Annual Report 2023/24 - Locality Plan: Monitoring our Progress

The Locality Plan outlines a number of ways in which the performance of partners against the Plan’s objectives are measured.  These include monitoring population levels and balance, income levels, the number and nature of jobs, volunteering levels, and community morale.  Many of these indicators align closely with those being monitored in the Shetland Partnership Plan; however, there are some challenges with gathering and analysing data at a small community level.

In the production of the Second Plan, island representatives gathered data for some of the Benchmarking Indicators in the Locality Plan, alongside the use of nationally available data sources:

• In the summer of 2023 there were 186 full time residents across the five islands, 1 less than in 2020;
• 28% of the permanent island population are aged over 65 (higher than the 21.8% for Shetland as a whole);
• Median income for the five islands is 28% lower than the Shetland average, but the gap has narrowed by 5% since 2019;
• There are 20 school aged children across the five islands; this is 10.5% of the permanent population, compared to 14.1% for the whole of Shetland;
• 14.5% of the population are under 16, compared to 14% for Shetland as a whole.

Data sources: Community data is provided to the Council by each community; CACI Paycheck data 2023, Shetland Islands Council school rolls 2023; Public Health Scotland 2022/23.

The Community Survey, first implemented in 2020/21, was repeated in July / August 2023, and again in August 2024. These statistics should be interpreted with caution due to sample size, varying sample sizes across the islands, and presenting combined statistics for all five islands. 

The response rate to the survey was high again this year, with 87 responses from across the 5 islands, an increase from 76 in 2023. The findings are outlined below.

The survey opened with a question asking people how they rate their place to live; 63% of respondents rate their community as a ‘Very Good’ or ‘Fairly Good’ place to live, this is a decrease from 74% in 2023, and a similar percentage as 2020/21. 

71% of respondents expressed a sense of belonging to their community; again a decrease from 78% in 2023 and a similar percentage as 2020/21. 

The percentage of respondents who feel optimistic about the future of their community has declined to 42.5%.  This compares to 51% in 2020/21 and 57% in 2023.

When asked how they felt about the statement ‘Service providers listen well to my community when it comes to issues affecting us’, 30% of respondents either ‘Agreed’ or ‘Strongly Agreed’. This is a 1% increase from 2023, and a 2% increase from 2020/21.

Respondents were asked to rate their satisfaction with public services:

• 50% of respondents are ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with healthcare provision, a 7% decrease on 2023, but a small increase on 2020; 
• 31% of respondents are ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with education provision, a 15% decrease since 2023 and a 26% decrease from 2020/21; 
• 53% of respondents are ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with public transport provision, a 15% decrease since 2023, and slightly lower than the level of 2020/21.

The survey closed with questions related to connectivity:

• 72% of respondents reported that they have access to 4G coverage, the same as reported in 2020/21 and 2023; 14% of respondents reported that they ‘don’t know’;  
• 40% of respondents reported that they have access to super-fast broadband (30Mbps+), a 24% increase since 2023 and a 38% increase from 2020/21; 12% of respondents reported that they ‘don’t know’;
• In a new question, asking to rate current broadband, 72.5% of respondents rate their current broadband service as ‘Very Adequate’ or ‘Adequate’, whilst 21% rate it as ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Very inadequate’.

In summary, the majority of indicators measured by the survey have declined since 2023, with many returning to the level of 2020/21.