EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. In June 2007, nine key public sector organisations delivering on behalf of the Rural Affairs and Environment portfolio were tasked by Scottish Ministers to draw up proposals to design and establish a co-ordinated and integrated service for land managers by summer 2008. The aim is to build a simpler, more efficient service, improving the provision of advice and guidance and reducing administrative burdens on customers. The new initiative will be known as 'Scotland's Environmental and Rural Services' or ' SEARS'.
2. During the spring of 2008, telephone interviews were conducted with 1,541 Scottish land managers to explore their experiences of dealing with the multiple environmental and rural agencies. A representative sample was selected from the Scottish Government's IACS database and the client lists of the SEARS bodies. An extensive pilot study tested the survey questionnaire and sampling frame; and a round of focus groups and depth interviews provided a more qualitative dimension to the data.
Overlap between the organisations
3. Relatively small proportions of land managers interviewed had ever experienced any overlap in the functions and services of the nine partner organisations or experienced any challenges in identifying the correct organisations to deal with.
- Eighty-nine percent said that they had never faced difficulties in identifying the most appropriate organisation to deal with specific issues.
- Eighty-four percent of research participants had not experienced overlap between organisations. Participants most likely to have experienced overlap were those whose main activity was forestry.
Future visits and inspections
4. Interviewees were presented with three scenarios for the organisation of visits to and inspections of their business and asked whether they believed them to be a good idea.
- Sixty-eight percent indicated that they would prefer visits or inspections from the same organisation to be undertaken at the same time and 61% indicated that it was practical for inspections to be undertaken at the same time. Dairy farmers were the most supportive; less supportive were those whose main activities were forestry or estates.
- Forty-five percent of participants would prefer visits from different organisations with different officers to be undertaken at the same time. Again, dairy farmers were most supportive; least supportive were those whose main activities were conservation or forestry.
- Seventy-four percent of interviewees would prefer that inspections and visits from different organisations be undertaken by a single officer. Participants most in favour were dairy farmers; least in favour were those from traditional and sporting estates.
Interviewees most involved in inspections related to large animals were most in favour of rationalisation of the inspection regimes.
Future organisation of Scottish rural and environmental services
5. Interviewees were asked to rate their level of agreement with three statements about the organisation of Scottish environmental and rural services on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
- The highest level of agreement (mean = 4.18) was with the statement that they would "prefer to deal with specialist staff in organisations focused on specific issues". Those whose main interest was forestry were most in favour of this.
- The statement that they would "like a one-stop shop approach to all public service related enquiries to issues affecting my land management" had a mean score of 3.76. Those in forestry or estates were less supportive of this idea.
- Although there was still strong support for the statement that they were "content with how I currently access these services" (mean score = 3.63) this was the least supported of the three statements. Participants in the north of Scotland were most supportive of the status quo.
6. During the qualitative phase of the project, strong support was expressed for local offices. Interviewees in the quantitative stage were therefore asked if they thought that a local office staffed by personnel from each organisation would provide a better service: 62% thought that it would. They were also asked if they believed that an integrated approach would be appropriate for Scotland's rural areas and 66% thought that it would.
Data-collection and sharing
7. In the qualitative research component, many respondents complained that the volume of paperwork was a bigger workload burden than dealing with inspections.
To gain an insight into the burden involved, interviewees were asked to estimate the time spent filling forms for the SEARS organisations.
- The mean amount of time spent was 1.83 hours per week. Examination of figures from the Federation of Small Businesses indicates that this is comparatively less time than is spent by businesses in many other sectors on regulatory matters.
8. Spending the most time on paperwork were those whose main activity was dairy or forestry and, unsurprisingly, those who dealt with the largest number of organisations.
- Eighty-three percent would be happy for the SEARS organisations to share data about them. The benefits of sharing data were identified as less bureaucracy, red tape and paperwork, the time saved and less overlap between organisations.
- Eleven percent of interviewees would not be happy for partners to share their data. Objections were generally related to a fear that personal information would enter the public domain as a result and less about organisations sharing data per se.
Opportunities for integration
9. Prior to the research, several activities or opportunities had been identified where co-ordination, co-operation or rationalisation of services and functions would be beneficial to land managers.
- Thirty-two percent of those surveyed were aware that the SEARS organisations had been asked to draw up proposals for an integrated service.
- Participants believed that current arrangements for dealing with the topics associated with the first opportunities identified for developing integrated services were handled relatively efficiently (mean scores ranging from 3.13 to 4.23, where 1 is very inefficient and 5 is very efficient).
- Sixty-seven percent of interviewees could not think of other areas of work where they would like to see an integrated approach although over 400 separate suggestions were made by the remainder. Unfortunately, no real consensus emerged which would make it obvious where further opportunities for integration should lie.
Satisfaction with organisations
10. Overall satisfaction with the contact that individuals had with the separate SEARS partners was similar to levels for other public sector organisations. On a scale of 1 (dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied), the score ranged from 7.76 to 6.08. The mean score for the SEARS family of organisations was 7.21, which is in line with that for other public service organisations.
11. Participants were asked which organisation provided the best service for on-site inspections. RPID received the highest rating across the board. Although, those with forestry as their main activity rated the Forestry Commission Scotland as the best and those from traditional and sporting estates rated the Deer Commission highest.
12. When explaining why certain organisations or services in particular geographical locations provided better service than others, the responses concentrated on the attitude and knowledge of staff in local offices.
Conclusions
13. This project has established benchmark levels of satisfaction with the SEARS family, individual experiences of difficulties faced and how efficiently current opportunities are handled, all of which will be essential in evaluating the operation of the SEARS project.
14. The research reveals that most land managers do not experience overlap between the functions of the key Scottish environmental and rural organisations (84%), nor do they experience difficulty in identifying the right organisation to contact (89%), suggesting that neither of these issues represents a widespread or significant problem. However, the findings also suggest the majority of land managers in Scotland (66%) would welcome further integration in delivering specific services, as long as they could still access the relevant expertise for their business.
15. The most valued element of current service-provision, and the one thing that land managers would most value in the future, is access to local services and expert support. However, this appears to be concerned mainly with the provision of advice and guidance, because 74% of land managers would support the idea of inspections being conducted by a single officer on behalf of a range of organisations.
16. The quantitative survey findings suggest that the burden of paperwork (mean of 1.83 hours per week) is not substantially greater than that faced by other commercial businesses. However, during the qualitative research, the volume of paperwork was identified as the single biggest problem faced by land managers and there remains a strong demand for both simplification and a reduction in the administrative burden.