A Rural Lens Approach

In November 2023, the Scottish Rural &Islands Parliament’s (SRIP) “Last Dance” workshop harnessed the collective wisdom of delegates to create a rural lens approach, including a framework for designing rural and island policy and service interventions.

Hosted by Mairi McFadyen with over 350 rural and island practitioners, young people, community activists, academics and policy makers taking part, the Last Dance workshop proposed an ambitious RURAL LENS APPROACH which embeds  rural expertise across all stages of policy development and implementation, and is refined through continuous review.

This approach acts in tandem with, and strengthens, the Island Community Impact Assessments (ICIAs). Scotland has a legislative commitment to undertake ICIAs, an island proofing process, through the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018.

In the image below, the SRIP rural lens approach is compared to mainstream rural proofing practice.  

Diagram of rural lens approach
Figure 1 Diagram of SRIP rural lens approach

The proposed SRIP rural lens approach includes:

  1. A data framework which helps describe the WHAT, i.e. the issues or opportunities, in a way that can flex to place, and to future scenarios;  
  2. A framework tool for designing policy interventions, i.e. the HOW of how to address the issues or maximise on opportunities; 
  3. A review and communications loop, which sets out the indicators for tracking progress, and is resourced to ensure progress is communicated to communities;  
  4. Transparent governance and leadership at strategic level to oversee the rural lens process    

The data framework may draw on the RESAS Rural and Island Dashboards and from information gathered by the Rural Exchange and by community researchers.

The framework tool for policy interventions was developed at the Last Dance workshop based on the Thrive Rural model created by the Aspen Institute. It is currently being tested and refined. It provides menus of delivery drivers at three different levels - community, policy/fiscal/legislative and structural, enabling policy and service designers to explore the rural context of  bottom up (place based) interventions and how they may be strengthened through action at regional or national level. The framework is designed to be interactive and used in the context of FACILITATED WORKSHOPS which may be adapted to different policy or service  interests. A framework tool is included below with two example applications, one developed to support rural implementation of the Radio Teleswitch migration, and one for delivery of childcare services in rural and island places.   

Framework with menu of rural policy delivery drivers
Figure 2: Last Dance Framework with menu of delivery drivers
Framework of rural delivery drivers for Radio Teleswitch migration
Figure 3: Framework for rural implementation of Radio Teleswitch migration
Framework for rural implementation of childcare services
Figure 4: Framework for rural implementation of childcare services