Session 2: Inequalities
Session 2 of the Shetland Partnership Plan development process took place on Thursday 25 June at Mareel, Lerwick. The theme was inequalities - the first of the five thematic sessions, and one that will continue as a thread running through everything that follows.
62 people attended across the room and online, representing statutory organisations, community councils, and third sector and community development bodies from across Shetland, including the outer islands. The session was led by Chris Sewell, Area Commander and Chief Inspector for Police Scotland in Shetland, and Susan Laidlaw, Director of Public Health for NHS Shetland, both members of the Shetland Partnership's management and leadership team.
Their presentation made the case that Shetland's headline statistics - employment rates, income levels, crime, healthy life expectancy - paint a largely positive picture, but that this masks a more complex reality for a significant number of people. The cost of living in Shetland is substantially higher than elsewhere in the UK, meaning the same income goes considerably less far - particularly in the more remote parts of the islands. In-work poverty, fuel poverty, food insecurity, debt, and loneliness all feature in the evidence, often hidden behind a culture of self-reliance and a lack of the visible signs of deprivation seen in urban areas.
Following the presentation, participants discussed what the evidence meant in the context of their own communities and organisations, and what it would take to do things differently. The conversations were honest and wide-ranging, covering everything from the structural scale of energy costs to the people who have disengaged from services and fallen out of sight. A summary report will be published shortly.
The next session takes place on 2 September 2026 and focuses on Population and Economy. Papers will be circulated ahead of the date.
The full inequalities evidence paper and a shorter summary are available to download below.
Summary paper Full inequalities paper Session summary note
