Evidence library

The Fairer Scotland Fund (FSF) was established in 2008 and brought together seven separate funds which had been targeted at tackling deprivation in Scotland. In January 2009, the Scottish Government commissioned research on the development and implementation of the FSF by Community Planning Partnerships. This research was commissioned to inform future approaches to tackling concentrated disadvantage in communities. The research involved: ? A desktop review of all the FSF plans prepared by Community Planning Partnerships in 2008/09 and 2009/10. ? An email questionnaire to gather information about the development and implementation of the FSF in each Community Planning Partnership. ? A follow up telephone interview to supplement the questionnaire and explore issues in greater detail. ? A response was received from all 32 community planning areas. ? Eight in depth case studies of areas with different characteristics to provide more detail. This involved a series of interviews with a range of those involved in developing and implementing the FSF ? including councillors; staff from councils and other public agencies; representatives of the voluntary sector and active members of the community. ? Interviews with a number of people who had a responsibility for developing the policy (or had influenced policy) in this area. The research findings were based on an analysis of all the information gathered. From these findings a number of lessons were drawn that should be considered in the future development of programmes to tackle poverty and concentrated disadvantage in Scotland.