POLICY AND PRACTICE IMPACT

POLICY AND PRACTICE IMPACT

Rural Areas for Young People: Policy Responses from Italy and Scotland

On Friday 25 October 2019, EPRC hosted a seminar looking at the challenges faced by rural areas in remaining attractive places for young people. The presentations and discussions started from a stock-take of shrinking rural areas across Europe and then moved on to examples of policy measures from Italy and Scotland. Stefan Kah from EPRC gave an introduction that not only showed an increased attention given to the subject, but also that policy-makers have long been aware of the challenges of keeping young people in rural areas.

Andrew Copus from the James Hutton Institute presented ongoing research funded by ESPON. The ESCAPE project explores the challenges of European shrinking rural areas and aims to improve the evidence base for policy interventions. His presentation discussed different types of shrinking and their drivers, raising the question to what extent demography is an agent or rather a consequence in the process.

Sabrina Lucatelli, Senior Expert of Public Policy and Vice Chair of the OECD Rural Working Group, presented the Italian Inner Areas Strategy. The Strategy targets 72 selected areas across Italy, covering almost 17% of the territory and 3% of the population. It aims to empower territories and people to restore growth and well-being, using a combination of different EU and domestic funding sources. There is a strong focus on young people, not least through many interventions in the area of education.

Francesco Mantino from the Italian Council for Research in Agriculture and Economics presented his research on interlinkages between the Inner Areas Strategies and rural development policies. He showed the close relation between the Inner Areas Strategies and the LEADER instrument, which in many cases goes beyond simple additionality and complementarity. Instead, he identified policy synergies, not least due to differences in thematic orientation of the two policies.

Robin Clarke from Highlands and Islands Enterprise presented their research on young people and the Highlands and Islands. The most recent study from 2018 follows on from similar research carried out in 2015 and 2009. He showed that regional attractiveness for young people is based on longer term economic considerations (e.g. quality job opportunities with career progression prospects, low cost of living) and social elements that enhance life in the region, including affordable housing and access to essential services.

‘Putting Inclusion at the Heart of ‘Closing the Gap’’: South Lanarkshire Research and Development Project

Dr Joan Mowat, together with Jonathan Firth and Dr Anna Beck, all School of Education, have been taking forward a new research and development project with two Learning Communities in South Lanarkshire Council – Calderside and Duncanrig. The project focusses on collaborative practitioner with the aim of ‘Putting Inclusion at the Heart of Closing the Gap’.

Through delivered inputs and coaching sessions, support is put in place for teams of teachers within each learning community to take forward practitioner enquiry of relevance to their professional context. At the end of the process, participants will disseminate their work at a dissemination event bringing both learning communities together. An application to the School of Education ethics committee has been put forward to evaluate this work and its impact, but also to investigate the utility of collaborative practitioner enquiry as a vehicle for school improvement.

The Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group

Here in Scotland, with a national focus firmly on promoting and protecting children’s rights, and on improving the care system, physical restraint in residential child care has featured in discussions about the care of children and young people. From questions raised about the place physical restraint has as a sometimes necessary, and containing response to children’s pain-based behaviour; to calls to abolish the use of restraint, as we have seen during the course of the Scottish Parliament’s scrutiny of new proposed legislation to end the physical punishment of children, this important issue is being debated and considered at all levels.

At this year’s Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care (SIRCC) Conference, a powerful plenary presentation by Dr Laura Steckley, Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Work & Social Policy, brought together new academic research with the views of people with lived experience of being physically restrained, and the perspectives of practitioners involved in restraining children. The session questioned how to reduce, and where possible eliminate, physical restraint in residential child care establishments, and where restraint does occur, how this can be experienced as an act of care rather than brutality.

These questions called the residential child care workforce to start an ongoing process to try to make things better. A collective group, including practitioners, managers, care experienced people, academics, and regulators, and facilitated by CELCIS, formed to continue the conversation, focusing on seeking out and engaging with consideration, the different voices, perspectives, and issues. This group, the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group, is determined to ensure any future changes and progress made regarding restraint in Scotland incorporates the broadest range of views and experiences, and is built on a robust engagement with the relevant complexities so that unintended consequences that come at the cost of children and young people are avoided. The Group is also strengthening and building on existing relationships with the wider children’s sector.

Following the plenary, the Group agreed on themes they wished to explore further in relation to physical restraint in residential child care. These were: to examine current practice; explore the systems in which restraint occurs; listen to the voices of everyone involved; consider the use of language; and consider the impact of the use of restraint.

Since then, the Group has refined this further and is currently working on what we already know in relation to physical restraint in residential care and what we still need to find out, with a view towards informing a wider research agenda.

The next meeting will also look at membership of the Group, how the Group will influence others, what they need to know, and how the voice of young people fit into this in a fully inclusive way.

Members of the Group have also contributed to a series of blog posts covering a range of areas of concern - from stigma to containment, criminalisation to system complexity - in order to stimulate and widen the debate. These can be read on the CELCIS website.

EU Project Publication Comparing Intersectional Lifecourse Inequalities Among LGBTQI+ Citizens in Four European Countries (CILIA-LGBTQI+)

Professor Yvette Taylor, Principal Investigator of CILIA-LGBTQI+, and Dr Matson Lawrence, Research Associate, have recently published an article in Critical Social Policy, examining constructions of inclusion and progress: ‘The UK Government LGBT Action Plan: Discourses of progress, enduring stasis, and LGBTQI+ lives ‘getting better’’. This follows their Engage with Strathclyde 2019 event ‘From Section 28 to LGBTQI+ ‘Inclusion’? Legacies, tensions and trajectories in education’, which brought together panelists including Titi Farukuoye, the then Vice President (Diversity), Strathclyde Students’ Association, and utilised material from the Lesbian Archive at Glasgow Women’s Library.

The article argues that while the LGBT Action Plan represents a significant UK government commitment towards LGBTQI+ equalities, there is still room for improvement. Using empirical examples, it examines how progress for LGBTQI+ lives is discursively constructed and positioned in the LGBT Action Plan and in accompanying politicians’ speeches.

Read now the full article or a shorter version on the British Sociological Association’s ‘Everyday Society’ platform

Professor Yvette Taylor will be presenting a version of the paper at The Australian Sociological Association (TASA), Nov. 2019, as part of her visiting professorship at the University of Western Sydney.

Prof Yvette Taylor

COSLA 3rd Sector Research Forum Conference 2019 ‘Collaborating for Impact’

Dr Joan Mowat, School of Education, together with Dr Gale MacLeod, University of Edinburgh, Amy Woodhouse, Joint Acting Chief Executive of Children in Scotland and Patricia Lyon, School Project Manager, Place2Be, presented a workshop at the COSLA 3rd Sector conference which took place on the 9th of October in Edinburgh. The focus of the workshop was the outcomes and routes to impact arising from the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII) Seminar Series, ‘Poverty, attainment and wellbeing: Making a difference to lives of children and young people.’ Joan introduced the aims and focus of the seminar series and routes to impact and Gale discussed the complexities around making research ‘real’. A short video of the work undertaken with children at St Rose of Lima Primary School and Inverclyde Academy, focussing on their sense of belonging to school, was shown. Thereafter, participants had the opportunity to discuss the Research Briefs relevant to their professional context, leading into a panel discussion. Our 3rd sector partners spoke very warmly of their participation and Amy Woodhouse said that the Research Briefs and Key Recommendations gave a mandate for the work they were undertaking in Scotland to improve the lives of children and young people. The workshop was very warmly received.

National Islands Plan

On 3 October 2019, the PROPOSED National Islands Plan was laid before the Scottish Parliament and on 8 October the Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands, Mr Paul Wheelhouse, presented the PROPOSED National Islands Plan to Parliament. The Plan lays out 13 strategic objectives and 104 commitments that touch upon many crucial sectors that have been identified by island communities throughout the consultation. Transport and tackling depopulation are particularly important areas, but the Plan recognises that island communities do not work and live in silos and that all issues need a holistic and integrated policy approach.

The Plan, to which the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) has provided technical advice, presents itself as a fair, integrated, green and inclusive Plan. Noticeably, the Plan makes a strong reference to the recent human rights developments in Scotland, to which SCELG is also heavily involved. Meanwhile a rigorous process has started to develop an implementation strategy that will accompany the Plan in order to make it a meaningful tool to improve outcomes for island communities.

SCELG Co-Director, Dr Francesco Sindico commented on the work undertaken so far:

“It has been a tremendous pleasure to work with the Scottish Government Islands Team in the implementation of the Islands (Scotland) Act. Together with SCELG PhD researcher, Nicola Crook, I had the opportunity to be part of one of the widest consultation exercised ever undertaken on Scottish islands and we now look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration with Scottish Government.”

Seminar on Poverty and Crossparty group membership

Dr Joan Mowat gave a guest seminar at the University of Dundee on Monday 18th of November. The focus of the seminar was on ‘Poverty, attainment and wellbeing: the importance of transitions’. The seminar brought together recent published papers focussing on the transition from Primary to Secondary school and the link between poverty, attainment and wellbeing. The key argument forwarded is that, while a good transition is important for all children, children living in poverty may potentially have a range of risk factors which make it more likely that they may experience a less smooth transition. There is a need for interventions which focus on the socio-emotional aspects of the transition.

Dr Mowat has also been invited to join the Scottish Parliament Cross-party Group on Children and Young People focusing on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), led by Iain Gray MSP, following on from a consultation on how to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law. The focus of the initial meeting, which took place at the Scottish Parliament on the 5th of November, was the potential impact of BREXIT on children and young people in Scotland.

Joutes oratoire

The third edition of the ‘Joutes oratoire’ (or debating competition) between the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde took place this November. It was organised by the Alliance Française de Glasgow as an event before the screening of the French documentary ‘Libre’ (To the four winds) as part of the 27th French Film Festival.

After arguing difficult questions such as le citoyen peut-il s’opposer à l’état ? Can citizens oppose the state ? and Peuton faire justice soi-même? Can citizens take the law into their own hands? , the Strathclyde team was delighted when the jury declared they had been the more convincing team of the two. Well done to Simran Sahota, (Hns French + Italian), Paul Farrell (Hns LLB Law + French), Ewan Nicholson (Hns LLB Law + French), Marina Gladkikh (MSci Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering + 2nd year French), Lucy Allan (2nd year French + Spanish) and Jack Patton (2nd year Politics + French) ! More information about the event can be found here.

EPRC Blog on Cohesion Policy: How much would the UK have got?

A new blog from EPRC takes a fresh look at the Commission proposals for Cohesion policy 2021-27 from a UK perspective in the light of updated GDP and other statistical data. As the UK prepares for regional policy without the Structural Funds, the focus of the blog is on how the UK Cohesion policy map would have looked, the scale of funding and how it might have been distributed among the four nations. This analysis shows not only that UK Cohesion policy allocations would have increased substantially, but also that the distribution of the funds between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under the new proposals would differ significantly from the shares in 2014-20. This in turn calls into question the extent to which EU funding allocations might be used as a basis for deciding future shares of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund or other regional development policy, and if so, whether the past or the future is the best guide.

The full blog is available online.

Climate change event at Parliament

Prof Elisa Morgera contributed to an event organized by the Scottish Parliament titled Climate Change, Climate Justice & Human Rights: A Scottish Perspective, where members of the Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee commented on the passage of Scotland’s recent Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill and the creation of the United Kingdom’s first Just Transition Commission. Prof Morgera illustrated the relevance for climate justice of the 2018 recommendations from the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership and the opportunities for transformational change across all sectors towards a low-carbon, inclusive economy that promotes and safeguards citizens’ environmental human rights under the new national task force for the development of a legal framework on human rights for Scotland.