Breadcrumbs
Rural services standard first annual report (AP01/53)
FOR INFORMATION
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Relevance to Strategy and Corporate Plan: Ensuring that rural areas are provided with essential services that meet minimum accessibility standards and establishing and achieving adoption of rural service standards is a key part of our strategy. Monitoring and reviewing the Rural White Paper Rural Services Standard is included in the Corporate Plan |
Staff and financial implications:
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Main issues to concern the Board:
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Background
1. For the first time last year's Rural White Paper set out a series of rural service standards to show what people should expect in terms of the minimum standards and targets covering access to and the delivery of public services in rural areas. The Rural Services Standards was designed over time to give people living in the country more choice about how they access the services they need, and a better understanding of what they can expect to get. The Government undertook to update the standards as the modernisation of public services proceeded and rural access was improved.
2. The Countryside Agency was given the task of advising on the annual review of the Rural Services Standards which is to undertaken by the Cabinet Committee for rural affairs We are aiming to put the first report to the Cabinet Committee in March 2002 alongside our wider rural proofing report.
Progress to date
3. As a benchmark for this work we have, as a first step, undertaken a comprehensive review of the policy relevant to each of the service standards in order to establish the background against which they can be monitored and against which change can be expected. We are in the process of developing a short report with our assessment of whether the standard has been met or where further work is needed, such as clarifying the indicator or standard, or undertaking research to obtain further information.
4. The Annex sets out the current draft of the report against the service standards as they are defined in the Rural White Paper. Together with a brief contextual overview, this will form the basis of the report to the Cabinet Committee. It is very much work in progress and Board members' comments are invited on the scope and content
5. As in the Rural White Paper, the standards are set out in the following terms:
- presumption against closure e.g. rural schools
- indicators on access levels e.g. transport
- geographical access standards e.g. location and opening hours of libraries
- response time targets e.g. emergency services
- telephone services e.g. NHS Direct and Employment Service Direct
- on line access e.g. on line information on child care providers
- help with fares e.g. claiming travel costs for attending benefit offices
6. The Annex shows that not all of these can be measured readily, especially in cases where information is not collected on a rural/urban basis. The next stage is, therefore, to identify those key areas for further research to help clarify the standard or obtain further information. We will also draw on the results of and data from the Rural Services Survey.
7. The Agency also currently has two specific tasks relating to the setting of service standards. The first is to develop an indicator relating to childcare. We are currently tendering for this work and expect work to start in January with a completion date of June 2002. This will be a joint project with research branch which will also contribute to the State of the Countryside indicator on child care.
8. The second activity is to monitor average population distances from GPs and dentists. The Rural Services Survey 2000 provides information on access to GP surgeries but we may need to undertake separate research to obtain similar data on the provision of dental surgeries, depending on the outcome of discussions with the Department of Health to identify reliable point source data for dental services - NHS or otherwise.
9. In addition to these two activities, work is needed in the following areas:
- a review of the local authority local charters on social care to identify good practice
- a review of the Department of Health report, due end 2001, on the relative performance of social services authorities in rural areas in order to identify good practice
- a review of target response times between police authorities
- a broader piece of work looking at progress with a number of the IT based approaches and how accessible these actually are to people in rural areas, given the low level of community internet access identified in the Rural Services Survey 2000. This could include work around ICT Learning Centres (now called UK Online) and the proposed linking of libraries with the National Grid for Learning.
Priorities for future work
10. Subject to any changes in the Public Service Agreement targets which may flow from the departmental spending reviews, we propose that priorities for the coming year will be:- completion of the work on identifying an indicator of likely need against formal public and private sector childcare provision.
- investigation of the police force best value targets to clarify the individual targets, identify best practice and investigate the scope for a common rural standard
- monitoring rural take-up of the funding for UK Online and identifying best practice
11. In the meantime a report on the lines of the attached draft, together with a short covering statement bringing together some policy messages, drawing on the Rural Services Survey and changes since the RWP was published and outlining areas for further work, will be submitted to the Cabinet Committee in March 2002 alongside the Agency's report on rural proofing.
Risks of failure and the main ways of guarding against that
12. The main risk is that information to assess the standards is not available or in a form which is easily useable. However, we have used a number of sources to identify the policy background and the specific measures, where they are available. Although we have to rely heavily on government departments and other authorities for information we have no expectation that they will not comply with reasonable requests for information.
Annex 1
RURAL SERVICES STANDARD - Progress at December 2001
Service | Provider | Requirement, indicator standard or target | COMMENTS/PROgress |
General | All | All Government services to be available on line by 2005 | |
| Education Access to primary and secondary schools Schools' access to learning material Further Education Colleges | LEAs | Presumption against closure of rural schools; published guidance requires that the need to preserve access to a local school for rural communities is taken into account in considering closure proposals. LEAs must provide free transport if they consider it necessary to enable a pupil to attend school and they may help other pupils with their fares. Free transport is always necessary for a pupil of compulsory school age (5 - 16) who attends the nearest suitable school if it is beyond the statutory walking distance of two miles for children under 8 years and three for children aged 8 and above. This ensures that education for compulsory school age pupils is accessible to rural communities. All schools to be linked to the National Grid for Learning by 2002 - especially important for small rural schools. Entitlement to assistance with access/travel costs (from FE Access Fund). | In the period September 1999 - August 2001 there were no rural school closures. Updated figures are awaited from DFES. In a case where a pupil does not qualify for free transport, LEAs may help by paying all or part of the pupil's travelling expenses, taking account of parental means in deciding whether or not to do so. However, it is for each authority to decide whether and how to exercise these powers. Additionally, LEAs may arrange to carry pupils at a charge (which they can waive) in spare seats on school buses which they organise to carry pupils entitled to free transport. LEAs outside London may also establish schemes whereby pupils can travel on public transport at concessionary rates. Awaiting figures showing rural/urban take up. The National Grid for Learning Standards Fund is providing £657 million expenditure on schools between 1998-2002 . No details are immediately available on rural/urban spend. Awaiting information from DFES. The DFES is beginning to recognise that transport provision for students is of variable quality. Costs vary from region to region and can be significant factor for students in rural areas. The following transport initiatives have been set up by DFES:
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| Childcare | LEAs, LAs, private and voluntary sectors | The Countryside Agency is developing
an indicator of likely need against formal public and private
sector childcare provision. This information will enable more
equitable access standards to be developed.
Online information on childcare providers and vacancies is available from the childcare website at: http://212.53.85.14/ | The Agency has tendered for research
to determine whether rural families have access to appropriate
facilities and whether current provision is adequate to meet
demand. A final report is due in June 2002.
This is the ChildcareLink Website which gives information about local and national childcare providers and vacancies throughout England, Scotland and Wales. |
| Post Offices | Post Office Limited | Formal requirement on the Post Office
to maintain the rural network of post offices and to prevent any
avoidable closures of rural post offices.
Introduction of Horizon network will enable all post offices to provide on-line banking services, greatly increasing access to financial services and providing access to universal banking facilities through post offices. The Postal Services Act for the first time makes legal provision for a universal delivery service, at a uniform national price, to all addresses. | This requirement applies in the first
instance until 2006. Measures which have been taken by Post Office
Limited so far to ensure this include: revision of the Code of
Practice on Post Office Closures (Section C deals specifically with
rural closures); a Rural Transfer Team has been established with 28
regional advisers to assist with relocation and site matching to
help prevent closures.
All post offices in the UK are now linked to the Horizon network. Consignia is required to ensure that 95% of users' premises nationally are within 5 km of an access point capable of receiving the largest relevant postal packets and registered mail (ie a post office counter) and that 95% of users' premises in each post code area are within 10 km of such a facility. In all but 11 of the 122 UK post code areas, 99.5% of users' premises are within 10 km of a post office counter. (Scotland had the majority of the UK's postcode areas where current access to post offices is below the national level of 95% of users within 5 km of a post office.) Rural Services in 2000 shows that 93.5% of households in rural England live within 2 km of a post office. The Agency is working closely with Postcomm on issues concerning the rural post office network. |
| Transport Access to bus services Rural rail services | LAs Train operating companies | We have set a target for the proportion of the rural population living within about 10 minutes' walk of an hourly or better bus service to increase from 37% to 50% by 2010, with an intermediate milestone of 42% by 2004. The level of franchised passenger services on rural lines is protected by the Passenger Service Requirement (PSR). The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) has announced that a requirement of replacement franchises will be to meet at least the existing PSR. This means that people living in rural areas will have the security of knowing that their trains are protected: operators can run more trains, but they cannot run less than set out in the PSR. | Figures released in July 2001 from the National Travel Survey 1998/00 show that the percentage of rural households in England with good access to a bus service (living within 13 minutes walk of a bus stop with a service of at least once an hour) rose from 35% in 1989/91 to 47% in 1998/2000. The SRA came into being on 1 February 2001. It is in the process of replacing all the passenger rail franchises that are due to expire by 2004 with new long term franchise contracts of up to 20 years. Existing PSRs will be augmented by a contractual obligation to maintain services at least equivalent to those that currently operate in excess of PSR. Train operating companies will be asked to set out plans to improve integration (better access to stations by local public transport, by car and cycle or on foot and in particular for access for those with limited mobility). Other criteria against which plans are measured include consistency with local development and transport plans, and reducing the perceived barriers to switching from car to public transport. |
| Libraries ICT Learning Centres | LAs | National standards for library
services, to be introduced in April 2001, will cover access (ie
location and opening hours) to mobile as well as branch libraries.
All public libraries to be on-line by 2002 with trained staff to support public use of ICT. Network of 700 learning centres in England aimed at improving access to ICT and ICT-based learning for adults in disadvantaged communities. Rural needs recognised in guidance. | These standards took effect in April
2001 with a three-year phase-in period. They are based on (i)
proportion of households within a fixed distance of a static
library. Relevant standards are : 88% of households in unitary
authorities within 2 miles, 85% of households in County Councils;
and (ii) aggregate opening hours per 1000 population for all
libraries which equates to 128 hours per 1000 population. (Further
work will be necessary to assess whether the standards have been
met [or are appropriate] for rural areas.)
Annual Library Plans were submitted to DCMS in September 2001 and monitoring commenced from then with the first annual report on standards available in September 2002. Library authorities' performance against the standards will also be examined by Best Value Inspectors in the context of Best Value Reviews of library services. It is too early yet to say how many shire counties have implemented them. Further work will be carried out to assess this. Every static service point is expected to provide public Internet access by 31 December 2002. To date 41% of library service points are Internet connected. Rural urban figures have been requested. The Government has made £252 million available from the CMF to establish around 700 innovative ICT learning centres in socially deprived rural and inner city areas of England. The eligible categories which are of interest to the Agency are: rural areas with significant transport and deprivation problems; and small areas of deprivation within more prosperous areas. The centres could take many forms, from one PC kit in a village hall to a mobile library of a community centre. Contact has been made with DFES who are keen to take part in some evaluation of rural centres. No figures are immediatley available for rural/urban take up. Calculating this is complicated by the fact that there is no centrally held database of centres. It is held regionally across 9 government offices. DFES are investigating. |
| Health/care services Access to GP and other primary care services Access to advice about health care | HAs, Primary Care Groups, Primary Care Trusts HAs | Guaranteed access to a primary care professional within 24 hours and to a doctor within 48 hours, to be achieved nationally by 2004. The Countryside Agency will monitor average population distance from GPs and dentists. NHS Direct provides nurse based health advice by phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.. Service available countrywide and online at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk 100% pre-booking of outpatient appointments and inpatient admissions by 2005. | DOH has set a planning milestone that by March 2002, 60% of patients should wait no more than 24 hours for an appointment with a primary health care professional and no more than 24 hours for an appointment with a GP. Rural Services in 2000 shows that 85.8% of rural households live within 4km of a doctor's surgery. Discussions are under way with DOH and the private sector to provide a reliable source of point data relating to dental services which can be easily updated, reporting in April 2002. Available countrywide. NHS Direct plan to work with local health communities so that by December 2002, NHS Direct can refer people, where appropriate, to help from their local pharmacy. DOH planning milestones: From March 2001 every acute Trust to be booking at least two specialities or high volume procedures. By March 2002, 5 million patients to have benefited from the Booked Admissions programme. |
| Social care | LA Social Services Departments | The national charter, Better Care,
Higher Standards, a joint initiative between DOH and DEFR, tells
anyone who needs care or support over the longer term what they can
expect from local housing, health and social services and what to
do if things go wrong. Local charters published in June 2000 set
out standards and targets to be achieved through joint working
between LAs and HAs, in partnership with users and carers. These
charters will be regularly monitored to improve service delivery.
The Department of Health publish a wide range of indicators on social services, such as numbers in receipt of intensive home care, and of older people (aged 65 or over)) helped to live at home: these will enable us to review rural levels of support, by comparing boroughs and shire counties which broadly represent urban and rural local authorities. | Analysis of the first round of
charters has identified issues including:
- Greater clarity is needed where the charter fits with other priorities which have to be addressed by the three key partners (health, housing, social services) - Clearer links needed to be established between local charters and a range of emerging policies such as NHS Direct and Care Direct. - Local areas varied in their approaches, mainly whether a primary aim of the charter was to signpost the reader to other documents or to provide comprehensive information in one document. DOH are producing, by end 2001, a report on the relative performance of social services authorities in rural areas, using a range of indicators of performance and regular reports by the Social Services Inspectorate. |
| Emergency services Ambulance services Police Fire | NHS Ambulance Trusts Police Forces Fire brigades | The NHS ambulance service is setting targets to respond to life threatening calls within 8 minutes in 75% of cases by March 2001 and to other 999 ambulance calls in rural areas within 19 minutes in 95% of cases (compared with 14 minutes in urban areas). Each police force sets target times for responding to urgent incidents in rural areas under Best Value. These are monitored as a key element in police performance and published by Police Authorities. The national standards of fire cover are based on set response times according to the category of fire risk. In most rural areas the standard is to reach a fire within 20 minutes. The fire service maintains a high level of performance in meeting the standards (96% on average in 1998-99). | Figures for 2000 - 2001 show that 2 out of 23 ( 9% [ Staffordshire and Lancashire]) rural Ambulance Trusts met the 75% target and 15 out of 23 (65%) met the 95% target. Response times set locally by each force and the targets for rural areas are all between 15 and 20 minutes. Performance against targets for 99/00 varies from a high of 96.1% to a low of 78.1%. 31 out of 35 English Shire and Welsh forces achieved targets in between 80% and 96% of cases. Performance for 2000/01 has been reported on by each police authority in England and Wales. Details can be found on individual force websites. Further work would be needed to analyse these and produce a comparable figure for 00/01. A further category, Remote Rural, exists for which no specific response is laid down and 'best efforts', often relying on volunteer assistance, are made. Currently, rural communities fall within 'D' risk category and the minimum standard fire brigade response time of 20 minutes. The Fire Brigade Inspections report for each county would need to be examined to assess performance against this target. These reports are available on the Internet and would need to be analysed to assess performance against target. |
| Community legal service | LAs, Legal Services Commission, CABX | The LSC is forming community legal
services partnerships (CLSPs) to deliver local networks of legal
services, based on local needs. Target is for 90% of the population
to be covered by spring 2002.
CLSPs will use innovative methods such as the online directory Just Ask and kiosks to deliver better access in rural areas. | There are currently 182 CLS
partnerships, involving 349 local authorities and covering 86% of
the population of England and Wales. No information on rural/urban
split is currently available. Further work would need to be carried
out to assess. Further partnerships are being planned, and the
department are confident that it will meet the Lord Chancellor's
target of 90% coverage by Spring 2002.
CLS good practice examples include:
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| Access to courts | Courts Service, Magistrates Courts Committees | We are reducing the need for travel to courts by exploiting IT: piloting the use of video-conferencing, including facilities for witnesses to give evidence in Crown Court trials; and providing information through touch screen kiosks for county courts. | Examples of good practice Pilots
include:
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| Access to benefits Benefits Agency Offices Online information Benefit payment | Benefits Agency Benefits Agency Benefits Agency | Claimants can claim travel costs of attending benefit offices (on those occasions where a visit is unavoidable the guideline is that customers should incur travelling costs of no more than 80 pence per week). The Department of Social Security (DSS) website contains general and technical information on BA benefits and services, and allows customers to correspond by e-mail. Localised web-sites are being developed in 9 pilot areas. Local authority information kiosks will also provide - in partnership with the BA - on-line information from the DSS website. We have pledged that all benefit recipients who wish to do so will continue to be able to access their benefits in cash at a post office counter both before and after the changeover to payment by ACT. | Information on rural/urban breakdown of claimants awaited from the Benefits Agency. 50 Jobcentre Plus pathfinder offices are being introduced from October 2001 to provide an integrated service to deal with people's work and benefit needs in one location. This brings together the Benefits Agency and Employment Services to provide a single gateway to job hunting and welfare support. Personal advisers help to find job vacancies and advice on training, together with access through ICT, including touch screen terminals. A mix of rural, urban and inner city areas has been chosen to enable fine-tuning of the service. Rural examples include Todmorden, Honiton and Tiverton. Agreement has been reached on the provision of Universal Banking Services with all the main banks in the UK. It will give people without a bank account, or one not suitable for their benefit to be paid into, and who do not wish to open a basic account, access to a post office card account (POC). Benefits will be paid into the POC and withdrawn in cash using a plastic card at the post office. Customers will also have access to the banks' basic account through the post office network. All benefits will be paid by ACT by April 2003. |
| Employment Job centres On line information New Deal Schemes Action Teams for Jobs Job seeker's Allowance | Employment Service Employment Service Employment Service Employment Service Employment Service | Job centre vacancies available via Employment Service Direct for the cost of a local phone call. From this Autumn vacancy information will be available on the internet and via computerised job points at conveniently located public places. ICT Learning Centres will give access to Employment Service Direct and the Employment Service (ES) Learning and Workbank. This will increase the availability of access to jobsearch facilities and help for those people in isolated rural areas. Commitment to providing customers with individual help to overcome transport difficulties in accessing employment opportunities. New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) scheme also provides help in locating and paying for childcare. Action Teams for Jobs in some areas of the labour market disadvantage (such as Cornwall) will work closely with local employers and tackle transport to jobs issues. This could include help with individual fares of involvement in new community transport services. Special arrangements apply for people with poor public transport access to job centres, allowing them to attend less frequently. Round trip of one way public transport travel time thresholds apply. In the case of journeys involving being away from home for 8 hours, advisory interviews are arranged in the claimant's home area. Financial help available to meet public transport costs of travelling to interviews. | ES Direct is available countrywide and allows Jobseekers to access ES vacancies via the telephone. There are 115 sites with a total of 327 service points. When customers ring the telephone number, their call is answered by the nearest service point, which ensures blanket coverage whether they live in an urban or rural community. The Department of Work and Pensions is in the process of developing 'UK online centres' in an attempt to widen access to the Internet to people who would not normally access it. These will be provided through libraries with a commitment to providing access to both urban and rural communities. Additional access is presently being piloted via a Post Office initiative 'Your Guide' which has developed information kiosks to be installed nationwide ( if the initiative is successful), to every PO in the country which will include existing rural networks and in which the ES is one of the main stakeholders. ES helps New Deal Clients with transport related issues to increase their accessibility by employment, attendance at interviews and other related opportunities through the following:
From 30 April 2001 a new initiative was launched through the NDLP, the Childcare Subsidy, to which lone parents can apply to have their registered childcare costs paid for them whilst undertaking work under 16 hours. For lone parents starting full time work, assistance for registered childcare costs is available through the Working Families Tax Credit. From the current list of ES Action teams, only three cover rural areas including Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Easington and Thanet. More Action Teams are needed across England especially in rural communities because there are fewer job opportunities, especially for young people. The ES Evaluation Database could provide information on the numbers of people in rural areas currently on JSA. However, in order to measure take up, information about the numbers of those eligible for JSA would be needed together with numbers of claimants. The ES does not collect information on potential eligibility. The information may be provided through the Labour Force Survey - estimates of those who are ILO unemployed. (ILO = International Labour Organisation) According to the Agency's RSS 2000 report - 99% of parishes had no jobcentre and 28% of rural households lived more than 8 kms from one. The ES operates a policy where some rural claimants of unemployment benefit can sign on by post (where there is no transport link or the round trip would exceed 4 hours or they are disabled). This arrangement only lasts 6 months, after which claimants must sign on fortnightly at a Jobcentre (like everyone else). See commitment (as stated above), to providing claimants with individual help to overcome transport difficulties when accessing employment and interview opportunities. |
