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Literature reveals that local authorities in Scotland are required under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to undertake housing need and demand assessment. Local authorities are required to ensure that their local housing strategies are evidenced with an assessment of housing need and demand. The housing needs and demand assessment (HNDA) framework was designed to help local authorities in Scotland provide the evidence base for local strategies. Since its introduction in 2014, there is a limited literature highlighting whether or not the framework has been effective. To this end, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the HNDA framework as set in Scottish local authorities; this paper aims to highlight those factors that have been effective in the framework.

An evaluation to asses empirically the effectiveness of the HNDA framework in Scotland was conducted. The research involved a review of literature on the current HNDA framework in Scotland. A measure of the effectiveness of the HNDA framework was conducted via a questionnaire survey to get the practitioner’s perception from 32 Scottish local authorities. This was conducted to advance specific features that have been effective in the HNDA framework. The features were then ranked in terms of their degree of effectiveness.

The research in this paper identifies initial findings cited in literature of effective factors that impact on the effectiveness of typical projects and contextualises them in the HNDA framework in Scotland, the HNDA framework having all hallmarks of a project. Results from this study identified effectiveness factors that have a greater influence on the HNDA framework’s general effectiveness. These factors include amongst others: clearly defined and detailed scope; project monitoring and control; competent and experienced project managers; and sufficient and well-allocated resources.

By examining the factors individually, it can be stated that overall and based on literature and survey, the HNDA framework as used in Scotland has largely been successful. The success, however, is on a case by case basis. For example, those in remote-based local authorities expressed reservations on whether some of the identified effectiveness factors in the framework were effective while those in more metropolitan or larger local authorities were more upbeat with the HNDA framework.

No similar study has been carried out on effectiveness factors in the HNDA framework used in Scottish local authorities. The findings in this research, therefore, contribute to the literature that seeks to understand the mechanisms of an effective HNDA in general and the HNDA framework in Scotland in particular. Overall, it contributes to the housing debate by offering a Scottish perspective. The study is a precursor to the mechanism for the housing need and demand and funding success in Scotland.

This chapter explores the Scottish government policy drive for school improvement through processes such as distributed leadership, empowerment and cross-school collaboration to school settings. Compared to other nations, this shift towards collaboration has been relatively slow, but reflects the history of Scottish education, one where there is a reduced emphasis on individualist/competitive cultures and instead focuses on social justice and equity. This chapter discusses two programmes of work that were developed to foster school-to-school collaboration in the Scottish education system. In doing so, we comment on the conflict between national priority setting and the translation of this agenda at the local level by different local authorities.

This study aims to explore the opportunities and challenges Self-directed Support policy has presented to Scottish social enterprises, thereby increasing understanding of emerging social care markets arising from international policy-shifts towards empowering social care users to self-direct their care.

This study used guided conversations with a purposive sample of 19 stakeholders sampled from frontline social care social enterprises; social work; third sector; health; and government.

An inconsistent social care market has emerged across Scotland as a result of policy change, providing both opportunities and challenges for social enterprises. Social innovation emerged from a supportive partnership between the local authority and social enterprise in one area, but elsewhere local authorities remained change-resistant, evidencing path dependence. Challenges included the private sector “creaming” clients and geographic areas and social enterprises being scapegoated where the local market was failing.

This study involved a small purposively sampled group of stakeholders specifically interested in social enterprise, and hence the findings are suggestive rather than conclusive.

This paper contributes to currently limited academic understanding of the contribution of social enterprise to emerging social care markets arising from the international policy-shifts. Through an historical institutionalism lens, this study also offers new insight into interactions between public institutions and social enterprise care providers. The insights from this paper will support policymakers and researchers to develop a more equitable, sustainable future for social care provision.

The paper aims to explore the context in which local authority archives and records services are operating, in terms of national and local outcomes and targets. It considers what contribution archives services might make towards those outcomes and targets, in general and specific terms. It aims to show archivists and records managers the importance of aligning themselves with the priorities of their local authorities, especially at a time when public sector finances are under scrutiny, and considers some of the challenges that might involve.

The paper takes the Glasgow City Council cultural strategy as an example, and considers in detail both how that strategy is shaped by the Scottish Government's national outcomes, and as a result how archives are reflected in it, drawing a “golden thread” from the Scottish Government's national statement of purpose all the way down to Glasgow City Council's cultural action plan with its plans for the archives service.

The paper shows that, although in principle it is relatively easy to make a case for the contribution of archives to local cultural outcomes, in practice those outcomes are frequently focused too narrowly to allow much opportunity for archives to play a part.

This paper fulfils a recognised need by showing the importance of archives and records services aligning themselves with the priorities of their local authorities, and offers practical advice to enable them to do so.

This article aims to examine the effects of the best value policy initiative on the human resource function in Scottish local government. The article examines whether best value provides the human resource function with the opportunity and ability to perform strategically, rather than in a reactive and opportune manner. In addition, it will examine whether the policy will enable the human resource (HR) function to move from the mechanistic, repetitive activities HR specialists report consume their time, towards the “softer”, more consultative tasks associated with the HR function.

More than six years have elapsed since the much‐heralded Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (hereafter also referred to as the “Act”) came into force. The Act had been prompted by concern at the lack of progress made in the sphere of racial equality despite the existence of the 1976 Race Relations Act. There were accusations that the 1976 Act was outdated and lacked the political teeth to be effective. The new Act imposed for the first time specific requirements on public sector institutions to be more proactive in promoting race equality. The duties would apply to public bodies that were previously exempt such as the Police and the National Health Service. This paper aims to focus on Scottish local councils and to examine the progress made by these public sector organisations in the field of race equality since the new Act came into force.

The researchers carried out a postal survey of Scotland's 32 local authorities in order to assess the progress made in the area of race equality. Questions focused on examining the scale of progress in relation to both employment and service delivery.

The results revealed a mixed picture. On the positive side, most councils had initiated race awareness training programmes. The majority had also incorporated aspects of race equality into their equal opportunities policies and most had instituted measures to engage with ethnic minority communities. However, there are still areas where performance is unsatisfactory, including inadequacies in the ethnic monitoring of staff, failure to reflect the size of the ethnic minority community in the workforce, and the absence of a clear and distinctive policy on racial harassment in the workplace.

This research will be of great value to anyone who is interested in assessing whether the legislative duties imposed by the Act have been satisfied by Scotland's local authorities. It is the first study of its kind in Scotland and is likely to appeal to both practitioners in the public sector and to academics.

Best Value was introduced as a local government policy in 1997, after the election of a New Labour administration. The policy was designed to reconfigure service delivery by local government, with local authorities assuming the role of enablers rather than service providers. In order to help achieve this change, Best Value was constructed around a balanced scorecard approach. As a result, local authorities are examining organisational structure for a number of reasons. Internal management information requirements have changed. Best Value has also occurred at the same time as a number of other local government reforms, which are emphasising strategic decision making; accountability; transparency; sound governance and an awareness of the citizen’s perspective. Consequently, the traditional committee structure is being examined in many local authorities. This paper examines organisational changes within one local authority as a result of Best Value, which are designed to produce a more efficient, citizen focussed, and quality‐driven organisation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way that Scottish public library authorities are implementing filtering software as a public access internet management tool. The aim of the study is to determine the extent to which filtering systems are used as a public access internet management tool and to examine the nature of this implementation. This constitutes an analysis of the actual policies and procedures in place within each library authority to manage public access to the internet.

The paper utilizes a literature review and an analysis of data supplied by the public library services. The data required was gathered through Freedom of Information requests sent to all Scottish public library authorities.

A total of 31 of the 32 public library services operating within the 32 Scottish local authorities utilized some form of filtering software to control internet access. The main justifications cited for this were to prevent access to illegal or inappropriate materials; however it was found that in the majority of cases the decision to implement the software was not made by the management of the library but external IT staff. This raises major issues related to the historical role of the librarian as selector of content for their community.

The paper presents results from a subset of local authorities in the UK, thus cannot claim to be anything more than indicative of the geographic sample.

The findings can help inform the rationale utilized by public library services in implementing filtering policies.

This paper is the only paper to directly address the issue of internet filtering in all public libraries in Scotland.

ALTHOUGH the first Public Libraries (Scotland) Act was placed on the Statute Book in 1853, it was not until 1899 that the Corporation of the City of Glasgow was empowered to establish and maintain public libraries throughout the city. Between 1876 and 1897 four attempts were made to secure public approval for the adoption of the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts, but when all these efforts proved unsuccessful, the Corporation decided in June, 1888 to include in a Local Bill for submission to Parliament, certain clauses conferring upon themselves the power to become a library authority. Promoted in 1899, the Bill became known as the Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc.) Act 1899, and the library clauses passed through Parliament without opposition and received Royal Assent on 1st August, 1899. The powers conferred by this Local Act empowered the Corporation:

This chapter critically examines the provision and underlying partnership structure of a range of online and distance teacher preparation courses introduced in Scotland from 2014 to 2018. These courses reflect a period of teacher shortages and were developed by Universities in partnership with local authority employers, particularly in rural areas. This chapter explores the geographic and policy context before analysing the national and local policy drivers that led to the expansion of online and distance provision. The structures of a range of programmes introduced by the University of the Highlands and Islands, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Dundee are considered in detail. This is reflected against the national policy drivers of teacher shortages in rural areas, the challenges of recruiting secondary science and technology teachers and the introduction of national funding from the Scottish Government for ‘New Routes into Teaching’. The Government aim of recruiting highly qualified graduates into teaching as a career is contrasted with the local requirement to support a wider more equitable access to a teaching career, for people already committed to living in rural Scotland. This chapter concludes with an analysis of the processes and technology utilised in these programmes before considering the future of online and distance teacher preparation in Scotland.