Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report :

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1) Summary of Decision Area:

1.1. This report provides an update upon actions and work undertaken since the initial report presented to Cabinet on 7 July 2008 (Rural Delivery Strategy for Hampshire County Council - Supporting Hampshire's Rural Community). In particular, this stakeholder consultation process has been completed and the report provides feedback upon the key results.

1.2. The report also summarises positive developments concerning rural policy and issues at a local, regional and national level which have a bearing on this work.

1.3. A series of supportive early interventions were proposed in the earlier report, and progress in these areas is set out in the report.

1.4. The report also highlights the steps taken to secure the necessary levels of co-ordination, leadership and funding to develop and sustain this work in the face of the challenges and opportunities identified in both this and the previous report to Cabinet.

2) Recommendations:

It is recommended that Cabinet:

2.1. Notes the results of the consultation exercise and approves the process set out for producing a final Rural Delivery Strategy and Action Plan for consideration by Cabinet in April 2009.

2.2. Endorses the steps taken to raise the County Council's profile at both regional and local levels.

2.3. Notes progress made upon the Early Interventions proposed in the report to Cabinet on 7 July 2008 (Rural Delivery Strategy for Hampshire County Council - Supporting Hampshire's Rural Communities, item 5a).

2.4. Supports the high level of inter-departmental collaboration and co-ordination now in place and longer term corporate support and funding for this area of work.

3) Consultation Process:

3.1. Further to the report presented to Cabinet on 7 July 2008 a draft Rural Delivery Consultation Strategy was produced and distributed to over 100 stakeholder consultees. As this is a lengthy document a link is provided www.hants.gov.uk/rh/rural/rural-consultation.pdf. This was supported by the creation of a public website, where all key documents and response forms were located.

3.2. In addition to this, a consultation seminar was organised and held at Sparsholt College on 14 October 2008 at which approximately 40 different organisations or individuals were represented. This event produced some valuable contributions through a series of working groups focussing upon the key themes set out in the document. The results of that exercise were recorded, a summary published and fed back to the participants, and used to inform the overall consultation process.

3.3. The closing date of the consultation was 30 November 2008 and some 70 written responses were received, some of them very detailed indeed. All respondents have received an acknowledgement and where specific and detailed queries have been raised within a more general response every effort will be made to follow up and resolve them. Meetings have been held with some consultees.

4) Key Results of the Consultation Process:

4.1 The consultation responses have been assessed and thematic summaries are attached for information (Appendix 1). It is important to note that the nature of the consultation does not easily lend itself to a statistical or quantitative analysis, but offers an unweighted and substantive commentary on the work of the County Council. The following comments were drawn from the summaries and views expressed and shared between lead officers in each of the key themes contained in the consultation document. It is not intended to be fully comprehensive, but rather attempts to provide a flavour of the overall responses received.

4.2 There was generally a very positive response to the exercise and significant endorsement of the work undertaken by the County Council. Responses also included constructive challenge, ideas, and offers of partnership working which will be pursued. There are undoubtedly key opportunities in terms of better and targeted partnership working and what appears to be a real willingness from many respondents to work with the County Council.

4.3 In terms of challenge, there were concerns expressed about the profile of issues affecting young people within the strategy and also the balance that the County Council must strike between facilitation and delivery. There were mixed views upon this, but a strong message about the need for effective local community engagement and support, in conjunction with effective working with the voluntary sector.

4.4 Aside from the perspective expressed above, there were no significant strategic issues or gaps identified in the consultation but, as may be expected, some real concern over the economic climate that has overtaken us within recent months. There was also recognition that resources will be tight and effective collaboration and targeting will be essential in such a financial environment.

4.5 In terms of priorities and the targeting of resources, there was general recognition that this should relate to areas of greatest need and deprivation. This has raised questions about our ability to map, identify and reach the smaller pockets of need located in rural areas. This is particularly relevant to social care and wellbeing issues.

4.6 As might be expected, affordable housing; transport; access to services, including ICT; community facilities; skills development and training; and support for rural economy, particularly the land-based sector, were all prominent in the responses and underpinned by the need for effective communication and advice so far as key areas were concerned.

4.7 There was a prominent parish contribution in the responses with a strong message around parish planning issues and local community support and engagement, together with some constructive suggestions for improvement and development.

4.8 Concern over the agricultural land management sector was prominent in responses, as was support for the corporate farm estate and the efforts made by the County Council to support food and farming. This was undoubtedly a focus for some frustration amongst the audience, not necessarily targeted at the County Council, over the viability and challenge faced by the various sectors in this area.

4.9 The importance of environmental quality associated with rural areas and attempts by the County Council to support this work were supported. There was a strong narrative on quality of place issues and the link between environmental quality and wellbeing. This highlighted the importance of green infrastructure, investment in access, and also market town and village improvements. The issues of renewable energy and climate change also drew a strong response with some views expressed that the County Council should sustain and develop its current leadership in these areas.

4.10 In terms of now developing our response to the consultation, there will clearly be opportunities to build upon existing programmes, projects and partnerships to move forward. Equally, there may be a need to consider and develop new or pilot initiatives in partnership with others that will focus on priority areas for action.

5) Regional and Local Developments Affecting Rural Policy:

5.1 SEEDA has now revised its mechanisms for dealing with rural issues and has set up both a new Rural Forum and Board. Hampshire is well represented with the Executive Member now sitting on both bodies. There are a further two Board members representing the interests of Hampshire and both bodies play an important regional role so far as rural policy and delivery is concerned.

5.2 The Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), the Government body responsible for acting as the advocate for rural communities, has highlighted the need for better rural proofing of public services and has welcomed Hampshire's initiative. Following a presentation at the Personalisation Commission and subsequent discussions, the CRC has offered to partner the County Council, with the involvement of the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IdEA), in using the exercise as an example of good practice in this area.

5.3 The County's recently developed Corporate Improvement Plan (CIP), presented to Cabinet in November, identifies as one of its priorities the need to tackle inequalities of access to local services in rural areas, particularly for older and younger people and strengthen rural sustainability. A number of other priorities in the plan will also include a rural dimension. Progress against CIP priorities will be monitored by the Corporate Performance and Efficiency Group.

5.4 The Local Area Agreement (LAA) identifies the key priorities for Hampshire, many of which have a strong rural dimension, as well as a small number of targets specific to rural areas. The current light- touch refresh of the LAA will not change the core elements but may offer some opportunity to sharpen reference to the rural dimension with particular reference to `rural proofing'. We can also look to ensure that delivery plans have considered the rural dimension where appropriate. Work is now underway to analyse how this can be taken forward.

5.5 Governance of the LAA is now focussed upon the Hampshire Senate, and it may be helpful for the LAA Executive and Senate to consider the rural dimension of key LAA issues in due course. Such a move would need to consider the linked proposals, previously considered by Cabinet, on the creation and roles of the Hampshire Rural Forum and Central Hampshire Conference. We can also expect the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) to focus on access to local services, including equality of access in rural areas, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

5.6 Clearly there has been a massive shift in the economy over recent months which will impact upon rural areas. The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) is currently mapping the impact upon the Region, including the rural economy, and that impact will be significant. This coupled with the results of the Sub-National Review, including the new duty for the County Council to undertake an economic assessment, and co-operation at a local and regional level, will require appropriate levels of focus upon the rural economy.

6) Progress on Early interventions:

6.1. Appendix 1 updates Members on progress with implementing the Early Interventions as set out in Appendix 3 of the report to Cabinet on 7 July 2008. The Early Interventions were considered achievable within available resources and by placing additional focus on the specific issues in relation to rural areas. All Early Interventions are currently underway, or have been achieved, and are detailed further in Appendix 1.

7) Shorter and longer term Corporate Support

7.1 The Corporate Area Assessment narrative and emerging Corporate Improvement Plan, along with the strength of responses made through the consultation exercise, suggest that work in support of Hampshire's rural areas and communities will continue to be of significant importance to the organisation.

7.2 The appointment of a cabinet portfolio holder for this area along with the momentum generated at regional and local level has raised the profile of this work from a corporate perspective.

7.3 Since the appointment of the Executive Member, a six-weekly briefing has been held which seeks to integrate work undertaken by colleagues across the organisation. This briefing is currently chaired by the Executive Member and appropriate officers contribute to it. It is a useful forum for discussing and sharing rural issues and initiatives affecting Hampshire County Council and its partner organisations.

7.4 One of the strengths of the work undertaken so far has been the mapping of activity and commitments across the whole organisation with a view to identifying the key linkages made between these areas. This also appears to have been recognised in the consultation response as a crucial step in, not only the best use of our own resources, but also underpinning productive relationships with partner organisations. As such, whatever approach is adopted there is likely to be a strong expectation that we can demonstrate effective integration, collaboration and leadership in this area.

7.5 In order to build upon the collaboration and co-ordination achieved to date, it has been decided that the Director of Recreation & Heritage will act as the CMT champion for this area of work and that the Corporate lead role for rural issues will be undertaken by the Head of Countryside, who has been managing the work so far. It is important to stress that this is recognised as a corporate role, not a Departmental function with a continuing requirement to secure the effective collaboration and co-ordination of effort and resources across the whole of the organisation.

7.6 In order to tackle the issues underpinning this work and to help make an impact in terms of achieving outcomes, an allocation of £200,000 has been made in the budget. This will be used to pump prime, lead, and project manage initiatives in support of rural communities. The County Council has identified the importance of developing an effective Rural Strategy as part of its improved performance in 2009. The downturn in the economy makes the development of this Strategy even more relevant. Given the demographics and characteristics of Hampshire, and subject to the final agreement by Cabinet, it is proposed to bring forward a series of initiatives to impact on the rural economy during 2009/10.

8) Timeline/Next Steps:

8.1. Subject to CMT and Cabinet approval, it is now proposed that the results of the consultation exercise are used to help produce the final Rural Delivery Strategy for Hampshire County Council.

8.2. This document will be accompanied by an Action Plan which highlights priority areas for action linking directly to the County Council's Corporate Improvement Plan and Sustainable Community Strategy.

8.3. The action plan will identify how key areas of activity and action in response to the consultation will be dovetailed into existing service and business plans, coupled with new or innovative initiatives and partnerships that we wish to take forward. It will be important to work current resources as hard as possible, as well as subjecting any new ideas to feasibility assessment, including their relationship with priority areas for action.

8.4. Summaries of the consultation responses have been published on the rural website and shared with all those participants in the consultation exercise to date. In addition, the action plan will be shared with the same audience following the report to Cabinet in April 2009.

8.5. The strategy will also emphasise the role of effective partnership working and outline key projects that will help the County Council achieve its objectives. This will include assessing suggestions emerging from the consultation and with the intention of building upon on existing and new partnership arrangements which support rural areas.

9) Conclusions:

9.1 The work undertaken to date has resulted in valuable and constructive feedback from a wide range of stakeholders and partners. It provides a mix of positive endorsement, constructive challenge, offers of partnership working, and above all a hope that the contributions will effect real action, leadership and influence. The production of the final strategy and action plan as described in the report offers an opportunity to respond positively to this and to demonstrate best practice in terms of that response.

9.1. Good progress has been made in terms of the early interventions previously proposed, and in raising Hampshire County Council's profile at a regional and local level. To build upon this, appropriate levels of support, leadership and commitment have been identified to sustain our corporate approach and to develop opportunities for innovation and effective partnership working.

10) Recommendations

Please see Executive Summary for recommendations.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION: