Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: Stage 4 Final Report

9. Enhancing rural data

9.1 Key Evidence Summary

As part of this review project, the team identified and analysed the available data on Community Led Local Development, Scottish Rural Network and Scottish Rural Action (see the Review Report, linked in Appendix A, for more information). This work revealed a lack of collected national data for some aspects of their work. One example is for the Community Led Local Development programme, particularly in the earlier years of the review, relating to funding allocated to, and spent on, different types of activities. In other instances, data was available but it was inconsistent. Collecting data on such a wide ranging programme such as Community Led Local Development is challenging, and the Social Return on Investment software being used is developing good practice on data collection at the community level, as well as synthesing this for analytic outputs.

We also heard from many participants in this review about the need for rural lived experience data to be more highly valued and widely used in policy making across government, including in informing rural proofing activities and in demonstrating the more qualitative and less tangible impacts of Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development. Participants argued that the Rural Scotland Data Dashboard and Scottish Islands Data Dashboard are useful but only go so far in providing evidence of the realities of living, working and undertaking social activities in rural and island locations.

As one participant articulated:

“The priorities have to be about enabling that engagement that we need to have, enabling that two-way communication, enabling that ideas and creativity that can come from grassroots, which actually sometimes when you're sitting up here, you miss completely…because a number of organisers, a number of groups, can come up with the right solution for their area. So, I think there's something about that two-way communication. There's something about if we want to do place-based stuff, we need to enable that to happen.” (Strategic interview)

At the same time, and drawing on specific examples (such as a roundtable on Community Wealth Building to inform the legislation as it was being developed), many participants spoke positively about the ways in which Scottish Rural Action is already working to ensure rural experiences inform policy making despite its limited resources. Participants also acknowledged the role of Scottish Rural Network in sharing information about policy developments with a variety of stakeholders outside Scottish Government. Some participants also raised the need to take time to build positive relationships in which to share this lived experience ‘data’ and noted the frequency with which rural (and indeed island) communities are being asked to provide evidence to inform policy making through formal consultations, workshops and steering/working groups as well as informal meetings and other events. Often many of these interactions are one-off events in which communities are asked to share their views but then they receive no information on how their views were taken into account (or if they were not, why not).

For some participants having policy makers themselves with lived experience of rural and island realities was hugely valuable to counterbalance the situation where policy makers live in and are more familiar with urban settings. As one participant noted:

“I think there's something about kind of the geographical representation of Scottish Government and ensuring that it's not just people who live in rural areas that work on rural policy, but people who live in rural areas are working on child poverty policy, working on health policy, working on education policy and actually that there's that kind of cross pollination should be my reflection as someone who has largely been a city dweller.” (Strategic interview)

9.2 Recommendations

9A. Develop a more thorough and consistent data collection approach for Community Led Local Development in future

9B. Consider connecting data development to policy, such as the Theories of Change, Local Action Group strategies or reflecting other policy priorities. Different approaches to data collection should be evaluated, reflecting on priorities such as transparency of public fund spend, determining social value, availability of resource for data collection (both nationally and locally), delivery to policy, and timescales.

9C. Consider building on the data collection knowledge developed through the approaches of Social Return on Investment software.

Responsibility: Scottish Government, Community Led Local Development Coordinators, Local Action Groups, Accountable Bodies

9D. The Rural Scotland Data Dashboard and the Scottish Islands Data Dashboard provide useful quantitative data about rural and island circumstances and work should continue to expand the data available through them and to encourage awareness of them for policymakers across Government when they undertake rural proofing.

9E. Scottish Rural Action, through its staff, board, membership, and platforms and links with other organisations, is already playing a key role in sharing lived experience data with the Scottish Government rural and other policy teams to inform policymaking. There is scope for this work to be increased however in terms of the policy areas that Scottish Rural Action is engaging with and the diversity of rural evidence and voices it is sharing. This work will help to ensure that rural people are given a continuous voice and can play an active advocacy role in policymaking rather than simply being viewed as the subjects of policy interventions. Working with partner organisations may be helpful here, including research organisations through the Scottish Government Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Strategic Research Programme.

9F. There may be merit in considering how new forms of data can be gathered and used to inform rural proofing and rural and other policy making generally. For example, in addition to data providing insights on the state of rural areas with respect to particular issues^[35] it may be helpful to gather and share intelligence on how a particular policy may impact differently in rural and non-rural locations. An example of this might be the introduction of higher energy efficiency requirements for housing which will be more costly for rural homeowners due to the more extensive retrofit work required on homes which are on average larger and older. The data would quantify the level of additional costs that would result. An additional approach would be more positive data to demonstrate how far rural areas can deliver to particular policy aims – in short, how rural areas can help to solve a particular challenge or deliver to a particular policy goal^[36].

9G. There may be an important role in relation to oversight and accountability for the Rural Stakeholder Group and/or a new Rural Taskforce here. This would be to convene a regular forum for sharing the latest information on data availability and gaps and sharing lessons on engaging communities appropriately and effectively in data gathering and sharing. The Rural Commissioner could also play a crucial role here in terms of data provision and use, advising on best practice across Scottish Government policy teams.

Responsibility: Scottish Government