National Islands Plan: annual report 2021

Empowered Island Communities and Strong Local Partnerships

Strategic Objective 10 – To empower diverse communities and different places

We committed to take forward the Local Governance Review with COSLA in order to create a system of local democracy that will be inclusive and improve people's lives.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

The review is an important opportunity for national and local government and the community sector to thoroughly explore how best to transform local democracy. PfG 2021/22 confirms that we will conclude the review and introduce a Local Democracy Bill within this parliament. We will shortly agree next steps with COSLA. This will involve further work with partners in local government, the wider public sector and communities to agree new arrangements which devolve more power to more local spheres of democratic decision-making.

Our approach will build on material we jointly published which outlines how ambitious new community decision-making arrangements could work in Scotland's towns, villages and neighbourhoods. In addition, we also made available an International Review of Systems of Governance and How Citizens Participate which looks at the experiences of six highly functioning democracies, with Scotland provided as a foundation for comparison.

We committed to support participatory processes aimed at providing island communities with a strong voice in the implementation of the Plan.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

We have continued to regularly engage with island communities to inform the implementation of the National Islands Plan, including through the National Islands Plan Delivery Group.

The National Islands Plan Delivery Group was established in June 2021. It supports implementation of the National Islands Plan (NIP), and ensures that work is driven forward in a collaborative way that truly involves island communities. The Group stems from Strategic Objective 13 of the National Islands Plan and from the Scottish Government's commitment to establish a group to closely monitor the delivery of the Plan and the accompanying Implementation Route Map. Membership of the group comprises Scottish Government, local authorities, Third Sector representation, community groups, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, COSLA, Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland, relevant academics and subject experts. The group meets regularly to examine progress and help to identify critical priorities in order to work towards meeting the commitments within the National Islands Plan. Delivering a fair, integrated, green and inclusive plan requires strong collaboration and partnership and the NIP Delivery Group provides this collaborative working space.

In the 2021/22 Programme for Government, we committed to introducing a new £5 million Islands Bond fund, providing up to £50,000 each for up to 100 households by 2026, by providing financial support for island residents to remain in their community, or to encourage people to move there. As part of this work, we launched a 12 week online consultation in August 2021 to gather views and feedback from the public and crucially from island communities. We received over 1600 responses to this consultation and the information from this will help to shape the Islands Bond policy ahead of it launching in summer 2022.

Scaling up of Participatory Budgeting (PB) in Scotland over the last few years has seen it go from a handful of events in 2015 to thousands of people engaging in PB activity by 2021. Supported by the Scottish Government's £7 million Community Choices Fund, since 2016 this has enabled over 122,000 voters to have a direct say on the dispersal of more than £6.6 million, with around 47,000 people attending events across the country.

We are continuing to work with the National Participatory Budgeting Strategic Group in supporting the implementation of PB and building capacity across Scotland to ensure best possible practice. We will work with the group to deliver on the new PB Strategic Framework with a particular focus on health and wellbeing, education, housing and climate justice guided by the Framework's indicators for success.

The National PB Strategic Group is also helping inform the role PB can have as we adapt to the challenges of COVID-19 and how it fits within broader reform of democracy and community empowerment. The Group has produced a Framework for the Future of PB in Scotland which established a shared ambition and intentions for PB to contribute to existing efforts to improve people's lives by being developed in areas of policy and place following key principles of co-production and equality.

Whilst the target to allocate at least 1% via PB remains, there is a degree of flexibility available to councils as to when they can practicably meet it, and the local authorities report their progress annually.

We committed to explore ways to strengthen the voice of island communities whilst capturing the differences between islands in local and national decision-making.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

Scottish Government acknowledge that in order to ensure that the National Islands Plan leads to meaningful, positive and sustainable change, there needs to be ongoing collaboration with our island communities for the duration of the Plan.

The implementation of the National Islands Plan is supported by both the Islands Strategic Group and the National Islands Plan Delivery Group. The Islands Strategic Group was established to ensure greater involvement of the relevant councils in helping design solutions to the challenges islanders face, whilst the Delivery Group ensures that work is driven forward in a collaborative way that truly involves island communities. We will continue to work closely with both of these groups on delivery of the National Islands Plan.

We have introduced participation request legislation which is helping enable local communities to have more control over the decisions that affect them to develop their own economies, wellbeing, and environments. Since coming into force in 2017, 69 participation requests have been made to public service authorities, with improvements agreed for pier safety issues; local road improvements; the future of local police offices; and decisions on community halls.

Work has started to review the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 – a 2021 Programme for Government commitment – where we will be consulting people on community empowerment mechanisms, and explore how communities can be more actively involved in public sector outcomes.

North Ayrshire Islands Recovery and Renewal pilot

Scottish Government are participating in an ambitious three-year Islands Recovery and Renewal Pilot in partnership with North Ayrshire Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to support an inclusive and green economic recovery and renewal of North Ayrshire's island communities in line with their unique needs. As part of this pilot, a new post of Senior Officer (Islands) has been created within North Ayrshire Council to contribute to the ongoing development and delivery of islands' policy, working across the public sector with island communities, businesses and with a range of external stakeholders to tackle long-standing place-based issues relating to island communities.

The pilot has facilitated the development of Local Island Plans for Arran and Cumbrae, which are aligned to the delivery of the National Islands Plan and Community Wealth Building principles to maximise the potential of North Ayrshire's islands. North Ayrshire Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Government will continue to support and work with the island communities and stakeholders as the plan is implemented, delivering actions that result in improved outcomes for the community, economy and environmental wellbeing of Arran and Cumbrae.

We fully committed to working with island communities and local authority partners in the development and introduction of a Transient Visitor Levy Bill.

Work has yet to be progressed in relation to this commitment.

We reported last year that work around the implementation of a Transient Visitor Levy was put on hold whilst Scottish Government prioritised the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Work on the Visitor Levy will resume this year as confirmed in the Scottish Budget 2022-23, published in December 2021. We will therefore carefully review the previous policy development work on this and undertake further stakeholder engagement before the Scottish Government makes a firm decision on the next steps.

We committed to explore ways in which to empower and support island communities to enhance their resilience by developing local initiatives and plans in partnership with Scotland's Emergency Responder organisations.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

The resilience of Scottish communities, including those in the islands, demonstrates a significant contribution to the resilience of the country as a whole. In recent years, working alongside the statutory responder community, they have shown themselves to be immensely resilient in responding to many adverse situations, including COVID-19, recent storms and challenging weather events.

Where it works best, community resilience work is driven by local priorities and builds on local assets and is supported by local public service providers. It can be about having a specific local community resilience group, physical assets like a village hall and emergency generator, but can also involve voluntary sector groups some of which will be specifically focused on emergencies, like mountain rescue teams, and others will have a different primary focus, but will be able to play a role in an emergency. Connections within communities, and between communities and resilience structures, particularly the way they are integrated into resilience arrangements, are also critical.

Community resilience can also be about fundamentals such as good housing and jobs for people so that they can indeed turn to help others when needed. There are many ingredients that go to this, and the capacity and need will vary across the diversity of Scotland's communities. National guidance is applicable to diverse local communities including island communities.

The SG Resilient Communities team recently carried out a series of workshops with local stakeholders including several from island communities to identify and share good practice in terms of working across sectors to build community resilience and respond to and recover from emergencies. Current research, commissioned by the SG Islands team and supported by the Resilient Communities team is looking at good practice in the island communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and aiming to disseminate lessons. The resilient communities team is currently scoping a project to establish a baseline of community resilience activity and is working with island stakeholders to ensure that the perspective of island communities is built into the project design. The National Volunteer Coordination Hub (operated by the British Red Cross), which was established in 2021 to complement local arrangements for linking local need and demand for volunteers in the COVID-19 vaccination programme, but has since encompassed a range of COVID-19 and other health and social care related programmes, has also included island communities in the areas that have been involved.

We committed to introduce regulations which enable island local authorities, in consultation with their communities, to request that Scottish Ministers promote legislation devolving a function to them, or that the Scottish Ministers transfer an additional function, duty or responsibility to them. These regulations acknowledge the uniqueness of each of our island communities and that one size does not always fit all.

This commitment was fulfilled in 2020. Please see the National Islands Plan Annual Report 2020 for further details.

We committed to ensure that policies and plans relating to the Scottish Crown Estate are appropriately island proofed and that any manager of a Scottish Crown Estate asset supports implementation of the National Islands Plan as appropriate.

Work is ongoing in relation to this commitment.

The powers and duties in the Scottish Crown Estate Act 2019 provide further opportunities for island communities. The Act allows for the transfer and/or delegation of management of Scottish Crown Estate assets to other eligible bodies. This Act is designed to encourage and support local management decisions and control of assets by communities, and should be considered by community organisations and authorities in situations that recognise the public benefits that island local management of these assets will bring. The legislation and future transfer and/or delegation acknowledge the uniqueness of each of our island communities and that one size does not always fit all.

A local pilots scheme designed to give communities more say on what happens in their area, involves three island authorities. In March 2021, Orkney Islands Council signed a landmark agreement which will involve the local community in managing the seabed around their islands. Agreements are still being confirmed with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn and Shetland Islands Council. The pilots scheme has assisted with testing and putting in place practical arrangements for enhanced local management of Scottish Crown Estate assets ahead of the first transfer and/or delegation.

We committed to ensure that Gaelic speakers in island communities are encouraged and supported to represent themselves through the medium of Gaelic.

Work in ongoing in relation to this commitment.

The Gaelic and Scots team has prepared the new Scottish Government Gaelic Language Plan. The Plan has an open offer to engage through the medium of Gaelic. In addition, Scottish Government communications remain happy to take written requests in Gaelic. The Scottish Government's manifesto commitments also include providing more services through Gaelic and extending opportunities to use Gaelic in everyday situations and formal settings.

As part of the process for developing the next iteration of the SG Gaelic Language Plan, the Gaelic and Scots team is liaising with various island based SG offices to discuss what further provision they can make for Gaelic. The three local authorities of CnES, HC and Argyll and Bute all have Gaelic language plans in place, have Gaelic medium education and have Gaelic development officers to promote and support the use and learning of Gaelic.

In March 2022, Education Scotland will publish a revised Gaelic Language Plan, 2022–2027. This is part of HM Inspectors' five-year strategy for Gaelic Education, which also impacts on islands. As part of this, HM Inspectors will continue to provide specialist evaluations of how well establishments and settings are performing in a range of key areas. We provide this specialist evaluation for Gaelic Medium Education and for island contexts. We will also take forward new high-level aims to support Gaelic.