Rural Scotland

After several years, the Growing Up in Rural Scotland programme has reached the end of its funding.  Children in Scotland thanks all those organisations and individuals – especially the members of the Rural Advisory Group - who contributed to the success of the programme over the years.

Summary of programme 2007/08

The aim of the  2007/08 Growing Up in Rural Scotland programme was to continue to develop a sense of connectedness between Childcare Partnerships working in rural Scotland, achieved through in-person interaction and information sharing.

The theme of the 2007/08  programme continued the exploration (which began in 2006/07) of how community planning across rural Scotland takes into account children’s needs and includes the participation of children, parents and children’s services providers.

Key activities of Children in Scotland’s 2007/08 GURS programme:

• Continued the descriptive research undertaken in 2006/07 to further document, and better understand, the current realities and relationships in rural community planning. In 2006/07, GURS focussed on the extent to which – and the ways in which – rural childcare partnerships have been included in the community planning process for their geographic areas. This included – but was not limited to – their inclusion in the development of integrated children’s services planning. In 2007/08, we considered how the specific needs of children, child-related workers and families have been considered and included in the rural community planning process.

• Convened a national GURS conference in March 2008 around key themes emerging from the research carried out.   This ensured the conference responded directly to the project and its partners, accurately highlighting the current rural agenda across Scotland, and facilitated information sharing by bringing key practitioners, policy makers and other interested parties together.

• Information sharing: Since it was evident that issues affect different rural areas to varying extents, each participating Childcare Partnership explored a key issue of their choice as part of the GURS programme. This information has been shared among Childcare Partnerships.

To read the summary of research findings click here.

To read a case study in Angus click here.

Key Issue Discussion 1: Additional Support Needs

Key Issue Discussion 2: Workforce Development

Key Issue Discussion 3: Maintaining the Voluntary Sector Children's Workforce

Key Issue Discussion 4: Commissioning Services for Children aged up to 8

Key Issue Discussion 5: Wraparound Childcare

Key Issue Discussion 6: The Recruitment and Retention of Childminders

Key Issue Discussion 7: Transport

A national conference around the key themes emerging from the research carried out will be organised for March 2008.

Relevant Publications

Arts for all? Developing cultural entitlements

for young children in rural Scotland

This publication looks at what ‘arts for all’ means for children in

the rural context, including young children with additional support

needs. It includes the findings on the current level of arts and

cultural provision for young children with additional support

needs in Scotland and comparative information from Sweden

To order a copy click here

A sense of time, a sense of place: meeting the needs of the whole child in small communities report
This report presents the findings of a mapping study of schools in Scotland that are acting as the hub in rural communities and a report of a study visit to Norway to consider how the model is being used there. It describes the Hval Gard nature kindergarten in Norway where children are outside everyday of the year irregardless of the weather. In addition, the report includes the results of a mapping exercise examining parental involvement in developing, managing, planning and delivering services for young children. Order a copy now

Northern Lights: building better childhoods in Norway

A fascinating insight into the development and delivery of childhood services in a country where levels of child well-being are among the best in Europe.