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We will improve access to services essential to our life and work, and ensure that quality of life will depend on what you need, not where you are. |
There are advantages and disadvantages to living in any area of Scotland. Recent surveys indicate that those of us living in rural areas are, on balance, more satisfied with the quality of our lives than our urban counterparts, but one of the key issues is access to quality services. The Executive recognises this and is addressing it in a wide variety of ways.
Health and Community Care Services
We are determined to develop a modern NHS which - by being responsive to patients and delivering services in ways which reflect the varying needs of local communities - is appropriate for rural Scotland. To enable local needs to be properly addressed, we will ensure that the planning and delivery of services is people-centred and remains at local level. We will also ensure that the funding in the NHS in Scotland reflects the distinct requirements of remote and rural areas and will encourage Health Boards to direct services and health promotion initiatives to those areas of greatest need. At present, the formula used to allocate resources between Health Boards in Scotland takes little account of the additional costs that are incurred in delivering healthcare in remote and rural areas of Scotland. The report, Fair Shares for All, produced by a committee chaired by Sir John Arbuthnott, reviewed this allocation formula and recommended that more weight should be given to remote and rural areas in the distribution of resources for healthcare. Sir John Arbuthnott's committee is currently carrying out further work to address a range of issues raised during the consultation on the report. We expect to receive its revised report shortly, and will consider it carefully. We will ensure that the new formula takes into account the additional costs of delivering health care in remote and rural areas.
Rural Scots deserve access to good health and social care. We recognise the challenges faced in providing good quality premises and in recruiting and retaining suitably qualified staff in the more remote and rural areas. For example, Primary Care Trusts or Island Health Boards can appoint salaried dentists in areas where it is not economically viable for independent general dental practitioners to set up practices. There are currently 31 salaried dentists working under this scheme. And in areas where the demand for NHS dental treatment does not warrant a salaried dentist, for example because of a scattered and sparse population, Primary Care Trusts and Island Health Boards can make joint appointments whereby community dentists will provide general dental services for part of their time.
We are committed to working with the NHS in Scotland to establish managed clinical networks across rural Scotland to ensure consistent high standards of care and eliminate professional isolation. We will continue to invest in capital programmes to provide modern, efficient premises for health care services. This includes the £27 million currently programmed for the upgrading of primary care premises, £13 million for new acute hospital facilities in the Islands, as well as a wide range of redevelopment projects in existing community hospitals across Scotland.
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Developing Local Services In Aberdeenshire, a community based approach to the care and treatment of people with dementia has been championed resulting in the localisation of a full range of services previously centralised in and around Aberdeen City. The team covers the main centres of population and those in remote areas with few local facilities. The team is multi - agency and local care managers aligned to family doctors have devolved budgets to ensure a prompt local response to the needs of clients and their carers. The development of the community dementia team strengthens and builds on existing support networks and reverses the tendency for services to remove a person from their community. Hearing Local Views The Highland Community Care Forum was established in 1993 and enables people using community care services and their carers to share experiences and feed their views at a local level into the service planning process. The Forum is supported by a network of nine Local Fora representing an estimated 700 service users and carers across all client groups. The Highland Community Care Forum has established the Highland Carers Project and the Highland Advocacy Project. At local level the Inverness Fora has established a network of users, carers and key contacts within rural Invernesshire enabling exchanges of information between The Forum and over 70 local community care contacts. |
We will continue to promote effective joint working between the NHS and local authorities so that they can deliver flexible and imaginative community care services to people in their own homes wherever possible. We have established the Joint Future Group to agree a list of joint measures which all areas should have in place to deliver effective services, and set deadlines by which this must be done. We will ensure the quality of services by introducing national care standards and an independent, consistent system of inspection and regulation through the proposed Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (SCRC). This will be of particular benefit in rural areas where the choice of provider can be limited.
On the back of Modernising Community Care: An Action Plan we are encouraging local authorities and the NHS to develop joint appointments and staffworking across traditional boundaries in community care. This should streamline service management, provide flexible assessment and care management and maximise resources for service delivery. These forms of working can provide one point of access to the full range of community care services and reduce bureaucracy while delivering person-centred services more quickly and efficiently. Some areas have already moved on - e.g. social workers, nurses or occupational therapists as care managers - and we want this to become more widespread.
People who use services and their carers must be central to all decisions made about themselves and in the planning and delivery of services (see Case Studies above). Mechanisms are already in place to involve them in planning e.g. consultation on the development of Health Improvement Plans and Community Care Plans. Modernising Community Care: An Action Plan extends this to the delivery of services. We are also encouraging agencies to develop local advocacy services to ensure that the voice of service users is heard and used as a driver for service development and redesign. Getting carers views on the use of new resources for carers is an explicit part of the Strategy for Carers in Scotland.
When we launched the Strategy for Carers in Scotland in November 1999, with £10 million earmarked funds for carers' services and respite care, we stressed that the sometimes distinct needs and priorities of carers in remote and rural communities should be taken into account.
Around £7 million is spent each year in managing and developing GP out of hours services across rural Scotland. In addition, and in recognition of the particular problems faced in rural areas, we announced that over £213,000 is to be invested in 9 projects supporting models of out of hours provision in remote and rural areas. Some of these projects will explore how information technology and telemedicine can support GPs out of hours and also improve the quality and responsiveness of services which patients receive. In addition several projects will support the extension of out of hours co-operatives to include more GPs in remote and rural areas.
The NHS helpline provides freephone advice and supporting leaflets on health, health services and social care services. Later this year we will introduce NHS Direct Scotland. This significant and distinctly Scottish development will provide - in one phone call - advice on symptoms and if necessary the access to appropriate care, e.g. out of hours doctor, social care or ambulance. We believe some of the greatest benefit will be in our rural communities where it will support the efforts of NHS staff working often on their own in these areas.
New technology is already being used to improve the way in which information and services are provided. For example, the Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS) already makes a range of information available over the internet, and is planning to redesign its main website - HEBSWeb - to make it more user-friendly and responsive to users' specific needs.
The developments in information technology and telemedicine do much to tackle the challenges in trying to deliver equity of access to services in rural areas. In our Information Technology Strategy, we will ensure that maximum benefit is made of IT to improve access and make more equal, efficient and effective the health and community care services that rural communities receive. A three year initiative is already underway to put on an electronic basis the 20 million paper messages which presently pass around the NHS in Scotland in support of patient referrals, discharges, test results and patient appointments. Electronic patient records will be created to make information available to healthcare professionals and carers where it is required, when it is required. A number of examples of telemedicine projects linking rural communities to specialist advice already exist giving access to Accident and Emergency Consultants, radiology, psychology, and orthodontic services. These examples have all delivered benefits to patients and play an important role in developing networks of clinical expertise. Other initiatives are already underway and more work is planned for next year including considering the potential for links with local authority community care information systems. We also intend that information on care services will be posted and updated on a database by SCRC providers, and will be available to the public by telephone and electronically, along with the Commission's inspection reports on the quality of the services.
The Scotland-wide Remote and Rural Resource Initiative, in which we are investing £6 million over 3 years, is aimed at developing innovative ways of improving health provision in rural areas across Scotland. The Resource Initiative, based at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, will take full advantage of modern technology and communication systems and will also work with the professional organisations to develop training and developmental programmes for staff working in remote locations throughout the country.
The Scottish Ambulance Service is a key provider of pre-hospital care and transfers accident and emergency patients by road or air to hospital or between hospitals. In remote and rural areas, the Ambulance Service faces a particular challenge to mitigate delays and meet response time targets, and is committed to a range of initiatives aimed at helping them deliver a high standard of service in these areas. For example, it is collaborating with Health Boards and with 200 GPs involved in the British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) schemes to support, improve and expand the network of GPs providing immediate care. The Ambulance Service is also piloting a scheme in Dumfries and Galloway involving paramedics to reduce the call to needle time for the administration of certain clot-busting drugs to heart attack patients. Other initiatives include assisting in the training of first responders in the smaller and more isolated communities and using the Patient Air Transport Service.
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Islay: improving diet on a health promoting island Three years ago, when Argyll and Bute Health Promotion Task Group carried out a needs assessment on Islay, a poor diet was identified as one of the factors contributing to poor health on the island. Consequently, work to improve diet has featured prominently in the programme of the Islay and Jura Health Promotion Project, which is based in premises of the local GP who first mooted the idea of Islay as a "health promoting island". |
Promoting Public Health
Good health makes a vital contribution to the quality of life (see Case Study above). The Executive is committed to improving health and reducing inequalities throughout Scotland, by taking action to address life circumstances, lifestyles and priority health topics. We are making available an additional £26 million in 2000-01 to take forward this public health agenda. We will do so flexibly, to take account of the varying circumstances and needs of those living in rural Scotland. Healthy Living Centres, funded by the National Lottery, are one example of an initiative which is designed to enable communities to take action at local level to address their particular health priorities. This initiative has real potential for assisting disadvantaged rural communities by enabling the design of provision to be developed by communities themselves to meet local needs and context, and we will encourage its development in these areas.
This flexibility is also emphasised in work to encourage the adoption of healthier lifestyles, such as improving diet. An important part of the Scottish Community Diet Project, which is backed by over £500,000 of Executive funding, is the support being provided to rural communities to help them participate in the development of Community Food Initiatives specific to their needs. The major contribution of this Project to improving diet was recognised recently by the presentation to the Project of the prestigious BBC Derek Cooper Award for its outstanding work.
As part of the Soil Association's Lottery-funded Food Futures Project, Dumfries and Galloway Health Board is assisting with a pilot scheme supporting community-based sustainable food growing initiatives, enabling fresh natural produce to be brought to those on low incomes.
Drug misuse is a problem for communities throughout Scotland. In addition to benefiting from the Executive's Scotland - wide action, Drug Action Teams, the focal point for local action, are being encouraged to identify specific remedies which meet particular problems faced by rural communities.
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The Annandale Transport Initiative has been awarded £87,670 under the Rural Community Transport Initiative towards the purchase of 2 new wheelchair accessible minibuses and the employment of a part time transport co-ordinator. The project involves the co-ordinated provision of transport across the Mid and Upper Annandale area involving a number of voluntary organisations. The two new vehicles are centred on Moffat and Lockerbie and complement existing vehicles run by 4 voluntary bodies. The transport co-ordinator provides a common approach to community transport provision throughout the area as well as acting as a central booking point for the vehicles. |
Transport
The Executive recognises the concerns of many about inadequate or non-existent public transport; unreliable and expensive lifeline links; and high motoring fuel prices. We are committed to delivering transport policies that reflect the diverse transport needs of people living in rural areas, whether that is in the western and northern islands of Scotland, the Highlands, the southern uplands or the rural hinterlands of our major cities; as well as the very different travel needs of young people, families with children and pensioners. We are also committed to supporting the essential role of the car in rural community life, whilst encouraging alternatives to the car.
We are working with Local Authorities to meet the needs of their local area through their Local Transport Strategies. The Executive is spending £14 million between 1998 and 2001 on over 350 new and extended public transport services and 72 community transport projects right across rural Scotland, such as the Annandale Transport Initiative above, providing transport for those who do not have access to a car.
We are using the Public Transport Fund to deliver improvements in public transport infrastructure in rural areas. Freight Facilities Grants are enabling the removal of various significant freight flows from rural roads. Recent awards are helping to transfer grocery deliveries to stores in Inverness and other locations in the north of the country from road to rail, and are removing a large number of timber deliveries between Argyll and Ayrshire from road to sea. We are also encouraging integrated travel by delivering a national transport timetable and greater through ticketing across our public transport services.
Rural motorists will benefit from new road schemes announced in our Strategic Roads Review last year; from the substantially increased expenditure on the repair and maintenance of the trunk road network that is already underway; and from the Executive's support for the refurbishment of rural petrol stations, of which 15 have so far been approved for grant funding. We also recently extended the rural petrol stations grant scheme to allow it to meet the cost of installing dispensers and tanks for the supply of liquid petroleum gas in remote areas - providing a cheaper and more environ-mentally friendly alternative. Motorists in the Highlands and Islands will also benefit from the freezing of Skye Bridge tolls in cash terms from January 2000.
Some rural communities across Scotland have the advantage of being rail-connected. These connections make a vital social contribution and are a valuable asset to the local economy, including during the tourist season. Without substantial government support via franchise payments to companies such as ScotRail, Virgin Trains and GNER, it is accepted that rural services provided by them would not be commercially viable. Government grant to Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive also enables it to support rural train services within its area. Other rural areas have lost their link with the rail network, but, as the Borders railway feasibility study shows, the case for reinstatement can be investigated against the background of changing patterns of travel.
We will continue to sustain and develop lifeline transport links to remote and fragile communities. Support for services to the Islands in 1999/2000 was at record levels, including £12.7 million for Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and £14.8 million for Caledonian MacBrayne. Investment in new ferries and airport facilities is under way.
The Executive will work with the UK Government to ensure that the distinctive needs of rural Scotland are reflected in decisions on motoring fuel taxation and other reserved matters. We welcome the Chancellor of the Exchequer's decision in this year's Budget to abolish Air Passenger Duty on flights from Highlands and Islands airports, recognising the dependence of the Highlands and Islands on lifeline air links.
Looking to the future, our proposals to take powers to set a new basic level of fare concession for pensioners and people with a disability are likely to be of particular benefit to rural areas, where travel concessions have tended to be lower than for more urban areas. We will also be considering with interested parties locally the case for establishing a Highlands and Islands Transport Authority, which could take responsibility for Caledonian MacBrayne, Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and possibly other matters. Recognising the important role of transport in enabling rural dwellers to access services, we will be commissioning research on the accessibility of rural areas to local services by various modes of travel, to inform our policies for rural transport.
Housing
The Executive recognises the importance of having high quality affordable housing in rural areas and the linkages between poor health and bad housing. In taking forward our Scotland-wide commitment to provide everyone with a range of warm, secure and affordable housing options, we fully recognise the unique and specific challenges facing housing in our rural communities. We have therefore:
We will continue to strengthen rural housing in future years, and to help tackle the distinctive problems faced by pressured rural areas, we have also announced a new Rural Partnership for Change Initiative, set out in more detail above. This initiative will help inform the Executive on how it might frame any provisions in the forthcoming Housing Bill to designate a specified period for pressured rural areas, during which new tenants would not be able to exercise the right to buy. Any such power of designation which would replace the current but rarely used power, would apply solely to new tenants and would not affect the rights of existing tenants in any way.
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There are two strands to the Rural Partnership for Change Initiative:
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Rural Poverty
Eradicating poverty is a key priority for the Executive. We fully recognise that urban and rural communities experience poverty and social exclusion in different ways, and our approach must reflect this. The problems faced by rural communities in Scotland in the 21st Century are well documented - for example, the decline of traditional industries and a consequent lack of employment opportunities, ageing populations, and an inadequate public transport network. Each community will have its own pattern of needs and priorities, and we have put in place action - for example, Social Inclusion Partnerships or Working for Communities Pathfinders - with the capacity to work with communities in addressing those priorities.
We also need to gain a better understanding of what constitutes rural poverty, and how it should be tackled, if we are to ensure that our policies and actions are addressing the real causes of rural poverty. Useful work has begun on this, but we need to pull together what is being done at a Scotland level with the thinking which is developing in individual areas. We will now do this with a view to developing some key indicators of rural poverty and disadvantage which reflect the realities faced by rural communities and provide tools in the fight to eradicate poverty.
Homelessness and Rough Sleeping
We are committed to eradicating homelessness and the need for rough sleeping in Scotland's cities, towns and villages. In rural areas, homelessness and rough sleeping tends to be less visible, but it is no less of a problem. The on-going Rough Sleepers Initiative has, to date, provided significant resources (£4 million) to rural local authorities to fund activities aimed at addressing the problems in their areas. Eleven rural local authorities have received this funding which has been used to research the problem, develop or redevelop four direct access facilities and provide eight outreach projects, two rent deposit schemes, three resettlement services and three health support projects. In addition, the Homelessness Task Force, chaired by the Deputy Minister for Communities, has been set up to examine current practice in dealing with cases of homelessness; and to make recommendations on how homelessness can best be prevented and, where it does occur, tackled effectively. It will look into particular aspects of rural homelessness.
Voluntary Sector
We recognise the key role which the voluntary sector plays in rural communities. Voluntary and community groups are in close touch with marginalised groups and are well placed to identify and respond to changing needs. The sector is a major service provider and important for community capacity building.
We are implementing the Scottish Compact, the agreement with the voluntary sector on working in partner-ship, throughout Executive Departments, Agencies and NDPBs. We also provide £6 million annual support to national voluntary sector infrastructure and central initiatives, including £1.07 million to some 40 Councils of Voluntary Service (CVS) across rural and semi-rural Scotland, and £1 million to the national network of Local Volunteer Development Agencies (LVDA), and we have a commitment to complete both these networks.
Modern technology offers new opportunities to link the work of voluntary sector organisations in rural areas, enabling the sharing of experience and good practice. We are discussing with the voluntary sector what assistance the Executive may be able to provide in promoting greater use of ICT in the sector.
Policing and Community Safety
Rural areas are still among the safest in the country, with the lowest levels of recorded crime and especially low rates of violent crime. However there is still a need to address crimes common to rural areas such as theft, vandalism and unruly behaviour and to help alleviate the fear of crime especially amongst the elderly and those living alone.
Effective policing requires a partnership between the local force and the community it serves. The policing of rural areas presents special challenges because of the type of police service which has to be provided. There are particular operational difficulties because of the distances involved, for example Northern Constabulary covers an area similar in size to Belgium, and the sparsity of population. Therefore the partnership between the police and the local community is even more important than in urban areas. Rural forces place a high priority on liaison with the public, with policing priorities being set at Divisional level taking account of the needs of local communities. An example is the work of the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary set out in the Case Study.
We are supporting a number of initiatives aimed at addressing crime and fear of crime in rural areas. Examples of some of the measures we are taking are: promoting the development of effective Community Safety Partnerships in all Scottish Local Authorities; providing tangible support - £3 million in 2000-01 for urban and rural areas through the CCTV and Community Safety Challenge competitions; and administering an £8 million Development Fund for 2000-2002 to improve the service provision to women and children experiencing domestic abuse and to improve prevention strategies.
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Both Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and Dumfries and Galloway Fire Brigade achieved Charter Mark status for the third time in 1999. The award of a Charter Mark shows that an organisation puts its users first and is delivering a first class service. As well as achieving Charter Mark status, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary's recent highlights include: achieving Investors in People status; the introduction of a programme of evaluated initiatives, focusing on local policing problems, entitled "Safeguard 2000"; and the use of two mobile police stations and one stop shops for policing of rural communities. Dumfries and Galloway Fire Brigade's most recent achievement in this area has been the introduction of a Community Fire Safety Exhibition Unit which was jointly funded by the Brigade and ScottishPower. |
Fire Services
A quick and effective response to fires, road traffic accidents, and other emergencies is important to all communities. Fire cover in many rural areas is provided by part-time retained firefighters, who have essentially the same equipment and expertise as wholetime firefighters and operate to nationally recommended standards. In the more thinly populated areas of West and North of Scotland and the Islands, however, fire cover has traditionally been provided by volunteer units. We have taken steps in recent years to improve the standard of accommodation, vehicles, equipment and training of these units to a new "auxiliary" level; and we plan to do more yet.
For example, Highlands and Islands Fire Brigade, which has 92 of the total of 133 volunteer units, now has a rolling programme of upgrading in the course of which 6 volunteer units have so far been converted to retained status and a further 22 have been brought up to the auxiliary level. The Executive is currently allocating some £800,000 of capital consent in each financial year to Highlands and Islands Fire Board specifically to enable them to carry this programme forward.
Access to Legal Services
There are sometimes concerns about ready access to solicitors in rural areas. Inevitably, the economic pressures on the legal profession will determine the availability of solicitors in rural areas. While the Executive cannot intervene directly, we intend to use powers under the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 to support initiatives which seek to address deficiencies in availability. Improved access to justice can be achieved by building on existing structures in local communities, such as Citizen's Advice Bureaux. We have asked the Scottish Legal Aid Board to consider the setting up of a number of pilot schemes to improve access to justice. In addition, research has been commissioned to identify the availability of services in Scotland and this will be used to decide how best to proceed with the pilots in the future. We are also ensuring that additional payments under the Fixed Payments Scheme are made available to address the difficulties encountered in providing criminal legal aid services in rural areas.
The Executive is committed to maintaining the network of Sheriff Courts across rural Scotland. IT developments, such as providing small claims and summary cause application forms on the Scottish Court Service website, and a pilot scheme to enable people to pay court fines by debit card or standing order, will be of real benefit to people living in rural areas, reducing the need to travel to courts.
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The Lochaber Communications Network The Lochaber Communications Network pathfinder is empowering the remote communities of Ardnamurchan and Lochaber by using new technology to improve access to information. The project dates back to a "Planning for Real" exercise carried out under the LEADER programme in 1996, and the desire of local voluntary groups to improve services for those living in remote areas. With a grant of £350,000 over 3 years from Working for Communities, community IT resource centres have been established in Kinlochleven, Kilchoan, and Mallaig giving access to an integrated website of services provided by Highland Council, the Local Enterprise Company, the local Health Trust, voluntary sector and others. Acharacle will be linked up in April. The project will also:
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Water Services
Safe drinking water and sewage disposal services that meet the highest European standards are essential for everyone in Scotland, including those living in rural areas. We will invest £1,800 million over the next three years to modernise water industry infrastructure. Much of this investment will be in a compre-hensive programme to improve drinking water standards across rural areas, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. We will also introduce legislation to meet new EU standards for drinking water and wastewater treatment and disposal.
Role of Local Government
As noted throughout this document, local government plays a vital role in sustaining and serving Scotland's rural communities. Local authorities, often working with community councils, have a key role to play in supporting these communities and helping them respond effectively to the particular challenges attached to the delivery of services in rural and remote areas. Innovative initiatives such as the Highland Wellbeing Alliance have shown how rural councils can forge a community leadership role, working in partnership with other local organisations to improve the quality of life for people in their areas, and helping to build the capacity within rural and remote communities to identify and meet their needs.
However, it is recognised that councils face additional costs in serving isolated and dispersed communities in rural areas. The local government finance system acknowledges these additional costs across key council services, including education, policing, roads and transport, consumer protection and environmental health. We are committed to keeping the local government finance system under review to ensure that it reflects the needs of both rural and urban areas.
Community Planning is a process which offers important potential for improving the delivery of local services for rural communities. By linking communities with the organisations which deliver many important services, it will provide a way of matching local needs with action. Local authorities have a key co-ordinating role to play in bringing local partners together, but Community Planning is also about developing and implementing a common agenda which is owned by all participants. We are committed to promoting the Community Planning process to encourage the delivery of a shared vision for each community, using joined-up strategies and community involvement to help meet the needs of rural communities.
As part of our current Review of Local Rural Partnerships, due to be completed later this year, we will be considering how the Community Planning process might provide a framework for promoting local rural development and local partnerships in the future.
Planning and Delivering Services in the Future
The challenge of providing services in rural communities is an ongoing one. While Community Planning will play a key role in ensuring that we continue to identify better and innovative ways of doing this in future, there are a number of other initiatives which are designed to make a significant contribution to the delivery of services.
The Executive recently announced a £25 million Modernising Government Fund to support projects that are based around providing services in new and innovative ways to the citizen. We are determined that the Fund should promote more joined-up working, such as a one-stop approach to services, and that is why we have said that we will give priority to those bids which involve the delivery of services or policies from more than one public sector body. Priority will be given to those bids coming forward from rural areas.
The Working for Communities programme funds 4 pathfinders across rural Scotland trying innovative ways of bringing local services more in line with the needs of local people, such as the Lochaber Communications Network described in the above Case Study. A pathfinder in Stranraer is training local people to act as "community agents" - giving them knowledge about a wide range of services to share with their neighbours. The pathfinder will tackle a range of community concerns such as safety and deterioration in the local environment. Another pathfinder in the Western Isles is joining up local services through a One-Stop Shop on Barra, while also providing an information service and website specifically for young people. We will follow carefully the progress of these pathfinders, and will consider the lessons which can be learned for innovative service delivery in other rural areas.
We recognise that for many people who live in rural areas, the health and well-being of their communities is gauged according to the range of services available locally, and the closure of a bank or post office, for example, can be seen to pose a serious threat to the future viability of the community itself. However, we also recognise that commercial pressures often make it difficult for some service providers to continue to provide a service which is unviable. There is no single or easy solution to this problem, but we are committed to working with communities and service providers to explore innovative and imaginative ways of providing these services which might ensure that rural communities can access the services they need.
There are already, in some parts of rural Scotland, service providers and local communities who are developing innovative ways of delivering services in rural areas, whether these be through agency arrangements, or by sharing of premises, or even through the community itself providing the service. For example, in Angus, the local tourist board is linking up with the Post Office to provide tourist information points in sub post offices. Another example of an innovative approach is the decision by the Forestry Commission to transfer the management of some of their forests to local communities. One issue which needs to be addressed is why such best practice is not being replicated elsewhere - are there any barriers preventing innovation? We want to do what we can to learn lessons from these kind of examples, and to enable other communities to build on these experiences in developing solutions to their own service provision needs.
We will bring together service providers, under the auspices of the Scottish National Rural Partnership (SNRP) - the body which advises the Executive on rural policy - to identify innovative approaches to providing services in rural areas and to consider how these examples might benefit and be replicated in other parts of rural Scotland. We have asked SNRP to convene this Group and to report back to Ministers by the end of November 2000, with recommendations on ways in which services might be delivered differently in rural areas, how communities might be supported in identifying their service needs, and what needs to be done to help service providers to work with local communities and vice versa, to ensure that enhanced local service provision becomes a reality for rural communities.
Another issue of concern to those living in rural areas is the extent to which retail prices, given the population sparsity and remoteness that affects many parts of rural Scotland, and often a general inability to exploit economies of scale, vary from those in more urban locations. We intend to work with Scottish Enterprise and HIE to obtain accurate aggregate data on retail prices in rural Scotland.
Our Approach
Quality of life is made up of many things. There are many advantages to living in a rural area, but one of the main disadvantages is lack of access to some services. This Chapter concentrates on that _ the main public and private services available to people. Problems are often caused by distance and sparsity of population - realities which we must accept _ but the Executive is determined to continue to develop, with rural communities, new and innovative ways of improving access to quality services. We are:
ensuring that rural areas enjoy both consistent high standards of health care and continued investment in the provision of modern and efficient premises for health services;
spending £14m over three years on new public and community transport projects in rural areas; spending on lifeline links to remote and fragile communities is at record levels; we are considering the case for a Highlands and Islands Transport Authority; funding the refurbishment of rural petrol stations; and commissioning research on the accessibility of rural areas to local services;
acting to provide affordable rural housing through an increase of 10% in Scottish Homes expenditure in rural areas and launching a pilot scheme led by Highland Council to tackle the distinctive problems faced by some pressurised rural areas;
over 3 years, investing £1,800 million in the water industry across Scotland, including in rural areas;
working with CoSLA and the National Community Planning Taskforce to ensure that community planning is rolled out in ways which ensure that the rural voice is heard and the needs of rural areas are fully recognised; and
bringing together service providers, under the auspices of the Scottish National Rural Partnership, to identify innovative ways of delivering services in rural communities.
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The
Annandale Transport Initiative
Rural
Partnership for Change Initiative
Dumfries
& Galloway Constabulary and Fire Brigade