Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am strongly supportive of community growing, so it is great to hear that that is happening.

Thanks for that. Apprenticeship schemes are critical to keeping people locally based, so they are good for repopulation or for maintaining a population.

Great. That is helpful. Thanks very much.

Dave, do you want to come in?

As always, that was very interesting on challenges with data and its importance.

I will pick up on the theme of the culture of public bodies and will combine two questions. I will start with you, Derek; you know that it is coming. Given SE’s experience as a statutory partner, I am interested to hear how CPPs operate in practice at the local level. Has anything changed since the 2015 act? Also, based on your experience of working across CPPs, what makes for successful community planning? The questions are about work in practice, whether it has changed and successful community planning.

It is clear that relationships and trust building are so important. I am interested to hear from Eann Sinclair on those questions.

Thank you very much for that insight.

What about the south of Scotland?

Yes—it is something of a balancing act. We need a nuanced approach, but we also need consistency.

Of course, that would come from Skills Development Scotland, would it not? We all have to develop our skills in that respect.

I move on to local leadership, and bring in Willie Coffey.

We agreed at the start of the meeting to take the next two items in private. As that was the last public item on our agenda for today, I close the public part of our meeting.

The next item is consideration of five negative instruments. There is no requirement that the committee make recommendations on negative instruments. Do members have any comments?

Members indicated disagreement.