News September 2009

Welcome to the latest edition.

The SEARS Programme Board met in Edinburgh on Thursday September 24.

Once again it was chaired by the Rural Director, Peter Russell and attended by Chief Executives and equivalents from across the SEARS family, as well as an observer from Historic Scotland.

Board members heard that Ministers continue to be broadly pleased with progress and that the efforts of staff to make SEARS work are well understood and appreciated. The Board agreed that the current scope and ambition of the partnership was still relevant, noting an apparent strong feeling among stakeholders that Scotland’s rural organisations were now working much more closely together. Specifically, it was agreed that the focus of the Programme would remain primarily on rural land managers in Scotland and that opportunities would in the first instance be pursued where no changes to legislation were needed.

As the partnership moves into its next phase, detailed papers on possible upcoming opportunities were considered and, in the most part, accepted. There will be more details on these opportunities over the coming months, though it is already clear that there will be a continued emphasis on reducing administrative burdens on SEARS customers.

There were furthers discussions covering a number of areas and it was decided that various areas of work including joint training events and looking for further opportunities to co-locate should be pursued. On the latter it was agreed to increase the visibility and access to services at the existing network of co-located offices.

Finally, the Board also approved the SEARS Communications Strategy for 2009-11 which includes a range of ways in which to engage with staff, customers and stakeholder groups, including the SEARS/SRDP Twitter site which has already attracted considerable interest from as far afield as the Netherlands and Pakistan, as well as an audience much closer to home.

The Programme Board is due to meet again on December 4.