The Impact of Rural Isolation on Poverty and Disadvantage in Families with Children in the Southern Area Southern

Background Commissioned by the Poverty & Disadvantage Issue Group of SIHP Factors which contribute to poverty and disadvantage in families with children in rural communities Current initiatives What’s happening elsewhere Current issues

Study Literature Stakeholder consultations Measures of deprivation Identification of families for interview – disadvantaged Wards, pockets of deprivation Family interviews

Findings Range of factors contributing to poverty and disadvantage – access to services / facilities, (health, social / recreational, housing, transport), participation, social networks Few initiatives to tackle rural isolation Challenge of engagement with most isolated and vulnerable Opportunity to support connections to existing services

Conclusions Area based measures – are what they are Care with application and what this means in practice Issue based approaches Integrated approaches to service planning / delivery

Conclusions – cont’d Opportunity for discussion on rural proofing Rural poverty proofing – for example - what is rural? - how are we using the measures? - what other information is there on need? - how are we engaging with rural dwellers? - how are we getting information to rural people? - will the delivery of policy or service be affected by the infrastructure in the rural area? - will the policy or service impact on other services? - will there be positive impacts on isolation and connecting people to wider social networks?

Recommendations Consider how measures of deprivation are applied Test feasibility of a rural poverty proofing checklist Supporting front line staff with their awareness of, and skills for, signposting Look at opportunities for building community capacity for targeting need Recognise value of community based services and support their sustainability