Good Practice in Rural Development
No.8
Innovative Methods of Service Delivery in Rural Scotland:A Good Practice Guide
Executive Summary
Access to services ties in with opportunity, quality of life, and social justice. People in remote or rural areas are especially vulnerable to social exclusion. Making services more accessible can be seen, therefore, as a positive step towards tackling geographic and social marginalisation.
This report looks at various different ways of providing key services to people living in rural areas. The case studies presented here are sorted into broad categories of shared premises, mobile facilities, the use of new technology and/or community-run services. These categories are not mutually exclusive and many of the projects described use mixed methods of service delivery.
The sharing of premises is useful in reducing costs across service providers and creating a point of focus for the community. However, this could result in a compromise on service quality resulting from a lack of sufficient space. Purpose-built community buildings have higher costs in the short-term but may be more flexible and sustainable over the long-term.
Mobile facilities can be expensive to run but are an effective means of taking services out into remote communities. However, the use of effective advertising is necessary to let people know where and when the service will be visiting.
New technology can be a useful way of reaching many people as well as providing a confidential service for people, for example, internet banking or NHS Direct. Web-sites focussing on the local area have also been recognised not only as a valuable tourism resource providing information on local accommodation and businesses but also a good way of harnessing community spirit and identity.
Often, community-run services work where public and private sector services do not as the incurred costs of staff tends to be less and so the unit cost of provision is lower. Many of the communities can tap into a diverse base of skills existing within the community. Local people who have invested their own time and effort into developing a service are likely to expend even more energy into maintaining the service.
There is a growing recognition of the role that voluntary organisations and communities can play in the provision of services thereby reducing the strain on statutory bodies. However, capacity building takes time, especially with community-run services. Capacity building hinges on building confidence for both individuals and communities.
There is no 'ideal' way of providing services in rural areas - a diverse range of joined-up approaches to service delivery, designed to compliment one another, are required to meet the range of needs in rural Scotland. Whilst there is no one solution to addressing service needs there are numerous examples of good practice, some of which are contained in this report.