South Scotland Projects

The South Scotland Regional Group has completed a number of projects with support from Scottish Enterprise. A number more are ongoing.

The Barfil Study
 At one of its very first meetings, concern about the loss of people from the workforce was agreed as a priority for SSRG action. Consultants from Barfill Management Centre were asked to look at this problem. Their report, 'A Study of People in the Forest Industries in South Scotland' came out in April 2007. It's now known as the Barfill Report.

As a result of that report the South Scotland group set up a Human Resource Strategy Group (HRSG) to help deliver some of its recommendations. The group is led by HR consultant Mark Smither, one of the authors of the Barfill Report.

Contractor Workshops
 HRSG has steered the development of workshops for forestry contractors delivered by Mark Smither and others since 2008. Workshops covered subjects such as:

  • pricing for profit
  • taking on a worker
  • business book-keeping
  • self-employment and PAYE
  • the Contractors' PACT (Pricing and Costing Tool) - an Excel-based tool to assist business planning and job costing

Other projects include:

  • South Scotland Sawmillers' Forum - to assist smaller sawmills
  • Forestry Contractors' Resources web page - offering downloadable business guidance materials
  • Forestry Skills Development Programme - a pilot programme started in November 2010 and running until March 2011