Mapping the Third Sector in Rural Scotland: An Initial Review of the Literature

8 Conclusions

8.1 This report has presented an initial review of the available research regarding the nature and extent of volunteering and the third sector in rural Scotland.

8.2 There appear pronounced gaps in research around these areas There are definitional challenges with regard to both ‘rural’ and ‘third sector’ as well as difficulties in data collection, comparability and focus.

8.3 Nevertheless there are a number of key themes emerging from the literature reviewed in each chapter, which are summarised below:

Scotland’s rural population: volunteering

8.4 Scotland-wide surveys suggest that rates of formal volunteering generally increase with degree of rurality, and have done so consistently over time. However it is more challenging to identify how far what is done by volunteers in urban as opposed to rural areas is distinct, owing to low sample sizes.

8.5 Smaller-scale research suggests that the formal volunteering of those in rural areas may be particularly ‘broad’ in nature, across a large number of organisations but for less time in each organisation compared to those in urban areas. Conversely, the profile of volunteering in urban areas may be particularly ‘deep’; volunteering with fewer organisations but devoting a greater amount of time to each one. However the influence of rurality on the amount of time given overall, and the frequency of volunteering, appears less significant.

8.6 Research also suggests that those volunteers in rural areas may often be engaged in the substitutional delivery of services.

8.7 High rates of volunteering could be seen as a positive social indicator, and a potential resource for the further development of community led solutions to shared challenges. However it appears important to consider that i) the degree of existing activity being undertaken may mean that capacity to undertake any further activity as a result of public service reform is limited, and ii) the nature of and motivations for this activity may be more as a result of a lack of service provision, which may have implications for the ongoing sustainability of this participation.

Comparing the urban and rural third sector in Scotland.

8.8 Literature tends to suggest a distinct role for the third sector in rural areas in the provision of services in particular socio-economic and spatial contexts.

8.9 In Scotland, it appears there are a higher number, per head, of charities in a number of rural LAs compared to urban areas.

8.10 It could therefore be tentatively suggested that the nature and extent of third sector activity may be distinct in rural Scotland compared to urban Scotland, however further analysis of this data is required to identify the activities of charities in rural Scotland. It may be helpful, for example, to examine how far the role of charities appear additional or substitutional compared to more urban areas, and the opportunities and challenges that this may present in light of public service reform.

The Scottish rural third sector: key areas of evidence

8.11 Research differentiating between urban and rural areas in Scotland in terms of the function of rural third sector organisations appears lacking. It appears generally case study based at the more local level.

8.12 Case study based research in England suggests that there is a particularly strong role for the rural third sector in the areas of transport, social inclusion and service delivery.

8.13 Geographically, most research regarding the third sector in rural areas of Scotland appears focussed in the Highlands and Islands. This work suggests a sector contributing significantly to the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the region. Key sub-sectors include those of sport, arts, culture and music, and social care. Data collected by local infrastructure organisations presents a picture of a diverse sector and reinforces national level studies which suggest the majority of voluntary and community sector organisations are small in size and generally run entirely by volunteers.

8.14 Rural community facilities may play a particularly strong role in rural communities, and in the overwhelming number of cases appear to be owned by the local community. They provide sites of social capital development, employment, voluntary activity and as existing (and potential) sites of multi-service delivery.

8.15 It is impossible within the remit of this study to establish the extent to which there is a commonality of community-based third sector activity in rural areas in comparison with more urban areas, and the extent to which it is rurality in particular that has shaped these differences. There are however a wealth of case studies demonstrating the role of third sector activity in rural areas in the fields of community energy projects, the provision of community owned and run services (including shops/post offices, gyms, transport, care homes), community land purchase and community woodlands delivered by organisations identifying themselves variously as community trusts, community interest companies, social enterprises, charities and/or voluntary organisations.

The economic downturn and the Scottish rural third sector

8.16 The economic downturn appears to be resulting in an increased demand for the services of third sector organisations, subsequent increasing demands on resources (financial, paid workers and volunteers) and an increased amount of competition for resources.

8.17 However the ways in which the organisations which compose the third sector have been influenced appears to vary by size and sphere of activity, with conflicting evidence regarding both of these components. The influence of previous economic downturns on charitable giving appears relatively minor and short term, and both the proportion of adults giving and the overall value of donation appear to be recovering in the UK post 2008/9.

8.18 In addition, research highlights that significant public sector spending reductions will be felt by the sector, and will be differential in their impacts.

8.19 Work undertaken in the Scottish context presents a similarly mixed picture of challenges, uncertainty and opportunities, with the effects felt unevenly across the sector.

8.20 Generally, work identifying the impact of the economic downturn on the third sector in rural areas appears rare.

8.21 The research which has been undertaken suggests that the challenges of operating in rural areas for third sector organisations may have been accentuated in light of the economic downturn, particularly with regard to resources for example.

Research gaps and future agendas

8.22 The third sector clearly performs a great many diverse roles in rural areas. The rural third sector appears generally less comprehensively understood compared to the urban third sector and Scotland’s third sector appears generally less comprehensively researched than the English third sector. Indeed, the extent to which there is a distinctly ‘rural’ third sector is somewhat under researched. The creation of a comprehensive view of this element of the sector is hampered by a number of specific factors. These include a lack of consistent definition, a lack of research which allows direct comparison between urban and rural (and accessible rural and remote rural) areas, umbrella organisations which represent sub-sectoral elements relying on membership to make estimates regarding distribution, the challenge posed with regard to resources for local level bodies attempting to collect data on their immediate area.

8.23 Therefore there appears a need for further work, sensitive to potential spatial variations in the volunteering and third sector landscape, to be carried out. This has the potential to include a more in-depth exploration of the nature and extent of volunteering and third sector activity within rural areas specifically, and comparison between urban and rural contexts. This may allow the identification of how far spatially sensitive volunteering, third sector and public service reform governance could be appropriate in Scotland.

8.24 Whilst the amount of voluntary activity can be said to vary between urban and rural (and remote and accessible rural areas), it is more difficult to reliably and robustly gauge how the activities of volunteers vary. This could be beneficial in considering how far voluntary activity is ‘service’ in nature, clarifying how far volunteering in rural areas is specifically a function of a lack of service provision (substitution) or a more general form of community participation (addition). Similarly, there is significant scope to use existing data regarding Scottish charities to explore the spatial distribution of charitable purposes in order that geographical variations in the role of charities be identified.

8.25 It appears that there is little available coherent research assessing the spatial distribution of larger-scale (beyond case-study or community-level) third sector service delivery which would allow for a more complete picture of the role of the third sector in more rural areas.

8.26 Research and literature with regard to rural Scotland is particularly focussed on the Highlands and Islands. Case study evidence clearly suggests that there is a great deal of third sector and rural community development activity undertaken elsewhere in rural Scotland and in order to obtain a well rounded picture of the rural third sector further attention could also be given to these areas.

8.27 Overall, in order to move beyond a case study approach to valuing the contribution of the third sector in rural areas of Scotland, a more comparable (in terms of data), coherent (in terms of scale) and joined up (in terms of subsectors) approach to researching the sector might be helpful.