Rural Scotland - trajectories of young people and young adults: report

Appendix 1

Overview of Scottish policy actors, strategies and interventions

This appendix to the report presents a brief overview of Scottish policy actors, strategies and interventions relevant to our focus on mobilities amongst people aged 16-45. The appendix is organised around a number of themes and discusses interventions which either implicitly or explicitly seek to support outcomes relevant to the mobility of this age cohort in Scotland’s rural communities.^[34]

In preparing this appendix, a broad range of relevant Scottish Government policy publications were reviewed. In a reflection of the wider definition of youth and young adults used throughout this report, the policy documents scoped for inclusion went beyond those focusing specifically on youth mobility, i.e up to age 25. In an initial scoping exercise over 200 documents were sourced from across the Scottish Government.^[35] Following a rapid review, 28 documents were identified as having either implicit or explicit implications for the mobilities of young people and young adults in Scotland. The majority of these were concerned with interventions focused on regeneration of rural areas and made explicit links between this and the mobilities of young working age people, and attracting them to, or retaining them within, communities.

The review also attempted to capture some of the activity ongoing in this area which is led by local and regional actors. The Addressing Depopulation Action Plan (ADAP) was published by the Scottish Government in February 2024 to establish a strategic policy position with regards to depopulation. The Plan includes a mapping of a range of new and existing activity which aims to support population retention and attraction, and which is, or has been, undertaken across government and by local and regional delivery partners. Pathfinder interventions commenced in 2024/25, funded by Scottish Government, in six local authority areas across Scotland (Highland, Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde, East Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar). These pathfinders reflect locally-identified priorities deemed to be significant drivers of population decline in affected communities, where intervention may support population attraction and retention. For example, Highland’s project focuses on childcare provision in north-west Sutherland, and Argyll and Bute’s focuses on addressing local housing challenges. These pathfinders are overseen by an Addressing Depopulation Delivery Group, which contains membership from the Scottish Government, COSLA, local authorities, and the EAG. Many of the policies and interventions discussed below which have been initiated by local and regional actors are included in the ADAP. Some other examples from national, regional and local actors were identified in an informal scoping exercise undertaken by COSLA in early 2023.

As part of a wider attempt to ensure better cohesion across policy areas and between levels of governance the Scottish Government facilitates a joined-up policy approach to addressing population challenges through its Population Programme Board, which brings together a range of policy areas, governmental structures and delivery partners including Transport Scotland, COSLA and the enterprise agencies. Ministerial-level oversight is provided by the Ministerial Population Taskforce which brings together ministers from across a range of Scottish Government portfolios with links to population policy. A Population Roundtable co-chaired by COSLA and Scottish Government provides a forum for all local authorities to discuss unique local challenges and share best practice. Although these fora do not focus solely, nor even sometimes explicitly, on addressing mobility of rural young people, they do present an opportunity to address relevant issues and to connect policy development and delivery to locally-identified needs and barriers.

Key themes and interventions

Youth-based engagement / representation

The Young Islanders Network,^[36] was created in 2021 as a collaboration between Scottish Government and Youth Scotland, to provide a space for young people (aged 12 to 25) to discuss matters relating to the implementation of the National Islands Plan (2019) – a framework for action to improve outcomes for island communities. The network involves representatives of the community working with Scottish Government officials, and where there is scope, additionally working with cohorts of young people across Scotland who are affected by challenges relating to population decline. The intention of this engagement is to understand young peoples’ experiences better in the context of population decline, and for this to inform subsequent policy development. Work by the Young Islanders Network on their Transport Challenge^[37] and Housing Challenge^[38], for example, has been submitted for consideration by relevant Ministers. There are also pathways for such considerations to inform the next phase of delivery of the Action Plan to Address Depopulation.

The Scottish Rural & Islands Youth Parliament^[39] helps to mobilise young people (aged 16 to 30) living in rural and island communities across Scotland. The parliament aims to amplify their diverse voices, and to create space for strengthening connections between communities, organisations and decision-makers in Scotland, the UK and Europe.

As vehicles for youth engagement and representation, both the Network and the Parliament seek to provide opportunities for young people to discuss issues relating to mobility, to reflect on the impacts of policy interventions, and to feedback their perspectives and experiences. These initiatives have been supported by the Scottish Government and are included within the ADAP as a demonstration of partnership working between government and community-led, third sector organisations.

Community delivery

Beyond direct engagement with young people in Scotland’s rural and island communities, a broad range of activity occurs within, or in support of community-led initiatives with an aim to support the attraction and retention of populations in rural and island areas. All of the activities and organisations discussed below either receive funding from the Scottish Government, or act as a direct conduit for ongoing policy engagement with local communities. There has also been interaction between regional and local actors, sometimes coming together into regional structures such as regional enterprise agencies, or the Convention of the Highlands and Islands (CoHI), to consider both shared and distinct challenges relative to their localities. This work has often spanned a range of policy areas and sought to develop joined-up approaches considering various factors of relevance to rural mobility.

Community Councils are the most local tier of statutory representation in Scotland. They serve to bridge the gap between local authorities and communities and help to make public bodies aware of the opinions and needs of the communities that they represent. In recognition of this, the Scottish Government has been working to support Community Councils to increase rural youth participation to empower young people to inform improvements to services in their area, making rural communities more attractive places to live and work.

The Uist Beò platform^[40] is an example of a community-based and led project which has been developed with the aim to improve population attraction and retention outcomes. Created and managed by Uist residents it has been designed to showcase Uist and to encourage relocation and settlement as well as connecting residents to resources and promoting available opportunities. HIE, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CnES), the Scottish Rural Network and Bòrd na Gàidhlig have contributed to maintaining this platform, which seeks to support a community-based approach to attraction and retention within this region.

Within a number of local authorities Community Settlement Officer posts have been created to support a place-based approach to attraction and retention. The first three, in Argyll and Bute, Uist and North-West Sunderland, were funded in collaboration between HIE local authorities and Scottish Government. As part of the Action Plan to Address Depopulation pathways funding, these posts have been extended and three further posts created in East Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Inverclyde. The purpose of these roles is to understand better and address distinct population attraction and retention challenges within the area. A focus on youth mobility and the retention and/or attraction of economically active individuals is central to much of this work.

At a regional level, the Convention of Highlands and Islands (CoHI) Working Group on Population has met regularly over the last two years and aims to provide a platform to discuss population issues and to pilot approaches to address population decline within the region. The group have identified five areas of focus: jobs, housing, critical infrastructure (including transport and broadband), the provision of and accessibility to public services, and the retention and attraction of young people. In 2024, the group moved under the structures of the Highlands and Islands Regional Economic Partnership, demonstrating the need for strategic coherence when harnessing economic levers across the region and their role in addressing population challenges.

Investment and enterprise

A range of activity delivered at local and regional level to support inward investment and local enterprise can produce outcomes with implicit impacts for young people’s mobility. Some of this is explicitly recognised and supported through policies and strategies at national level, for example within the ADAP, where the Scottish Government is exploring opportunities to support local enterprise to enable healthy local economies and sustainable populations. The Scottish Government has provided investment through a number of Growth Deals.^[41] These are agreements between Scottish, UK, and local governments, designed to bring about long-term strategic approaches to improving regional economies. The Scottish Government has given a commitment to cover all regions of Scotland and has agreed a level of investment for each region, supporting authorities to deliver on locally-identified needs.

At regional level Highlands and Islands Enterprise has funded the development of businesses and community enterprises and states its aim to enhance the skills of people working within the region. At local authority level, some authorities have developed bespoke websites focused on attracting investment into their area to enhance local employment opportunities and wider regeneration.

Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) is an umbrella body for member-led organisations providing support to communities across Scotland to set up, develop and grow local development trusts. Some development trusts focus specifically on supporting community regeneration and seek to develop a strong community infrastructure to meet the needs of people and place.

Education and skills development

Scottish Government funding through the No One Left Behind employability strategy (2020) has supported locally based organisations to provide services and support aimed at increasing economic growth and improving employment outcomes. In Argyll and Bute for example, Inspiralba provides services aiming to support employability and learning pathways for local people and to support the development rural social enterprise.

Recognising that access to Higher Education is a key driver in the attraction and retention of young people, HIE has invested in its regional university. In its Strategic Plan 2030 the University of the Highlands and Islands (2023) sets out a vision to “attract, nurture and retain talent in communities, supporting innovation and social and economic prosperity ^[…] through the innovative delivery of flexible lifelong learning focused on employability and skills and impactful research”. The University has offered specialist courses seeking to attract young people to the region through skills-based learning that aligns with distinct rural needs and opportunities. These include, for example, courses in adventure tourism, textiles, and archaeology. In addition to skills-based learning, UHI also provide work-based learning pathways into further and higher education, linked to local employment opportunities.

The Island Skills and Repopulation Project was delivered in 2023, in partnership with the CoHI Population Working Group. This includes Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, and local authority partners. The pilot focussed on addressing key challenges within the skills sector as well as local recruitment challenges across the islands. Following delivery of the Island Skills and Repopulation Pilot, which sought to create an ‘on-island’ employment infrastructure to address local recruitment challenges and support new entrants and career changers to explore opportunities across a range of sectors, the Scottish Government worked with partners to commission an analysis of the three pilot areas in Argyll and Bute, Arran and Cumbrae, and Uist. This was undertaken with a view to better understand the impact of developing a more bespoke, place-based approach to matching locally-identified need with relevant skills development and delivery. Future publication of this analysis will aim to help to inform future skills delivery across rural and island areas.

Decisions taken around the provision of education services consider less explicitly the impact on the mobility of young working age people and their families. The Scottish Government’s Learning Estate Strategy (2019) sets out its strategic vision for the learning estate in Scotland. In addition, the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, is responsible for the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) which prioritises schools in need of updating, as identified by local authorities. When considering where to build new schools or refurbish existing buildings, a range of factors are considered such as the condition and suitability of existing buildings. LEIP projects complement local authorities’ activities in relation to their learning estate and local authorities oversee and fund their own school building/refurbishment projects. Decisions taken by local authorities to build, retain or close schools could have significant repercussions for the mobility choices of young people, especially those with younger children or planning to start a family, however the issue of the impact on mobility is not usually explicitly considered in the planning process.

Housing

The Scottish Government’s Housing to 2040 Strategy (2021) included engagement with 350 young people from over 12 communities across Scotland during its development. The strategy recognises the significant role that local housing availability and cost play in young people’s decisions and choices regarding mobility and the impacts this can have for depopulation in rural areas. The strategy makes a commitment to scale up opportunities for self-provided housing to aid young people staying in rural areas if they wish to, in addition to ‘considering the wider factors that make a house a home’. This latter point emerged directly from consultation with young adults as important to both retaining and attracting young families. Within this Strategy, Scottish Government committed to putting more focus on ‘place’ within housing programmes, in addition to planning funding carefully alongside other investment being made in local areas. This includes developing a Place Investment Framework to help support more affordable homes in existing communities, town centres, and 20-minute neighbourhoods.^[42]

The Scottish Government’s Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan (2023) sets out steps to explicitly address the attraction and retention of young people. Both the Young Islanders Network and Rural Youth Project^[43] were included in a consultation process underpinning the development of the Action Plan as a way of ensuring that locally identified needs and young people’s perspectives were included. The plan includes a commitment of £5 million as part of the Highland City Region Deal to deliver high quality affordable houses across rural locations within the Highlands. Nonetheless, housing remains a difficult issue in many localities and one that local authorities are struggling to address, some seeing it as the primary focus of the work of their settlement officers and pathway funding through the ADAP.

Transport

Population and Household Location Research undertaken by Scottish Government in 2023, found that both digital and transport connectivity were pre-requisite to (re)location decisions. Improved connectivity was seen to expand the search area of people considering a change of residence.

Population concerns and mobility of rural young people are not generally at the forefront of transport policies. Nonetheless the outcomes of policy choices in this area can have implicit impacts for mobility choices. Recognising the distinct needs of communities from both national and regional perspectives, Transport Scotland’s National Transport Strategy 2 (2020) sets out a vision to build an accessible, available and affordable transport system which supports and sustains people to locate themselves where they wish. The publication of the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2; Transport Scotland, 2022) sets out a consideration of the needs of both national and regional communities, to reflect differing geographies, patterns, and demands. Delivery of this national-level strategy is to be supported by working groups such as those within the structures of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands, who have set out transport and connectivity as a priority area for consideration.

Land, land use and crofting

The Scottish Government has developed a National Development Plan for Crofting (2021), which recognises the crucial significance of crofting to maintaining populations in rural and island areas. The Scottish Land Commission works with a wide range of stakeholders across sectors including public, private and social enterprise. Their work spans four key areas, which include promoting and supporting change and good practice in the way land is owned and used in both rural and urban areas. In addition, they seek to modernise the pattern of land ownership in Scotland to address the concentration of power, as well as to safeguard the public interest and improve the accountability of land-use decision making. They aim to help deliver well-planned, sustainable communities in places people want to live at prices they can afford, to improve relationships between landowners and tenant farmers and increase access to land for those who want to farm.

Gaelic

The Scottish Government recognises that a lack of support for Gaelic language in areas of low population can be linked to infrastructural and economic challenges, as set out within the ADAP. As such, Bòrd na Gàidhlig has developed a National Gaelic Language Plan 2023-28 (2022) which sets out where action is needed to strengthen the Gaelic language. This is underpinned by the Scottish Government’s ambition to see an increase in the number of people speaking, learning, using, and supporting Gaelic in Scotland. However, there have been criticisms from within rural and island communities concerning the balance of support for indigenous Gaelic speakers and communities versus encouragement of Gaelic as a second language for urban populations.

In 2016 the Western Isles developed a national e-learning service, E-Sgoil^[44], with the aim of supporting a combination of live and interactive online learning. The service supports children and young people who live in rural and island communities through their offer of Gaelic beginner and intermediate courses, in addition to other subjects, allowing schools and settings to offer their learners an equitable curriculum despite their geography. Additionally, the service employs teachers from island and rural communities across Scotland, addressing recruitment local need. It is however not clear the extent to which this e-learning is used within local communities, and the extent to which this may result in attraction or retention of young and working age adults to the area.