Climate Change,
Single Outcome Agreements and
Community Planning Partnerships
Sustainable Scotland Network
Climate Change, Single Outcome Agreements
and Community Planning Partnerships
Introduction
Community Planning Partnerships could have a significant role
to play in the meeting of Scotland’s climate change targets as
set by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. In general,
public bodies have an influence on area-wide emissions
through their policies and programmes in their communities.
The Single Outcome Agreement sets out how public sector
bodies will work together through the Community Planning
Partnership to deliver agreed national and local outcomes.
This report explores the relationship between Single Outcome
Agreements, Community Planning Partnerships and Scotland’s
climate change commitments.
Some months after the publication of the revised Single
Outcome Agreement: Guidance to Community Planning
Partnerships, the Sustainable Scotland Network hosted
a network members’ meeting which focussed on utilising
community planning as a means to act on climate change and
work towards fulfilling Scotland’s emissions reductions.
The 2012 guidance highlighted six priorities to focus on, which
did not include climate change. Given that the newly published
Report on Proposals and Policies (RPP2) envisaged a key role
for the public sector in the achievement of Scotland’s climate
change targets, SSN members expressed concern over the
lack of clear provision for climate change in the new SOA
guidance.
In late 2013, six months after the new Single Outcome
Agreements were agreed between Community Planning
Partnerships and the Scottish Government, Sustainable
Scotland Network members were still keen to explore the
impacts of a changed guidance structure on the finalised
SOAs and most importantly, what this meant to the delivery of
local level climate action.
In January 2014, the SSN Steering Group gave the go ahead
for a research project to examine these issues.
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The objectives were
o provide a comprehensive and coherent picture of
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how national policy on climate change, as enshrined
primarily in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act, the
Report on Proposals and Policies (RPP) and the
Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme,
translates to local level action on climate change. The
research should pay particular attention to the RPP.
o assess the impact of the most recent SOA Guidance
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and how this has affected the way in which Community
Planning Partnerships have addressed climate change
and the local implementation of the relevant aspects of
the RPP
o determine how well the stated aims, proposals and
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projects of various SOA and Community Planning
Partnership documents reflect local actions which are
underway to deal with climate change.
o gather information from local professionals on how
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climate change policy and practice is being managed,
coordinated and delivered locally, and to clarify the
relationship of the climate change action with the SOA
and CPP. After a tendering process, CAG Consultants,
in collaboration with Elizabeth Leighton of Leighton
Consulting, were awarded the contract to carry this
work out in partnership with the SSN staff team at Keep
Scotland Beautiful.
Sustainable Scotland Network
Climate Change, Single Outcome Agreements
and Community Planning Partnerships
What we wanted to find out
There was an appetite within the SSN membership
to strengthen the network’s intelligence around the
role that Community Planning and Single Outcome
Agreements might play in translating national
climate change policy to local action.
Members were keen to explore
the country. We wanted to find out what
authorities to manage climate change
the impacts of the evolution of the
was driving this. If the Single Outcome
work. We wanted to find out more about
SOA guidance. Despite assurances
Agreements were no longer providing
the extension of these governance
from the Scottish Government that
the ‘hook’ for this action, then where
models to community planning level,
climate change could be integrated
were climate change officers garnering
and how the new focus in the guidance
into community planning structures,
support for these initiatives?
would impact upon the ability of climate
sustainability practitioners felt that the
new guidance removed a valuable
avenue to embed climate change into
the fabric of partnership work.
As a network, our strength lies in our
members’ expertise and experience
and the extent to which they share
their knowledge. From this, and
monitoring of Scotland’s Climate
Furthermore, we wondered whether
the climate change content which did
appear in Single Outcome Agreements
was reflective of the situation ‘on the
ground’- in other words, how true the
Single Outcomes Agreements were to
our members’ experience in climate
change partnership work.
change priorities to benefit from
strategic endorsement.
Finally, although climate change was
not a stated priority for focus in the new
guidance, anecdotal evidence from our
members indicated that CPPs were
finding creative ways to incorporate
climate change into their SOAs. We
were interested to find out more about
Change Declaration (SCCD) reports,
The SCCD reports also indicated that
these practices, and share these
we knew that there was a wealth of
very different models of governance
methods and practise with the broader
climate change activity ongoing across
were in place across Scottish local
membership.
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org 3
Sustainable Scotland Network
Climate Change, Single Outcome Agreements
and Community Planning Partnerships
Who and What we asked
We chose a group of 16 CPPs to work with. The group, detailed below,
represented a broad spread of CPP areas, including large and small local
authorities, urban, rural, big cities and regions with much smaller settlements,
and island authorities.
Aberdeen City
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
East Lothian
Perth and Kinross
Argyll and Bute
Dundee
Falkirk
South Lanarkshire
City of Edinburgh
Dumfries and Galloway
Fife
Stirling
Clackmannanshire
East Dunbartonshire
Midlothian
West Dunbartonshire
First came a ‘desk review’ of the
ow the CPP and its strategy
H
he governance structure
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most recent SOAs, which included
supported their work on
which was in place to provide
a ‘key word’ search, followed by
emissions reduction and
for organisations’ climate
a more detailed assessment to
climate change adaptation,
establish the degree to which
and conversely how well it
change action
ood practise examples
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broader climate change concerns
reflected the work which was
of local management,
had been incorporated into the
ongoing in these areas
coordination and delivery of
document.
ow the SOA could be evolved
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climate change policy and
We spoke to SSN members and
to provide further support to
work on climate change in
their community planning colleagues
the organisation and whether
and asked about
the present SOA introduced
wareness and understanding
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any barriers to effective work
of the Scottish climate change
towards meeting climate
landscape and how the
change targets, both within the
features of it related to the
organisation and across the
work of their organisation and
CPP area
the CPP
practice, and the roles of the
SOA and CPP in this.
We drew on conversations with
key stakeholders in Scottish
Government, Improvement Service
and other community planning
partners to inform the content we
were gathering, and maintained
contact with a project reference
group* drawn from the SSN
Steering Group.
* This reference group consisted of: Stuart Nichol, SSN Steering Group member and KSB board member Zoe Kemp, SNH Brenda Roddy, Falkirk Council Bryan Harris, Dundee City Council Chris Wood-Gee, Dumfries and Galloway Council
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Sustainable Scotland Network
Climate Change, Single Outcome Agreements
and Community Planning Partnerships
What we found out
General Trends identified in SOAs
he new guidance is driving a much greater
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focus on inequalities, with a smaller number of
specific outcomes. This may reduce the scope for
development of climate change outcomes.
here is an enhanced expectation that CPPs
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will demonstrate measurable progress towards
these outcomes, which in turn makes ‘already
measured’ outcomes, and those which can
directly be related to specific policies or
programmes, very attractive to CPPs. Climate
change mitigation and adaptation targets are
often seen as complex and not easy to measure.
There may be a reluctance to integrate them
which can be traced to this factor.
Community engagement is now seen as a key
means by which to establish local priorities
and outcomes. Local community plans and
neighbourhood partnerships are developing
processes, and though it’s ‘early days’, so far
these form a trend towards focus on outcomes
which can readily be recognised as ‘council
services’. Longer term outcomes, or those which
are perceived as ‘intractable’, are less likely to be
prioritised here.
he issue of resource constraints in the public
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sector is not a new one, and once again we saw
evidence of ongoing organisational restructuring,
including changing job descriptions for SSN
members. We heard about reduced climate
change posts and overall loss of expertise to
contribute to the CPP and SOA processes on
climate change issues. This was sometimes
offset by a greater emphasis on climate change
in areas unrelated to the SOA, for example where
resources for climate change were focussed on
corporate, or internal climate change initiatives.
National Climate Change Policy,
SOAs and CPPs
nsurprisingly, given the direction of the new
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guidance, Public Bodies Duties (PBD) and RPP2
were not strong drivers in setting SOA priorities
or outcomes. Beyond this however, the SOAs
we examined did not fully reflect climate change
policy.
owever, a majority of these SOAs did include a
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specific climate change policy as part of a social
or economic outcome, and a similar number
included specific targets on climate change. It
should be noted, however, that many of these
targets were limited to carbon management of
operations. In other words, not pertaining to
partnership work on climate change or outcomes
for the CPP area.
SN members reported a strong awareness of the
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complete catalogue of climate change legislation,
strategies and policies and a confidence that
climate change enjoyed relatively high awareness
across their organisations. Their CPP colleagues
however felt that detailed knowledge of PBDs and
RPP was the preserve of specialist officers, in other
words climate change and sustainability staff.
esearch would indicate that PBDs certainly
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do offer opportunities for partnership work on
mitigation and adaptation, and furthermore
that there is an expectation that the RPP2 will
represent a greater driver in the next iteration of
SOAs, particularly as the former influences the
evolution of the SCCD reporting process.
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org 5
Sustainable Scotland Network
Climate Change, Single Outcome Agreements
and Community Planning Partnerships
Hierarchy
Part of our efforts to determine the role of SOAs in
Opportunities for better
integration of climate change
climate change action involved an examination of where
Our research uncovered a number of clear routes by
they lay in the perceived ‘Hierarchy’ of plans.
which public bodies could use the SOA structure as a
This diagram shows ‘the way it’s supposed to be’.
‘hook’ to highlight climate concerns and plan actions.
he ‘Understanding Place’ section sets a broad
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CPP
Agreement
SOA
Corporate Plan
and area specific context for the Community
Planning Partnership area. This is where several
CPPs have chosen to include concerns and
priorities around climate change.
limate change was cited as a key factor in
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addressing outcomes in social and economic
Service Delivery Plans
We found that the situation varies hugely from one
Partnerships to the next.
For example:
In some cases, the Corporate or Council plan is
perceived as carrying much more weight, as it is
seen as the plan which carries political backing
he Council plan, having scope to cover a broader
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remit, is sometimes seen as a more natural ‘home’
for laying out climate change policy
In some cases, the CPP strategy is more likely to
be influenced by the Climate Change (Scotland)
Act than the SOA, and as the former is seen as
the ‘over-arching strategic document’, this is a
positive development for climate change action.
While good practice in this area was evident, the
the overall inconsistency points to possible lack of
clarity as to the optimal strategic approach to local
implementation of national climate policy.
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priorities. To this end cross-cutting links have
been established in areas like economic recovery
and growth and community safety. Climate
change in this way emerged as a ‘co-benefit’
on priority areas such as fuel poverty and
community resilience.
he importance of prevention as a key planning
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approach in CPPs and SOAs was endorsed
strongly by Scottish Government. Some CPPs
made a strong case for action on climate change
(mitigation and adaptation) to be considered as
key early intervention measures.
limate change actions were used to illustrate
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SOA action against the National Performance
Framework.
Sustainable Scotland Network
Climate Change, Single Outcome Agreements
and Community Planning Partnerships
Our conclusions
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OA guidance makes clear that climate
change is not currently a key national
priority for community planning and Single
Outcome Agreements.
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everal CPPs see climate change as a
natural fit for a document which addresses
local priorities and plans partnership
solutions.
Focussing
on how climate change
contributes to social and economic
outcomes is an important strategy to
strengthen the hand of the proponent of
climate change action.
Experienced,
well-resourced staff can
foster productive working relationships
with performance managers and make
the inclusion of climate change actions in
SOAs a more manageable task.
The
RPP could be a key driver for
developing the next SOAs in a way which
supports local implementation of climate
change policy. Additionally, more could
be done to improve understanding of how
local priorities can be pursued in line with
climate change objectives.
Where
the profile of PBDs as an important
part of the national policy landscape could
be raised, the need for climate change to
feature in the SOA would become less.
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he availability of discreet funding, or clear
policy steers, for partnership activity which
relates to climate change outcomes (for
example, funding for low carbon vehicles)
is an attractive prospect for community
planning partners, and makes partnership
work on climate change more feasible.
O
ngoing development of robust, localised
indicators for climate change outcomes
would mean that climate change outcomes
would be more readily considered for
inclusion in SOAs.
What we want to do next
SSN members want to be effective and
valuable contributors to the community
planning process. They also see the
importance of climate change being
addressed from a partnership perspective for
longer term, sustainable outcomes.
To that end, and drawing on the findings
of this research project, SSN proposes the
following ‘Next Steps’.
Observations for the Scottish
Government:
ingle Outcome Agreements largely reflect the 2012
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guidance, in that climate change is not generally given a
priority footing within the documents.
Study
results demonstrate that good practise exists
when climate change is identified as a local priority and
a strategic driver. Associated SOAs can more coherently
move the agenda forward.
dditional guidance would be required to assist
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Community Planning Partnerships in evolving their
SOAs to be more ‘climate literate documents’ .
Next steps for Sustainable Scotland
Network and Keep Scotland Beautiful:
ur work on SCCD reporting will seek to continue
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to make links with the RPP themes and policies, as
a means of raising awareness of the role of CPPs in
meeting national targets.
e will aim to work with key stakeholders in the Scottish
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Government, COSLA and Improvement Service to
strengthen the profile of climate change within the next
iteration of Single Outcome Agreements.
e will examine the communication devices at our
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disposal, including newsletters and events, to increase
awareness among CPPs of the added value associated
with incorporating climate change as a key priority in
their SOAs.
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e propose to work with partners to develop a pilot
project with a CPP to illustrate how Climate Change
adaptation and mitigation could be addressed within
the terms of the SOA Guidance. This would ideally
involve a number of statutory partners, to maximise the
transferable output. It would also allow for peer to peer
learning from selected case studies.
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org 7
Keep Scotland Beautiful is the independent
charity which campaigns, acts and educates on a
range of local, national and global environmental
issues which affect people’s quality of life. It is
committed to making Scotland clean and green,
today and tomorrow.
Sustainable Scotland Network, Keep Scotland Beautiful
T: 01786 471333 F: 01786 464611 E: [email protected]
www.sustainable-scotland.net
@SSNScotland
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org
Keep Scotland Beautiful is a registered Scottish charity. Number SC030332.