Welcome to 2019 from the RSN!

We're looking forward to another busy year supporting all of our members.

Our mission is to be the national champion for rural services, ensuring that people in rural areas have a strong voice. We are fighting for a fair deal for rural communities to maintain their social and economic viability for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

In 2019 we aim to:

• Continue to fight for fairer funding for rural areas with the Fairer Funding Needs Review Consultation
• Contribute to the Business Rates Retention Consultation
• Host a Rural Vulnerability Day in Parliament in early February to bring together organisations and MP's to discuss rural vulnerability.
• Launch the State of Rural Services Report 2019
• Host the 2 day National Rural Conference in September
• Host 7 regional seminars/networking meetings around the country on key rural topics
• Host 2 Rural Services Partnership meetings aimed at bringing together non public sector organisations to network and share best practice on service delivery in rural areas
• The Rural Health and Care Network was launched in October 2018, this is a growing partnership of organisations and we are looking to expand it's membership in 2019!

and of course we will continue to provide key services to our members for example:

• Weekly Rural Bulletin - a round up of news and analysis in one place
• Rural Funding Digest - Information about grants and funding available
• Rural Observatory - this is being refreshed for a relaunch in 2019 but still has large amounts of information for member authorities
• Performance Analysis for Local Authority members