Literature Review
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LOCAL LEVEL RURAL PROOFING PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE LITERATURE REVIEW A stage report for Defra by Rural Innovation Introduction The methodology for Defra’s Local Level Rural Proofing project includes a review of existing literature on good practice in the design and delivery of services in rural areas at an early stage of the project. The aim of this review has been to identify evidence of “underlying principles” of good practice. Those principles identified will be tested further and expanded upon from intelligence gained in the primary evidence gathering stage of the project. To keep this review manageable within the project timescale, we have focused on evidence of good practice and exemplars of rural proofing produced over the last five years. The list of documents to be reviewed was agreed with the project Steering Group. This short report considers each document in turn and offers some initial conclusions. The paper does not provide full summaries of the documentation reviewed. Rather it concentrates on identifying evidence of "underlying principles" which contribute to improved outcomes from the design and delivery of services for rural users. We define these "underlying principles" as something that could be applied to the design or delivery of any local service and which would improve the outcomes for rural people, communities or businesses. To be useful in the context of this project an underlying principle needs to be locally delivered, to be rurally focused and to deliver benefits to service users. 1 Emerging Conclusions This review of literature and case studies suggests that the following approaches / actions might be considered to be valuable underlying principles of good practice in the design and delivery of rural services: 1. An overt and upfront commitment from service designers to provide fair and equitable treatment for users and to achieve proportionate outcomes in rural and urban places; 2. Approaches to service design which seek to address the fundamental challenges of rural delivery (sparsity, distance, etc) by harnessing and enhancing typical strengths within rural communities (social capital, self-reliance, etc); 3. Finding ways to spread or reduce the fixed costs of service delivery, so as to mitigate increased unit costs of delivery arising from distance/time costs and lost economies of scale (the rural premium). This may involve organisations collaborating, services co-locating, the use of ICT, volunteer input or various other approaches; 4. Taking into account a broad range of potential outcomes (economic, social and environmental) when assessing options for rural delivery (beyond unit cost or "value for money"); 5. Taking a "user focused" approach to design; involving rural communities in the early stage of needs assessment service planning and then involving them in shaping appropriate local solutions; 6. Starting this dialogue with rural communities from first principles, asking what their needs are and how they wish to use services rather than simply adjusting current service models; 7. Investing in understanding local circumstances and the impact of geography on service costs and use, in order to inform the design of evidence-based solutions; 8. Considering urban-rural inter-dependencies and the scope to maximise the benefits for rural communities arising from them; 9. Designing sufficient flexibility into delivery models, so they can be adapted to local circumstance or opportunity; 10. Offering a portfolio of delivery solutions to meet the varying needs and circumstances of rural users; 11. Targeting geographical gaps in delivery so that services are readily accessible to more (potential) users, especially those in remoter or more isolated locations; 12. Focusing particular effort (and perhaps financial support) at those groups who find it hardest to access existing services. This may involve tailored solutions for individuals; 2 13. Service commissioners seeking to avoid spatial gaps in provision by including incentives or penalties within contracts to avoid market failure among providers; 14. Factoring in broad outcomes which enhance the future sustainability of rural communities as design objectives or within the criteria for assessing "return on investment"; 15. Recording and monitoring at lower or local levels of geography (commensurate with local delivery) and reviewing the outputs regularly to seek further rural service enhancements; 16. Designing solutions to increase the use of existing assets within rural areas (e.g. buildings, land and transport) in order to enhance their viability; 17. Looking to collaborate beyond the boundaries of individual services, so additional outcomes may arise; 18. Testing innovative approaches in small areas (as pilots) in order to gain sufficient evidence, learning and support for their mainstream use. The remainder of this paper provides short reviews of selected documents. 3 Developing Collaborative and Innovative Approaches to the Delivery of Rural Services A report by Hindle R & I Annibal (2011) This September 2011 report looked at maintaining and improving public service delivery in rural areas. It used interviews with Service Managers in 8 organisations and a web review. It highlighted good practice in four areas, namely: libraries; primary schools; bus services; and use of IT. Certain rural characteristics – such as sparsity, distance, geography and demography – were found to add costs and impact on delivery, but others – such as social capital, experience of community-led planning, community asset ownership and self-reliance – offered strong potential for moving to new delivery models. Indeed, it concludes that in some instances (as a result of cost pressures) new delivery models are required and cost- cutting with old models will no longer suffice. To that end the report recommends that statutory providers: Work with communities to develop collaborative solutions when reconfiguring services; Understand local conditions, how communities work and cost drivers, in order to design and implement appropriate contracting solutions; Identify and remove any cultural or administrative barriers which stand in the way of collaborative service delivery; Change their attitude to risk (e.g. in procurement and performance management) to facilitate service decentralisation; Consider criteria beyond value for money (and simple unit costs of service delivery) when making procurement decisions and appraising performance; Invest in capacity building as part of the transition to collaborative local delivery; and Develop a portfolio of solutions which suite the range of diverse local circumstances. Libraries : examples studies in this report have: Spread (i.e. reduced) the fixed cost base of operating a public library, either by placing them in multi-use venues or bringing in volunteers; Identified new resources, such as volunteers, who can improve access for library service users; and Made use of resources that would be in a library (such as IT) to introduce access to other public services. In Grassington (North Yorkshire) there is now a community-run library branch which opens during six days a week, replacing a twice-a-week mobile library visit. It is hosted by the Grassington Hub building. Its IT offers a telemedicine link saving patients a hospital round trip of almost 50 miles. In Arlesley (Central Bedfordshire) a local library point is now run by volunteers, co-located with the Town Council, GP surgery and community hall. In Lincolnshire consideration is being given to multi-use mobile libraries e.g. with post offices and/or healthcare consulting rooms. Others are using technology to reduce the cost base in order to retain or improve rural library provision e.g. book ordering online. Primary schools : key to retaining rural schools, where Local Education Authorities feel they can no longer justify the cost per pupil, is to find a way of spreading some fixed costs. This 4 can mean sharing the head teacher, teaching staff, administrative functions or facilities with other schools. It can take the form of loose collaboration, more formal federation or (under the free schools model) one school taking over the running of another. In Devon, for example, the Devon Education Forum was reviewing all options to retain rural schools, which may mean some no longer operating autonomously. The County has also established Local Learning Communities where schools in a geographic area share experiences and (often) explore how collaboration could assist. (It should be noted that sharing resources can happen for other reasons e.g. more schools gaining access to the best teachers.) Bus services : many marginal rural bus routes have been replaced with more flexible and better-targeted solutions such as demand-responsive services, registered community bus routes and minibus hire for community groups. The aim is both to attract more passengers and to drive down costs. Examples include Connect2Wiltshire, where a demand-responsive service has reduced the need for local authority subsidy, and Hallen Community Bus in South Gloucestershire, where a community group took the initiative and now contracts a service from a nearby social enterprise. It is of note that many of these approaches were piloted initially and, once proven, have then attracted local authority subsidy. Use of IT : the stated reasons for introducing IT-based solutions include, extending the reach of services to make them accessible to more users and reducing the cost for the provider of (rural) delivery.