How are we doing?

Our services are here to make sure that everyone living in Renfrewshire enjoys a good quality of life and can live well. This performance report is designed to help you make your own judgement on how we are doing.

The data presented here relates to 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024, and uses the latest data from the Improvement Service’s Local Government Benchmarking Framework.

The data is provided against the backdrop of the ongoing challenges faced by public services. Renfrewshire, as with other councils, faces financial challenges due to cost pressures and growing demands, alongside important new priorities such as working to mitigate the impact of climate change.  Our residents are experiencing cost-of-living increases which our work tells us has deepened inequalities for some people living across our communities.

Despite the challenging context we have worked hard to ensure we remain ambitious for Renfrewshire, and that we work with partners to make Renfrewshire a great place to be.

In summer 2022 we developed our new   Council Plan 2022-2027  , supporting the organisation to remain agile and to address new challenges and opportunities over the period as required. The Plan sets out how the Council will work with partners, communities and businesses to progress 5 strategic outcomes:

• Place – working together to enhance wellbeing across communities
• Economy – building an inclusive, green and resilient economy
• Fair – nurturing bright, happy and healthy futures for all
• Green – leading Renfrewshire to Net Zero
• Living our values – making a difference together

The Plan also describes a cross-cutting theme – improving outcomes for children and families. Every one of the 5 strategic outcomes should directly contribute to this outcome and demonstrate that services are working together to get it right for children, families and communities. 

To help develop the new Council Plan and the refreshed Community Plan, we carried out a strategic needs assessment. This involved research, surveys and analysing data about Renfrewshire to build up a picture about the challenges and opportunities that come with living, working and learning here. This meant we were able to focus in on the themes that matter most to local people where we can try and work together to make a difference.   So that we keep pace with changes locally, nationally and international, we refreshed the Council Plan in 2024 so that our priorities continue to reflect in the challenges we face.

The new Council Plan was accompanied by a refreshed Community Plan, which covers the longer period of 2017 to 2027, but was revised to consider how to respond to and recover from the unique challenges over the last few years. The refresh also ensures the Community and Council Plans work in harmony, aligning the framework for improving community outcomes with the priorities for the Council. You can find details of our Council Plan performance throughout this StoryMap.

One of our main priorities for Renfrewshire is improving the health, wellbeing, and life chances of our children and families. Through working with our partners and communities we aim to ensure that children get the best possible start in life and are able to thrive in supportive learning environments, homes, and communities.

Throughout 2023/24 we were very proud to celebrate the excellent work of our teams working with children and young people, including those recognised with national awards:

Our children’s services planning partners are committed to improving outcomes for children and young people, with a particular focus on those who are most vulnerable. The Renfrewshire Children’s Services Partnership promotes the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach to enable collective achievement of our vision for children and young people.

All of the Council’s education establishments across all sectors, as well as seven funded early years providers, are engaged in Renfrewshire's Nurturing Relationships Approach (RNRA). RNRA is an authority wide, whole establishment, relational and trauma informed approach for supporting the wellbeing of all children, young people, and staff. Staff evaluation data has demonstrated that there has been an increased knowledge and understanding of attachment theory, the Nurture Principles and the importance of nurturing relationships across the school. Staff have also reported a positive change in their practice due to this new learning.

In 2023/24 work continued in partnership with Skills Development Scotland, West College Scotland, Invest in Renfrewshire, and Developing the Young Workforce West to ensure that planned, robust approaches are in place to support the most vulnerable learners into positive destinations. All secondary schools and our two schools for pupils with additional support needs (ASN) have a Developing the Young Workforce coordinator. The work placement programme continues to provide excellent opportunities for our young people. We have approximately 400 employers who are offering a range of opportunities such as site visits, training and long-term work placements for young people in the senior phase.

Throughout 2023/24 work to keep The Promise in Renfrewshire continued. The Promise is the Scottish Government's commitment to listen to the voices and needs of the care experienced community so that Scotland is "the best place in the world to grow up in" where all children are "loved, safe, and respected and realise their full potential".  By March 2024 we had recruited over 250 Promise Keepers to act as local champions, helping to educate and improve services for care experienced people. They are central to ensuring The Promise remains at the forefront of service design and delivery. All Promise Keepers undergo training to ensure that they have a good understanding of The Promise and are being supported to fulfil the role. We have continued to grow out Promise Keepers Network and by March 2025 we had 340 Promise Keepers.

The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) peer mentoring programme is successfully providing young people across almost all Renfrewshire secondary schools with the skills to challenge attitudes to gender-based violence and to mentor their peers. MVP training sessions have been supported by our training team in most schools and across other services. In addition, the training team delivered staff sessions which were open to any Renfrewshire employee working with children and young people.

Throughout 2023/24 we priorities work to maximise the support available for families. Through a successful bid for Lottery funding, a Stronger Start service has been set up at the Royal Alexandra Hospital to provide advice and advocacy for mothers with complex needs. This project was developed in partnership with Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Renfrewshire Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

In November 2023, we paid families an additional £50 per child for children receiving School Clothing Grant to help with winter clothing. Funding has been allocated in the 2024/25 budget to repeat this payment for over 5,000 children.

Our Summer of Fun Programme was very well received, Council funding providing access to holiday activities and healthy food for low income families in Renfrewshire.  The development of our approach was supported by the Fairer Renfrewshire Lived Experience Panel.

The Whole Family Wellbeing approach is about families getting the help they need when they need it, to prevent difficulties escalating to crisis point. The Scottish Government has provided funding over a 4 year period and this aims to support local children’s services partnerships to deliver early intervention and support to families.

The Renfrewshire Family Wellbeing Service was designed and launched to deliver on the Whole Family Wellbeing agenda in Renfrewshire. It comprises family wellbeing staff working in partnership with third sector organisations to provide early help and support and preventative action, at whatever level is required - universally accessible support to more targeted or intensive support.

The supports provided by the Family Wellbeing Service fits around families, and gets alongside them in their communities, encompassing play, sport and arts based approaches where appropriate.

We are working closely with Engage Renfrewshire to build capacity in partnership with third sector organisations. This work is helping to make connections across organisations working with families, building community resilience and strengthening family relationships.

During 2023/24 we developed our approach to engaging with the third sector and invited applications for funding based on a range of criteria which fitted the aims of whole family wellbeing. We offered 2 strands of funding: up to £500 for smaller grass roots third sector organisations and up to £50,000 for larger third sector organisations. In this first tranche we awarded grass roots funding to one small third sector organisation and larger amounts as follows:

• Active Communities and Klas Care: further developed and rolled out EPEC training ( Empowering Parents Empowering Communities). This community development model trained parents who have undergone the EPEC training themselves to train other parents while offering peer support and peer role modelling.
• Impact Arts: delivered parent and family art related sessions which focused on building family resilience, improving family communication, having fun and connecting with other families
• Klas Care: delivered all inclusive family play, nurture and learning which focuses on support to child at school and support to parent/carer at home; nurture practitioners link with home and school and measure improvements using the Leuven scale; support is targeted and personalised for each family
• Home Start: provided holistic whole family support, bringing families together creating peer support networks, reducing isolation and providing practical help, advice and support. Although the target group was families of children under 5 the project benefitted the whole family and including older children, and helped families thrive and reach their potential
• The Star Project: focused on families of neurodiverse children, engaging them in groupwork sessions where their voices were heard and their views represented to policy makers. They were also engaged in creative family therapeutic sessions and benefitted from training via Autism Connections.

The positive evaluations from this work led to a further tranche of funding being offered and an additional 11 third sector organisations benefitting from funding into 2024/25.

2023/24 was the second year of the successful Winter Connections initiative. The Winter Connections programme allocated over £85,000 in grants to community groups to provide a variety of activities across Renfrewshire, all targeted at tackling isolation and improving wellbeing.

More than 40 groups offered a range of activities including craft sessions, circus skills, music appreciation and board games. Hot drinks and food were on offer and there were also opportunities to get advice and support on a range of issues. It's estimated that at least 3,900 people benefited from participating in the programme.

In Paisley participants could go along to a Music Friendship Café, creative activities for young people, learn scuba diving or circus skills and sing in a community choir.

In Johnstone there were cooking classes, exercise classes, Jam Jar movies and an afterschool club. Linwood provided the opportunity for families to participate in activities and held social events for older people.

In Renfrew free activities and hot food for families was available, while Erskine Arts delivered music and soup sessions.

 Activities in the villages of Howwood, Kilbarchan, Lochwinnoch and Langbank included coffee mornings, film showings and musical entertainment for older people, physical activity for young people, and health and wellbeing sessions for teenagers.

A further £6,000 was allocated to One Ren to support the programme and to provide hot drinks, soup, and snacks in all Renfrewshire libraries. 

Practical assistance included signposting to sources of advice, food provision, access to charge devices, language café, distribution of clothing, period products and data sims and Scottish Refugee Council session for refugees and asylum seekers.

Activities brought people together, connected them with familiar and new faces and created space for generations to be together.  The new friendships and connections that were forged helped to reduce social isolation and created supportive networks for people to increase their confidence and resilience.

Hot food and good company! I just really loved having somewhere to take the kids where I knew they would be safe playing with their friends, get their dinner, get a wee bit of help with homework and I got to relax for a while. It was like visiting with family and it really helped me over winter

Our economy has a lot going for it.  We are home to around 4,600 businesses of all sizes and have key strengths in manufacturing, construction and transport. We are home to a university and a college, and we are a connected place, with Glasgow Airport, one of the UK's busiest passenger and freight hubs, acting as a major centre for economic activity and inward investment. We are a major transportation hub, with road and rail connections across Scotland and the wider United Kingdom - making us a key destination for freight and logistics businesses.

Our exciting development at AMIDS moved into a new phase during 2023 when the Council entered into a formal development partnership with Buccleuch to help secure further investment in the site. As partners, they will bring specific technical and sector expertise, and growth at the site will give a boost to the local economy and create high-quality jobs.

Employability is a key focus for the Council. Our employability services worked with over 1500 people in 2023/24, supporting more than 600 to gain new qualifications and supporting more than 500 into paid employment. The Council also created a number of apprenticeships and trainee posts to provide employment opportunities directly.

Our Start-up Street sites are now in three areas – George St in Paisley, Quarry Street in Johnstone, and Dunlop Crescent in Renfrew.  Start-up Street offers new businesses low-cost, high-quality workspaces and access to specialist wraparound support to help their business thrive. Support includes on-site business advice, support from Business Gateway, training spaces and meeting rooms, and access to mentoring, workshops and masterclasses. Support is tailored to the needs of each business.

We continue to invest in infrastructure to support economic growth. Work is ongoing to expand the active travel network, including the AMIDS South route. Improvements to Plymuir Bridge have now been completed and the new Renfrew-Yoker bridge, the first opening road bridge over the River Clyde, is scheduled to open this year.

Paisley Townscape Heritage Initiative and Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (TH.CARS2) was funded by  National Lottery Heritage Fund ,  Historic Environment Scotland  and Renfrewshire Council, and gave grant opportunities to property owners in a defined area of Paisley Town Centre focusing on High Street, New Street, Shuttle Street and George Place.

The TH.CARS2 scheme was completed in March 2024, having delivered a significant difference to the condition and appearance of a number of prominent properties in Paisley Town Centre. Shopfront Improvements grants supported projects in the High Street and a Small Grants programme supported traditional window repair projects in the Town Centre.

Public realm works were also funded through the project with works completed at George Place. Public Realm works to pavements in the High Street area opposite the Museum were also completed. This was a complex project with private basements below the High Street pavements and additional structural repairs required. However, the works have made a significant difference to the quality of the public realm in this area and support the improvements to the Museum.

TH.CARS2’s community engagement programme of Heritage Education, Training and events comprised of 42 projects which saw the delivery of 630 workshops and over 115 separate events. Over 2,500 participants, trainees and volunteers engaged with the programme and estimated audiences of over 50,000 were reached. More than 100 partners were involved locally and nationally, and over 150 job opportunities were created for consultants and freelancers.

The final report on the delivery of TH.CARS2 noted that it had successfully improved the historic fabric of Paisley town centre as well as providing opportunities for local people to take part in heritage education, training and events.

We know that the environments in which we live are inextricably linked to our quality of life and our teams work hard to make sure Renfrewshire is a great place to live.

Throughout 2023/24 we were very proud to celebrate the excellent work of our teams including those recognised at national awards:

Renfrewshire Council consistently outperforms most other areas in terms of the condition of our roads. There has been considerable investment in roads in recent years – including £6.7m in 2023/24 and £5m in 2024/25. This investment is reflected in the data which measures the percentage of roads in need of maintenance, with Renfrewshire consistently well below the national average for all four classes of roads. Responsiveness in roads repairs is also very strong, with 95% of pothole repairs completed on target in 2023/24.

Four projects in Renfrewshire received investment totalling £2,067,000 from the Scottish Government’s Active Travel Transformation Fund 2023-24 which aims to create high-quality active travel infrastructure that will support people to make the switch to more sustainable transport methods and reduce emissions.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, significant works were undertaken to provide an active travel route between Paisley and Renfrew.  This includes new shared footways and carriageway improvements, and a ramp to link Wright Street and Turner Drive.  This means there is a direct active travel link between the two towns for the first time in decades, connecting Paisley Gilmour Street to the Renfrew Ferry via the former railway line. Our AMIDS South Project will deliver new roads, bridges, cycling and walking routes between Paisley town centre and the AMIDS. Communities in Bishopton and Erskine are already benefitting from enhanced active travel infrastructure thanks to a new shared walking and cycle route from Inchinnan Drive, along Barnsford Road to the St James Interchange.  This connects the communities of Bishopton and Erskine to the key employment sites of Inchinnan Business Park, AMIDS and Glasgow Airport.

During the 2023/24 winter period, the service responded to a number of severe weather events which required the Roads and Neighbourhood Services teams to work together on a 24/7 basis to support communities during periods of severe weather. As part of the council’s Ready for Winter campaign, gritting teams used nine gritters to cover more than 850km of roads across Renfrewshire on a priority basis, with more than 3700 tonnes of grit stored and available to keep Renfrewshire moving throughout the winter period.

Renfrewshire’s Big Spring Clean returned in March 2024 with litter picks taking place in March and April. The Big Spring Clean is part of the council’s award-winning Team Up to Clean Up initiative and sees local people being supported to take part in litter picks across Renfrewshire to help make a positive impact on the local environment and encourage a change in attitudes towards littering, with the council providing volunteers with equipment, advice and clearing the collected rubbish afterwards.

As a Council, we recognise the major threat climate change poses to the future wellbeing of our communities. We have shown leadership at both a strategic level and operational level to drive change - declaring a climate emergency in June 2019 and committing to work towards net zero for the area by 2030. 

 Projects delivered in 2023-24 include:

• Large-scale decarbonisation of heat: the AMIDS district heating network became operational in May 2023 providing low carbon heating, cooling and hot water via a district heating network to businesses at the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District site in Paisley, with a carbon reduction of over 95% over the 40-year lifecycle of the project
• Hydro-treated Vegetable Oil in Large Fleet: piloting HVO to replace diesel in large fleet, resulting in 57,623 miles being covered by vehicles using HVO in place of diesel, with a ~90% reduction in emissions when comparing the two fuels
• Waste: rolling out full recycling facilities to all schools in Renfrewshire to enable recycling and increase separation of waste at source. This reduced the grey bins across the 59 schools and nurseries by just under 59,000litres total per week, and increased blue, green and food recycling by over 93,000litres per week.
• Waste: rolling out of WEEE Reuse Hub at Paisley Household Waste Recycling Centre, working with the Salvation Army and REPIC to bring unwanted small electrical appliances back into use
• Biodiversity Areas: delivery of 8.4 hectares of biodiversity area sites to assist nature and biodiversity locally as well as helping to sequester 5 times the carbon of short-mown amenity grassland.

Peatland restoration is a nature-based solution to the climate and ecological crises. Healthy bogs lock up and store large carbon quantities however, if degraded, may instead emit more carbon than they remove. Healthy, functioning peatlands help mitigate the expected impacts of climate change such as increased rainfall events by storing and slowly releasing water back into the river network, as well as being home to an array of birds, plants, fungi, invertebrates and microorganisms.

One of the partnership initiatives being progressed is the restoration of degraded peatland at West Tandlemuir Farm in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park. Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park includes around 10,000 hectares of Scotland’s most accessible areas of wild land. Unlike many wild areas, two million people live within 30 minutes of the area. The landscape has been damaged by a long history of peatland drainage leading to coarse grass and heather prevalence rather than the original sphagnum moss. Drainage has also led to peat drying out and CO ₂  emissions contributing to the climate crisis.

The restored peatland has the potential to sequester 615 tonnes of CO ₂  per annum. Renfrewshire Council has developed a close working relationship with the GCR Clyde Peatlands Initiative, to deliver restoration of the 200 ha+ of blanket bog at West Tandlemuir Farm, with works undertaken to the detailed design stage, with planning consent granted for the works in February 2024 and a site start in winter of 2024 and due for completion in early spring 2025. The aim of this project is to boost biodiversity, reduce flooding, increase resilience and capture carbon through the implementation of nature-based solutions that benefit the social and economic wellbeing of the people of Renfrewshire.

Our housing services are responsible for managing and investing in our housing stock of approximately 12,300 properties and providing services to Council tenants, alongside housing advice and support, assisting homeless people and those threatened with homelessness and ensuring people have safe places to live.

Successful housing regeneration can help improve people's homes, increase housing supply, help create more balanced communities and improve results in areas like health, education and crime. Our goal is to create desirable and successful communities, providing quality affordable housing in communities, that in turn brings benefits for the area and a lasting legacy of sustainable change and transformed communities.

In 2023/24 we continued to progress the ten-year £100m Housing Led Regeneration and Renewal programme. The programme focuses on eight areas across Paisley, Renfrew and Johnstone. We are making investments to improve existing buildings, as well as the common areas and outdoor environment around them. In some of the areas, some buildings will be demolished, with new-build housing being built.

Throughout 2023/24 we were very proud to celebrate the excellent work of our housing teams including those recognised at national awards:

In 2023/24 we also worked to establish a new approach to Community Neighbourhood Renewal with community representatives, across Council Services and with third party partners to operate in parallel with the physical regeneration plans.

The neighbourhood renewal approach will be tailored to the needs and circumstances of each area, going beyond housing and the immediate external environment, and taking account of broader issues such as links to health and wellbeing, access to outdoor space and sustainable travel and employment or training opportunities that maximise the benefits achievable for local residents. This approach aims to strengthen community voices and improve place-based decision making across all regeneration areas in Renfrewshire to enhance and measure the offering and impact of the programme.

In common with many other councils, homeless applications continue to rise, and housing services are under considerable demand pressure in Renfrewshire. In recognition of this, the Council amended its target timescales for the completion of duty following a homeless application from 24 weeks to 26 weeks at the start of 2023/24.  Although the 24-week target had not been breached, this was in recognition of those demand pressures.

Since then, the service continues to exceed targets and averages around 21 weeks to complete a case. We are consistently one of the best performing local authorities in this regard. This is an important indicator, as it reflects the service and support for some of our most vulnerable citizens at a particularly difficult point in their lives. It reflects our proactive response as a Council to the housing pressures faced - through maximisation of temporary accommodation available, engagement with local Registered Social Landlords to support homeless households and recruitment of additional housing support staff.

Alongside this, the council has continued to expand its temporary accommodation offering and our housing allocation policy increased to 55% allocations to homelessness applicants to match the demand and minimise the use to bed and breakfast and hotels.

The increased cost of living in recent years has impacted many of Renfrewshire’s residents, and the Council is committed to delivering services and supports that help people manage this. Some tenants may already have been in receipt of Housing Benefit, the housing element of Universal Credit, or from accessing Discretionary Housing Payments. However, it was recognised that additional measures might be needed to support people temporarily if they find themselves in a difficult financial position through no fault of their own.

The Tenant Support Fund Policy was agreed by our Communities and Housing Policy Board in August 2023 and backdated to 1 April 2023. The Fund provides temporary support to people at risk of not being able to pay their rent and aims to not only reduce their financial stress but also help them to remain in their tenancies. As well as a financial contribution to rent, funding has been agreed for a specialist income advisor to support tenants in hardship. There are lots of reasons tenants might be entitled to help, including:

• An increase in household running costs such as energy, food or rent
• A reduction in income (for example, from redundancy, having working hours reduced, loss of a household member)
• Changes to benefits

When tenants first find that they might struggle to pay rent, they’re encouraged to speak to housing staff or to our specialist income advisors. They work with tenants to check that they are getting all the benefits they are entitled to. They also help them work out if they could be eligible for a Scottish Welfare Fund payment or for a Discretionary Housing Payment. When other options have been exhausted and tenants are still facing hardship, they can make a referral to the Tenant Support Fund. Anyone eligible for the Tenant Support Fund will get a weekly credit directly to their rent account. The Fund is not a long-term solution but can support tenants through periods of hardship.

Although the scheme only opened in the second half of 2023/24, 161 tenants qualified for support from the fund and the total amount credited to rent accounts was over £32,000. In the six months following, another 90 tenants qualified for support from the fund, and a larger number were provided with specialist income advice. Housing teams continue to promote the Fund, and information about it can be found on the Council’s website.

We want Renfrewshire to be a caring place where people are treated as individuals and supported to live well. Our aim is to focus on person-centred care and ensure we deliver both on our statutory service provision and meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities.

In 2023/24 the HSCP and the Council continued to operate within a fast-moving and complex policy environment. Despite this, in collaboration with our partners, we have continued to deliver essential services for those who need them most. Some examples of our work during this period are highlighted below.

Renfrewshire has maintained its status as the highest performing HSCP in Scotland for the period April 2023 - March 2024 for standard delayed discharges. The Delayed Discharge Team work closely with Acute colleagues to ensure every adult who needs community support on discharge from hospital receives the right support, without delay. The team work closely with the person and their family to place the wishes and expectations of all concerned at the centre of their planning, and ensure each person is treated with care and compassion. A ‘one-team’ approach has been adopted across all community support services, including external providers, to make each individual a priority for the whole service.

In partnership with Renfrewshire Carers Centre, a programme of carers awareness workshops and events were held across Renfrewshire during 2023/24, with organisations including Kairos, Active Communities, the INRen Network, We Are With You, the Chamber of Commerce, Northcroft Medical Centre, and Sight Veterans Scotland.

The sessions led to an increase in referrals and organisations were encouraged to work towards achieving the Carer Positive Award. In addition, a programme of training was undertaken with individuals to support them to become Carer Community Champions. 59 Champions support the carer friendly Renfrewshire work by raising awareness as they go about their work in communities and were recognised by the Provost at a recent Carers Week event.

The CAHSC Partnership is Renfrewshire’s innovative approach to bringing arts and culture to residents (18+) engaging in social care services. By funding an Arts and Culture Co-ordinator within the HSCP, this programme creates opportunities for the most disadvantaged adults (18+) in Renfrewshire to improve their health and wellbeing. In 2023/24, with the support of Renfrewshire Council's Future Paisley Initiative, CAHSC was able to:

• Develop a network of 164 local people and organisations interested in supporting social and cultural activity for people involved in health and social care services
• Host training sessions for artists and the third sector, bringing them together to explore shared interests and issues
• Support the Scottish Mental Health and Arts Festival’s Renfrewshire branch of activity
• Manage two grant programmes which provided funding to over 40 local organisations to create accessible cultural programmes for Renfrewshire residents living with the impact of inequalities.

Renfrewshire Council’s Adult and Family Learning Service provides English language learning opportunities for refugees arriving in Renfrewshire. With a grant from the Creative Wellbeing Fund, overseen by the CAHSC Co-ordinator, the Group hosted a 7 -week programme of arts for English language learners including painting, collage, felting, and embroidery. The programme was open to all ESOL learners but mainly attended by Ukrainian refugees. Feedback was particularly positive with attendees specifically mentioning how the programme positively impacted their mood or emotional wellbeing.

The HSCP’s Community Partnership’s Manager established the Towns and Villages Accessibility Forum (TVAF) with colleagues from Renfrewshire Council’s Housing, Environment, and Infrastructure team to address access issues for people with reduced mobility, physical disabilities, and visual impairments. The Forum also includes representatives from Renfrewshire Council Events Team and Town Centre management to ensure accessibility is considered as early as possible in planning decisions. To date, specific concerns raised by the likes of Shopmobility, Renfrewshire Access Panel and Renfrewshire Visually Impaired Forum have been successfully resolved, and other matters raised by older people through various other groups have also been raised and resolved.

The HSCP’s Health Improvement Team secured funding in January 2024 to implement a Community Food Action Plan within Renfrewshire that aligns with Fair Food Renfrewshire principles and Community Wealth Building. The plan aims to support healthy eating through community-based awareness-raising and skills development activities with a view to help improve diet, support a healthier lifestyle, and reduce health inequalities. The aim of the Community Based Growing Fund is to develop models of healthy community food provision which promotes dignity and resilience and reduced experience of loneliness and social isolation.

Renfrewshire HSCP opened CIRCLE (Continuing in Recovery Changes Lives Entirely) Recovery Hub in October 2022. Since then, the hub has been providing a unique mental health and addiction service for people looking for a recovery focus, by providing a varied programme of activities aimed at encouraging, involving, and supporting people in recovery.

Situated in Paisley, CIRCLE aims to address a key gap within Renfrewshire’s mental health and alcohol and drug services, where a lack of recovery opportunities for people in treatment was previously identified.

In collaboration with One Ren, people attending CIRCLE have planned and created a ‘Bothy’ space where meetings, workshops, and events can happen. It is organised by clients at regular steering group meetings and supported by both One Ren and CIRCLE. The Bothy itself was constructed using funds from CIRCLE and ONE REN has funded 2 artists workshops during which a ‘friendship blanket’ has been made and a ‘funky floor’ designed and installed in the Bothy. In the long term we aim to deliver up to 6 more workshops over 2 residencies and record and evaluate our progress.

The objectives of the project include:

• Increasing the number of people participating and engaging in the arts
• Improving clients’ ability to manage culture in their own communities
• Improving community cohesion
• Encouraging clients to feel happier about where they live

The involvement of CIRCLE clients in the planning, development and execution of the Bothy Project has complemented and supported the care planning and review process. Clients report improved self-esteem, confidence and commitment to CIRCLE as a whole, while identifying the intrinsic value of the workshops in terms of learning new skills, team working and co-facilitation.

Attendees feel a shared ownership of the project and this has led to increased client involvement, participation and facilitation of other groups, activities and events. The core participants in this project have subsequently gone on to be involved in interviewing staff for prospective employment with Renfrewshire ADRS (Alcohol and Drug Recovery Service), co-facilitated groups within CIRCLE and helped organised large scale events such as the Recovery Walk in September 2022. Future opportunities for workshop participants to volunteer at the service and potentially look to employment is also a direct result of the success of this project.

The workshops have allowed CIRCLE to demonstrate effective partnership working, the creation of an ongoing and sustainable project and evidence that clients have an element of creative control in service delivery. The Bothy Project has been a flagship endeavour that has been a key part of CIRCLE’s provision in the first year of its existence; the benefits of this cannot be overestimated.

Renfrewshire has a proud cultural history, and we want culture and leisure to be accessible for local people to enjoy.  In partnership with OneRen - the local charitable trust established by Renfrewshire Council to provide culture, leisure and sporting opportunities to help people enjoy active and healthy lives - we are building our ambitions for the future.

In 2023/2024 further milestones were reached in the Cultural Infrastructure Investment programme, with the opening of the Learning and Cultural Hub in November 2023. The opening of Paisley Learning and Cultural Hub massively increased our ability to host cultural events, including a sold-out Book Week Scotland event with Tam Cowan and a night celebrating Paisley’s best-selling author, Evelyn Hood, among others. The library also participated in showcasing both Black History Month and the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.

Throughout 2023/24 Renfrewshire residents and visitors were able to enjoy our recently refurbished Paisley Town Hall. The town hall re-opened to universal acclaim from performers, audiences and partners – as well as positive reviews from local and national media. Many planned performances from acts like Belle and Sebastian and Optimo sold out within hours of going on sale. The Royal National Mod ran from 13-21 October 2023, with 19 events and 4,832 tickets sold across the week.

Each year we host a full events calendar and continue to build on our reputation for hosting successful events. In 2023/24 this included:

• Paisley Food & Drink Festival: the festival attracted 22,500 individual attendees, of which 18% were visitors (non-Renfrewshire residents).
• Sma’ Shot Day: attracted 6,000 attendees of which 28% were visitors to the area.
• Renfrew Pipe Band Competition: The event attracted 4,000 attendees of which 30% were visitors.
• Paisley Halloween Festival: is the council’s nationally recognised event, with 2024 marking its tenth year. In 2023, the festival attracted its largest audience of just over 50,000 individual attendees, of which 30% were visitors.

Our Active Schools team continues to provide opportunities for children and young people to become more physically fit and active both in school and outwith school hours. The last financial year saw an impressive 42% of Renfrewshire’s pupils engaging in extra-curricular Active Schools activities, split almost evenly between boys and girls.

The Renfrewshire Aspiring Athlete Support Programme helped talented local athletes with access to OneRen training facilities, partner benefits and potential funding. In the last financial year 30 athletes were successful with their application for support, with £20,650 in grants awarded across 21 sports.

OneRen venues play a pivotal role in supporting local clubs to thrive and in 2023/24, with capital investment from Renfrewshire Council, OneRen were able to invest in upgraded synthetic pitches and provide first class facilities for a number of clubs to increase their membership and participation. OneRen supported 408,789 attendances – representing a 23% increase on the previous year.

Paisley’s stunning new Central Library opened in November 2023. Located within Paisley Learning and Cultural Hub, the library is part of an ongoing drive to regenerate Paisley and give people new reasons to visit the town centre.

Housed within a former High Street shop and spread over four floors, the new building includes a reception area, children's library and storytelling area - with a unique play structure including a climbing wall and slide also in place having been co-designed with renowned Scottish artist Claire Barclay.

The upper floors include an outdoor terrace, community rooms and a study area for young adults, as well as free Wi-Fi and PC access to support digital inclusivity.

The venue is operated by OneRen who have an exciting programme of events in place for all ages, including recently hosting Paisley Book Festival, scheduled author visits, Bookbug sessions for families, and storytelling workshops.

The design of Paisley Central Library has received industry recognition with a number of awards:

The hub is part of a £7million investment by Renfrewshire Council as we continue to regenerate Paisley and the surrounding areas.