Early intervention and prevention is key to future of East Ayrshire

Opened by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Douglas Reid, the event featured guest speakers including Fiona McKenzie, Chair of Kilmarnock Town Board, Chief Executive Eddie Fraser, Margarita Morrison from the DWP, Pamela Smith from Public Health Scotland, Graeme Roy, Professor of Economics and Assistant Vice Principal of the University of Glasgow and Joseph McLachlan, the Council’s Chief Financial Officer.

It was attended by local elected members, council officers, representatives from COSLA and the Improvement Service, community planning partners, representatives of the business community, the third sector, MPs and MSPs, the UK and Scottish Governments, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Children and Young People’s Cabinet - Aimee Sharpe and Emma Simpson, and Lucy MacKinnon MSYP.

Councillor Reid said: “When our budget was set earlier this year, East Ayrshire Council took the unprecedented step of committing £40 million over the next ten years in support of change, prevention and early intervention work, and other initiatives aimed at supporting our communities. This fund, which is supported by all 32 elected members, reflects our commitment to tackling poverty, particularly child poverty, and increasing fairness within our communities. It is about delivering change and also thinking differently about public services to help reduce demand and tackle the significant challenges we face, which includes our ageing population and increasing demand for services at a time of reduced funding and budget cuts. 

“No organisation can face these challenges alone or has all the answers - that is something we are very clear about. It will take our partners, our communities and the third sector to join together to face these challenges head on, to identify areas where we can invest in early intervention and prevention measures, to invest in a sustainable future.

“The roundtable event was an opportunity to hear from expert speakers and to begin identifying interventions and improvements that will help reduce long-term costs, address inequality, improve outcomes and build stronger, healthier communities.”

Fiona McKenzie was the first speaker of the day and she spoke passionately about early intervention in action and the importance of equity of opportunity. Quoting Fredrick Douglass – ‘It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men’ – she spoke about her experience as a teacher and at CentreStage where she has built a community around music, fun, food and folk. Fiona said: “I have seen first-hand the terrible impact that excluding young people from opportunities can cause. Many people don’t feel like they belong anywhere and what we have built at CentreStage is a community where people can smile and feel happy; where they can create their own story and be part of a community for the first time in their lives. Through our experience at CentreStage and the projects we have successfully delivered, I have fierce hope for the future. Kilmarnock Town Board has bold aspirations to create careers, reduce reliance on public services and redesign the town centre. I strongly believe that money changes nothing, how we spend it does, and I welcome all partners coming together to forge a path for the future.”

Chief Executive, Eddie Fraser spoke about empowering East Ayrshire’s communities and tackling inequality. He said: “I have spent my career helping to tackle inequality in our communities and I am passionate about delivering positive change for East Ayrshire. We are facing significant challenges. Reducing budgets and ever increasing demand on services is having a disproportionate impact on our communities. The gap between our most affluent and most deprived communities is widening in terms of health and tackling child poverty is one of our key priorities.

“As a Council we aim to improve lives and mitigate cuts in the future; we want to improve the lives of local people so that they don’t have to rely on Council services while we ensure that the Council can survive into the future.

“Christie remains the effective roadmap for public sector change and the means to manage demand and expectation across the Council, Community Planning Partnership and beyond. Through our work we seek to reinvigorate the Christie Commission pillars, which remain as relevant today as they were in 2011.”

The Chief Executive was followed by Margarita Morrison, DWP Area Director for Scotland and Pamela Smith, Head of Health Equity and Wellbeing at Public Health Scotland, who both spoke of the importance of good employment opportunities to tackle the impact of poverty and improve health and wellbeing, and creating opportunities for communities.

And the morning session came to an end with a Q&A session led ably by Aimee Sharpe.

The afternoon was opened by Professor Graeme Roy, Chair of the Scottish Fiscal Commission – Scotland’s official, independent economic and fiscal forecaster. He provided expert insight to the fiscal challenges facing local authorities over the next five years and the particular set of challenges facing East Ayrshire including the declining population coupled with a significant increase in residents over the age of 65 years.

The event was closed by Joseph McLachlan, Chief Financial Officer who spoke of the importance of future-proofing the Council to make sure that it still stands into the future. He said: “East Ayrshire Council has been recognised as a Council that has strong leadership and a clear vision; a Council where elected members expect and demand excellence. But it is also recognised that this is delivered against a very challenging socio-economic backdrop and I firmly believe that it is this that drives our decision making. The Council has a genuine commitment to improve the lives of our communities – from half price school meals to a £50 payment for children and young people in receipt of free school meals at Christmas to creating 200 apprenticeships – we have invested £11m in our communities and in the futures of our children and young people.

“Moving forward we have to prepare for the challenges ahead by investing in early intervention to ensure that we can improve the lives of local people, which will in turn reduce demand on services.”

The discussions and suggestions put forward by the delegates who attended the event will help shape the future direction of the Council and the plans for the £40 million Early Intervention and Prevention Fund. A report will be presented to Cabinet in the near future for elected member consideration.