving forward.

Property Maintenance have achieved our target of 100% for Gas Servicing in February with 423 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.

Non-Emergency repairs performance in February has exceeded our target of 12 days with an average turnaround of 8.7 days for the month which is up from 9.1 days in January.  We continue to work towards improving and maintaining performance in this area going forward.

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.

A revised school lunch menu was implemented during October and feedback will be requested to shape future menu changes.  Action plans continue to be reviewed, and recommendations implemented to improve uptake in lower performing schools.

The uptake of Primary school free school meals increased in February compared to January from 69% to 71%.  A menu change was implemented in October and a reduction in uptake is expected while pupils become familiar with new dishes, and we expect a gradual increase over coming months.  The uptake in Secondary schools was 58% and exceeds the target of 45%.  The service continues to focus on schools not achieving the set target with action plans implemented to improve the uptake in lower performing schools.  The Service continues to work with suppliers to source locally produced produce, with 52% of the school menus now using locally sourced produce.

Staff engagement has taken place over February with staff affected by the temporary closure of Milngavie Primary School while refurbishment works are undertaken.  Staff will be relocated to cover additional resources pressures at Torrance PS and St Nicholas’ PS as well as vacancies within the Milngavie area.

The Estates service has 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, although currently focusing on H&S related repairs and ensuring assets remain wind and watertight.  Works to Bearsden PS roof above the ICT Suite are scheduled to be completed over the Easter holidays as well as internal decoration to the Suite. 

Significant repair works are ongoing as a result of storm Eoywn which struck Scotland on 24th January 2025.  Flat roof replacements have been completed at Castlehill PS and Hillhead PS.  Further works are ongoing at Castlehill PS, including brickwork repairs to the end gable as a result of the biomass flue being ripped from the wall during the storm.  Work to repair the brickwork is scheduled to take place over the Easter holidays in addition to repairs to the gym hall floor.  In total over 100 new repairs were identified as a result of the storm which are being worked through with Streetscene (fallen trees), Property Maintenance and our external contractors.

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 90% occupied, with vacant suites in Southbank Marina being actively marketed by agents, DM Hall.  The Basement area within the Kirkintilloch Learning Centre is now occupied by Positive Achievements who have relocated from Hillhead Community Centre, which is now providing more community space during the week.   The Homelessness Team have relocated to 5 Dalrymple Court from 101 Townhead, Kirkintilloch which has seen the Council vacate premises which were previously let from a private landlord.
 
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 Service continues to progress a wide range of capital projects both in pre-construction and construction phases.  Works continue to progress at Twechar Outdoor Pursuits Centre, with practical completion expected in Spring 2025.

Design work continues to progress for the Westerhill Development Road project, with a planning submission now expected in March 2025.   The next and final phase of Ground Investigation surveys, including trial pits and bore holes along the proposed route, are now planned to start in April 2025.

Works continue to progress at Bearsden Community Hub to remove and replace RAAC from the roof on the extension at the rear of the building.  Works are ongoing at Bearsden Primary School, where the windows are being replaced and external stonework repaired.

Good progress continues to be made through the pre-construction phase of the Campsie Memorial Hall project, with the detailed design complete and construction tender underway.  Approval to enter into the construction development agreement and begin the refurbishment in practice will be sought from Council in early course.  A decision on the planning application for the project is expected in early March.

Development proposals for the next phase of the Council’s Affordable Housing Investment Programme are progressing through RIBA Stage 3.  Planning submissions have been submitted for sites at the former Merkland School and Main Street in Torrance, with the application for the former Auchinairn Primary School to follow shortly.  Council considered a report on the project in December 2024 on proposals of new-build housing at Twechar Canalside and agreed with the officer recommendation to pause the project at this stage, explore opportunities for increased grant funding contribution from Scottish Government and to reconsider the project in the context of the wider Housing Capital Investment Plan in March 2025.

Preparations for the refurbishment of Milngavie Primary School in Summer 2025 continue to progress, including the development of design proposals, tendering strategy for the project and decant arrangements for pupils at Torrance and St Nicholas Primary Schools.  The development of design proposals for the new Lenzie Academy project at Whitegates Park are also underway.

The delivery of several areas of on-going capital investment across the Council’s existing Affordable Housing stock continue, including several significant measures to improve Housing Quality and Energy Efficiency.

The Service continues to develop the next phase of a building 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 remainder of this and next financial year.  In addition to this, several projects remain underway at various stages of the delivery process, including replacement staff welfare facilities at Mavis Valley, the replacement of the septic tank system at Mugdock Country Park, boiler replacement at Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre and the refurbishment of Torrance Community Centre.

• Achieved 100% compliance for Gas Servicing with focus on this continuing going forward
• Kitchen, Bathroom, Central Heating and Roofing upgrade programmes ongoing with positive feedback being received from tenants across all contracts
• Improved level of performance in non-emergency turnaround times for the month with objective being to improve and maintain performance going forward
• Percentage of voids returned completed within target has increased with the objective being to maintain and improve performance in this area going forward
• Improved functionality of Total Mobile and the integration with Servitor enables a more streamlined and efficient service
• 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
• Progress decoration works across the school estate
• 100% of Operational Assets requiring a Gas Safety check within the year’s anniversary of the previous check are
• Schedule in the upcoming Gas Safety Checks with contractors which are required during March and April
• Improve uptake of nutritious school meals
• Improve communications with customers and stakeholders to ensure the highest level of service delivery
• Reduce FM overtime
• Successful merger of Estates and Facilities Management and recruitment to new roles.

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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 February 2025, the service continued to engage in the local Co-Production arrangement with Police Scotland, with regular community harm and risk meetings being held to provide the focus for joint work and activity to protect local communities across the East Dunbartonshire area. The service also continued to develop intelligence led approaches for all areas of work 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, delivering regulatory activity across a range of statutory duties to protect the community from hazards in the environment and to regulate and facilitate the growth of responsible businesses.  This included both proactive interventions and reactive assignments to complaints and service requests. 

The Community Safety Team continued to deliver a broad range of front-line work for the benefit of local communities during 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 also continued to develop further links within the local communities they serve, through involvement in initiatives and events taking place across the Council area wherever feasible.

The Trading Standards and Licensing Enforcement 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. Licensing Advisors carried out liquor licensing inspections to local premises.  Officers were represented at Civic Government and Liquor Licensing Boards during February.  Other activities included vetting and uptake of new trade members and ongoing promotion of the East Dunbartonshire Trusted Trader Scheme and visits and promotion of anti-scam materials.  Licensing Advisors provided business support to applicants and stakeholders and while linking in with other agencies.  Licensing Advisers and Trading Standards officers in the team also continued to deliver reactive service request work along with project activity at a range of business premises across the area (including age restricted product sales monitoring and fair trading and civic / liquor licensing).  Gathering and dissemination of intel on subjects involved in sale and supply of age restricted products, high pressure selling and home improvements continued throughout the period and will be used to influence future projects and investigations.

Round 3 of the Community Grant Scheme opened on the 25^{th of} November and closed on the 10^th January 2025. A total of 76 application were received with funding applied for amounting to over £440,000. The Grant Advisory Committee met on the evening of the 26^th & 27^th of February to discuss the officer recommendations with their own recommendations being put to the CPPB next month for approval.

The team continue to offer a wide range of community activities designed to foster sustained community development.  These opportunities have included workshops; family activities and collaborative projects aimed at enhancing local engagement and empowerment. 

By participating in these initiatives, individuals and groups can contribute to the long-term growth, strengthen community ties and support shared goals for a thriving and resilient community. The team are currently in the planning stages of 2025/26 for events and sessions throughout the spring/summer & autumn/winter. This is for all programmes including PPP, Wellness Kitchens, Community First- workshops including Community Grants Capacity Building and HIIC (Health Issues in the Community).

Our Resettlement Team continues to deliver high-quality humanitarian resettlement support using a human centred approach across all current resettlement schemes as well as asylum.  By prioritising the unique needs and experience of each individual, our dedicated team ensure that resettlement processes are compassionate, effective and dignified.  This commitment to personalised support not only aids in successful integration but also strengthens our communities as whole. Particular attention is being paid to the Asylum agenda as all LA’s are seeing an increase in numbers.

The team remains steadfast in their commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion.  They actively collaborate with local organisations and partners to foster inclusive communities, ensuring everyone feels a sense of belonging and is respected for their contributions. The equalities agenda will partner with organisations to bring events later this year including and International Women’s Day event and 16 days of action in partnership with Violence Against Women’s and Girls.

Our Vaccination Team has been diligently ensuring the community vaccination programme runs smoothly. The clinics re-opened in the New Year after a festive shutdown with a reduced service of once a fortnight alternating between Milngavie Town Hall and Kirkintilloch Town Hall. First clinic was 15^Th January at KTH followed by the next clinic on the 23^rd January at MTH. These clinics provide various vaccinations including a drop in for Flu and Covid while also appointments for shingles and pneumococcal will be taking place. It has been confirmed that the clinics will increase again from March/April with the commencement of the spring programme. The team are in discussion with the NHS and the, two venues over the days and dates of operation and will finalise plans in the coming weeks.

Housing manages 3,905 social rented properties; 3,786 of these are mainstream accommodation and 119 are used for Homeless Temporary Accommodation.  The service also manages 50 Lead Tenancies which are rented from either private landlords (29) or Housing Associations (21), to assist with accommodating homeless households.

At present, the Housing list for East Dunbartonshire has 3,195 applications - made up of the following:

General Waiting list 2,396 applicants waiting 
(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 568 applicants 
(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 227 applicants 
(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 4 applicants 
(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, 14 properties were allocated.  10 were mainstream general needs properties, 1 was a Buy Back property (bought from the open market), 1 was HRH-HRA (property previously used as temporary homeless accommodation now changed to let as mainstream) and 2 new builds (located at Wedgewood Drive estate in Bearsden). 

They were let to the following queues:

• 6 to the priority homeless queue
• 3 to the transfer queue
• 5 to the general waiting list queue.

Community Protection Service

Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Community Safety Teams

• Delivery of effective services on a flexible basis 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 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
• Health and safety intervention has started, Environmental Health Officers are visiting local catering businesses to raise awareness on a topic directed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on gas safety in commercial catering premises
• Health and safety contraventions were noted in a food business in Milngavie which resulted in Officers serving 1 Prohibition Notice and 2 Improvement Notices
• Draft Bishopbriggs Air Quality Action Plan has been developed and sent to internal stakeholders for comments
• Officers have been involved in a multi -departmental task force to tackle ongoing waste problems along Kirkintilloch main street, including David Donnolly Place and also the back lane behind Cowgate
• Environmental Health Team Leader has had discussions with Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Chief Planning Officer regarding resolving issues at Birdston Coup
• Vehicle Idling Patrols have commenced as part of an air quality initiative, Officers visit schools during drop off and pick up times to raise awareness about the harms it causes on human health and the environment
• Delivery of positive enforcement outcomes in relation to several fly-tipping and control of dog cases
• On-going delivery of programmes of decriminalised parking enforcement activity across the local authority area
• Delivery of investigative work and general casework on all ASB and neighbour dispute matters to support safer local communities within East Dunbartonshire
• Delivery of reactive service request work and targeted project work by the TS Team throughout the reporting period to maintain local compliance with consumer protection legislation
• Trading Standards respond to Freedom of Information requests over the reporting period across a number of subject matters
• On-going promotion of the East Dunbartonshire Trusted Trader scheme through relevant channels, with the aim of attracting further local traders to join the scheme
• Delivery of work by the Licensing Advisers in the Team to assess local compliance with licensing conditions and make representations at Licensing Boards.

Community Planning and Partnerships Team

• Continuation of targeted community development support through a range of our delivery programmes including Pockets, Places and Prosperity and Community First.  These programmes are designed to focus on our priority communities and communities of interest, helping local organisations to be resilient, compliant, and strong.  The team are committed to fostering vibrant and thriving communities by ensuring our resources are directed to address poverty and inequalities and planning for events through 2025/26 are well under way
• Deliver Round 3 of the Community Grant Scheme, opened 25th November and closed 10th January 2025. Offering support and assistance to build capacity and final recommendations were discussed at the GAC meeting on the 26th & 27th February.

The team support corporate delivery of the priorities within the Gaelic Language Plan 2024-2029. After the success of the Gaelic Harvest festival in August this year, discussions now move to future event planning for 2025.

Areas of Focus

• Preparation for the March CPPB Board report after the meeting of GAC and their recommendations for Round 3 of the Community Grant Scheme
• Future planning for new dates for potential Community Grant Rounds for 2025/26
• The team in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have started planning for a potential spring vaccination programme as final sign off has now been agreed by the Scottish Government
• The Resettlement team are working with COSLA, SG, and UK Government Departments to plan and support the changes to the Ukrainian scheme as the UK Gov introduces the Ukrainian Permission Extension (UPE) with a planned role out February 2025 now underway. Additional focus on the Asylum agenda as numbers increase across the UK
• In collaboration with services collate progress on the delivery of the Gaelic Language Plan 2024-29 and year one progress report
• The team are coordinating the returns for our mainstream and outcomes report and this continues at pace
• In partnership with the front-line workers, the team are collating progress on delivering the priorities within the Locality Plans.

Housing Operations and Estates Team, and Homelessness and Prevention Team

Key Achievements

Housing Estates

• The Estates team received 18 new Reports of anti-social behaviour during the month of January and 8 open cases were resolved 
• There were 5 nominations from the Housing waiting list were sent to Registered Social Landlords operating in East Dunbartonshire to be considered for allocation to their housing stock. Discussions are ongoing with Clyde Valley Housing Association to agree new Nominations Agreement
• Ongoing regular attended this month included Housing Liaison meetings where cases of relevance to Social Work, Community Safety and Police Scotland are discussed, MARAC meeting with other agencies, CPC MISE group to discuss Child Protection issues, Safe and Together forums,  2-weekly meetings of the Community Harm and Risk Meeting (CHARM) with Police Scotland, Community Protection, Trading Standards and Licensing and regular meetings with Legal Services regarding dispute over title deeds in the housing estate, NOP’s and other legal matters
• Half day training session at Macgregor House this month focused on Homelessness with an overview and was well attended
• The new on-line CRM system training has been issued for Housing staff using the system and now up and running
• The team is part of new Steering Group to re-establish and implement new procedures for processing and issuing Tenant Recharges.

Areas of focus

• Aim to identify any training needs and hold quarterly sessions for reviewing policies and procedures with officers
• Officers are contributing to an ASP (Adult Protection) Inspection. Contribute to the Allocations Policy review currently being undertaken
• Input to devising new procedures for Any Day Lets which has been introduced as part of IHMS implementation
• Attendance at new 2-weekly Community Harm and Risk Meeting (CHARM) with Police Scotland, Community Safety, Trading Standards and Licensing officers continues. Attendance at East Dunbartonshire Safe and Together steering group is ongoing.
• Hold monthly budget meetings with HRA accountant to keep abreast of costs. Monthly meetings with Void Team at Property Maintenance to focus on improving performance. Monthly attendance at new Housing/Social Work liaison meeting to discuss Throughcare cases and Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
• Monthly void property meetings with Property Maintenance to endeavour to improve performance
• Work to reduce the Voids, - liaising with the property maintenance department to streamline this process.

Homeless Team

33 households made a homeless application to the Council during February 2025 and there were 6 calls to out of hours. 
At the end of February 227 applicants are on the homelessness list.  No applicants have been awaiting offer of settled accommodation longer than 3 years.  (Applicant waiting longest was added to homelessness list Feb 2023). 12 applicants on the homeless list received an offer of settled accommodation (x3 from housing associations and x 9 from EDC housing).
7 households were referred to the Rent Deposit Guarantee Scheme; x1 household to date has received assistance to secure accommodation from the scheme.

Temporary Accommodation 

Officers are settling into their new temporary accommodation areas/patches and 14 households were booked into temporary accommodation.  As at end of February there are 19 temporary accommodation voids (currently with voids team or contractor).  7 of the 19 properties have been pre-allocated.  There are also 23 pre-voids (applicants moving to settled and/or other accommodation). 5 applicants (non emergency) are on the temporary accommodation waiting list (waiting time currently 2 weeks)
No households were placed in unsuitable accommodation.  The Council to date has not breached the unsuitable accommodation order during 2024/25. 

Works continue at our new Rapid Access Accommodation in Kirkintilloch.  Tender for onsite support to be published in the next month or so.  Following procurement processes the new service is likely to be operational later this year (Summer 2025)

Project 101

On 14 February 2025 Project 101’s office closed – the team will be moving to new premises in the next few months.  To ensure that there is no impact on service officers are working alongside the Homelessness and Prevention Team at the William Patrick Library.  Face to face appointments are available Monday and Tuesday and telephone appointments available Mon-Thur.  Advice/support continues to be delivered at Rapid Access Accommodation in Bearsden on a Tuesday.

Landlord Registration

In February 2025 19 new landlords registered, 56 landlords renewed their applications and 79 updates were received.  Income collected was £5,434.00.

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Key areas of focus in February for the Communications & Engagement team included changes to waste services, the Council by-election and Economic Development Strategy consultation.

Media relations increased this month with eight releases issued (three in January), two photocalls, (two in January) and 37 media enquiries dealt with (25 in January).

All releases are on the Council website news section and the local coverage achieved equated to an equivalent advertising value of £4,320 (£6,144 in January).

Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram all saw an increase in followers this month. The top three posts on Facebook related to changes to general waste collections, garden waste permits and Westerhill Development Road. The top three posts on X related to the Ward 7 by-election, changes to general waste collections and the Scottish Child Payment.

The most watched video on YouTube was ‘BSL Plan – Access to Justice.’

In February 2025, the Corporate Performance and Research team continued to fulfil required duties in relation to reporting of performance and risk management at a corporate level and provision of service level data and statistical support as well as continuing to ensure the Council has adequate insurance arrangements in place, providing advice and support in relation to insurance related queries and acting as a point of escalation in regards to any claims. All business as usual work was completed within agreed timescales. 

The team also continues to undertake complaints handling at a corporate level, coordinating responses to formal complaints across all service areas, ensuring they are addressed appropriately, and adequate responses are provided within statutory timescales where possible.

February was another busy month for the Customer Services team with the garden bin permits available to purchase prompting a high volume of calls, resulting in an increased average time to answer of 8 mins 55 secs which was above the target of three and a half minutes. 

Following intensive training in the preceding months, the new Customer Service Agents began handling telephone enquiries, which will improve capacity for call responding as they continue to build their experience. The team received positive feedback on the quality of service they provide from a number of customers throughout the month.

Young Scot carried out an audit of our National Entitlement Card application verification processes to ensure the proof of age standards scheme (PASS) requirements are being adhered to, enabling young people to use their cards for age restricted services and purchases.     

The Emergency Response Centre team progress continue with the development of the new digital community alarm call handling platform, which was introduced towards the end of 2024. The focus has included looking in depth at the various system features that will provide more effective workflows, such as Responder App, and work will continue across the team to build on this.

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 in line with Council policies. The team also delivers payroll services, effectively processing all Council payrolls according to required timescales.

The service is progressing with the harmonisation of the Council’s payroll, moving from multiple four weekly and weekly payrolls to one monthly payroll from April 2025. A significant amount of work is being carried out to conclude the final payments for each payroll and buld the new monthly payroll, ensuring all salary payments are met.

The service is also progressing with the implementation of a new HR and payroll system to replace the current iTrent system. Significant input is required from across HR&OD teams to ensure the new system is built to meet operational needs and deliver efficiencies.

Communications & Engagement

• Supported the launch of the Taxi Fare review consultation including social media, graphics, press release, website updates and local newspaper advertising
• Design of the Senior Phase Partnership Prospectus
• Supported Local History Month with press release, website updates and design of programme
• Delivered comprehensive communication plans for the changes to general waste collections and garden waste permit renewals including press releases, social media, website updates, posters for key venues, design of bin tags and more
• Promoted a series of key family friendly events at Mugdock Park
• Promotion of key awareness days including flying the Rainbow flag for LGBT History Month and social media messaging for Safer Internet Day, World Gaelic Week and Scottish Apprenticeship Week.

Corporate Performance

• Preparation continued for the annual renewal of the Council’s Insurance arrangements to ensure all requirements are considered
• Transition from the legacy CRM system for complaints handling was fully completed with all active cases closed off on the predecessor system and necessary backup files extracted for audit purposes.
• Guidance for Business & Improvement plans was revised and prepared for 2025-2028 BIPS to be reported to Council in June 2025
• PPR Summary report for 23/24 was finalised for publication on the Council website in line with statutory deadlines
• Service level analysis was prepared on the results of the recent employee survey which will give senior officers an insight to the views of their individual service areas
• Continued assistance was provided to the change team in relation to the rollout of Oracle Fusion.

Customer Services

• The team supported the launch of Garden bin permits, available for purchase in February, including testing of application form and payments and responding to customer enquiries across all channels (with a notable increase in call volumes)
• Young Scot audit carried out on the application verifcation processes in place to ensure integrity of the proof of age standards scheme, confirming effective arrangements in place 
• Progress in the further development of the digital call handling platform for telecare alarm responding in the ERC.

Human Resources & Organisational Development

• Continued support for employees and managers on HR policy based and guidance noted, with support in attendance on ER case work
• Continued preparatory work ahead of year end returns
• In advance of move to monthly payroll, the team undertook a series of preparatory work and testing to support the migration, and work to progress final payruns for current payrolls continues
• The HCM Project Board, continued to undertake preparatory work in support of moving to the new HR/Payroll system
• HROD staff have provided input to a range of ‘information gathering’ and ‘business scenarios’ workshops as part of to the HCM  (iTrent replacement) project
• As the HCM project has progressed the service has also undertaken a series of Design and Build sessions in relation to functionality
• The People Development team delivered sessions across a number of topics in February, including SMART Working, Induction, EDC Policy sessions & Leadership topics, Child Protection and Trauma Level 2
• In total 215 delegates received training across topics in February 2025
• People Development continued to support arrangements for Training Needs Analysis, promoting & planning of Retirement sessions, ongoing eLearning design & Moodle support and development of the Education Leadership Programme.

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Allander Leisure Centre

The February school break was anticipated to be one of the busiest weeks of the year. 15,875 visits were recorded over the week beginning 17 February. Up 1,904 on the same week the previous year. The week averaged 2,268 customers a day (168 per hour, 2.8 per minute). Monday 17 February achieved the Centre’s highest visitor numbers since opening; 2,738.

Over the course of period 11 there were 15,060 gym visits and dryside activity numbers have increase against the previous year by 66%. The growth of Pickleball continues and there is currently limited availability in the Centre’s main hall between 0930 – 2130 Monday to Sunday. This social aspect of the game and having a rating has been a major driver in brining so many people into the game. The emergence of WhatsApp has greatly enhanced the ability of groups to organise games and book sessions. Again, indirectly allowing for social interaction among participants.

Final snagging works have now been completed on the Sports Dome roof, which has now concluded the warranty period of the builder

Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre

Kirkintilloch Gym had an extremely busy period with almost eleven and a half thousand visits across the 4 weeks, and the rest of the centre was also busy with customers. Discussions continued with EDC Assets Team colleagues on the major works on the Pool Hall roof gutterings and re-rendering of the frontage of the centre with a pre-start meeting held on site.

Leisuredrome

The Leisuredrome had over 3000 more visits than the same period last year with the most noticeable growth in Group Fitness and Dryside activities that include badminton and pickleball.

The boiler installation was completed at the start of February and final commissioning identified an issue with one of the three boilers. Rectification was to take place early March 2025.

Cultural Services

The library service joined in the national ‘Love Libraries’ campaign which launched on Valentines Day, with displays, information leaflets and Love-heart comment slips to gather users’ views.

On a less romantic note, a display, curated by the museum team, highlighting the Bearsden Shark, opened in William Patrick Library. This replica of the original fossil, which is held by the Hunterian Museum and thought to be circa 330 million years old, is normally on display in Bearsden library, but during closure for building works, this fascinating fossil is now on a mini tour of East Dunbartonshire libraries, along with fossilised shark teeth.

The Access & Outreach team started a Women’s Wellness group at Milngavie library and took volunteers of the Memories Scotland project on a visit to the Football Museum at Hampden Park,  home to the original Football Memories Scotland project, which works in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland to support reminiscence groups.

The Children & Families Team delivered 108 Bookbug, Code Club and Minecraft sessions across libraries and community venues during February.

Archives & Local Studies, based at William Patrick Library, received 1,717 visitors and 268 enquiries.

The Heritage & Arts team attended a Career’s Day at Kirkintilloch High School promoting careers available in the heritage and arts sector.

A series of craft afternoon sessions launched at The Lillie Art Gallery. These free sessions are open to people of all ages and skill levels and offer space for local artists and creatives to work on their projects and to meet fellow artists.

Active Schools & Community Sport

The new service structure continues to provide opportunities for better collaborative working across teams, with review and planning for 2025/26 being a high priority. 

The Community Sport team began the transition to locality-based working, with Community Sport Officers gradually widening their remit to encompass a broader range of sports. The team also prepared for the move to Course Pro, an improved online system for users to book children’s sports classes. 

The Active Schools team further developed the Inclusive Dance sessions, maximizing the remaining funding for year three by expanding sessions within Nurture Units with the Primary Schools. The ASCs have also seen pupils with additional support needs take up the offer of funded community sessions in clubs such as Aye Can Dae, after participating in the activities within their school. This is a huge success measure for the project and is helping to create sustainable pathways for participation for children and young people with additional support needs. 

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The Service has made very good progress against priorities in the Business and Improvement Plan (BIP) 2024-2027.

• The Education Leadership Team and Central Officers continue to to evaluate the progress made against the priorities set out in the Business Improvement Plan (BIP) and Education Services Plan (ESP).  This will inform the Standards and Quality Report which will be shared at the next Education Committee
• The Additional Support Needs (ASN) Showcase took place in Woodland View School on Wednesday 19th Feb 2025.  It was attended by over 300 participants including; teachers, support assistants, social workers and colleagues from Health. There were 20 seminars and the opportunity to learn about and/or deepen awareness and knowledge of priorities in ASN. All evaluations are positive and evidenced how learning will be transferred and used within own context
• The Quality Improvement Team, along with a peer Head Teacher, visited Millersneuk Primary to undertake a short model Quality Improvement Review (QIR). The review team visited classes, sampled pupils’ work, looked at data/evidence and met with groups of staff, pupils and parents. This was a very positive QIR with Learning, Teaching and Assessment and Raising Attainment and Achievement begin evaluated as very good.  Key strengths of the school were the highly respected headteacher and depute head teacher together with their staff, having created a culture where children, parents and staff are empowered and motivated.  In addition, the children’s extremely positive attitude to learning was evident. They are rightly proud of their many achievements within a community where everyone’s rights are respected
• Two additional Education Support Officers (ESO) have been appointed to join the central team leading on Numeracy and Maths and Learning and Teaching.  This funding has been allocated from the Strategic Equity Fund to continue to strive for excellence and equity. This is in addition to the Literacy ESO and they will work together under the guidance of Quality Improvement Officers.

• 62 pupil gained places in the Primary Symphony Orchestra
• 128 pupils gained places in the Primary Training Symphony Orchestra
• Kirkintilloch High School pupils have received the Vision Schools Scotland in recognition of their commitment to delivering Holocaust Education.  This was awarded by the University of the West of Scotland.  In addition, their S5 Youth and Philanthropy pupils raised thousands of pounds for their respective charities, with their winning team awarding three thousand pounds to Glasgow Childrens' Hospital.  Pupils who participated are using the experience to gain their Higher Leadership Qualification.  These achievements embody our school motto of Dream Big, Work hard and Show Kindness.
• Lenzie Academy were awarded a Bronze Award from CyberFirst – a collaboration between the National Cyber Security Centre and Education Scotland. The introduction of CyberSkills to their S1 Digital Skills Academy, along with plans to extend this into their S2 Digital Skills Academy and the introduction of an National Progression Award (NPA) in Cyber Security in the Senior Phase were instrumental to their award
• Mosshead Primary School have achieved the 'We Promise' award for helping all staff to develop the understanding and skills required to improve the experiences and outcomes for Scotland’s care experienced children and young people
• Torrance Primary and Early Years Centre have been awarded Silver Rights Respecting Schools Award. Highlights from their feedback included children feeling safe, supported and fully involved in their rights journey.

Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Supporting Families

• The Leadership Strategic group continues to regularly meet. A robust three-year plan to introduce Leadership Professional Learning across the Primary, Secondary and ASN sectors has been developed. Significant work towards creating Professional Learning for new and acting Head Teachers and Middle leaders has been achieved
• The Parental Engagement and Involvement Strategy Group have continued to meet regularly. Consultation with Primary Head Teachers has informed aspects of the strategy. A three-year plan to consolidate and further develop approaches to Parental Engagement and Involvement has been agreed. The wealth of cross-sector developments and initiatives in Parental Engagement and Involvement have been reviewed and identified in the strategy
• The Quality Improvement Officer responsible for Probationers is working collaboratively with Probationer Managers Nationally and across the West Partnership to develop agreed Quality Assurance processes following announcements to changes to the Teacher Induction Scheme by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)
• As part of the assessment process for Into Headship, Professional Verifiers are required for each candidate undertaking the qualification. In addition to the existing six Professional Verifies, 1 Head Teacher and 2 Primary Quality Improvement Officers have successfully completed training
• 9 practitioners from primary and secondary, have submitted their outline case studies for the Improving Our Classrooms Masters accreditation programme, with a view to completing their Case Study of Improvement by May 2025. They are currently participating in trio visits across schools in order to enhance and support their own professional learning
• The Framework for Equity in Literacy was launched with all Primary and Secondary Head Teachers, with a training schedule agreed to ensure all practitioners receive appropriate training around using the document effectively to support learners
• A group of practitioners, alongside the Literacy Development Officer, have started work on the development of the Digital Literacy Hub. This work will continue over the remainder of the session
• Education Scotland presented to 29 primary head teachers and central staff about the impact of family engagement and the key features of highly effective family learning. The central team also shared a sign posting guide that has been created for schools and early years centres to signpost parents to other support services across EDC. This will be followed up by a Supporting Families and Family Learning seminar with keynote speakers and sharing practice in March
• Professional Development Group Meetings for each subject area involved Principal Teachers from all schools. Collegiate discussion on performance data shared effective approaches to raising attainment. Good practice was shared on pedagogy, BGE courses and resources ensuring greater consistency for learners across schools
• A Quality Review in St. Ninian’s High School focused on HGIOS core quality indicators. The collaborative process to support improvement involved colleagues from 6 secondary schools. Key strengths and next steps were identified to support continuous improvement.

Additional Support Needs (ASN) and Children’s Services

• The Child Protection Coordinator meeting took place and was supported by Police Scotland and EDC Drugs and Alcohol Partnership. Ongoing support will be provided to parents/carers to build a shared understanding of Digital Footprint and helping to keep their children safe online. This is a national and local priority
• To support children and family's multi-agency approach, staff have attended Sound Sleep and Sleep Awareness training. Enhanced Sleep Counselling training is planned for March concluding in May 2025 with 9 multiagency staff completing this level of training. This will allow Sound Sleep and Sleep Awareness delegates the opportunity to share practice within professional networking sessions
• S6 pupils delivered a multi-agency staff Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) workshop. All staff evaluated the workshop positively, highlighting pupil knowledge as a key strength
• The Whole Family Wellbeing Fund (WFWF) Development Officer has begun to work with seven grant funded 3^rd sector partners to develop services targeted to support holistic family wellbeing and implementation of the Promise. Projects include Early Years Scotland parenting supports, Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol Routes Food pantry, East Dunbartonshire Women’s Aid and Carer’s Link Family worker. Practical sessions to support children and young people’s skills and wellbeing will be provided by Creatovators New Roots, and Ramekin & Rolling Pin
• In developing CIRCLE, almost all schools have completed a Pupil Voice Inclusive Classroom Scale, learning from this analysis will supplement planning to areas of focus identified by staff teams. All schools will be involved in practice sharing discussions between January and April.

Educational Psychology Service (EPS)

• 2 schools and 2 Early Years Centres hosted visits for Play Pedagogy Practitioners. Early Years’ practitioners were encouraged to visit a Primary 1 setting and Primary colleagues were encouraged to visit an Early Years’ setting.  Meadowburn EYC, Auchinairn EYC, Killermont Primary and Westerton Primary hosted these visits.
• Following an Education Service Development Session, a working group has been established to produce an education plan to ensure that trauma training is rolled out strategically within educational establishments
• The Mental Health Strategy for Education has been revised and will be shared with education and multi-agency partners this academic session
• NVR – Five education and social work staff completed NVR (Non-Violent Resistance), Level 3 training and submitted their assignments for scrutiny. They will run a level 1 training course during session 2025-2026
• The Primary Core Nurture School head teachers met in their network group. A presentation was put together to share the evidence over 3 years (2021-2024) with the DCYPP, which was postponed until April.  Data gathering took place for the Core Nurture Group children, in order to provide information to the Scottish Government 
• An Up Up and Away (UUA) Professional Learning Community for pilot EYC’s took place which focussed on family engagement. Educational Psychologists (EP) also delivered 4 workshops at the ASN Showcase focussed on Empowerment and Decision Making, which had been identified as areas of focus according to the CICS and Action Plans submitted by schools.  These sessions were well attended by a variety of professionals
• The second CLPL session on supporting attendance has been completed. All cluster schools in attended have made some progress in actioning plans in relation to attendance improvement actions. Guidance was presented and discussed with 2 social work colleagues to inform a planning session with children’s reporter in March.

School Planning and Improvement

• Planning for the Milngavie Primary School decant to St Nicholas’ Primary School and Torrance Primary School is progressing well. The service have met with all 3 Parent Council Chairpersons.  A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document has been produced capturing all questions being asked.  This has been shared with all stakeholders and is also included on each school's website.  There was a drop in evening where members of the Education Leadership Team attended and met a number of parents to discuss the project.  This was very well attended by parents and carers of Milngavie Primary School pupils.  Future attendance by members of the Education Leadership Team at Parent Council meetings will take place
• Bearsden Primary project continues again to progress well with the works that are taking place. The project team are working well with the school to ensure no disruption to learning and teaching.  A number of classrooms and offices have had their windows replaced.  Stonework repairs are ongoing with also the preparation of replacement boilers due to take place in April
• Lenzie Academy replacement school project continues to progress. Stakeholder engagement with the school has continued to assist with the layouts and design of the school with the Council’s Major Asset Project Team along with the wider Project Team
• Workforce planning with all schools continues to progress well. Final determination of teaching staff allocation will be completed once the registrations are confirmed for the new P1 and S1 intake.

Skills for Life, Learning and Work

• The Local Employability Partnership (LEP) launched its grant programme for employability provision for 2025/26. This programme allocates significant elements of the Scottish Government ‘No One Left Behind’ and ‘Tackling Child Poverty’ funding. Priority employability support areas for 25/26 will include support for those with disabilities and poor health, young people, low-income parents and those with barriers to employment. The LEP funding and performance subgroup will meet in March to assess applications.

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The month of February saw the Finance Team working on the 2025/26 budget and preparing for the year end tasks required for the collation of 2023/24 accounts.   The Oracle Fusion General Ledger system project has been signed off as Green status with a few legacy tickets to be completed.  These are hoped to be closed imminently to allow the closure of remaining 2024/25 financial periods to be progressed.  Movement into Phase 2 of the ledger system with HCM is now commencing and this has been staffed with an additional 0.5 full time equivalent within the Finance team as a temporary resource.

The Council continues to deliver against an ambitious capital programme supported largely by borrowing.

Treasury Management Reporting continues to highlight the increasing revenue costs associated with the current programme with ongoing affordability being challenged within a tight funding settlement.  Reports to Council have provided updates on the programme, the associated costs and any mitigations required. The mid-term Treasury Management report was prepared and presented in the March Audit & Risk committee.

The team has supported the budget process, with the Council’s budget being agreed in March, providing a balanced position in a highly challenging financial context.

The Revenues and Benefits team have continued to progress Council Tax and Benefits services and administration of the Scottish Welfare Fund. 

The Council Tax Collection Rate at 94.56% is ahead of target (94.36%) at this stage.   This reflects the changing profile of payments with more people choosing to pay their Council tax over 12 rather than 10 months.  The number of people paying by 12 direct debits has increased from around 25% in 2019 to 33% this year.  Collection of Council tax continues to be closely monitored with the Council’s Recovery and Enforcement Procedures being applied and individuals being signposted to the exemptions and discounts available as appropriate. 

The Shared Services Team continues to provide support across all Council services. The Education Team continues processing school registration applications. The Homecare Team continues to support an initiative from the Planning & Commissioning Team processing variations in addition to their normal workload. The Transactional Finance Team. The Transactional Finance Team are working with colleagues in HSCP to review process for contract variations in Homecare Services. The Transport Team have requested the transport requirements for Education and Social Work colleagues 25/26 to enable the first-round tenders to be published. The Education Team responded to the Red Weather warning issuing payments in lieu of free school meals. The same team have also calculated adjustments for the closure of EYCs due to the same warning.

The ICT Services team continues to support the Council’s information technology systems and services to ensure high availability and performance in line with agreed service levels.  The Team resolved 1,003 tickets in February and dealt with 411 telephone calls.  ICT continues to support the migration of services to Microsoft 365 (M365) in partnership with the Business and Digital Change Team.  The ICT Security team continues to monitor the estate and perimeter defences alongside ongoing improvements to ensure that our systems and data are protected.

The maximisation of housing rental income and pursuit of rent arrears continues to be a priority for the service, to safeguard income.  A dedicated team of Officers is in place, whose role is to actively pursue rent arrears and provide advice and support to tenants struggling to pay their rent.  This includes issuing letters, home visits, telephone calls, emails, etc, which begin as soon as arrears are accrued on a rent account; pre tenancy advice on rent charges, payment options and discussing rent affordability to new tenants at the time of offer acceptance of their new tenancy; signposting tenants struggling financially to relevant support services to ensure household incomes are maximised; having a weekly presence at Kirkintilloch Job Centre to provide additional support for tenants in receipt of the housing element of Universal Credit; and escalating arrears actions to include court action or eviction for serious rent arrears cases.

The Tenant Participation Team continues to provide direct ongoing support to active Tenants and Residents Associations and supporting wider Tenant Participation activities.

During February the Business & Digital Change Team continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of key strategic digital development projects.

The Team also 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, resilient, scalable, standardised, value for money and secure.

Work continues towards completion of the 2024/25 plan as the team provides assurance over key areas of risk, making recommendations and following up on these to improve the control environment, with work recently completed including Payroll, Fleet Health and Safety Compliance and the Shared Prosperity Fund.  The audits nearing completion are the HSCP Transport Policy and School Roll Forecasting.  

The audit plan for 2025/26 has been approved and initial planning work on the first audits has commenced.

The team has responded to requests from management for consultancy work and advice where this contributes to the control environment, governance arrangements or enhances risk management.

The Corporate Fraud Team has been focusing on the investigation of referrals received and proactive vetting of applications for services such as Housing, Education, Licensing and Estates to secure the gateways by preventing fraud or error entering the systems.      

Further data matches for a number of reports have been received from the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), which is a data matching exercise undertaken by Audit Scotland to identify fraud and error.  There are additional matches that have still to be released and Audit Scotland will confirm the date of release in due course.  A total of 2,318 matches have been received.  Two vacancies within the Corporate Fraud team have delayed the commencement of the sifting and investigation process.  Interviews have been undertaken and the successful candidates will commence after the appropriate Disclosure Scotland checks have been completed. 

A tailored training package, for both Housing Service and Revenues & Benefits employees, will be developed and delivered in the near future.  The Corporate Fraud team commenced the development of in-house anti-fraud and bribery training package but this has been paused at present.  This will be progressed when resources allow.

Finance

• The Oracle Fusion General Ledger system project has now been signed off as Green status with a few legacy tickets to be completed. Phase 2 with HCM and PBCS/Fusion has now commenced and likely to last for 18 months
• Staff development is a key focus and given a challenging external recruitment market, the service is continuing to upskill existing staff where possible.
• The Treasury team continues 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
• The 2023/24 year end is now underway with an agreed timetable for accounts production. The timetable is a stretch target for the team, with multiple competing priorities ongoing
• The team has been focussed on supporting the 2025/26 budget process.

Revenues and Benefits

• In the month of February, the team issued:
  • 1,815 Council Tax bills and 9,930 Benefits notifications; and,
  • 195 Non-Domestic Rates bills
• 320 crisis grants and community care grant applications were received
• The team received and dealt with 1,250 documents for Council Tax queries and reduction and 400 for benefits. In addition, the team received over 2,400 ATLAS notifications from DWP
• The team dealt with 2,200 telephone enquiries.

ICT Services

• ICT Services are working closely with the Business and Digital Change Team to implement M365
• The Infrastructure Team:
  • Completed network upgrades at Huntershill Sports Complex and Kirkintilloch Learning Centre
  • Installed additional wireless access points at Turnbull High School
  • Purchased site servers for 35 primary Schools to upgrade the operating system
  • Pushed out in-place upgrades to Windows 11 for pilot ICT users.
• ICT Security have:
  • Resolved 15 security incidents
  • Continued preparation for the annual IT Health Check
  • Maintained the Council’s perimeter defences.

Shared Services

• The Residential Team added 98 service agreements to CareFirst for clients moving into care homes or for supported living services within their own homes
• The Homecare Team added 332 service agreements to CareFirst for clients receiving a homecare service or a direct payment
• Direct Payment Audit Team – 30 audits completed, 25 standard and 5 final audits finalised for clients receiving self-direct support
• The EMA Team processed 24 applications for Education Maintenance Allowance.

Housing Rent Arrears

• Active Tenant Rent Arrears were £1,218,665 which is a decrease of £70,358 on the same period as last year (week 47)
• Housing Officers continue to utilise all avenues to maximise rental income and reduce rent arrears, escalating actions against tenants whose rent arrears are increasing, and also providing advice and assistance to tenants who engage and need additional support
• Appointments with a Housing Officer continue to be available at Kirkintilloch Job Centre every Tuesday morning to assist tenants in receipt of the Universal Credit housing element
• Reducing active tenant rent arrears continues to be a priority for the Housing Service.

Business & Digital Change

• Integration between the Roads Management system (RMMS) and Customer Relationship Management system enabling residents to seamlessly report road or lighting faults, request grit bins, and request grit bins refills
• The new Housing Management system has streamlined the rent increase process, ensuring timely notifications and transparent communication with tenants
• The CRM system now features early years application forms, making it easier for parents or guardians to apply for early year places and ensuring a more efficient process for allocation
• The Business Systems Team have successfully upgraded 3 systems in the period. They have also managed 16 incidents and supported 6 projects and implemented 1 new systems interface
• New and updated Carefirst forms have been successfully implemented removing the need for word documents streamlining Foster Carer enquiries and Alcohol & Drub assessments
• In preparation for this year's migration to Windows 11, testing of key business systems has successfully completed enabling service areas to complete final testing over the next 2 months
• Procurement evaluations have been completed for the modernisation of our Sheltered Housing complexes and our remaining analogue estate of telecare alarms. Five of the top telecare suppliers in the UK submitted responses. A moderation meeting will now be held to award the contract
• The Payroll rationalisation project is on track to move all EDC employees to monthly pay from April 2025
• Work underway for the second and final design stage of the Oracle Fusion HCM project.

Internal Audit

• The team continues to work on the 2024/25 Internal Audit Plan, with an outturn of 75% completion by the year end being targeted in line with revised resources
• Advice is continuing to be provided by Internal Audit in line with the Internal Audit Charter to support the enhancement of governance arrangements, risk management and controls
• The internal audit plan for 2025/26 has been prepared and approved.

Corporate Fraud

• Corporate Fraud is investigating allegations received, focusing on suspected fraud or error within Education, Housing and Revenues Services and on the remaining cases resulting from the NFI
• An initial review of high risk NFI data matches has been carried out
• Interviews are scheduled to recruit into vacant posts in the team and if successful this will allow for further resources to be applied to NFI
• The team also continues to undertake vetting on applications, from a number of services, in order to prevent to fraud and any potential reputational damage
• The team is focused on maximising its value adding activity through prioritising large value cases, which in some instances are challenging to resolve and may require an update of the policy base to support action – specifically the creation of a Communications Data Policy.

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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 the Council’s 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 February 2025, the HSCP has performed above target on all three of its identified performance indicators.

Key Achievements:

• The Community Support Team provide a support service to over 100 children and young people and their families in East Dunbartonshire. In a recent report from the Care Inspectorate, the service was praised for being understanding, insightful, committed to their work and reflective about their practice. Following an unannounced inspection in January 2025, the service received sector leading grades
• Promotional activity in support of:
  • East Dunbartonshire Income Maximisation Service
  • Consultation on Learning Disability Respite Provision.

Areas of Focus:

HSCP Wide:

• Develop HSCP Strategic Plan 2025 onwards
• Improve online accessibility and signposting to information and services through further development and promotion of the HSCP website
• Progression of Property Strategy to redesign and refresh current accommodation
• Implement actions in the HSCP Digital Strategy.

Children and Criminal Justice Services:

• Continue to develop as a Trauma Informed organisation
• Prepare for the launch of Phase 2 of The Promise Plan 24/30
• Ongoing implementation of Children’s House Project model
• Implement Children & Young People’s Mental Health & Wellbeing action plan.

Adult Services:

• Development of improvement plan following the outcome of Joint Inspection of Adult Support and Protection arrangements and delivery of improvement actions
• Review of Learning Disability accommodation-based services
• Review of commissioned services for adult mental health and alcohol and drugs services to further implement a recovery focused approach
• Devise and deliver year 1 actions of the East Dunbartonshire Dementia Strategy Action Plan
• Preparation for Adult Services Inspection & Completion of Adult Services Integrated Audit Self Evaluation project
• Review the implementation of the 2024/25 actions of the Older Peoples Social Support Strategy.

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Land Planning & Development have progressed a number of significant work streams during February 2025 in line with the Business Improvement Plan commitments.

• Work on the Evidence Gathering process for Local Development Plan 3 is ongoing. Officers are continuing to work with key agencies to secure agreement on the Evidence Report, before reporting to Council for approval to submit to the DPEA for the Gate Check process thereafter
• Planning authorities have been advised by the Scottish Government that Action Programmes associated with current Local Development Plans should be republished as a Delivery Programme by 31 March 2025 to ensure compliance with the measures set out in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. Officers have been updating the existing Action Programme for Local Development Plan 2 and working with internal services and other key stakeholders in order to publish the Delivery Programme in time to meet the government’s deadline
• Work is continuing on identifying priority projects for inclusion in the Council’s new Greenspace Strategy, which will replace the Green Network Strategy and Open Space Strategy. A landowner and key stakeholder session on the initial outputs and recommendations of the Kelvin Valley research study was held on 17 February 2025 in Kirkintilloch Town Hall
• Early engagement on a new Economic Development Strategy (EDS) for East Dunbartonshire commenced on 17 February 2025 and runs until 31 March 2025. Online questionnaires seeking opinions from the public and local businesses have been launched on the Council’s website and have been promoted via social media.  A forum/workshop was held in Bishopbriggs Memorial Hall on 24 February 2025 and was attended by approximately 12 people representing internal Council Services and external partners.  During March there will be 3 public drop-in sessions in the following locations:
  • Milngavie Community Library
  • Lennoxtown Hub
  • Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre
• Work on the monitoring and delivery of the Circular Economy Strategy is ongoing.

• Further progress was made on the development of the Draft Climate Action Plan (CAP) including meetings with various Council team following the input received in January’s meetings for the Net Zero Focus Group and the Adaptation and Nature Based Solution Working Group. Additional internal engagement is being organised with a range of service areas for February and timescales to present the CAP to SLT are being organised. Progress was also made on the Environmental Report for the Climate Action Plan.
• The Spring CAP Newsletter has been drafted to provide an updated on the CAP, LHEES and a range of Sustainability related work. The newsletter is expected to be distributed in March.
  

  Work continued on the implementation of the Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plan including gathering relevant data for feasibility studies for heat networks and regular meetings with colleagues in assets to establish a coordinated approach between the LHEES and the Capital Assets Management Plan. An update report was presented to CPEG in preparation for the report going to prepared for Community Planning Partnership Board in March 2025.

• Meetings were held with the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service on the incorporation of area-wide emissions, climate adaptation data and additional scope 3 emissions into the Council’s Carbon Management Plan
• New funding sources are being actively sought to progress the Nature-Based Investment Study which would quantify the current greenhouse gas emission absorption potential of nature in East Dunbartonshire and set out options to leverage additional public and private investment to support environmental outcomes and contribute towards the Council’s net zero targets by quantifying the estimated emission absorption potential of nature while delivering meaningful action to preserve and bolster flourishing biodiversity
• Additional sessions for the Community Carbon Literacy Training Programme have been scheduled. A total of 130 people had completed the accredited Community Carbon Literacy Training, 21 people have completed the focussed sessions and 5 people are undertaking the train the trainer course. Two additional sessions are scheduled for March 2025 which are expected to drive up the number of attendees. An update report was presented to CPEG in preparation for the report going to Community Planning Partnership Board in March 2025
• An update report was presented to CPEG on the establishment of a Climate Action Hub for East Dunbartonshire, following distribution of a technical note (TN 005-25), in preparation for the report going Community Planning Partnership Board in March 2025. While Councils are not directly involved in the management or oversight of the Climate Action Hubs, the Sustainability Team and EDVA had met with Scottish Government to explore how they could support the establishment of a Climate Action Hub and provided content to support Twechar Community Action’s application
• Further meetings have been held in February to discuss how the 10-year investment plan for Fleet, which is based upon vehicle demand by sites and replacement dates, could support net zero targets
• The Council’s Employee Travel Survey ran from 29.01.25 to 19.02.25. An analysis of the survey has been developed. This work will inform the development of a Travel Plan for the Council as detailed in the CAP’s Evidence and Options Report
• A member of the Sustainability Team attended SPT liaison group and shared updates with internal transport colleagues on the Metro, the forthcoming consultation on the Strathclyde Regional Bus Strategy, Clyde Metro, SPT’s Capital Programme, People and Place, franchising, changes to Scotrail ticket offices, Audit Scotland’s recent report on Sustainable Transport and various partners’ Cycle to Work Schemes. The Sustainability Team drafted briefing notes related to transport for COSLA Leaders' Meeting 28th February
• The Sustainability Team provided input to support emissions reductions and sustainable outcomes in the procurement of a new fleet of printers.

• The Team is currently working with colleagues in Business & Digital Change and ICT to prepare for a major update of our ArcGIS software which will ensure our software is up-to-date and which will introduce improved functionality.  We are experiencing issues with the dated version which we are currently running including server layers not loading. The team had a project kick-off meeting with the ESRI team to discuss the project timeline. Esri will be sharing the project  pre-requisite and brief document
• DMS test 5.2 upgrade has been successfully completed. The team have checked the test environment, and it is working. The DMS live 5.2 upgrade is scheduled to take place on 26^th-27^th March. Additionally, the GIS team and BDC team had a meeting with Idox team where we discuss Uniform test, train & live, Unimap web and Public access upgrade to be completed by end of July
• The Team are currently working with a number of Teams across the Council on a range of GIS projects including Customer Relationship Management and RMMS (roads management system) Integration, Preparing and Managing Survey123 surveys, Mapping support for FOI, Shapefiles data requests, updating GIS data /Online Maps, Postcodes Data Requests, CAD Map Tile, Survey123 Notifications and the preparation of the Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategy.  The Team also continues to support the preparation of the LDP Evidence Report
• Placement requests project: Meeting held with the education team to discuss the upcoming placement requests. The data will be shared in two batches, the first batch is expected by end of February and second batch will be shared after the placement request deadline passes on March 15, 2025
• Allotment Waiting list integration into GIS has been completed. A tool has been developed which runs an Allotment layer and automatically updates information and exports data to Excel for the Council’s Allotment Officer
• A new GIS Service & Error Reporting Action app has been developed on ArcGIS online platform to streamline all the request coming from GIS Service & Error Reporting form. This app help GIS team to process the request and closed the status real time. The team have also prepared a Dashboard view that provide total number of request open, closed requests and other relevant statistics. These two developments are highly significant for GIS team, as they have greatly improved the workflow and request tracking
• The Team have completed multiple IDOX requests from Teams across the Council during the month. These requests are related to updating the IDOX templates
• The Team completed multiple address register/update requests and several address queries and new ArcGIS online accounts requests from Teams across the Council.

• Training to support the transition to the new IHMS system is being delivered by the IHMS Project team. Staff continue to utilise both Test and Live environments until training is complete
• Systems Officers are assisting with day-to-day processing of direct debits and the set-up of rent accounts in both Test and Live IHMS and continue to monitor/escalate issues as they arise
• Performance Monitoring Officers continue to complete monthly statistics and dashboards that inform the HGIOS Report and Annual Return on the Charter. In addition, a Quarterly Return is voluntarily submitted to Scotland’s Housing Network that informs an annual benchmarking analysis against other social landlords
• Performance Monitoring Officers are completing a monthly Voids Return for Scotland’s Housing Network who are actively monitoring voids timescales nationally
• Policy Officers are preparing to carry out public consultation on proposed changes to the Council’s Allocations Policy subject to Committee approval
• Procurement of a new Digital Telecare system is moving forward. The project team are ensuring the successful transition of analogue telecare to digital telecare throughout the sheltered complexes and will deliver in-person briefings to tenants at each site
• The Housing Estates Officer is working closely with sheltered housing Wardens to ensure a robust service is provided to tenants during the Telecare switchover to the new system and to minimise disruption to tenants as equipment is removed and replaced.

• 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 Find Business Support website.  A range of support is provided via the team and the Business Gateway contract to new emerging and existing businesses. This includes provision of local business support grants to support start up and growth SMEs
• The Digital Development Grant and the Green Business Support grants funded through UKSPF have proved very popular and been fully subscribed. The grants are being concluded as they approach the end of the financial year and the UKSPF funding. The Social Enterprise Grant, also UKSPF has now closed for applications and has been fully allocated. The team continues to develop the site enabling and regeneration grant set to go live later in 2025
• Digital Boost will no longer be funded through Scottish Government although webinars will continue to be delivered by Business Gateway National.  The team are using currently available expertise to support companies on their digital journey, as well as developing further internal expertise. For more complex projects the Digital Development Grant has been utilised
• Growth and inward investment enquiries are being supported and coordinated by the team, directing them primarily to masterplan locations (Kirkintilloch Gateway, and the emerging Westerhill masterplan area).

• The team continues with a range of work to ensure the delivery of the Council’s City Deal project. The Outline Business Case (in-line with City Deal & HM Greenbook requirements) was approved at the Glasgow City Region November 2024. Work is underway on the Final Business Case stage for the two project elements – Bishopbriggs Town Centre and Westerhill Development Road
• The Westerhill Regeneration Area (WRA) planning guidance and its associated delivery plan is now adopted under LDP2. Work is taking place to examine how different aspects of the WRA can be supported to a delivery stage, out with the current City Deal Projects
• Work is ongoing on the Westerhill Development Road (WRA) which is currently at DMRB Stage 3. The Proposal of Application Notice (PoAN) for planning application for the WDR has been submitted, and statutory consultation took place in November 2024 and February 2025. Following which the formal planning application will be submitted March 2025
• Work continues on the next stages of the design process for Bishopbriggs Town Centre. The A803 project is now out with the scope of City Deal, but work continues to look at how this can be funded and delivered through other means.

• The Campsie Memorial Hall project in Lennoxtown secured funding from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. Planning consent is in place, and preparation for going to site Spring 2025 is underway
• The programme management of the Shared Prosperity Fund is ongoing to support services and projects across the Council. A range of projects have been identified and are being progressed for implementation up to March 2025. Work to prepare projects for a fourth year of SPF funding has also been undertaken over this period
• The Lennoxtown Main Street Improvement Project has concluded the development of technical designs. Progress to the construction phase will be subject to external funding, which is being examined
• Work is well underway on the Twechar Canalside Outdoor Pursuits Centre project, and work is ongoing in relation to the lease arrangement ahead of the centre opening later in 2025
• Work is ongoing with the Milngavie BID and Kirkintilloch BID as they move through year one of a five-year term.

• The construction phase of Canniesburn Toll Improvement Project is now complete. The activation of the new traffic light system took place over October and November 2024. The project is now finished and in its defects stage. Monitoring of the new signals will be carried out six months post completion with the findings being reported to Council. Detailed updates have been provided in various Technical Notes
• Feasibility and design works are progressing on a range of active travel infrastructure projects included in the Local Transport and Active Travel Strategies, including works to improve various active travel paths
• Work is progressing well on the A807 Active travel route, and construction has started for stage 1a. The associated TROs for the project have been approved
• The BetterPoints East Dunbartonshire App has been launched to promote active travel. The Traffic Free Schools pilot continues, and it will be reviewed and reported on to determine longer term implication of the work to enhance accessibility and sustainable modes of transport for children and school communities
• 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
• Work is ongoing in partnership with the Glasgow City Region to develop a delivery option to increase regional and local Electric Vehicle charging network provision.

• During the reporting period the planning side of the team has determined 51 applications and validated 69 applications
• The Building Standards team have received 81 building warrants and approved 104 applications
• The Enforcement Team opened 6 new cases and closed 32 cases
• The Development Applications team have been busy preparing reports for the forthcoming Planning Board Meeting in March.
• The Building Standards Team have been supporting the Councils Major Assets team with pre application technical advice in relation to the proposals for the WDR project
• Both Planning and Building Standards teams continue to offer support and informal advice to customers through our daily duty service Monday to Friday.

• Completion of landowner and key stakeholder session on the initial outputs and recommendations of the Kelvin Valley research study
• GIS support for Education Placing requests
• % of Planning Applications receiving a letter confirming whether application is valid or invalid within 5 working days.

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Overview of Progress

Throughout February, the Democratic Services Team continued to support the internal governance of the Council, in addition to certain regulatory functions.  Officers continued to support Members with the move to paperless meetings and use of the Modern.gov App.  Preparations are well advanced for the use of Modern.gov to support the maintenance and publication of Members’ Registers of Interest.  In addition, work is underway to develop the system for use in the preparation, approval, and publication of Technical Notes and Contract Standing Orders waiver forms.  In time, it will also be used to support public engagement and consultation, and a petitions function. 

Significant work was undertaken for the Ward 7 – Kirkintilloch East & North & Twechar By-Election which was held on 13 February 2025.  Members were updated via regular Technical Notes, and this continued until polling day.  A Candidates and Agents briefing was held, and regular updates were provided.  The Team was involved in issuing Poll Cards, the appointment and training of polling and count staff, polling station set-up, the issuing and processing of postal votes and planning and holding an electronic Count.  Details of the By-Election results were made available on the Council Website.  Thereafter, the Team supported a Special Council meeting which approved the allocation of political membership to each of the decision-making bodies and made appointments and/or changes to decision making bodies and external organisations.  The Team then updated Modern.gov and notified external organisations etc of the changes in appointments.

The Team continued to support Children’s Hearings Scotland as part of the North Strathclyde Area Support Team. Ongoing support was also provided to Community Councils.  The Team continued to participate in local and national resilience partnership meetings and training exercises.

The Council continued to deliver registration services during February.  In addition, the service continued to engage with partners across Greater Glasgow as part of ongoing resilience planning for winter and other potential incidents, in relation to both storage and registration.

The service continued to support Members and the Strategic Leadership Team.  The Information Management Team continued to provide important support and advice to the MS365 implementation team, in addition to business-as-usual support in relation to freedom of information and data protection.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Registration & Customer Services completed 62 birth and 165 death registrations in December.  21 marriages were also registered in this period.
• Continued development of the new committee administration system, which included further support for elected members and development of additional functionality
• Information Management received & processed 149 FOI/EIRs and 11 SARs (Subject Access Requests).

Overview of Progress

The indicators chosen for monthly reporting represent transactions where Legal Services involvement is nearer the end of the process.  Each indicator relates to services which are important to individuals and Council Services, but that also have an impact on the local economy.  They also represent areas where performance was not previously as good as it might have been, which resulted in the introduction of the PIs.  Whilst performance is consistently high, the continued application of the PIs ensures that this remains the case.  It also ensures that any change in performance is identified and addressed early.

Performance against all indicators for Legal Services for February is 100% except for a housing repair grant which was processed one day late.

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 a public report.

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• During December, the Team processed 5 contract review forms and 2 contract award letters, 2 open market purchases, 17 taxi licence applications, and 1 housing repair grant.  All were granted within the required timescales except for the housing repair grant which was one day late.  Considering this, it is not proposed to take any steps currently other than to continue to monitor progress against the set PIs
• The Team continued to provide support to the wider City Deal team with advice and support including in relation to land matters of the Bishopbriggs Town Centre Civic Space
• Property and planning work included licences for filming for Netflix production generating more than £10,000 in fees for the Council settlement of NSSE sale, completion of two affordable housing units at Thorn Road, Bearsden, completion of sale of SUDs pond to Scottish Watter at Tom Johnston House housing development, lease of Unit 2, Kilsyth Road Workspace, Kirkintilloch, making of orders for A807 and restriction of traffic for schools during pick-up and drop-off times
• Contracts and procurement work in this period included finalising of the construction contract and procurement process for Bearsden Hub RAAC remediation project, support on the Campsie Memorial Hall refurbishment project, review of the hub West pre-construction letter of engagement process, reviews of data processing agreements for Altassian Jira and Warm Scottish Welcome Programme, variation to the CCTV System Upgrade contract to add additional equipment, contract for Asphalt Chipping Application Machine
• Grants offers accepted included grants for Open Market Purchases 2024-25 additional funding and revised acquisition for Twechar as well as issuing grant offers under the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund
• The Litigation Team continued to provide support to Social Work in relation to adults with incapacity and permanence planning and to Education on a variety of matters.  The Team continues to provide advice on a wide range of confidential matters including employment advice.  Specific matters included the resolution of an ASN Tribunal claim for an exclusion, providing legal advice to the Civic Government Appeals Board which included taking action against drivers for pirating in other local authority areas, obtaining a permanence order.  In addition, support was provided this month to Democratic Services for the by-election including support at postal vote opening sessions and the count.

Overview of Progress

During January, the Procurement Team continued to support services across the Council in the delivery of various projects, including ongoing support to several strategic procurements/projects, particularly in relation to City Deal, ICT, Business & Digital Change, and various Capital projects.  In particular, the Team continued to be heavily involved in data cleansing, Solution redesign, Communication planning, Key User training and support, Data Reconciliation and Supplier data correction as part of the ongoing management of the new Fusion Financial system.  This has placed a significant demand on the resources of the Team as it leads four of the six workstreams.  In addition to the above, the Team is now planning for a major upgrade to the Fusion system and the implementation of the Supplier Portal model.  The upgrade is of such magnitude that it requires to be managed as a project in its own right and will require support from other Council services. 

The Team also continuously works to manage and support the operational activity in terms of the buyers work centre, Fusion catalogue management, supplier management and payment processing, and in January remained focussed on delivering against the increased demand from Services around queries in relation to Fusion, whilst managing the ongoing implementation, remodelling and updating of the System.

During February, the Team was heavily involved with multiple Capital programme requirements, system software renewals, and Housing New Build Maintenance support

The team has been co-ordinating the actions instructed by SLT in regard to additional authorisations and prioritisations around spend controls, and the contract requirements against budgets, through newly implemented governance procedures and controls.

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, Fusion HSM Phase 2, Westerhill Development Road, , school estate Professional Fees, school maintenance works whilst supporting workforce of the future planning and Business as Usual workstreams
• Participation in extensive meetings and workshops to train, test, reconcile data transfer and solution implementation for the Oracle Fusion Redwood upgrade
• Completed renewals for support and maintenance of business-critical systems to facilitate workforce of the future
• Ongoing support to the /implementation of Fusion to support the technical requirements for Payment integrations, Managed Stores and e-invoicing.
• Ongoing data analysis in preparation of the 2025-2026 Annual Procurement Strategy to include alignments with organisational Climate Action Planning, Circular Economy Strategy, Community Wealth Building & the City Region Community Wish List planning
• Processing and payment of Welfare Support Payments in line with Council support requirements
• Issued End of Financial Year communications regarding processing times and Fusion housekeeping actions
• Continued efforts to clear backlog of invoices, planning and communications for Oracle Fusion
• Continued Business Critical expenditure considerations within Buyers Work Centre
• Ongoing work on the review of Contract Standing Orders for alignment with organisational changes, financial management and Procurement governance
• Continued End of Financial year planning in alignment with the implementation of a new finance system, managing the backlog resulting from the system downtime and managing business as usual
• Continued workstreams for the Oracle Fusion upgrade to Redwood Self Service Procurement, including testing and revisiting personalisation to consider business impacts
• Continued workstreams for the implementation of the Oracle Fusion Supplier Portal, including testing and revisiting system set up prior to roll out in December
• Published Annual Procurement report for 2023/2024
• Review of resourcing considerations to support Project workload and business as usual priorities.

Overview of Progress

During January  the Strategic Commissioning Team resumed monitoring and oversight of the commissioned market providing support and interventions where required.  The team’s main priority and focus continued on supporting the HSCP to implement strategic and budget related savings for the current and next year. 

Key Achievements / Areas of Focus

• Progressed planning and transitional arrangements for individuals assessed as requiring care with a supported accommodation setting
• Contributed to unscheduled care future planning arrangements whilst progressing plans to facilitate discharge from a long stay hospital setting into the local community
• Facilitated a series of discussions between the HSCP and a local provider regarding financial sustainability and future commissioning and contracting arrangements
• Continued to support and implement budget savings which involves extensive engagement and negotiation with providers / services
• Contributed to and supported the progression of several HSCP strategic and service reviews
• Supported providers to prepare for essential service provision during the recent storm. Support arrangements included co-ordination and implementation of contingency plans, RAG’s and arranging temporary alternative support arrangements
• Continued to prepare for the reporting requirements related to the Safe Staffing Act which comes into effect in April 2025
• Continued discussions with providers with a view to bottoming out actual service costs, implementing spend control measures and mitigating and/or reducing projected deficits.   

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

This Service area is divided into eight portfolio groupings:

• Roads Network Operations
• Roads Technical & Engineering
• Streetscene Technical Support (including Bereavement and Arboriculture)
• Streetscene Operations (including grounds maintenance, street cleansing and cemetery operations)
• Waste Services (including domestic & commercial waste & recycling collections)
• Fleet Services (including fleet operations, maintenance, and transportation)
• Mugdock Country Park
• Corporate Health & Safety Team.

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, Finance and Health & Safety. 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.

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 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.

The team continue to deliver both planned and reactive maintenance to both carriageways, footways, and street lighting assets. The Service continues to work towards full resource capacity with some vacancies for operational posts.

The 2024/25 capital programmes for carriageway, footway resurfacing and lighting projects is nearing completion with a final (fourth quarter) Technical Note schedule for early in April 2025 with an update on works concluded to date and work re-sequenced due to external factors. The Streetlighting Team are continuing to work at a reduced capacity but have managed to catch up on some delayed capital programme works.

The Roads Network Team Leader and Senior Roads Technician continue to oversee the cyclical Safety Inspections and responses to ad-hoc enquiries.

The Roads Network Operations Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring roads were cleared of flooding and storm damaged trees. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing with Winter Maintenance checks and works ongoing into April 2025. 

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 Traffic Officer also liaise with Police Scotland colleagues to monitor any road related incidents.

The three geographical based teams are continuing to work on winter grounds maintenance tasks. The teams are also undertaking street cleansing of all adopted council roads and pavements including litter collection, leaf clearance, mechanical sweeping, and servicing of street litter bins.

The team also continue to manage the Councils tree stock. The team manages burials in the eight operational cemeteries.

The Streetscene Operations Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring roads and open spaces were cleared of flooding and storm damaged trees. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing.

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

The team is current analysing the results of the first Ash Dieback Surveys which will inform the actions that need to be prioritised to address this important issue. Ash Dieback Information will be communicated over the coming months as this is an issue that will become more prominent, and it is important to update elected members and communities on potential tree work resulting from the completed surveys.

The team are also currently overseeing the delivery of the Climate Ready Park Project in Etive Park, Bishopbriggs which is currently on schedule with contractors due to return over the Spring and Summer months to complete the outstanding elements of landscaping work.

The team is also progressing several Play Area improvement and replacement projects throughout East Dunbartonshire.

The Streetscene Operations Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring roads and open spaces were cleared of flooding and storm damaged trees. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing.

The team have moved into their winter maintenance period. The monthly visitor number continue to exceed expectation, and the team area focused on enhancing the visitor experience to the country park with various improvements planned to key attractions in line with the Mugdock Country Park Strategy.

The Mugdock Country Park Team were heavily involved in the work during and following Storm Éowyn ensuring the Park was open for business shortly after the storm. It should be noted the some of this work is ongoing.

The Waste Team has continued the frontline service operations for the collection of over 400,000 assorted household bins, 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 400 of our local commercial premises and provides recycling disposal provision at the Mavis Valley Recycling Centre.

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 1676 tonnes of waste through this contract in February, ensuring our waste undergoes treatment for recycling extraction prior to being sent through an Energy from Waste process.

The Waste Services were suspended due to Storm Éowyn with work to catch up on core service completed, but special uplifts and bin deliveries are behind, and the team is working to catch up.

The Corporate Health and Safety team provides a range of occupational safety and health services, including advice on statutory guidance, safety action notices, safe working and training, incident reporting and investigation, including RIDDOR.  The H&S Team continues to work cooperatively with Trade Union colleagues to review incidents statistics and other health and safety activities.

Ongoing and comprehensive health and safety assistance is provided to services throughout the council, HSCP and EDLC, conducting multiple site visits to offer expert guidance, address emerging issues, and assist with the completion of risk assessments.  During this period, the team have been working closely with Fleet for health and safety documents review, corporate risk team, Mugdock country park, Strategic Commissioning team - Legal & Regulatory Services, Outdoors Education, for risk assessment and incident review, School Improvement Team for minor projects, with Housing, reviewing safe systems of work and risk assessments and HSCP, on first aid training review and fire safety plans for some HSCP sites.

Various teams received assistance through workplace, manual handling and individual risk assessments in collaboration with HR colleagues, specifically for Education staff as well as continuing to review First Aids needs assessments with HR People Development.

Occupational health has been organised for secondary school technicians and teachers with audio respiratory and skin clinics for the upcoming in service day and Hep B vaccines. Display Screen Equipment assessments are continually reviewed alongside line managers and where required workplace assessments are also conducted.

H&S training in January focused on fire safety and fire extinguisher training as well as Duty Holder and UFAS. The H&S Manager conducted training for Housing Concierge service and Wardens’ service and Manual Handling for Education Early Years. Safety alerts were issued this month and Toolbox talks were created to support safe operations as a safety targeted approach.

The focus continues for Construction Design and Management compliance with site visits, reviewing construction phase plans, risk assessments and method statements for refurbishment, roofing, general Estate repairs and new build and greenspace projects for various teams.  For D&I teams, Twechar outdoor pursuits, Bearsden PS, Milngavie PS, Campsie Memorial Hall, Westerhill Rd, the Leisuredrome boiler upgrade, Marina refurbishment and KHCC works, various Housing roof works, Greenspace and Mugdock Park with works at the barbeque and visitor café area and sewer tank replacement.

To support Estates team in their CDM works, reviews were undertaken for repair works in educational establishments and other corporate buildings.

Fire Risk Assessments are conducted in accordance with the predetermined schedule.  Officers undertake routine inspections and continue to carry out site visits to address any fire safety concerns and offer expert advice. In January there was a focus on Housing operational sites and their fire safety arrangements and fire audits for 3^rd party care providers for the Strategic Commissioning team.

The team continue to promote reporting of health and safety incidents throughout the council and programme health and safety inspections of council workplaces.

Roads Network Operations Teams (including Street Lighting)

Carriageway and Footway surface defects and service level agreements (SLA):

 Between 01/02/2025 and 28/02/2025, we have identified 149 defects in East Dunbartonshire Council carriageways and footways. We have completed 135 repairs on time (approx. 91 %), 13 repair late (approx. 9%) and 1 (approx. 1%) repair late with 12 repairs (approx. 7.74 %) are in list for action and are still within SLA (incomplete).

Below chart compares our last three months performance:

Road Project & Maintenance Works February 2025:

Below table indicate the list of footway and carriageway capital resurfacing projects, Minor work, Road pothole Repairs committed in February 2025 in East Dunbartonshire Council areas.

Between 01/02/2025 and 28/02/2025, East Dunbartonshire Council completed 15 scheduled safety inspections. Three of these inspections are related to Footway inspection and 12 of them related to carriageway inspection and 3 related to footway inspection. All inspections were completed and comply with East Dunbartonshire Council tolerance between inspections.

Details of these inspections are as below:

1. East Dunbartonshire Council winter maintenance team completed 392 actions between 01/02/2025 and 28/02/2025 and approx. 692.81 tonne salt/ grit were used during this time. Please see below summary report of winter maintenance actions between 01/02/2025 and 28/02/2025.

Summary for East Dunbartonshire Council - 1 February - 28 February

Group - East Dunbartonshire Council

Total chemical or plow actions: - 189
Number of days with operations - 16
Number of days without any operation - 12
Total salt amount used (tonne) 692.81
Dry salt 10g m2 - 82
Dry salt 20g m2 - 105
Patrol - 2

Group - Primary Carriageway Routes 
Total chemical or plow actions: - 120
Number of days with operations - 13
Number of days without any operation - 15
Total salt amount used (tonne) 549.31
Dry salt 10g m2 - 48
Dry salt 20g m2 - 72
Patrol - 0

Structures 

• 2024/25 General and Principal inspections programme ongoing
• Review & response to abnormal load requests
• Assisting other departments in the assessment of non-council assets
• FB70 Redhills Footbridge, Lennoxtown. Footbridge relocation works commenced 17  March, due for completion w/c 24 March
• CCTV surveys of remaining structures on Principal Inspections programme. Site works completed 18 March. Two structures require a revisit with traffic management early in the 25/26 FY
• Procurement process underway for FY25-27 structures framework contract
• Capital programme for 2024/25 underway, however on minor projects only. Larger scale projects to commence following award of FY25-27 structures framework contract.

• Site visits to monitor progress on developments currently under construction
• 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 potential future developments
• Process road adoption enquiries from internal and external departments
• Process road opening permits and temporary traffic management permits
• Coordination of future works relating to development sites
• Roadworks continue to monitor all incoming works on Roads Register
• Roadworks continue to complete Q4 Inspection charges
• Temporary Traffic Light invoices processed and invoiced on Completed works
• Fixed Penalty notices issued for February 2025
• Christmas embargo on recorded on Register from 1 December 2025 to 4 January 2026.

• 20mph for Bearsden/Twechar public consultation completed and the Service have received 98 objections. Officers are working on the responses
• Footway parking exemption TRO was approved at PNCA
• Signalisation of Milton of Campsie Cross is now completed
• Queens Court Ramp project: contractor appointed and has applied for construction permit to start the work
• Responding to Lining Requests and refreshing faded road markings
• Commenting on various licences i.e. street trader licences, public entertainment licences and occasional licences
• Commenting on planning applications.

• River Glazert Restoration Project, Lennoxtown – Planning Application submitted awaiting decision
• Kelvin Tributaries River Restoration & NFM Project – Consultants are progressing with works and Green Action Trust are Project Managing on behalf of EDC.  Ongoing
• River Kelvin Flood Defence Scheme – WGM maintenance contract – Pumping Station maintenance & repair contract extended for another year
• River Kelvin Flood Defence Scheme – Xylem telemetry system reactivated for another year
• Arranged and supervised CCTV works on Crowhill Road – Bishopbriggs. These works were financed by roads as they plan to resurface in early April
• Arranged and supervised CCTV and cleaning works on Kilsyth Road – Kirkintilloch. These works were financed by roads as they plan to resurface in early April
• Arranging investigation works for the WDR and Bishopbriggs town centre for the City Deal team
• Planning capital works for the new financial year starting with Crowhill Road, Bishopbriggs and Catter Gardens, Milngavie.

Greenspace & Streetscene Teams

Streetscene Operations

• Street cleansing and mechanical sweeping; removal of fly posting and uplifting of fly tipping, mechanical street sweeping and installing replacement or additional bins
• Graffiti removal
• Ongoing cemetery operations, digging and carrying out interments, installing headstone foundations, benches etc
• Winter cyclical works ongoing; pruning of shrub beds and tree works. Winter gritting
• Checking and clearance of culverts
• Play park inspection
• Football pitch lining and School athletic tracks initial marking
• Storm response to Storm Eowyn, during which circa 200 trees fell affecting roads and open spaces
• Responding to Customer Service Requests and complaints
• Removal of dead animals and excess waste at recycling centres
• Winter servicing of machinery.

• Bishopbriggs Park – brief complete and with procurement
• Play Areas – Westerton – brief complete with procurement
• Play Areas – Kincaid (MOC)  - brief complete and with procurement
• Play Areas – annual external safety inspection complete – repairs ongoing
• Cemetery Management Rules – internal review ongoing noting recent wider Scottish Govt consultation – Scottish Govt regs now being finalised and implemented
• Headstones/Memorials Inspection – inspections ongoing at Old Aisle Cemetery – ‘make safe’ arrangements where required will commence in March
• Cadder Cemetery – works complete to improve traffic management and parking around entrance area complete  - 2^nd phase of works being planned for 2025
• Cadder Cemetery Extension – works ongoing with consultant – initial design being reviewed 
• Ash Dieback Survey on Roadside – updated survey received – a small number of trees require urgent works – ownership is a mixture of public and private – contact with private owners now made – EDC trees addressed. Further analysis of other trees and works ongoing with a number of notices now sent to private owners to progress
• Schools Estate – tree survey findings now being analysed – orders have raised for any priority works over the next 3 months
• Street Tree Planting – 25 trees planted in verges across the district
• Sorm Eowyn – significant damage as a consequence of the recent storm with hundreds of trees impacted – all emergency works complete however clear up will continues across the district for a number of months
• Climate Ready Park – Allotment works complete - allotments now allocated , pump track complete, remaining bund works and reinstatement programmed for April/May 2025
• Community Growing Facilities – progressing improvement works via Shared Prosperity Fund - working with communities in Jedworth Court, Sense Scotland, Twechar TCA and Kilmardinny Community Garden to increase opportunities for food growing – all ongoing 
• Nature Restoration Fund – number of projects ongoing via this Scottish Govt fund – funding now withdrawn for 24/25 –  remaining programme from 23/24 to be completed – Technical Note issued
• Milngavie Library Pond – nesting platform and emergent bed installed in liaison with local group
• Lenzie Moss – environmental works undertaken across the moss – this to support fossorial water voles
• Community Consultations re Management Plans – Lenzie Moss, Whitefield Pond, Cairnhill Woods and Heather Avenue – drafts complete – further consultation to take place to finalise draft plans
• Mains Park New Path – path works complete around additional link path – initial landscape works also complete – further works to take place in consultation with community
• Clyde Valley Green Network – liaison re EDC Wetland Strategy.
• Merkland – Scottish Water undertaking infrastructure works to site – now complete  - reinstatement ongoing
• Glazert Project – team input into overall project re trees and biodiversity aspects
• The team continues to respond to high volume of open space, tree and bereavement enquires, along with planning application consultations and complaints
• Team working with City Deal Team and Consultants in relation to Masterplan of Bishopbriggs Relief Road
• Planning application responses and support to Planning Team ongoing
• Open Space audit work for input into the Grounds Maintenance System ongoing for Milngavie & Bearsden
• Assisted a number of Community Groups with Litter Picking resources across EDC.

• February events were:
  • Stargazing x 2 (both sold out)
  • Wildlife Weans X 3
  • Forest School x 5
  • Forest families x 2
  • Books, Bones & Beasties x 2
  • Junior Ranger Discover (10 sessions delivered over the Stirling and East Dunbartonshire Feb half terms)
  • Afternoon Ambles Guided Walks for Adults x 1
  • Inaugural Mugdock Market with JSM Market Management was held on Friday 28 Feb and was well attended. This will now take place on the last Friday of every month.
    
    
• Formal Learning

• • There were 7 Forest School sessions between Westerton Primary School, Woodland View School, Mosshead Primary, Balfron High School and one Secondary Wellbeing Support Services where pupils attended Mugdock
  • There was also a Milngavie Beavers session, at the Park, and visit to the Bearsden Literary Society.
    
    
• Warden Operational and Project tasks:

• • Property management: Main gate welded, yard deep clean, courtyard deep clean, WC deep clean prior to reopening, drain clearance, addressing burst underground pipes, liaising with Property management re fire and security alarm maintenance, vehicles serviced
  • Park Management: Event support for market, removal of small trees as part of tree report and in preparation for BBQ hut work, cutting of beech hedging, chestnut paling and old wood from Gallowhill BBQ area in prep for drainage work project, and supporting the take down of the Pond BBQ hut
  • Project Support: Wastewater tank installation support, arranging the removal of toilets, removal of our barriers and path closures etc. Barriers, signs, path diversions, for contractors on site
  • Visitor Services: Setting up and cleaning of BBQ hut and rooms for all bookings, take down of seasonal rope lights
  • Alongside the daily / weekly tasks of:
    • Weekly courtyard clean, bin housings, tables etc
    • Daily tasks of emptying bins, dog bins, cleaning toilets
    • Litter picking
    • Gritting of carparks and paths around courtyard
    • Cleaning signs
    • Banking and collecting prints from Print Room.
      
      
• Ranger land management tasks completed with Conservation Volunteers: 

• • Invasive species management: Birch and Rhoddie felling and herbidcing stumps, cutting of Spirea
  • Site management: Repairs to drystone wall and fencing repairs at main car park, removal of rotten fence on west side of car park, cutting of hedges at main carpark, traplanting of 8 yew trees to main car park
  • Biodiversity: Clearing of the pond to allow for amphibian breeding, vegetation and silt removal of main pond, repair and installation of 10 bird boxes, removal of dogweed to open up forest floor to light, new pond excavated at Quarry fence, guards removed from Scot Pine.
    
    
•  Health & Safety:
  • Further to Storm Eorwn, Assured Technical Services attended and began work on the 69 trees that had fallen.  In February they addressed the Pheasants’ Wood and Gallowhill area, and in March they will be moving to the Main Avenue.
     
• Visitor Centre:
  • The Visitor Shop earned £1,824.74 in income in February 2025 (excluding Lets and Events income)
  • New suppliers were sourced to develop product lines in homeware, consumables and pets category
  • Homeware overtook clothing as the largest category for February.
  • The average transaction value was £16.33. 

Shop retail income

• Toys £314.54
• Stationery £94.40
• Jewellery £139.38
• Pets £139.58
• Clothing £329.99
• Homeware £529.73
• Consumables £15.96
• Guides £26.19
• Misc £0.00
• Trails £48.00
• Donations £100.50
• Shop non VAR £112.47

• Projects
  • Work continued on Wastewater Treatment Plant on 6 Jan 2025 work were hampered with the weather and it was nearing completion by the end of Feb 2025m, with project completion due for the start of March 2025
  • The Pond BBQ hut was taken down and work to install the drains was started in the last week of February, with the rebuild scheduled for March 2025
  • Works to the damp proofing in Spider Monkey Café were completed by Friday 7 Feb 2025.

• The Clyde Valley Residual Waste contract accepted 1676 tonnes of household general waste throughput in January from our households, for recycling pre-sort, and then ongoing production of energy from waste. This was a reduction of 4.4% compared to February last year
• The Project Team for the delivery of the 3 weekly residual collection continue to meet weekly as we work towards the service implementation on Sunday 30 March 2025
• There was two new Waste Advisors recruited to support the implementation of the new service frequency through being available to respond quickly to residential enquiries
• Waste Advisors have been out working with frontline refuse crews, tagging bins to remind residents of the change to the residual collection frequency and to direct them to the website FAQs
• The team have been working closely with the Corporate Communications team to ensure that all relevant information is released to the public ahead of the service changes
• The Waste Technical team attended the Zero Waste Scotland Communications Workshops, this was attended by representatives across all 32 authorities to consider best practice
• We have worked closely with our colleagues in Business Change on implementation of Citizen Hub, ensuring it met the needs of the Waste Services activities for our frontline customers
• We launched the Garden Waste Permits early February for the 2025 Season. There were 6259 permits sold in February
• Gas and leachate monitoring carried out at Broomhill Depot
• Contributed to National Modelling Exercise for Zero Waste Scotland
• 15.22 Tonnes of Christmas Trees were collected for recycling as part of the one-off collections
• There was a 17.5% decrease in the amount of general waste disposed at Mavis Valley HWRC compared to February last year (Feb 24 - 528T, Feb 25 - 435T)
• 3 Waste Operatives successfully passed training for the JCB, attending for a full week. This will be a significant support at our Mavis Valley Recycling Centre.

• During the period 1/02/25 to 28/02/25 there were a variety of vehicles/plant inspected/repaired in line with the servicing schedule and defect procedure
• We currently have a variety of vehicles/plant on order to replace an aging fleet in line with the vehicle replacement programme    
• 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 work on the CPC training programme, to ensure all drivers that require CPC training achieve this before the deadline to remain compliant
• 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 for both Traffic and Compliance
• The team carried out a variety of gate checks, any issues that were identified were reported to the relevant management team
• Monthly audits have been implemented to ensure MOT station compliance
• We continue to monitor external hires
• The team worked extremely hard during this period to ensure the frontline services had enough vehicles/plant during the period to carry out their duties
• Work is ongoing to upgrade the fleet management system.