Group of young women and two elderly women using busy city centre public space and station access
Overview
Gender budgeting is a tool that can highlight how policies, investments and projects can impact women and men differently, therefore improving transparency and accountability. We explored this tool through a series of events outlined below.
An Introduction to Gender Budgeting
Gender budgeting is a way of analysing how budgets and spending decisions affect gender equality. It can take into account other characteristics that intersect with gender, like ethnicity, income level and disability, for example. The aim is to promote gender equality in budgeting and spending processes. Policies, investments, and projects that seem neutral can inadvertently increase gender and other inequalities. Gender budgeting is a tool that can highlight how policies, investments and projects can impact women and men differently, therefore improving transparency and accountability. The Scottish Women’s Budget Group delivered a webinar to introduce gender budgeting (what it is, why and how to do it), using examples from their work.
Thank you to all those who have continued to submit monthly financial information via the new portal system. If you have not done so, please bring your forecasting up to date as a matter of urgency.
As previously communicated, grants for 2023/24 cannot be accrued into 2024/25. Therefore, Places for Everyone must understand any need to carry forward grant by 31st October 2023, in order to request additional funds from the 2024/25 budget.
Should you incur an un-forecasted underspend in the current financial year (2023/24) and require additional funds in 2024/25, your request will only be considered once all other projects have received funding.
Concept and Design Funding
The application portal will be open for applications for funding towards Concept (Stages 0-2) and Design (Stages 3-4), for both new and existing projects, from the 29th November 2023.
Only Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and National Park Associations will be eligible to apply for funding towards new projects at this time; however existing projects being progressed by other organisations will continue to be supported and will be able to access funding for subsequent project stages.
The table below outlines the key dates for Decision Making Panels to be held in March and June 2024.
For existing projects, to ensure adequate time for final deliverables to be assessed and feedback provided, a prior deadline for submission for stage review has been set. This change will mean that the application for a continuation of funding will be greatly simplified, assuming all previous deliverables have been submitted to your Grant Advisor.
As with previous years, we are unable to publish an exact date for award of funding. However, we have aligned the assessment and decision-making process with when we expect to receive confirmation of funding from Transport Scotland and hope to be able to confirm the first wave of funding before Easter 2024.
Funding will continue to be awarded towards the same groups of stages. However, in line with recent communications from Transport Scotland, all funding will need to be spent by 31st March 2025. Funding for activities to complete the relevant stage group (Stages 2 or 4) in the 2025/26 financial year will, however, be awarded in principle.
Table of Decision Making Panels
Please note dates marked with an * have been altered due to our ongoing funding discussions with Transport Scotland. Dates may be subject to further change as our discussions progress. We’ll notify you as soon as any changes are confirmed.
2024
10th January
2024/25 Application Deadline (Round 1)
28th March*
Stages 3-4 Panel
March-April
Stages 3-4 Grant Awards Announced
10th April
Grant claim deadline for 2023/24 projects
15th April*
Open for 2024/25 Round 2 Applications (Stages 3-4 only. At this time, we do not expect to have another Stage 0-2 grant for funding this financial year)
19th April*
Deadline to submit deliverables for Stage Review for projects moving to Stages 3-4 (Round 2)
TBC*
Stages 0-2 Round 1 Grant Awards Announced
6th May*
2024/25 Application Deadline (Round 2)
24th June
Stages 3-4 Panel
TBC*
Stages 3-4 Grant Awards Announced
Dates have been updated in April 2024
Construction Funding
As part of the ongoing Transport Scotland Active Travel Transformation Project (ATTP), the award of new construction funding will be made directly by Transport Scotland from 2024/25 onwards. All new construction applications from Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships and National Park Associations should now be directed to the ATTP Fund for 2024/25, more on which will be communicated once Transport Scotland has shared further information.
Organisations other than the above will be eligible to receive construction funding via Places for Everyone during 2024/25, decisions on which will be made on the basis of Extraordinary Decision Making Panels. If this applies to your project, please discuss this with your Grant Advisor and submit an outline request to PlacesForEveryone@Sustrans.org.uk, confirming when you expect to submit your final stage 4 deliverables for review.
Places for Everyone will continue to fund existing construction commitments and any existing commitments made in principle, through to completion.
Places for Everyone will continue to support change controls to existing commitments.
New Malden Raynes Park Community Engagement Event used to encourage local participation and ownership of route
Event recap video
We brought together PfE partners, community members, engagement and other professionals from across Scotland for a full day of learning about community engagement through expert speakers, case studies, workshops and networking.
On this page, you’ll find all the information about the agenda, speakers, resources. Simply click on the headings below or scroll through to see the relevant section.
From Policy to Practice – The Journey to Meaningful Community Engagement
An overview of the policy context to community engagement in planning and how this can be implemented in practice. The session considered case studies from Planning Aid Scotland’s own work on inclusive engagement programmes with communities around the country, and discussed practical ways to approach community engagement, looking at some of the tools and supports that are available.
Re-designing the Future for Everyone – A Creative Approach: Learn about the value of small-scale public engagement that accesses a wide cross-section of the community, drawing on creative approaches that engender discussion and build community.
Presented by: Nichol Wheatley (Curator, Stockingfield Bridge, Glasgow), Louise Nolan and Ruth Impey (Artists, Make It Glasgow).
Inclusive Community Engagement – The View from the Community
This panel session showcased three organisations (Bike for Good, Disability Equality Scotland and SCOREscotland) who’ve made practical strides towards creating an inclusive community through engagement in active travel.
In this panel session, these organisations (The Causey Development Trust, The Leven Programme and Sustrans Artroots and Tragic O’Hara) discussed how community engagement helped them to take a creative role in developing active travel and community spaces.
Apply the day’s learnings and see them in action. These workshops provided attendees with practical takeaways.
Workshop 1: Young People and Engagement
A Place in Childhood recently undertook an important research piece on Teenagers and Public Space in Scotland, on behalf of Sustrans. The results have significant value across our sector both in terms of understanding the place-based interventions that best serve this age group, and the methods for meaningful and intergenerational dialogue on their needs as part of any engagement. In this experiential workshop, APiC shared what they found, and explored ways of enabling the effective participation of teenagers in your projects.
Workshop 3: Dealing with Difficult Situations – A Practical Approach
Room: Macphail Room
Delivered by Hannah Taylor, Sustrans’ Network Development Manager (Engagement), in this interactive workshop we learnt how to deal with challenging situations in a community engagement setting using discussion and role play.
🎤 16:00 – 16:45 – Closing Plenary: Transforming the City: The Ecology of the Inclusive City – Feminist Planning, A Case in Point
An introduction to the importance of inclusive cities through the lens of a feminist approach. Set in the context of transforming cities to be more equitable and accessible for all.
Presented by: Councillor Holly Bruce, Scottish Green Party
Speaker Bios
Read all about the speakers in our compiled list of speaker bios:
Community Engagement support templates including Engagement Plan, Stakeholder Map, EqIA Tool and Behaviour Change Plan (scroll down to relevant section)
Neil Hanna Photography
www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk
07702 246823
Neil Hanna Photography
www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk
07702 246823
The Spaces for People programme evaluation is split across three primary documents: an evaluation report, an equalities study and a lessons learned document.
Spaces for People Programme Evaluation Report
The Evaluation Report provides key insights into the data that was used to evaluate the impact of the programme.
This includes results from public perception surveys, counts of users at project locations, vehicle speed data, video interaction footage, and spatial analyses.
This data was combined and used to assess the extent to which the programme achieved its outcomes.
The Equalities Report aimed to better understand how the programme impacted different demographic groups. This report draws on attitudinal surveys and other data from across Scotland to better understand the impact of Spaces for People interventions with regard to the following categories: Disability, Age, Gender, Deprivation.
The Lessons Learned report provides an opportunity to learn from the rollout of temporary active travel infrastructure on a large scale in Scotland. These lessons are relevant for both Sustrans and partners delivering active travel infrastructure.
Easy read versions are available for each of the reports. British Sign Language versions are also available upon request.
Snippet of the full Components of a Behaviour Change Plan drawing
A concrete and well-designed Behaviour Change plan can play a crucial role in determining the overall success of an active travel infrastructure project.
This can affect everything from the level of early engagement you are able to develop within a community, to the way a project is received in terms of infrastructure usage once construction is complete.
The resources below outline the key elements of developing your own Behaviour Change Plan and should serve as a guide to take your project forward.
Connecting Woodside project - The North Woodside Road/Maryhill Road junction
In the recording below, we hear from Anna Gale from Public Health Scotland, who give an overview of the findings and recommendations from the Health Impact Assessment.
The event poster for the Active Travel in Europe webinar series
Introduction
We hear from a fantastic line up of speakers who present and share experiences of the increase of temporary active travel interventions and strategies during the pandemic in Europe, and how these can shape the way for future long-term measures and solutions. By coming together and learning from each other, it may be possible to keep this momentum going – to transform temporary solutions into more permanent implementations and accelerate the development of sustainable active travel infrastructure across Europe.
The event poster for the Active Travel in Europe webinar series
Paris
Clotilde Imbert, Director of Copenhagenize France, presents case studies from Paris, a city that has seen an increase in temporary cycle paths but also a high increase in cycling since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has an ambitious strategy, ‘Plan Vélo’ to transform Paris into a cycle-friendly city.
According to European Cyclists’ Federation, since the pandemic, France has added €300m in funding for the country’s cycling infrastructure. In the opinion column, ‘A unique opportunity to speed up the implementation of bicycle plans‘ on Copenhagenize’s website, Clotilde expands on her view of the possibilities and strategies that she believes should take place as a next step in creating permanent active travel infrastructure in France.
Brussels
Florine Cuignet, Policy Officer of GRACQ, shares how GRACQ represents cyclists and promotes cycling in the french-speaking parts of Belgium. According to European Cyclists’ Federation, Brussels is one of the cities that implemented the most cycle lanes during the pandemic in Europe. In addition, the country added almost €480m in their cycling infrastructure budget in response to the pandemic.
Last year the Belgian federal government, for the first time, published a cycling action plan for the country. The plan consists of 52 action points that will facilitate and promote cycling, which will be implemented by 2024.
Ed Lancaster, Director of EuroVelo at the independent non-profit association European Cyclists’ Federation, presents case studies from rural areas in Europe. EuroVelo (European cycle route network) is a cooperation between different national and regional partners. The aim is to ensure that there are very high quality European-grade cycle routes and networks across Europe.
In January, EuroVelo presented the news that cycling on the EuroVelo routes have continued rising since the pandemic. In addition, ECF is also partner for the cross-border BIGIMUGI project that ‘aims at developing cycling mobility for all in rural areas situated along EuroVelo 3’.
Ragnhild Sørensen shares more about work that the Berlin-based organisation, Changing Cities, do. As many other cities, Berlin has created pop-up cycle lanes during the pandemic, something that has not been appreciated by all political parties. The pop-up cycle lanes were monitored and developed according to feedback. The organisation has also launched the campaign Kiezblocks in Berlin, where more than 50 local initiatives want to limit the permeability of the road network for motorised individual transport (MIT) while prioritising walking and cycling on non-arterial streets. Kiezblock is a strategy for transformational urban adaptation, initiated by locals.
Panel Session
In this panel session, we welcome back all keynote speakers to answer pre-submitted and unanswered questions. The panel session will also include discussion around key themes identified throughout the series, including:
Evidence suggests that the most efficient mechanism for boosting active travel is a mix of interventions that complement each other (e.g. infrastructure interventions and behavioural interventions like a route planning training).
In Places for Everyone we therefore ask applicants to design a mix of behavioural interventions alongside their infrastructure projects, and present these in a behaviour change plan.
Intentionally developing and implementing a plan of activities will increase the use of new infrastructure at the outset and ultimately increase the impact it has.
Start by considering your local context (the local people and organisations), engage and listen. Design a plan just as you would design infrastructure; in a context specific way and in response to feedback. This may it take more time but is well worth it and important.
School placemaking engagement event - Corstorphine Connections, St Margarets Park
Introduction
This page offers materials and bite-sized, interactive tutorials on understanding and delivering community engagement and behaviour change in Places for Everyone projects.
This includes a practical guide to behaviour change strategies and interventions, as well as a community engagement guide, and the types of community sector organisations. Please note that you can find the references and relevant resources at the bottom of this page.
This page is a work in progress an will be updated with new materials frequently. Your feedback will help shape future sessions and materials.
Developing a Behaviour Change Plan
In this session, we cover:
Why behaviour change plans are important;
What behaviour change plans should include;
Community engagement vs behaviour change;
Involving seldom-heard groups;
Selecting interventions; and
Key points to remember.
Putting Theory into Practice
The session above, “Developing a Behaviour Change Plan”, mentions that one of the most effective mechanisms for boosting active travel is a mix of measures that complement each other. Infrastructure is just one measure we can use. In this session, we take a practical look at how to put together an effective programme that will result in a greater diversity of people using the infrastructure.
In this session we’re going to look at community organisations in a bit more depth. We cover:
Explanation of the terms Community Sector, Third sector and Voluntary sector
Types of community organisation
Legal structures
Social enterprises and BIDs
Community Engagement and Co-production
Our Community Engagement Guide 2022 provides an overview of best practice in community engagement and allows you to easily identify which deliverables and activities are appropriate at each stage in the process. This guide covers:
An overview of community engagement standards that underpin effective and purposeful engagement
Individual cycling and group of friends walking along a new active travel path at Glasgow's Claypits
Partners from local authorities and organisations around Scotland were invited to hear from two guest speakers on how to make the case for active travel.
During the event, delegates were also given the opportunity to join smaller groups to share their own experiences, knowledge and relevant resources.
Setting the scene
Dr David Caesar, Senior Strategic Advisor of Scottish Government shares the benefits of active travel, including how active travel improves public health and tackles health inequalities.
Making the case to residents and the local population
From messaging and communication to focusing on the positives, Dr Paul Kelly, Director of Paths for All and Lecturer in Physical Activity for Health at the University of Edinburgh, advises on how to make the case for active travel to local residents.
