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Alongside this, the programme has also identified specific actions to strengthen links with other local initiatives and target work to reduce inequalities. Specific impacts include:

• Strong working relationships have been established with local partners and community members, to discuss important priorities for the area, whilst developing awareness of the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme and the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes. Place-based priorities have now changed after consideration of the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes.
• Initial work is underway on another neighbourhood planning area within Rutherglen and supporting Community Engagement Team officers to test their own assessment sessions, looking at South Lanarkshire Council’s overarching Community Plan
• The assessment report has been useful in instigating conversations with council colleagues in other teams on how their work can support each other

Our story so far

The Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme team in Rutherglen held a Place and Wellbeing Assessment in February 2023 with members of Burnhill Action Group, South Lanarkshire Council’s Community Engagement Team, Healthy n’ Happy Community Development Trust and other local partners to support the refresh of the Burnhill Neighbourhood Plan. The plan sets out priorities for the Burnhill area as identified by local people and reports yearly on progress around these priorities. The session was hosted in person at the High Backs community-led green space in Burnhill, a thriving community resource and example of the success of Burnhill’s existing neighbourhood planning work.

This existing neighbourhood planning work by the Burnhill Action Group, South Lanarkshire Council’s Community Engagement Team and Community Planning Partnership, and Healthy n’ Happy Community Development Trust provided a strong foundation for the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme’s support in neighbourhood planning. Ahead of the assessment session, the Shaping Places for Wellbeing team attended meetings with the wellbeing hub group and children’s group hosted by Burnhill Action Group, to talk about the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme and Place and Wellbeing Outcomes. Local community members were interested to hear about the programme and the outcomes. In each session people voted on their priorities for the local area at the beginning, and then again once the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes had been discussed. The results were interesting for participants, with priorities changing after considering the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes.

Burnhill Action Group members agreed that taking part in the process has been positive:

The Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme – Rutherglen Project Lead and Community Link Lead are working with the Burnhill Action Group to capture the process they have been through in a way that can easily be shared with other community groups and those interested in doing something similar.

The Project Lead and Community Link Lead are also working with South Lanarkshire Council’s Community Engagement Team officers on how this approach can be applied to neighbourhood planning and community planning work across South Lanarkshire. Initial steps will include work on another neighbourhood planning area within Rutherglen and supporting Community Engagement Team officers to test their own assessment sessions looking at South Lanarkshire’s overarching Community Plan. The Community Engagement Team have found the report from the session useful in starting conversations with council colleagues in other teams on how their work can support each other.