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IMPLEMENTING SERVICES IN RURAL SCOTLAND: A PROGRESS REPORT
CONCLUSION
1. In this report, we have provided our assessment of the progress which has been made in taking forward the findings and recommendations contained in the Services in Rural Scotland report, published in January 2001. While we were encouraged by the level of awareness of the report among service providers we spoke to and from whom we received written evidence, we were disappointed that more progress had not been made to implement the report. We have pointed out the possible reasons for this. These, along with our other main findings and conclusions, can be summarised as follows:
Overall
- Many of the findings and recommendations of the original report were aspirational in nature, making it more difficult to monitor progress than would have been the case if these has been more robust and targeted. It also resulted in some service providers appearing to have paid little more than lip service to the report.
- t is difficult to assess the extent to which the Services Report directly contributed to better provision of services in remote and rural areas. However, we welcome the general higher priority being attached to service delivery. It is notable that a considerable number of service delivery projects/ initiatives are being taken forward beyond the scope of the Report's specific recommendations.
- There continues to be a need for a more robust approach to assessing and measuring rural service needs and how delivery is meeting these needs. An enhanced evidential base & research, as well as mechanisms for assessing satisfaction among rural dwellers with the level and quality of provision of services, is essential.
Community Participation and Consultation
- Community Planning has huge potential to transform how services are planned and provided, but service providers will need to consult with local communities through existing mechanisms in the meantime (SIPs, LRPs, CVSs). Community Budgeting, bringing all partners' budgets to the table, is another potentially crucial development.
- Changes in the organisational structures of bodies involved in local partnership working (e.g. Communities Scotland) need to be sensitive to the impact these changes will have on service delivery in rural areas.
Community Capacity Building
- The need for longer term support and funding for community capacity building and for the voluntary sector. Variations in existing support in different geographical areas (in particular between the HIE and non-HIE rural areas) should be addressed.
- There may be value in having local Compacts to improve core support for voluntary organisations, delivering important services in rural areas.
- There is a need for a greater interface with Banks and other larger businesses in rural communities, to encourage participation in local partnerships.
- Attention also needs to be paid to the involvement of the local business community, and to ensuring that it has the capacity to play its role in influencing and addressing local service requirements.
- The inherent problem of sustainability of many rural services. Communities need to be facilitated to assess their service needs. Consideration should be given to supporting pilot community appraisal studies.
Partnership Working
- Partnership working is relatively common among public and voluntary sector organisations, particularly between those organisations with co-terminous boundaries. However, there are greater potential barriers to partnership working between the public/voluntary sector and the private sector. We also found very few examples of private sector sponsorship of local events or projects.
Innovative Approaches & Sharing Best Practice
- We found plentiful examples of innovative working, but relatively poor dissemination of best practice, particularly between organisations and geographic areas.
Multi-Purpose Buildings
- We found widespread support for community buildings, and the role they can play in enhancing service provision. However, issues remain regarding how these are funded and their long-term sustainability.
Childcare
- We were concerned at the lack of progress in addressing the provision and sustainability of childcare in rural areas.
2. Although we carried out our work 12 months after the report had been published, there were many developments - not least Community Planning - which were either just beginning, were in the pipeline or had still to bear fruit. We were therefore only able to provide an interim assessment of the impact which the Services in Rural Scotland report has had in improving service provision for rural communities. We also felt that our work in itself helped to raise the profile of the report, and we would hope that this can be built upon. We would therefore recommend that a further monitoring exercise is undertaken in, say, 2 years' time, to see what improvements have been made in rural service provision in that time.
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