CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusions
5.1 The evidence is that a rather broad range of different types of one stop shop have proven themselves to be useful means of improving both the delivery and the co-ordination of services in a wide range of rural contexts.
5.2 What follows is a summary of the critical factors associated with establishing and sustaining one stop shops.
5.3 The conditions under which useful one-stop-shops can emerge and flourish include:
- Community desire for service provision of this kind in their area
- Strong community involvement in the pre-establishment, establishment and operational phases
- Support in cash, kind, and for use of facilities from the relevant central and local government departments and agencies
- Careful attention to design and siting of buildings
- Where possible, community owned and run facilities that have on-going revenue streams, which provide core revenue for running costs including maintenance and improvements, as well as revenue towards other community activities and projects
5.4 The kind of support from government and other funders that can best facilitate sustainable one-stop-shops has the following characteristics:
- Responsive to community needs and supportive of community decision-making
- Long term rather than short term support including capital cost funding if needed and revenue support if the one-stop-shop is serving on-going needs that are served by public services or serving disadvantaged communities
- Providing a just, equitable and democratic framework for community run one stop shop, for example, a company limited by guarantee with arrangements for the election of directors
5.5 Central government must also be more 'joined up' in considering how its funding programmes, services, regulations and sectoral departments and agencies impact on local communities, and on one stop shop projects. For example, the Community School in Ardnamurchan suffers because parents in Kilchoan are able to send their children to Tobermory school in the ferry supported by a three-year transport grant. Similar issues arise about regulations that can adversely affect service provision, especially where volunteers are involved([as noted in the case of food hygiene regulations in at least one case). Encouragement of liaison between local authorities and community-run one stop shops needs to be strengthened.
5.6 Key problem areas with start-ups include:
- Opposition from segments of the community
- Lack of credibility with major funders
- Relatively large capital funding needs ( e.g. for multipurpose community buildings) in relation to the size of the population
- Top-down initiatives to take advantage of funding opportunities, and without community involvement
- Lack of realistic payments for use of community facilities, for example by education and health users
- Short-term nature of non-capital funding
- Lack of land in community ownership, or available to the community from publicly held land
- Lack of support for feasibility studies including assessment of different constitutions and design and layout issues, except in the case of Community Land projects, where the Community Land Unit of Highlands and Islands Enterprise provides such support, and this may be supplemented by the Scottish Land Fund
5.7 Key problems in running one-stop shops include:
- Difficulties in maintaining enthusiasm and time commitments among volunteers - particularly if the one stop shop is a success and management becomes a major issue
- Apathy among members of the community where an one stop shop settles into a routine
- Staffing where funding is short-term
- Housing for staff in remote areas
- Legislation that hampers recruitment of volunteers and other staff
- Legislation that restricts activities within the one stop shop, particularly in relation to catering and health & safety
- Reconciling the needs of different users, especially in the situation of the use of community schools
- Public-private partnership arrangements which limit access times to buildings
- Securing an appropriate mix of activities/services that are complementary rather than conflicting in their purpose
- Where partners are very unequal in terms of access to capital or revenue funding, then views of well resourced partners can prevail over those with fewer resources
5.8 Other issues include:
- There are actual or potential disadvantages as well as advantages to one stop shops. One is that some people can be worse off in cases where services are centralised in a one-stop-shop. For example, the creation of a library facility in a one-stop-shop may mean the ultimate loss of a mobile library service. Although a better service may result for those able to access the one-stop-shop, for those without cars or access to transport, who are housebound, or remotely located, this may mean a loss of access to any library service. Since such groups will generally lack material resources or be otherwise disadvantaged, the consequences may be an increase in disadvantage
- There is scope for more interaction and peer group learning between one stop shops. For example, it seems that there is no interaction or even knowledge of one stop shops aimed at youth in rural areas.
Policy recommendations
5.9. A number of key policy recommendations follow from the findings and analysis summarised above. These are:
- One stop shops can be very effective in improving service provision, and so public policy should be supportive. However, one stop shops are a means of generating and maintaining community involvement in improving the range and quality of services and achieving greater integration on the ground rather than a means of reducing public expenditure in rural areas or centralising public services and this should be recognised;
- One stop shops should not be regarded as a 'quick-fix' for the problems of rural service provision; they need careful analysis of the needs to be met, sound design and planning which involves potential users as well as the providers, and provision for future expansion.
- Public policy could support the development of community run one stop shops by providing the kind of support provided by the Community Land Unit of Highlands and Islands Enterprise for community land buy-outs. This support could include support for visits to existing community-based one stop shops in other areas, support for feasibility studies and legal advice on constitutions for instance;
- Public funding for community-led one stop shops needs to address both capital costs and longer-term funding needs. It must be flexible enough to meet community needs and support their decisions - one size does not fit all, either in terms of the form that one stop shops take, or in the nature of the community or partnership that is promoting them;
- Public capital funding schemes should avoid over-prescription, leading to one stop shop proposals that are essentially top-down and 'funding-led', and should encourage significant community and agency involvement during the planning and design stages;
- Public funding for revenue needs of one stop shops must move from the current situation of one stop shop-dependency on short term funding for delivery of core local services, to serving long term needs;
- Policy to encourage Community Schools, while admirable in principle, fails to recognise some very real problems and issues with this model. The policy needs to be reviewed by a multi-disciplinary group that can also consider community and other user and provider viewpoints from a wider perspective.
- Community-led one stop shops need to consider their pricing and costing strategies carefully and where appropriate, with a view to improving sustainability;
- One stop shops dealing with particular client groups, e.g. small communities, young people, and older people, can benefit greatly by arrangements for visits during the inception and planning stages, and on-going networking with regular meetings between staff and directors etc. This will facilitate peer-group learning and exchange of experience.