1. A Leaner and Greener Scotland Colin Mair, CEO, The Improvement Service

2. Scope of Presentation Focus on Councils and their Partnerships Achieving Critical Mass : Opportunities Achieving Critical Mass : Challenges Future Options A Final Anecdote

3. Focus on Councils and Their Partnerships Global issue……local issue Community engagement and leadership The Community planning framework Links to Private Sector,voluntary sector and community groups

4. Critical Mass : Opportunities Range of Services and functions : Education, planning, regulatory services,housing,waste collection and disposal, economic development, land management etc Major employer in each part of Scotland Procurement : £2.8 billions per annum Asset base : £19 billions

5. Opportunities (cont.) Control of critical levers for change Education and environment link Planning, regulation and development link Housing, land management, local environment link Procurement : volumes and values Asset management : managing for sustainability

6. Opportunities ( cont.) Sustainability a core part of Best Value All Community Plans have an Environment/sustainability theme Efficiency in resource use a key agenda Power of wellbeing So…….No problems?

7. Critical Mass :Challenges The problem of cross cutting themes : every bodies and nobodies High level goals ------fragmented projects Measuring and attributing outcomes Other influencing factors Contrary policy drivers : Efficient Government

8. Future Options Building it in to corporate and service planning : challenge and proofing Building it in to procurement and asset management Developing and exploiting connections Annual sustainability statement : Programme targets and reporting Enabling communities to manage local environments

9. Future options ( cont.) Taking it seriously in the BV audit Developing programme rather than project management approach Moving on “outcome agreements” : Political leadership

10. A final anecdote A school visit : cheap and potent Backed up through the curriculum Creates “champions” Future focussed Linked to “wheelies”, bottle banks and community development Fun