Rural Scotland People, Prosperity and Partnership
Scottish Local Rural PartnershipsWhile machinery is in place at national level to foster an integrated approach to rural policy, for example the Rural Focus Group, there is considerable scope for strengthening partnership working at a more local level. This is a theme which emerged strongly from the consultations carried out for this White Paper. There are already many examples of local partnerships for particular purposes, as described in the progress report by the Rural Focus Group, but we believe the time is now right to encourage local partnerships on a wider front.
Local partnerships, both in terms of the bodies represented on them, and the issues they address, should reflect local circumstances. It would be wrong to attempt to impose a single model on the vast range of different circumstances throughout rural Scotland. But the key commitments should be:
We will shortly publish more detailed guidance on these issues. We expect that the Local Rural Partnerships would work on a range of issues for the area concerned, depending on local priorities. Topics that existing local partnerships have considered include:
The membership of the local partnership should reflect the kinds of issues that it wishes to cover and the body that leads the partnership will similarly be the most appropriate to local circumstances. We expect that the new councils would certainly be represented on the local partnership and that representatives of the local communities would also be included, through community councils or other relevant groups. The basic functions of local partnerships might include:
Local Rural Partnerships would operate on a voluntary basis and each prospective partner would need to decide what staff resources could be committed to further the aims of the partnership. The partnerships would have to operate within the framework of established national policies, for example, on agriculture and forestry. As well as including representatives of local communities, they would work with the community groups of various kinds which already exist in most parts of rural Scotland, including, for example, Scottish Women's Rural Institutes, local farmers' groups, community associations and various bodies formed to cover particular interests. The aim would be to reflect the needs and wishes of local residents and to encourage local people to undertake their own projects and initiatives for their area. Each Local Rural Partnership would find its own way of achieving this kind of local involvement. Experience from the LEADER programme and elsewhere suggests that successful community-based development is labour intensive. In many cases the use of animateurs or community development agents can be helpful in giving communities the leadership and confidence to pursue their own objectives. There is already a large number of such community development agents at work in rural Scotland. They are often local people who know the area and its residents well and, frequently on a voluntary basis, have taken the lead in representing local views when the occasion arises. The Local Rural Partnerships might encourage greater community involvement by:
Many agencies outside Government have been working hard to achieve greater self-awareness for rural communities. A number of partnership arrangements are described in "Rural Focus: Progress Since Framework" published simultaneously with this document. Scottish Local Rural Partnerships The Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research
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