Andrew Nisbet

Electorate of Helensburgh and Lomond South, it has been a great pleasure to be one of your councillors for the past four and a half years. Sadly, the baton now passes to someone else. Thank you for your courtesy and support over those years.

Andrew Nisbet

See results here

http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/elections/results2012#wardc11

LIB DEMS-Andrew-2

Interview with YOUR RADIO (1)

It has been my privilege to represent Helensburgh and Lomond South for the past four and a half years since I won my seat at a by election in October 2007.
Before becoming a Councillor, my 40 year career was spent working with – and for – local councils across Britain. The first part of my career was spent as a civil engineer and transport planner working for County Councils in South Wales and then Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive. Director Level posts at District Councils in England and Scotland followed. In 1991 I started my own consultancy company specialising in transport planning, interim management and procurement advice to Local Government and the private sector companies across the UK. As a result, I have an excellent understanding of how local councils work and this makes me particularly suitable for this new role.
A councillor has two main tasks. One is to represent constituents on issues of concern. The other is to ensure that the council is efficient and effective. I believe my record on both these counts suggests that you should re-elect me.
Looking at the first of these roles, helping to sort out issues such as:
• difficulties with housing or care packages;
• advice on planning applications; or
• getting potholes and street lights fixed;
I have always looked for lasting solutions.
For example, a few years ago I received complaints from constituents about the unkempt appearance of the cemetery area at Cardross Crematorium. Following discussions it was agreed that the area around the headstones should be grassed over. This made grass cutting simpler and the appearance of the cemetery was significantly improved. All achieved without increasing the cost. Subsequently a similar approach has been adopted at Helensburgh Cemetery.
Turning to the second role, I originally stood for the council after reading the 2006 Audit Scotland report (The Audit of Best Value and Community Planning for Argyll and Bute Council) which was highly critical of the way the Council provided services. In particular in concluded that “Elected Members, the Chief Executive and some senior officers need to provide clearer leadership to drive change and promote a culture of change.” Using my understanding of local councils and extensive experience of change management, I argued for and supported a thorough overhaul of the way in which the council provided its services – as with the cemeteries – always looking for more cost effective ways of providing the services. Over the past three years significant savings and improvements have been made.
Over the past eighteen months, since my appointment to the role of Spokesperson for Social Affairs, I have ensured that services are changing – to better meet the needs of:
• Older People;
• People with Learning Disabilities; and
• Children and Families.
As part of the review of these services I have played a key role in listening to clients, carers and staff, to ensure that the changes that are needed are implemented and result in services that meet people’s needs.
The changes are increasingly making sure that old people are helped to stay in their own homes for as long as they want to; that people with learning disabilities are supported in their own community; and looked after children are supported in a family setting. This shift in the balance of care away from institutional settings is not only what most people prefer, but it also is more cost effective for you, the Council Tax Payer.
Finally, it’s also important that Helensburgh and Lomond gets its fair share of resources. Many people have told me that they have felt that, in the past, this was not the case. In my time as Councillor, I have successfully fought for millions of pounds for our area. Funding to:
• improve our school buildings;
• construct a new leisure centre;
• regenerate our town centre; and
• rebuild our crumbling roads.
All this will help to build and sustain the thriving community and economy we all want.
With your support on May 3rd, I would like to continue this work and make Argyll and Bute Council more efficient and more effective for all of you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions please get in touch by e-mailing me on anisbet@aniscon.com

During 2011/12, the first year allocation of £1.7 million from the Older Persons Change Fund was confirmed to the Argyll and Bute Community Health Partnership to invest in the development of community based services for older people living in the area. The money is to be used to offer a direct alternative to residential and hospital care until 2014/15 by promoting preventative services and developing improved community based services to maintain people for longer independently in their own homes and improve their quality of life.

Social Affairs spokesperson, Councillor Andrew Nisbet said “Over the past eighteen months Argyll and Bute Community Health Partnership has been very proactive and has maintained an excellent record on avoiding delayed discharges from hospital care. It has also been shifting the balance of care in favour of more people being supported to stay at home independently compared with those looked after in long term residential or hospital care.

“With the money awarded we will be concentrating on a number of areas which will help keep older people living in their communities. We will look at falls prevention, managing medicines, equipment, adaptations, Telehealthcare, end of life care, carers support and dementia services.

“The Change Fund will allow the development of community based services and maximise older people’s independence and significantly improve the quality of life experienced by our older population.”

Posted 8th March 2012

SPOKESPERSON’S REPORT – SOCIAL AFFAIRS

LEARNING DISABILITY AND OLDER PEOPLES PROJECT BOARD

On Thursday 23^rd February I chaired the Learning Disability and Older Peoples Project Board meeting to consider the future use of these services. I am pleased to report that it was a successful meeting, where a number of key decisions were taken, including;

• Learning Disability Day Services – agreed not to proceed further with the tender process at this time with the view that on the conclusion of formal negations with Trade Unions the service is retained within direct Council provision, meeting the challenges of Self Directed Care;
• Older Peoples Day Care Services - agreed to retain Council Day Care Services in house at this time whilst keeping the service under operational review to identify future efficiencies as they arise and re-design the service as required to meet the personalised care and Self Directed Care legislation; and
• Older Peoples Care at Home – agreed to issue tender documents in March for older peoples care at home, the outcome of the tender exercise will be known in June.

We will now work closely with the unions to negotiate amendments to core conditions of service for staff in Adult Learning Disability Day Services. I am already delighted with the co-operation from staff and the union which is what we need to provide the series our clients need and deserve.

At the heart of the decisions is the need to deliver an improved and more flexible service for our service users. We have listened to what they are telling us and have taken it into careful consideration before reaching agreement. I am confident that this is the right way forward for these services.

Mull and Iona Progressive Care Centre

I am pleased to report that work is nearly finished on the new Mull and Iona Progressive Care Centre and Community Hospital in Craignure. Work started at the end of 2010 and the centre should open in August this year. The brand new pruprose build centre will include 3 beds for in-patients, a 2 bay community casualty unit and facilities for outpatients. All bedrooms will be for one person only with en-suite toilets and showers.

There will also be 12 individual supported living flats within the new centre which will be managed by West Highland Housing Association. Each flat has a double bedroom and is suitable for couples or single occupancy. Those who need care and support will get it after a community care assessment has been carried out by our social work department. Residents who need care will have a tailored care package which will meet their needs during the day and night.

The new centre will replace the existing Dunaros Residential Care Centre and Community Hospital in Salen. The residents who live there just now will be amongst the first to take up the new supported living flats.

I am delighted the new centre is nearing completion and I am looking forward to seeing it for myself. This will make a real difference to the people of Mull and Iona, and provide first class supported housing and hospital facilities. It promises to be an enormous improvement on the current outdated provision. It is, I believe, a model that strives to maintain older people in their own accommodation rather than in institutional settings and which will produce better outcomes and quality of life for older persons.

Young Carers Group – Helensburgh and Lomond

I am extremely pleased to announce that the Helensburgh and Lomond Young Carers group has received £389,727 from the Big Lottery Fund towards a new scheme called Initiatives.

As a supporter of this group, I was kindly invited along to their Helensburgh base to celebrate the great news with them on Friday 23^rd February. We watched a DVD of the young carers at a festival where they got to meet lots of other young carers from across the country and took part in a question and answer session where we all got to find out a bit more about the life of a young carer and the support available to them.

I am delighted that the Big Lottery have chosen to support this group as it is a very worthy cause, with a number of young people acting as carers within Argyll and Bute, it is important to ensure they have a good support circle, where they can talk to other young people in the same situation and share any worries or concerns with others, not only in the same position but those able to offer advice and support.  The project will fund two full time staff dedicated to supporting young carers.

Severe Weather

I would like to take this opportunity to thank council officers for all their hard work during the severe weather conditions faced on the 3^rd of January. Fallen trees and debris limited both our road network and power / communications lines, however I am glad to say that both our staff and our communities showed remarkable resilience throughout.  

Councillor Andrew Nisbet

Spokesperson for Social Affairs

March 2012   

Planning Application Ref: 11/01422/PP

Representation by Andrew Nisbet, Councillor for Helensburgh and Lomond South

The Officers recommendation to the PPSL Committee gives three reasons for refusal:
1. It is not zoned for Class 1 Retail in the Local Plan agreed a recently as 2009.
2. Significant Adverse Impact on the Town Centre.
3. Loss of the OSPA and TPO area.
However, reason 2 is different from the previous recommendation submitted to your meeting of 20th December in that it no longer claims that the application has failed the sequential test. In the current reason 2 the officers suggest that: “following the decision of the Executive on 2nd February 2012 with regard to the future of Helensburgh Pierhead as expressed in the Pierhead Master Plan the sequential test has been satisfied.” Yet, the new draft masterplan shows 2220 sq metres of net retail floor space and 575 sq metres of back of house space without utilising the former Mariners pub site. Given that masterplans are intended to be indicative, it does not seem to me to be conclusive that a class 1 foodstore of about the size proposed by Waitrose (2322 sq m net and 3390 sq m gross) could not be accommodated on this site. Gareth Hoskins’ submission demonstrates how this could be done whilst still addressing the design concerns raised at the recent consultation. Asda have also indicated their continuing interest in this smaller scale development on the pier site.
Much has been said in recent weeks about the public’s views on the pros and cons of this application and a plethora of surveys have been conducted. Most of them (including my own Facebook survey) suggest that people want Waitrose and/or do not want a big supermarket on the pierhead site. The Council’s own survey regarding the pierhead masterplan if judged on total returns confirms this. However, I would argue that almost all of these surveys are flawed because they cannot claim to be truly representative of the whole population’s views. The reason being that they were “self selecting” . (see reference at end of article) In other words we have no way of knowing whether those who responded are a true cross section of the population. As a Councillor for the area, one of my key roles is to reflect the views of all my constituents.
You may be aware that Nigel Millar, Vice-Chairman of the Community Council and I lobbied for a more representative survey to be conducted as part of this most recent consultation. This led to the Hexagon Survey being conducted. The results are markedly different with a small majority of respondents to the Hexagon Survey being in favour of the Council’s preferred option for a Supermarket and a Leisure Centre on the pierhead site. Table 1 below illustrates this.

Table 1 Comparison of Results for Pierhead Masterplan Survey

                                                           Yes      No      Mixed Opinion
Paper Survey Submissions (522)        13%    65%    22%
On line survey submissions (272)       22%    55%    23%
Hexagon face to face Survey (371)     46%    42%    12%
                                                Total   26%   55%   19%

The Hexagon poll also recorded the gender and age group of the respondents and ensured that the results properly reflected the age and gender balance of the total population of Helensburgh and Lomond. This revealed the following differences in preferences (particularly in terms of age group). See Table 2 below.

Table 2 Breakdown of Hexagon Pierhead Masterplan Survey by Age and Gender
                       18 – 29   30 – 44   45 – 64      65+     Male     Female     All
Yes                 74%          51%        41%       28%     49%       42%      46%
No                   17%          33%        49%       58%     40%      45%      42%
Mixed               9%           16%        10%       14%     11%       13%      12%

My concern is that our decision making could be ill informed if we rely on unrepresentative survey samples. The consultation report notes that, anecdotally, the preponderance of attendees at the Victoria Halls event were from older age groups. It is also evident from the Hexagon results that the older the age group the more negative the view of the Council’s preferred option became.
It is clear, to me, that the only scientific survey data from this whole exercise is from the Hexagon survey. What this illustrates, within the limits of statistical accuracy that any sample survey can have, is that the population of Helensburgh and Lomond is completely split, with my generation almost certainly being against a pierhead retail development, but my children’s generation for it.

Equity

A further issue that needs to be taken into consideration is that of equity. Any out of town (edge of town) store is less accessible to those in the population who don’t have a car. To address this, I understand Waitrose have offered to provide bus stops adjacent to the store and fund some cycle track improvements in the area of the store. However, this still leaves all non car drivers living in the north east of the town having to change buses in the centre of the town; and those from the Cardross direction without a proper cycle route (at this time) to access this. Their efforts to ameliorate these problems suggest they are not really interested in attracting this sector of the population.

Conclusions

• Planning policy and guidance suggests that this application should be refused.
• Independent advice suggests that there could be significant damage to the town centre from this proposed development.
• The scale of development now suggested in the draft masterplan for the pier site, together with the committed council expenditure, offer the opportunity to create a high quality design development which could make Helensburgh Town Centre a regional destination.
• The applicant’s attempts to make the store accessible to all the local population are totally inadequate and fail any equity test.
• Public questionnaire surveys, where the response has been “self selecting”, should not be used to justify changing planning guidance.
• Public opinion is split but younger generations seem to favour a pierhead development which is supported by other supermarket developers.
• This, in turn, suggests that this application still fails the sequential test.

The only survey that has any credibility shows that shows a split decision between my generation and my children’s. In these circumstances, I feel we must go with the younger generation.

Wikipedia Reference

Self-selection bias is possible whenever the group of people being studied has any form of control over whether to participate. Participants’ decision to participate may be correlated with traits that affect the study, making the participants a non-representative sample. For example, people who have strong opinions or substantial knowledge may be more willing to spend time answering a survey than those who do not. Another example is online and phone-in polls, which are biased samples because the respondents are self-selected. Those individuals who are highly motivated to respond, typically individuals who have strong opinions, are overrepresented, and individuals that are indifferent or apathetic are less likely to respond. This often leads to a polarization of responses with extreme perspectives being given a disproportionate weight in the summary. As a result, these types of polls are regarded as unscientific

Could this be the solution for the Pierhead site and Helensburgh Town Centre? This is what award winning architect and local resident, Gareth Hoskins, has suggested for this much debated site. What do you think?

To see all the Council Budget News – Click on the Cllr Nisbet’s Issuu Library link in the left hand column.

Compared to some budget areas, the challenges for the Social Affairs portfolio of Adult Care and Children and Families may seem relatively low key this year. However, beneath the surface there is a story of solid progress over the past year and the promise of more in the coming year.

During the past year I have spent a considerable amount of time meeting clients, carers and staff – in particular, discussing the Service Review proposals for Older Persons and Learning Disability. Understanding what our clients and our carers think about the services we provide is invaluable and I have been hugely impressed by the dedication and willingness of our staff to meet the challenges we face in developing our services to meet our clients’ needs.

Despite the significant reductions the services took during the budget round last year, it is pleasing to note on page 380 of the budget papers that most of our services will be underspent by the year end. This has contributed to a balanced budget for the Council in 2011/12. However, this underspend should not be taken as an indication that service to our clients has been cut. Indeed, quite the opposite is the case, as we are either providing more hours of care at lower cost or finding more cost effective ways of delivering our services. All our staff are to be congratulated for this achievement.

But it does not end there, as the Depute Leader has indicated those savings will not be taken away from Social Work they will be reinvested in the service to help meet the demand pressures caused by demographic changes. Some of these savings will be used to provide our element of funding for the Early Years Change Fund and the Health and Social Care Change Fund. This is detailed on pages 276 and 277 of the Budget Pack. Both these initiatives will allow us to continue to shift the balance of care and to adopt a more preventative approach to care rather than reactive. You will also note that we do not intend to increase Community Charging Policy charges.

Our success is also demonstrated by our performance against a raft of key targets. These include:
• Increasing numbers of older people being cared for at home rather than going into more expensive residential care though the provision of overnight home care via Carr-Gomm and the further development of Telecare.
• More service users receiving services e.g. home care and respite services through the redesign of Adult Care services to provide more cost effective services.
• Improved Balance of Care for older people with more new service users being cared for at home with complex needs than ever before.
• Provision of respite service in partnership with the Red Cross.
• Fewer children residing in residential schools through the expansion of our Fostering and Kinship Fostering programmes.

Judged against national benchmarks our performance in a number of areas is excellent. For instance on:
• Direct Payments
• Delayed Discharge
• Balance of Care for Care at Home for Learning Disability and Mental Health Clients

For the future, the work of the Project Board for Older Persons and Learning Disability will continue to seek for more effective ways of delivering services. Both overnight home care and Telecare will continue to be developed to further enhance the provision of care at home. We will continue to redesign our services in relation to the personalised services agenda and the future Self Directed Care Legislation. Members can expect to hear a lot more about this over the next 18 months. However, in recent weeks, discussions with staff and trades unions have been very positive and I am sure that together we will meet this next challenge.

Other challenges that face us include:

• The on-going demographic change that will require further redesign of services in order to sustain our capacity to care across all our client groups, not just older people, and provide models of care that both support care at home where safe and sustainable, and also the Self Directed Care legislation.
• Integration with NHS, which offers significant opportunities, if we can build on some of the excellent partnership work already undertaken across Argyll and Bute.
• On-going management of Adult Protection issues across the different agencies – Social Work, NHS, and Police.
• On-going management of Child Protection issues between the different agencies – Social Work, Education, NHS and Police.

This budget provides the resources needed to tackle these challenges and to deliver the services our clients need. I commend it to Members.

Andrew Nisbet
Spokesperson for Social Affairs
16th February 2012