Developing bold new ways of working to support communities to live well locally

In 2023 Innovation Unit partnered with Scottish Futures Trust and Hub North, and leaders across Caithness, as part of the Caithness Place Based Demonstrator. We designed and delivered the Caithness Challenge, which aimed to develop a sustainable, collaborative approach to place-based change in Caithness that is rooted in communities, making best use of local assets, and supporting people to live well locally.

The achievements, impact, and learnings generated in this programme show what people and places in Scotland can do when they come together, get creative, test out their ideas, listen, connect and value the place they live. This helps to forge a path for future areas in Scotland and beyond who want to learn from this approach.

The Problem

Now more than ever, we need to find innovative, collaborative ways to tackle complex issues in places.

Caithness is a beautiful, rugged and remote part of the Scottish Highlands. While all places are unique and have distinct challenges, Caithness faces many of the challenges experienced by communities across Scotland, including the impact of the cost of living crisis, pressures on local services to respond to growing need, and the impact of this on widening inequalities.

There are, however, countless examples of local people, organisations and leaders coming together across Caithness and wider Scotland, to make a real difference to communities’ lives and tackle inequalities. 

To address large, complex problems that communities face, and to ensure that we create the conditions for people to live well locally, we need to build on what’s already working well, and develop new ways of collaborating across organisations and systems to harness local assets. 

Our Approach

Innovation Unit drew on proven innovation methods to co-design and deliver the Caithness Challenge. 

The Caithness Challenge brought people together from across Caithness to test out their ideas about how to make best use of their existing resources, and breathe new life into underused local spaces, in order to help people to live well locally. The underused buildings, including a University Campus and a local village hall, acted as ‘vehicles’ or as a focus for place-based change – a visible opportunity to work together to make best use of local underused resources in the community.

Over 40 people were actively involved in the Caithness Challenge. This included community members, young people, local leaders and people who work in local services and organisations.  Over three months, they were supported by the Innovation Unit to come together to address local challenges, develop and test ideas to breathe new life into underused local spaces, and reflect on their learnings and ways of working.

Our Impact

During the Caithness Challenge communities were supported through regular collaborative events and coaching to test out a range of different ideas to use underused local spaces in new ways that support the community to live well locally. These ‘tests of change’ are steps on the journey towards supporting people to live well locally in Caithness, and, importantly, offer a wealth of learning about future place-based change.

Achievements included:

• Establishing a local youth group – Local volunteers worked together with young people to design and develop a weekly youth group in the community hall. This group provides a safe place for young people to connect, unwind and use sport equipment after school. Looking ahead, the group plans to expand by organising opportunities for young people to meet local employers, explore various services, and participate in additional activities.
• Piloting a ‘hub’ approach to local service outreach – The Challenge team worked together with local partners to host a successful family fun day at the community hall. The event not only brought local families together, but also featured a range of stalls from local services, including NHS, housing services, employment services and others. This event was a way to test out a mode of delivering services in an accessible, collaborative and community-oriented way, which could serve as a template for future service outreach across Highlands
• Increasing utilisation of the university campus in the community – The Challenge team focused on the important role that the university has as an anchor organisation in Caithness, and spreading awareness of the campus as an asset for the community. They promoted the community facilities offered by the university through developing a communications campaign, as well as tested out using the space in the evenings for community activities, which now includes a family support group regularly meeting in the space.

Through this work, we supported the formation of the Caithness Collective Leadership Group, who co-designed, led, and facilitated the work. This group brings together cross-sector leaders from key anchor organisations in Caithness, from NHS, education, VCSE, local authority and more. This new mode of leadership in Caithness provides a sustainable approach to addressing challenges, creating place-based change, and a mechanism for future sharing of resources, learning and skills across the region.

Drawing from the achievements, insights and learning from the Caithness Challenge, we identified six key conditions for place-based change. These are important conditions to pay attention to and nurture in future change processes in Caithness, but also for other places in Scotland to learn from.

1. Working together with purpose
2. Collaborative leadership at all levels
3. Making best use of assets
4. Involving young people
5. Storytelling – seeing change happen
6. Celebrating & harnessing innovation, entrepreneurial spirit

Through insights, relationships, and ways of working developed as part of this work, the Caithness Leadership Group continues to meet as a way to come together to address local challenges, as well as invest in their local spaces.

Read the full report.