Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development review report

6. Conclusion

6.1. Key findings

Scottish Rural Network key findings

Scottish Rural Network provides a useful information broker and networking role, including sharing up-to-date information about policy developments and community-led activities. Its website and newsletter were regarded as important assets. However, some participants identified that profile of the Network was low, and there was a lack of understanding about its function and position within Scottish Government. There was a lack of transparency and clarity over how the Network distributes funding to external partner organisations.

Scottish Rural Action key findings

Scottish Rural Action has engaged in wide-ranging and notable activities since its establishment in 2013, including (co)organising national and international events (such as Scottish Rural and Islands (Youth) Parliaments) and supporting rural and island individuals and groups to come together and build their capacity to strengthen a rural movement. Scottish Rural Action has a unique role in the community development sector through its decentralised approach to giving a voice (or voices) to rural and island priorities, including with policy-makers in national government and with a range of (non-rural) organisations operating at national and local levels. While acknowledging the challenges of measuring the impacts of these activities, participants with experience of Scottish Rural Action were strongly supportive of their work. Given the diversity of rural and island contexts and perspectives across Scotland, challenges were identified that resulted from limited resources and engagement with a wide range of issues.

Community Led Local Development key findings

Participants were very positive about many aspects of the Community Led Local Development programme, including its flexibility and responsiveness to bottom-up local priorities and the role of knowledgeable staff in supporting project applications. A particular success identified by many participants was the engagement of young people in Youth Local Action Groups. The key challenge was the annual funding arrangement, which limited the scope and ambition of the programme. This issue was amplified through the inconsistent and unpredictable release of funding tranches, sometimes late in the financial year. This was felt to have many significant knock-on impacts, including reducing the time available to undertake proactive and strategic planning, capacity-building, collaboration and monitoring and evaluation work, and encouraging uncertainty amongst Community Led Local Development Coordinators and Local Action Group members, leading to retention challenges. Participants also said this reduced the impact of the funding as ‘shovel ready’ projects were most likely to be able to apply and complete on time. Another funding issue noted was the capital-revenue funding split in recent years, with a general sense that more revenue was needed. The democratic functioning and representativeness of Local Action Groups and their relationships with their Accountable Bodies (with close relationships bringing both benefits and disadvantages) appeared to split opinions, as did the role of Inspiring Scotland in the Community Led Local Development programme during the 2021-2022 and 2022-23 years. Participants highly valued the grassroots, locally-driven nature of the Community Led Local Development programme with its particular focus on rural and island areas.

6.2. Next Steps

This report has presented the extensive evidence base collected in this review. Seven short reports presenting findings from the place-based case studies and work with young people have been published alongside this report. Further outputs from this project will be published in 2026.