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DELIVERING SOCIAL JUSTICE IN RURAL SCOTLAND: BARRIERS AND SOLUTIONS

PANEL SESSIONS: REPORTS AND CONCLUSIONS

PANEL 1: APPROACHES TO SERVICE DELIVERY IN RURAL AREAS

Summary of Discussion

Who are the main players in the delivery of services in rural areas and how do they make decisions about how these services are delivered?

• The main players were considered to be the public and voluntary sectors. However, it is important for these sectors to interface with the private sector so that they can work together. These relationships should be managed through continuing dialogue, rather than occasional consultation.

• Delivering services across the broad geographical range of rural Scotland is a challenge. It is important to acknowledge and discuss political sensitivites in order to resolve them and foster an environment condusive to partnership working. There has been a move towards greater decentralisation of service delivery recently and, for this to work, decision-making processes must be open, fair and inclusive. The early involvement of the community is key to focusing in on local needs.

• The ethos underpinning Community Planning is to engage communities in decision-making processes. It is important that suitable mechanisms for engaging with the community are put in place.

What kinds of approaches can be adopted to overcome the difficulties of access and visibility for service users, while ensuring value for money for service providers?

• Suggested solutions to overcome the difficulties of access included one-stop shops, co-location and multi-purpose use of facilities. However lack of suitable premises and staff can limit the potential to provide services locally. It is important for local partners to engage in dialogue and adopt a partnership approach to delivering services. Partners, such as local authorities, may also be able to offer suitable accommodation from which a range of services can be delivered. Support for volunteers was also recognised as being important.

• In terms of care services, value for money could be achieved by caring for people in the community, rather than in care homes, as this would reduce domiciliary costs. However, it would be important to provide appropriate levels of home care. As people in this situation often need to access a range of services, cross-sector co-operation and communication is essential. Measures, such as the co-ordination of care workers travel (e.g. a visiting health care officer travelling with a rural benefits outreach officer), would help to reduce costs.

• Building the capacity of the community to respond to local issues is important - for example, providing advice to support voluntary sector projects to submit successful applications for funding. There are a number of organisations who are responsible for carrying out this role (for example, Councils for Voluntary Service, Local Rural Partnerships, local authorities) who should get together to harness their expertise and speak to funders in order to provide a comprehensive advice service to rural communities.

How can service providers ensure that the needs of poor and socially excluded people are taken into account?

• Better information is needed to enable service providers to identify barriers to access. It would be useful to map the services available across rural Scotland.

• It is important to be sensitive about the delivery of certain services that may cause embarrassment or stigma. For example it is difficult (both for the sufferer and the service deliverer) to address subjects such as physical abuse and mental illness, where any indiscretion could lead to the person's problem becoming highly visible within the community.

• It was suggested that there is a lack of awareness in rural areas, of issues such as HIV, rape and sexual abuse. There is a need to develop more innovative services to meet local needs and minimise stigma, and for wider community education initiatives to accompany this.

• Community plans should ensure that equality issues are considered. A degree of risk taking is often required from funding organisations that support innovative projects. This has to be balanced with the need to be publicly accountable.

Examples

Motherwell College has integrated IT training, with job and life skills training. This approach is successful because they have managed put the emphasis on the IT training, while offering discreet training on problems, such as low literacy, which people find embarrassing. It also means that people are accessing more than one service, so that they don't have to travel to two different classes. A good relationship with their local authority makes it possible to offer a range of services.

Dumfries & Galloway College work in partnership with other Community Planning partners to a provide further education outreach service to rural communities using hot desk facilities in rural buildings.

Aberdeenshire Council has a "Dial-a-Bus" programme for rural areas. They tasked a working group to visit OAPs in the area to establish their needs. It was found, for example, that they wanted a weekly visit to Safeway. This posed them with a dilemma as this would conflict with the council's policy to support local businesses. There is a balance to be struck between supporting local services and ensuring people have choices.

PANEL 2: THE ROLE OF THE RURAL VOLUNTARY SECTOR IN TACKLING POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Summary of Discussion

Points made during the introduction by panel members were as follows:

The voluntary sector in rural communities is developing a range of services, which help to create employment and develop the rural economy, build on a volunteering base, provide essential local services in the community and add to the social economy. Providing access to services and an integrated transport service are key to meeting the needs of the rural communities and tackling rural poverty and social exclusion. The voluntary sector often brings services together, but, working alone, the voluntary sector cannot sustain the provision of integrated transport services.

Rural communities have been tackling rural poverty and social exclusion for many years. The difference now is that the importance of partnership working is forcing the sector to be more strategic and to get more done at a better pace. However, to take this further, the Voluntary sector needs to have greater recognition from key agencies about the value of their role and confidence from the agencies that the sector can deliver. Time to move from talking to action.

People's willingness to volunteer is crucial to the ability of the voluntary sector to deliver services in both urban and rural settings. In a rural area, it is likely that projects rely more heavily on a greater number of volunteers. Support from local and national bodies, in terms of training etc, is important to enable volunteers to work effectively.

What role does the voluntary sector have in tackling poverty and social exclusion in rural areas?

• The voluntary sector has a role in joining up a range of existing services by providing information and advice. This is particularly important in rural areas, where barriers of distance and cost make it difficult for people to access a range of different services.

• The voluntary sector can provide cost-effective services and lever in funding where it is not possible for agencies to deliver services because of diseconomies of scale.

• Building community capacity, giving communities the confidence to take forward projects locally.

What are the advantages of voluntary sector service delivery?

• In terms of joining up a range of existing services by providing information and advice, or consulting on local issues and services, the voluntary sector is often seen as an 'honest broker'. Voluntary sector delivery can remove real or perceived political barriers. However, it can sometimes mean that the voluntary sector merely has to deal with these barriers itself.

• The sector is often seen as being more responsive to the demands of local communities, particularly as most voluntary sector activity is instigated from within the community itself.

• On a personal level, people can be suspicious, or feel intimidated when dealing with agencies and have more trust in the voluntary sector. In rural areas, where visibility and stigma are problematic, this can put people at ease. However, it may also cause problems where volunteers face a heavy workload.

• The voluntary sector provides a means of offering demand responsive, cost effective services that may not otherwise be provided in rural areas.

How can statutory service providers support the voluntary sector and vice-versa?

• Consultation and involvement. The local voluntary sector should not be involved as an afterthought, but should be treated as a genuine partner by statutory bodies, which should be pro-active at the outset in consulting and involving the local voluntary sector in planning and strategy proposals. Better interaction with voluntary sector infrastructure bodies, such as Councils for Voluntary Service and Local Rural Partnerships (which should be working with local communities), is key to strategic planning and joining up initiatives. Community planning was seen as the main vehicle for this. Service level agreements and secondment of staff between the voluntary sector and bodies that provide statutory services were also suggested as a good way of building this type of relationship.

• Funding. Government should use other mechanisms for targeting funding for rural deprivation, other than through SIPs. Area based approaches are not appropriate for tackling rural deprivation. Voluntary sector in many rural areas is losing out on funding. Statutory service providers should support the voluntary sector through funding or in-kind contributions if the project is relevant to supporting the work of their organisation. Provision of travelling expenses to get to training and other events was highlighted. Challenge funding is difficult to administer because of the need to identify match funding from a range of sources.

• Support. Volunteers who live in the community often manage voluntary sector services. Statutory agencies should provide, or should work with the voluntary sector infrastructure bodies to provide support in terms of information, advice and training to people in rural communities who are involved in voluntary sector service delivery.

• Volunteering. People can be excluded from volunteering in rural areas because of isolation (particularly older people who may not be able to drive). Are there ways to involve people who are relatively isolated in volunteering.

• Definitions. The services provided by the voluntary sector must be additional to statutory service provision. It should be made clear what the statutory functions of various agencies are.

• Consolidation. Development of the voluntary sector and social economy should be focused on consolidation, rather than expansion.

Examples

Examples of projects given were:

• A fuel poverty project where a service provider uses local volunteers give advice to people on energy efficiency and benefits available to them. Experience has shown that occupants will often not be prepared to speak to officials from the service provider who call round, but will speak to a local volunteer who they know.

• Lessons to be learned from the experience of New Community Schools.

PANEL 3: THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LIFTING RURAL PEOPLE OUT OF POVERTY

Summary of Discussion

Points made during the introduction by panel members were as follows:

Scottish Enterprise Borders, along with the rest of the Scottish Enterprise Network, worked to the 3 themes of A Smart Successful Scotland - Growing Businesses, Global Connections and Learning and Skills. Within the broad indicators set, each LEC had to decide how to deliver activities to respond to local conditions. The report Poverty and Social Exclusion in Rural Scotland had been welcomed by Network, in particular the references made to the role, which Community Planning could play.

There was value in the concept of the private, public and voluntary sectors working together, within a "can do" philosophy, which enabled a dynamic economic formula to be developed, accessing more sources of funding and support that might have been possible by one of the partners acting alone. In addition to funding itself, private sector partners could contribute skills and financial management, while the community could bring drive and commitment. It was important, in such approaches, that each partner recognised the benefits that each party could bring to the process, as well as having a commitment to deliver a particular project.

One of the best ways out of poverty was through employment opportunities, with the quality of jobs and wage levels being critical considerations. Within the HIE area, many individual communities were excluded due to lack of skills and poor transport links. The results of bringing the sectors together was usually greater that the sum of the parts, as was being shown in Orkney with Community Planning and the Local Economic Forum. Community Enterprise was very important in the Highlands and Islands, with many community co-ops created in the 1970s still in existence today. For example, in the Western Isles, community bodies ran many tourist attractions. In a recent survey, the social economy in the Highlands and Islands was estimated to have an annual turnover of 360m. Key issues for the community enterprise sector were access to funding and access to expertise.

To what extent can economic development play a part in lifting people out of poverty and social exclusion?

• It was noted that the concerns of older people who had left the workforce should not be overlooked - particularly with regard to pensions and savings. This was a crucial issue, both now and in the future, with low wage employment meaning that older people in rural areas needed to sustain themselves in old age.

• Impact of economic development on health was also important. For example, in the former mining villages in East Ayrshire. Also, life choices which impacted on the ability of sections of the population to work - e.g. young women with young children.

• Importance of "sustainable" employment: there was a need to get agencies and employers to own labour market information being produced, to assist in growing rural economies. This may also help to address any mismatch between employers' expectations, and the available workforce. At present, the increases in educational attainment meant that young people often left rural areas to pursue their careers. There was therefore a need to improve the quality of rural job opportunities, particularly for young people.

• Engagement of communities in economic development was important. Bringing community groups together could lead to progress, which could snowball, with community confidence increasing at the same time. Over time, it could also lead to employment opportunities. However, there was a need to recognise that really isolated areas might lack a community, and thus engagement would be down to individuals in such areas.

• Need to build capacity to encourage smaller businesses to grow - including co-operatives. Enterprise should be encouraged and supported, harnessing existing skills, many of which may already be deployed on the black market.

How can the public, private and voluntary sectors work together to continue progress towards A Smart, Successful Scotland in rural Scotland?

• It was important that all bodies involved understood both their roles and activities, and those of other bodies. Dialogue between different groups was vital, as was mutual respect.

• Community Planning was a key development, and all bodies needed to be encouraged to work outside their boxes.

• Engagement of the private sector important - but this often needed to be developed (particularly in context of Community Planning). Such engagement could be via trade organisations, such as FSB of the CBI. Scottish Business in the Community could also facilitate useful links with local businesses.

• The success of links with agencies and private businesses was often dependent on the individuals involved. Therefore the importance of individuals should not be underestimated.

• Joint or partnership working was always likely to come up against the issue of on-going funding for initiatives, and how these could become sustainable in the longer term.

Is there a more prominent role for community enterprise in rural areas?

• Building community confidence took time and could be a long process (eg experience of Initiative at the Edge), particularly if there is a history of paternalism in some areas. The "can do" factor was an important one to instil in communities.

• Communities could often come up with great ideas - but needed help in building capacity and being realistic. Need to balance managing expectations with the "can do" culture.

• Often communities needed help with professional project management - which was where agencies and the private sector could provide assistance.

• A bottom-up approach could ensure that local issues were matched with local solutions. Joined-up working was essential.

• Some projects succeeded by having community ownership from the start - eg Fort Augustus. In such circumstances, communities might need help in identifying not only what they wanted to do, but how to start it.

Examples

Some examples of how the SEn were already acting on the findings of the report included work to engage with communities, such as the Grampian Community Challenge and Stirling Community Futures, support for the Institute of Social Enterprise at Galashiels which was doing some work on baselining the social economy and identifying its various roles, the appointment in Scottish Enterprise Tayside of Rural Economic Development officers, and joint working with other public and voluntary agencies, such as the work with the Health Board in the Borders on the Fine Fettle initiative.

HIE was also working with partners to develop a single entry point for economic development and business advice.

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