The 'go to' organisation for Local Government improvement in Scotland

Input from the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme is helping to refresh the Sustainability & Climate Change Strategy. Although this is still a work in progress, there have already been some positive results from the process, which can contribute to long-term system change in line with the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes. This includes:

• Providing direction for the environmental question set within the new integrated impact assessment guidelines, which will be used across South Ayrshire Council;
• Establishing a new Strategic Delivery Partnership for Sustainability, which will use the Place & Wellbeing Outcomes to shape and input to collaborative decision-making with partners;
• Use of the Place and Wellbeing Outcomes to connect sustainability and climate change with other aspects of place-making.

Our story so far

Two significant actions have already been taken as a direct result of the assessment:

• Place & Wellbeing Outcomes built into the new integrated impact assessment guidelines, with questions which were not previously included at key decision-making points. Topics include:
• Travel less by car
• Sustainable active travel
• Liveable local places
• Connecting people with nature
• Green spaces, jobs and skills
• A new Strategic Delivery Partnership (SDP) for sustainability has been established to input to the Community Planning Partnership and drive forward actions from the strategy.  Having an independent endorsement of the direction of travel for the refreshed document, based on the Place & Wellbeing Outcomes, helped to secure this new delivery mechanism. The Strategic Delivery Plan will bring the work more formally within the scope of the Community Planning Partnership, thus embedding it within the statutory planning framework, and enabling long-term system change.

The Place & Wellbeing Assessment is therefore helping to shape a long-term, council-wide strategy which will subsequently be turned into action, thereby contributing to sustainable system change. Within the emerging strategy, there is evidence that the Place & Wellbeing Outcomes are helping to connect Sustainability & Climate Change with other aspects of place-making. This creates both an immediate and longer-term impact already evident from conducting the assessment.