A report said that the ways of working adopted by the rural Sure Start programmes were already showing signs of success in reaching the families for whom the services were intended, despite planning and early implementation having taken longer than intended.
Source: Delivering Services to Children and Families in Rural Areas: Early lessons from Sure Start, Countryside Agency (0870 120 6466)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
Researchers evaluated the 'UK Online' centres, launched in 2000 with the aim of improving information technology skills and awareness among disadvantaged groups. Over 60 per cent of the centre users were from the programme s six socially excluded target groups, and 74 per cent were 'digitally excluded' by lack of access to computers and the internet and/or lack of skills. Most respondents (84 per cent) to the initial user survey said that they had learned new skills they would not have gained otherwise. Six months on, users experience with various information technology activities had improved markedly. A second report evaluated the centres in rural areas: this found that rural centres played a broader community role than purely as a technology resource, providing a meeting place that encouraged social interaction. A great deal of emphasis was placed on providing outreach services and tailored courses to reach the most socially excluded groups within rural communities.
Source: Jeremy Wyatt et al., Evaluation of CMF Funded UK Online Centres - Final report, Research Report 502, Department for Education and Skills (0845 602 2260) | Connecting the Countryside: Evaluation of Capital Modernisation Funded UK online centres in rural areas, Countryside Agency (0870 120 6466) and Department for Education and Skills
Links: Report (pdf) | Brief (pdf) | Rural report (pdf) | Countryside Agency press release
Date: 2003-Dec
The report was published of an independent review of the arrangements for delivering government rural polices in England. It made 33 separate recommendations, including bringing together elements of the work done by English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service in an integrated agency. In its initial response the government said that it accepted the plan for a single agency and would also consider how to achieve alignment of the Forestry Commission with it. Environmental campaigners called on the government to guarantee that any new countryside body replacing English Nature remained independent of government.
Source: Christopher Haskins, Rural Delivery Review: Report on the delivery of government policies in rural England, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 11 November 2003, columns 11-16WS, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 11 November 2003, Friends of the Earth (020 7490 1555)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report (pdf links) | Hansard | LGA press release | FOE press release | Countryside Agency press release | CPRE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Nov
A report said that primary care trusts in England faced constraints when delivering health care services to rural areas: a survey identified lack of transport, access to services, and the extra cost of delivering services in rural areas as the main problems.
Source: Helen Swindlehurst, Rural Proofing for Health: Analysis of the consultation with primary care trusts, Institute of Rural Health (01686 650800)
Links: IRH press release
Date: 2003-Oct
The government said it agreed with the view expressed by a committee of MPs that more could be done to improve the availability of broadband internet services in rural areas.
Source: Rural Broadband: Government Reply to the Committee's Report, Twelfth Special Report (Session 2002-03), HC 1174, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2003-Oct
A report said that children fleeing domestic violence in rural areas were at risk of missing out on local support services. There were serious gaps in the services provided, including housing and education, as well as a lack of awareness among young people of the range of support available. The report called on rural service providers to be more pro-active in promoting themselves.
Source: Children and Domestic Violence in Rural Areas, Save the Children (020 7703 5400) and Countryside Agency
Links: Summary (pdf) | SCF press release | Education findings (pdf) | Housing findings (pdf) | Welfare findings (pdf) | Health findings (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
A report said that planning authorities' failure to have up-to-date housing needs assessments in their areas had prevented them increasing provision of affordable housing for local people in rural Wales. Instead, some had attempted unsuccessfully to place restrictions on outsiders buying homes in areas, such as the national parks, where high demand was forcing prices out of reach of local people.
Source: Eilidh Johnston, A Source of Contention: Affordable housing in rural Wales, Institute of Welsh Affairs (029 2057 5511)
Links: IWA press release
Date: 2003-Sep
A report on rural transport said that public transport and opportunities for walking and cycling were largely poor and disjointed, with no-one in overall control of how different transport threads came together in a particular area. People saw little alternative to owning a car, but traffic congestion was rapidly becoming a problem.
Source: Rural Transport Futures: Transport solutions for a thriving countryside, Transport 2000 (020 7613 0743), Countryside Agency and Citizens Advice
Links: Summary (pdf) | Transport 2000 press release | Countryside Alliance press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
The government said that a committee of MPs had failed to understand the scale of work it was doing to promote improvements in education provision in rural areas.
Source: The Delivery of Education in Rural Areas: Government reply to the Committee's report, Tenth Special Report (Session 2002-03), HC 1085, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Date: 2003-Sep
The government announced three additions to its rural services standards (standards of services which people in rural areas could expect): a full service of 'extended' schools (hosting a range of community services) by 2006; half-price local bus fares for the over-60s; and a free piece of fruit every school day for every child aged 4-6 from 2004. In a progress report on the standards, the Countryside Agency said it had found a mixed picture. Fire brigade response times had improved and fewer rural post offices had closed: but targets for ambulance response times had not been achieved. The agency also expressed concern that some of the standards could not be monitored properly because rural data were not collected by departments, and some of the standards were national rather than rural-specific.
Source: The Rural Services Standard 2003, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000) | Rural Services Standard: Second progress report 2002/03, Countryside Agency (0870 120 6466)
Links: Rural standard (pdf) | Defra press release | Progress report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jul
The consumer watchdog for postal services called on the government to clarify the social role it expected post offices to play in rural communities, and to provide appropriate funding if it wished to help secure the future of the rural post office network.
Source: The Future of the Rural Post Office Network, Postwatch (0870 162 5300)
Links: Report (pdf) | Postwatch press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A committee of MPs called for a public review of 'statutory walking distances' to schools, and said that any new system should be based on an assessment of safety issues and the real alternatives to walking for people in rural areas - and not just crudely based on distance from school. It also called for innovative home-to-school transport schemes.
Source: The Delivery of Education in Rural Areas, Ninth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 467, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2003-Jun
The first 'one stop' rural shop was opened in Waters Upton, Shropshire (funded by a government grant of 250,000). It combines a post office, village shop, automatic cash machine, information technology access centre, community office, and regular police surgeries.
Source: Press release 24.3.03, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (020 7238 6000)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Mar
A report described examples of good practice and innovation in the delivery of affordable rural housing.
Source: Rural Housing Signposts: Path to better delivery of affordable rural housing, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000) and Countryside Agency
Links: Report (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Mar
Researchers found some evidence that the cost of delivering youth services in rural areas is higher than in urban ones, but said that more work is needed before this can be substantiated.
Source: P. Bradley and P. Barratt, Study of the Relative Costs Associated with Delivering the Connexions Service in Rural and Urban Areas, Research Report 390, Department for Education and Skills (0845 602 2260)
Links: Report (pdf) | Brief (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb