Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: Stage 4 Final Report

6. Scottish Rural Action delivery recommendations

In this chapter, we provide the following recommendations on the delivery of Scottish Rural Action’s work for Scottish Government. The chapter begins with a recap of the most pertinent evidence, and then the recommendations are set out, again organised by theme.

6.1 Key evidence themes^[12]

Scottish Rural Action is an independent charity established in 2013 with the primary aim of developing a stronger, more coherent voice for rural and island Scotland. It’s key organisational objectives include: building platforms to facilitate a grassroots-led rural movement; connecting communities with one another, politicians and decision-makers; collaborating with seldom-heard groups; building the capacity of existing sectoral and geographic networks; and connecting Scotland’s rural movement with UK, EU and international partners.

The Theory of Change produced in this project outlines the inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts of Scottish Rural Action in more detail (see Appendix A). In the period of this review (from 2020), Scottish Rural Action has collaborated to deliver a wide range of activities with support from Scottish Government including:

• Two Rural and Island Parliament events (2021 and 2023), the first Rural and Islands Youth Parliament (2023) and the European Rural Parliament (2025)
• Establishing a village halls programme; supporting the creation and/or capacity-building of a number of networks (including for Community Led Local Development Youth Local Action Groups and for community-led tourism practitioners)
• Delivering a range of events, including an islands economy showcase
• Undertaking research and campaigns on a variety of topics

Evidence gathered in this review suggested that Scottish Rural Action has made considerable efforts to deliver an inclusive approach through its activities, working for everyone across rural Scotland (not just its members), with particular successes noted in terms of working with, and building the capacity of, young people.

Participants who had worked with the organisation were strongly supportive of their work to articulate rural lived experience, to inform policy making, and to work with and raise the capacity of rural and island communities at the local level (i.e. to shape national policy as well as local practice, by being a conduit between these levels). The evidence included multiple examples of Scottish Rural Action’s important role in providing lived experience-based evidence to inform policy developments at national level. It also suggested that Scottish Rural Action has developed a unique role in the community development sector through its decentralised approach to giving a voice (or voices) to rural and island lived experiences and policy priorities. This is done through creating ‘platforms’ to amplify the voices of the rural movement, providing representation, and supporting local control and/or exercise of power in decision making, both with policy makers in national government and with other rural and non-rural organisations operating at national and local levels.

There are interesting parallels with the activities of Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) which works both locally across rural England with Rural Community Councils, and also nationally, advocating for rural needs including through the Rural Coalition and through acting as a ‘critical friend’ to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in Westminister. The review evidence suggests that there was not a collective understanding of what a rural movement is across rural Scotland and that some people struggled to translate this from a conceptual policy aim to a practical reality. However, there was nevertheless a strong sense amongst participants that Scottish Rural Action has had a key role to play in advocating for rural voices to be articulated and heard more strongly in policy making, despite its relatively limited resources. For some participants the main challenge was that these voices were not always heard or acted upon by decision makers.

Given the diversity of rural and island contexts and perspectives across Scotland, challenges were identified that result from Scottish Rural Action’s limited resources and the breadth of topics it covers. Some participants argued that the organisation could do more in representing the diversity of rural situations and voices to government and other stakeholders. Many participants were positive about Scottish Rural Action’s inclusive approach and its flexibility to increase the profile of a broad range of issues raised by groups and individuals, building on their policy knowledge and networks, and often recognising the cross-sectoral nature of the issues.

Participants saw great potential for Scottish Rural Action’s role and impact to be enhanced in the future, furthering the considerable positive work it has already achieved to build the rural movement in Scotland through encouraging stakeholders to collaborate on relevant issues and ensuring their voices reach decision-makers. The difficulties in identifying, articulating and measuring some of the less tangible and long-term impacts were noted by participants, however, as was the challenge of maintaining momentum between Scottish Rural and Island Parliaments, particularly when funding for Scottish Rural Action’s work from Scottish Government is provided on an annual basis.

While it is an independent organisation, Scottish Rural Action was set up with support from Scottish Government and continues to receive a large portion of its funding from the Scottish Government. Some participants generally felt that the relationship between Scottish Rural Action and Scottish Government had evolved over time with less government involvement in 2025 compared to 2019, for example. Challenges and tensions were identified in the financial relationship between Scottish Rural Action and the Scottish Government however. For example, Scottish Rural Action has relied on Scottish Government as a funder, while Scottish Government has benefited from support by a charitable organisation based on somewhat uncertain and short term financial arrangements. There was evidence that the short term and responsive structure of Scottish Rural Action’s work for Scottish Government was impacting on the organisation’s longer term development, in terms of its organisational capacity and strategy and scoping more diverse funding streams, for example.

6.2 Unique selling points of Scottish Rural Action’s work for Scottish Government

The evidence points to Scottish Rural Action as having a number of unique selling points, including:

• Acts as the national voice for rural communities, particularly articulating lived experience for policy makers on a flexible and responsive basis to inform policy design and rural proofing, thereby enhancing relevance and accountability
• Strengthens inclusion in these rural voices, particularly through engaging seldom-heard groups and young people
• Builds and sustains a grassroots rural movement, creating platforms for participation, particularly through well-supported events (e.g. Rural and Islands Parliaments)

6.3 Recommendations

From the breadth of evidence generated in the review we suggest a number of delivery recommendations for Scottish Rural Action’s work for Scottish Government. We note again that Scottish Rural Action is an independent organisation and so implementation of recommendations exclusively for that organisation would be a matter for their board and staff.

Responsibility for leading on the following recommendations varies, but an indication is provided in the text.

Funding

6A. Review the potential for multi-year Scottish Government funding to Scottish Rural Action to address the need for longer term policy coherence and to support the organisation’s strategic development and planning.

Responsibility: Scottish Government

6B. Develop an organisational strategic plan which clearly articulates the relationship between Scottish Rural Action and Scottish Government and sets out its workplan over a three year period. At the same time, maintain the ability to be agile, flexible and inclusive to take account of opportunities as they arise.

Responsibility: Scottish Government and Scottish Rural Action

6C. Explore a range of funding opportunities and approaches to shape activities in response to grassroots rural movement priorities (for example, through membership subscription, charging for rural proofing ‘consultancy’ type work, or co-delivering research).

Responsibility: Scottish Rural Action

Policy development, implementation and accountability

6D. Develop formal and transparent policy links and outcomes for the rural movement, particularly from the Rural and Islands Parliament, to improve the impact of grassroots policy development. This is likely to include identification of the key policy inputs needed for the new Scottish Government from 2026-2031.

Responsibility: Scottish Government

6E. Continue to work with policy makers across Scottish Government, to support effective engagement, rural proofing (including, but not limited to, using the Rural Assessment Toolkit), and Island Communities Impact Assessments informed by grassroots perspectives and lived experience data. Continue to facilitate early engagement with other stakeholders (such as the Poverty Alliance, local authorities, etc.) where appropriate.

6F. Enhance sharing of good practice learning from the different forms of rural proofing work that Scottish Rural Action undertakes with wide ranging stakeholders.

6G. Work with Scottish Government to refresh the role, remit and membership of the Rural Stakeholder Group, and to clarify its role in rural proofing. This will strengthen the role of the Group and enhance its transparency and accountability.

Responsibility: Scottish Rural Action and collaborating organisations

Building the Rural Movement

6H. Develop a clear proactive strategy to increase the profile of, and participation within, the rural movement. This could be linked to planned policy and legislative changes, for example. The strategy could set out how participatory mechanisms could be used across the portfolio of activities to build representative engagement. A citizens’ assembly could be used to define the next steps for the rural movement, for example.

Responsibility: Scottish Rural Action and collaborating organisations such as Scottish Islands Federation.

6I. Continue to work with a range of stakeholders (including Scottish Rural Network) to (co)organise events, including Scottish Rural and Islands (Youth) Parliaments.

6J. Continue to build links with rural and island communities through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms, including building platforms, holding events, and organising conversations. These activities will strengthen the rural movement and ensure a diversity of rural perspectives are heard and can be fed into policy making.

6K. Continue to engage and proactively share learning and information, co-organise events, etc. with European rural movements and networks for mutual benefit.

6L. Enhance animation, capacity-building and engagement with ‘seldom-heard groups’ and groups with which engagement has been more limited to date (e.g. land-based activities, private sector businesses), to enhance the inclusivity of Scottish Rural Action’s activities through the rural movement. This work could adopt participatory democracy principles, be guided by a dedicated inclusion strategy, and draw on the networks of those involved in Community Led Local Development locally across rural and island Scotland.

6M. Enhance impact plans from events including relevant metrics in order to measure the successes and challenges of activities and ensure ongoing learning. There is a need to ensure this information is shared with relevant third and community sector organisations (beyond those focused on rural and island communities) to encourage wider learning.

Responsibility: Scottish Rural Action and collaborators