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Welcome to the Scottish LEADER newsletter |
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Each month we'll bring you news and information from Local Action Groups, the Scottish Government LEADER team, the Scottish Rural Network and Europe. We hope you enjoy the first edition. And don't forget to save the date for next year's LEADER conference - more information below. If you have information you'd like to share, please email info@ruralnetwork.scot. News from Local Action Groups Launch of new programmes A number of LEADER Local Action Groups (LAGs) have launched their new programmes recently.
The new North and South Aberdeenshire programmes launched this week and a report will be available on the Scottish Rural Network website soon. Co-ordinators meeting The next co-ordinators meeting will take place at Glenmore Lodge near Aviemore on 25 and 26 November. This will be an opportunity for LEADER staff to meet Gillian McDonald, explore cooperation ideas and advise the Scottish Rural Network on the support they can provide to Co-ordinators and LAGs. To help with the session on cooperation please could Co-ordinators bring a three-minute summary of your Local Development Strategy themes and priorities to share at the meeting. For more information contact Alice Mayne alicemayne@cairngorms.co.uk. News from Scottish Government LEADER team Welcome to the first newsletter update from the SG LEADER team for the 2014-2020 Programme. We intend to use this section of the newsletter to update you about the work of the LEADER Team and to highlight any important dates/information to you. The LEADER Team are responsible for the policy, administration and finance of the 2014-2020 programme. This includes setting the policy in terms of guidance, administration of LAG claims and monitoring of LAGs to ensure that European Union, Scottish Government and Auditory requirements are met. Team update Gillian McDonald has recently joined the Food, Drink and Rural Communities Division as Head of Delivery. Gillian’s initial priorities will be taking forward work on LEADER and Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation (FPMC). Gillian has worked for the Scottish Government for a number of years across a wide range of policy areas including Justice, Housing and Strategy. She was also Mr Lochhead’s Private Secretary for a period and some of you may have met her in that guise. Guidance Currently we are completing the interim manual paper application form and accompanying applicant guidance. Our aim is to issue this to all LAGs by the end of November 2015. LARCs (Local Actions in Rural Communities system) We are now in Phase 2 of the LARCs application. This Phase will provide the core functionality which is required to support LEADER 2014 – 2020. Roll out of the system will start from the end of April 2016. We will keep you informed about progress through the newsletter. Initial User Acceptance Testing and training for the first stage of rollout will take place early 2016. The dates will be included in the next newsletter along with booking information. Finance Post-Service Level Agreement (SLA) Claims Guidance will be issued in December 2015. This will include an updated Post-SLA Claims form and Budget Spend Forecast (BSF) for the new programme. (For those LAGs Post-SLA only.) The deadline for claims for the first quarter is 15 January 2016. LAG BSF claim deadlines are 22 January 2016. With each LAG BSF claim a minimum of a two yearly forecast is required. This requirement will continue from January 2016 until the capability is transferred to LARCs. For those LAGs still Pre-SLA, until your SLA is signed off and confirmed by the Scottish Government, your claims should be submitted on the forms issued earlier this year. If you require another copy, please contact us on the email below. Our contact details for general enquires are: (0300) 244 9966 or LEADER.Queries@gov.scot Our finance query mailbox is: LEADER.finance@gov.scot. News from Scottish Rural Network 2016 Scottish LEADER Conference: Delivering together 10-12 March, Macdonald Aviemore Resort This conference will bring delegates from the 21 LEADER Local Action Groups together to share best practice, learn, engage and network. More details will be released shortly but in the meantime please save the date. The programme will run from late afternoon on 10 March and finish around lunchtime on 12 March. Each LAG will be invited to send up to 10 participants and your LAG may want to start thinking now about who from your area should attend. The conference will be free to attend, with all food and catering provided, but participants will need to arrange their own travel and accommodation and, where agreed, recoup this from their LAG or organisation. Do you have cooperation offers to share? Do you have cooperation project ideas? Are you looking for project partners? Then add your cooperation offers to our website. We've recently launched a new Cooperation offers section which we hope will become a useful tool to help people connect with others who want to work on cooperation projects. You need to be a registered user of the website and signed in to add your cooperation offer. News from Europe Migrants and Community-Led Local Development video The Swedish and Finnish National Rural Networks recently produced a video in which they talk about how previous and existing LEADER projects involve and support migrants and refugees in the two countries, and reflect on how LEADER could be part of the solution in the current situation in Europe. You can watch the video on YouTube. LEADER/Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) conference on cooperation The European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) Contact Point and DG AGRI organised a LEADER/CLLD conference on 'Strengthening Local Development through Cooperation' in Milan on 25 September. The main objective of the conference was to exchange on how to support inter-territorial and transnational cooperation (TNC) within the European Union and with third countries. Visit the ENRD website for more information from the event. European Rural Manifesto published Over 240 people from 41 countries prepared the European Rural Manifesto at the second European Rural Parliament, held in Austria from 4-6 November. The Manifesto advocates action on 30 key issues.
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