Checklist – questions to consider if you plan to adapt services to demographic change

In the next sub-chapter we collected orienting questions in order to:

orient readers to get acquainted with processes of demographic change in their specific area;
assist them in identifying the main impacts of demographic change in their area;
guide them to identify challenges brought by demographic change in the specific sector(s) of their interest;
help them in planning actions to adapt service provision to the challenges posed by demographic change.

1.) What is the ‘state of demographic change’ in your region/district/area?

How many people live there?
Is there a growing or a shrinking population?
Is there a natural growth or natural decrease?
Is the migration balance positive or negative?
How many children are born per year? How much is the Total Fertility Rate?
What is the expected life span of men and women currently?
What is the share of the elderly (above 65) in the population?
Are there any differences within your region in this question? Are there any territorial units with a different demographic character?
Do you have any policies concerning demographic changes and their impacts at the national/regional level?
If you have, what are their main aims to tackle demographic changes and their impacts?

You can check available data on
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/population/data/main_tables
or the 2.3 sub-chapter!

2.) Which are the most important impacts of demographic change on service provision in your region/district/area?

Were any public services and facilities closed down in your area in the past 10 years due to – supposedly – demographic change? What kind of services and facilities are affected? Are there areas where vacant public facilities are more common?
In case shutdown of services and/or infrastructure took place in your area in the past 10 years: were there any public debates, protests accompanying such moves?
Make a ’problem list’ of things in your area which might pose a barrier to elderly people in using public services and spaces!
Are you aware of any new services opened in your area in the past 10 years which serves the specific needs of the elderly? What type of services are these?
In case basic and/or specialised health services exist in your area: how did the workload of health service providers change in the past 10 years?
In case elementary schooling is present in your area: how did the number of pupils change in the past 10 years?
How many vacant housing units are there in your area? Are there areas where vacant housing is more common?
How did the housing property prices in your area change in the past 10 years?
Is any of the areas affected by vacant property considered by local society as dangerous and/or ’problematic’ in any sense?
Are there any areas in your vicinity where poor people are concentrated? What kind of areas are these? (Urban/rural, physical characteristics, supply with services and infrastructure etc.)
Is there any sign of reuse of vacant property? What kind of reuse is this?

3.) Challenges of demographic change in service provision

In which fields of public services are you interested in: transport, water/sewage, health care and long-term care, social services, housing, or local supply? Please answer the questions that belong to the area of your interest!

Transport

Are there any settlements/settlement quarters in your area, which have no access to public transport? (I.e. the first public transport stop is further than cca. 500 metres?)

Are you aware of any settlements/settlement quarters in your area where the schedule of public transport does not meet needs (e.g. lack of access to workplaces, services on time, lack of public transport during the evening)?

Are public transport facilities barrier free in your area?

How did public transport fares change in your area in the past 5 years?

Who are the (main) public transport provider(s) in your area?

Were there any changes in the public transport system which affected the public transport offer in your area in the past 5 years (e.g. shutdown/opening of railway or bus lines, rearrangement of schedules)?

Are you aware of any new, innovative solutions to improve the mobility of local residents (e.g. car sharing, call buses, possibility for other passengers to enter school buses)?

Water/sewage

How many percent of housing is connected to the sewage network in your area?
How did the price of water and sewage treatment change in your area in the past 5 years? How did it change compared to the national average (if such data are available)?
Are you aware of any new, innovative solutions to adapt water/sewage treatment facilities to demographic change in your area?

Health care and long-term care

How is provision of health care managed in your area?
Who are the main stakeholders in the field of long-term care?
How did public health expenditure change in the last 5-10 years in your area?

Were there any shutdowns or reorganisations of institutions providing health care and long term care in your area?

If yes, what was the result of such actions in terms of the finance and quality of the given services?

Is there public debate on improving the quality of (public) health care in your area?

Are there any settlements/settlement quarters in your area, which have problems with staff provision in health care?

Are you aware of any new, innovative solutions to improve the health care and long term care of residents (e.g. ICT technologies, Telemedicine, mobile practices, etc)?

Childcare and other social services

How is the provision of social services managed in your area? Who are the main stakeholders?

Were there any shutdowns or reorganisations of institutions providing social services and child care services in your area?

If yes, what was the result of these actions in term of the finance and quality of services?
What is the system of maternity leave in your area? (Length of paid maternity leave, entitlements, amount of financial support, possibility of paternal leave, possibility of work while on maternity leave etc.)

Do child care services meet the demand in your area? (Quantity of places, accessibility of services etc.) If not, what are the main shortages?

What is the rate of female labour market participation in your country and in your area? Is there a potential in the promotion of the return of women into the labour market? If yes, how could child-care services assist women in it?

How widespread is part-time work in your area?

Are there any settlements/settlement quarters in your area, which have problem with staff provision in social services?

Are you aware of any new, innovative solutions to improve social services (e.g. multifunctional facilities, flexibilisation, etc.)?

Housing and public spaces

What is the ratio of public housing in your area? What is the ratio of owner occupied housing?

Who are responsible for the public housing stock in your area?

In case there is vacant public property in your area: Who is responsible for the management of vacant public property in your area? How does it manage vacancy?

Are there any examples in your area for:

function change – what happened?

downsizing buildings (partlial demolition, or partial closing, partial function change)

demolition of buildings – what happened to the area managed after the demolition?

Were any programmes carried out to improve energy efficiency? What kind of buildings were involved?

Is there urban sprawl in your area?

In urban areas:

Were any actions taken in the past 5-10 years that aimed to develop a more compact urban structure in your area? If yes, list a few such actions!

Were there any actions that aimed to create a more elderly friendly built environment in your area? What were these actions?

Were there any actions that aimed to create a more family- and child friendly built environment in your area? What were these actions?

In rural areas:

Were there any actions that aimed a spatial rearrangement of functions as a response to demographic change in your area? What kind of actions were taken?

Local supply

Were there any shutdowns of local shops and services in your area in the last 5 years?

Were there any local protests against these shutdowns?

Were there any new solutions (spatial bundling in multifunctional centres, cooperation/voluntary work of local residents) in order to provide such functions again?

How common is voluntary engagement in your area? Which population groups are mostly active in voluntary actions?

Are you aware of any new, innovative solutions to improve public administration on the spot (e.g. ICT technology)?

4.) Plan an action!

Choose a topic – in which you are interested in, or the most urgent in your area – from the ones discussed above. Plan an action in the chosen policy field, considering:

What are the main policy documents governing this field in your area? (Consider different territorial levels.)
Who are the main stakeholders in the specific topic in your area? Consider different types of actors from (a) local politics (b) local administration (c) NGOs and religious organisations (d) private actors such as utility providers (e) local citizen groups (f) strong informal leaders (g) institutions representing collective interests (h) actors from neighbouring communities (i) actors from other territorial levels.
Sketch a ’plan for planning’! Whom would you involve and in what form? What would be the main steps of the planning process? What would be the outputs of planning?
Are there any options for actions in the chosen field which

directly save costs?
save costs through avoiding greater or future costs?
lead to indirect savings?
lead to new incomes?
lead to non-monetary benefits?

Are there any regulations or standards which might need revising?
Are there any other fields (policy areas) which have strong interlinks to the chosen field, therefore might need action? (E.g. spatial reorganisation of social services needs a consideration of transport opportunities.)
What could be the main financial sources for such an action? (Consider innovative models of social finance too!)
What could be the most telling performance indicators of the action?