Interview with Jim Savege: an embedded community by default

In early 2026, Aberdeenshire was hit with a severe spell of winter weather that brought much of the region to a standstill. As Jim described, “We had quite an unusual amount of snow at the start of this year… it didn’t stop snowing for about five or six weeks… the place got battered.”

In response, the council mobilised at pace; deploying gritters, coordinating teams, and working with local contractors and farmers to keep roads and routes open. The area quickly saw 170 local farmers across communities working alongside the council in clearance efforts.

To some, this seemed like the council being bailed out by local people – but for the council, this was the consequence of a purposeful and intentional approach to embed their community within local resilience. From the outset, the response was designed not to be delivered by the council alone and the bad weather experienced in the region shone light on the council’s strategy to embed its community.

As Jim explained, the response was “built on the back of years worth of joint work in collaboration.” He went on, “it’s about committing to that ongoing conversation with the community day in, day out, week in, week out, and to try to be as responsive as you can. It’s the foundation you’re building up… It’s about forming a relationship and a partnership in normal life that you can depend on in different circumstances.”

This model is supported by a set of formal mechanisms – Connected Communities, local place plans, and community resilience plans – which tie together to provide the infrastructure for the collaborative approach the council has taken.

The new state-citizen relationship

Aberdeenshire’s model reflects a wider shift in how the role of the council is understood. Though Jim understands that this is not unique to Aberdeenshire as “everyone will be doing this or ought to be” – it offers a working example of a council acting as a platform through which a wider network of actors – community representation, volunteering activity, third sector community groups and local public services – contribute to delivery through a holistic and intentional approach. 

The case of Aberdeenshire reveals that previous understandings of the social contract have seemed to end, and now communities themselves play a fundamental role alongside the local state in the protection and maintenance of social order. Jim surmised this:

It’s not a response to the council pulling back. The start line is something different. The start line is where it’s one of collaboration from the get-go.

At the same time, this is not a withdrawal of the local state. Rather, the council still has its overarching role, which Jim explained, not exhaustively, was to educate young people, make sure roads are well connected and provide planning services. In relation to these services, he said, “I’m not asking somebody else to do that. And people are really quite reasonable to expect a high performance of what the council does.” However, he talked about the space in between what the council provides and what individuals are expected to do by the council:

It’s quite reasonable for communities and individual households to expect to be resilient in their own right to the best extent they can be. And then let’s learn and complement that more as we can do as well.

Embedded community ingredients for success

Throughout the conversation, it was clear that there were numerous reasons why Aberdeenshire has been successful in its approach to integrate the community into its services and resilience plans.

Communication

A critical aspect of the approach is how the new relationship with communities is framed and communicated to the public. Rather than presenting community involvement as a budgetary one, the council has deliberately positioned it as a positive and intentional strategy. As Jim noted,

Being clear, being overt and being positive about that partnership and a collaborative approach as being an intended approach as opposed to something which is a reactive approach to a declining budget.

This framing helps shift the narrative of one of withdrawal to one of community empowerment, helping to avoid the risk – that is seen in other areas – that co-production is perceived as cost-cutting in all but name. The message, therefore, from Jim was, “we’re changing what we do with our budgets, not just doing less.”

Local leadership

In Aberdeenshire’s approach, locally elected councillors play a fundamental role in promoting local resilience, working in a collaborative way with communities rather than acting alone. As Jim described, councillors are often deeply embedded within their areas, “they know everybody and everything that’s going on”. 

However, leadership in Aberdeenshire extends beyond the council and is spread across the community. A notable feature in its approach is recognising “unseen leaders” – the individuals or groups who are embedded within and contribute significantly to the success of the community as part of the wider partnership approach. As Jim noted, “quite often they are community leaders in an unseen and unspoken way, at times, who achieve so much.” This group already has the capability – “we’ve always had those skills and capabilities, and the dials have turned up on those a bit more” – and the council seeks to complement rather than direct their activity. Jim highlighted head teachers, school teams and leisure teams as those with considerable impact due to their local expertise and influence. 

Internal working

With such an outward-facing model, internal alignment has been key to success. Jim emphasises that collaboration is part of the council’s DNA. Jim described how collaboration, partnership and community are part of the council’s “DNA”. The approach is therefore not confined to the corners, but across the whole organisation.

This internal alignment is vital and when staff share the same ethos, work becomes authentic while also allowing the council to “work with the grain” of staff, rather than having a conflicting approach. In this way, embedding communities externally begins internally.

Harnessing diversity

A further strength to Aberdeenshire’s approach is rooted in the idea that recognised place-based differences are vitally important for effective community working. Rather than pursuing a standardised approach, the council actively values the distinctiveness of its communities. As Jim put, 

I think the starting point for us is just respecting the uniqueness and difference between our communities, and valuing that from a council perspective. It is all about acknowledging what’s so special and different here, and celebrating that.

This shift allows the council to build on existing community traits – assets, strengths and ambitions –  rather than a uniform model of community working. In practice, this again means “working with the grain” of communities. Aligning council work with existing community structures is crucial.

Wider structural pressures

Understanding Aberdeenshire’s approach cannot be understood in isolation. As Jim highlighted, the council is operating in the context of significant demographic change and changing demand, which is already reshaping the nature of service provision. 

In the coming years, Aberdeenshire is expecting a substantial increase in its older population, alongside a reduction in school-aged children. As Jim described, there needs to be “candour and clarity of conversation” with communities about how services need to change in response to these wider pressures. This has already meant difficult decisions in reducing the number of school classes, and in some cases closing schools where pupil numbers don’t justify. 

In this sense, wider structural pressures are a driver of community embeddedness, while at the same time helping to explain why the council has placed greater emphasis on community capacity and local initiative. However, the approach emphasises the complementary nature relationship the state and communities have, while recognising that core responsibilities still lie with the council. As Jim explains, 

Thinking about demographic challenges, if I can see, as a council, we’re able to actually amend and develop our services to meet those demographic needs and priorities, and we’re finding that what we’re doing differently has been complemented by what the community is doing, if that’s what they wish to do, then that would be a successful thing.

Embedding communities is therefore a practical response to a system facing pressure, which has been achieved through ongoing dialogue and collaboration between Jim and the council’s teams and the communities they serve. 

The future

The most significant lesson when looking back at the Aberdeenshire’s winter weather response is not simply that they coped effectively, but that they had built the conditions well in advance. The involvement of communities was not reactive, but the result of sustained, everyday collaboration. As Jim reflected, this capacity is developed “day in, day out, week in, week out”. Resilience in this sense is inextricably linked to the strength of relationship the council has with its community. 

Looking ahead, the key challenge is sustaining this model. Jim emphasised the importance of a “continued and respectful partnership dialogue” between the council and community and  how the relationship must evolve in response to changing demographics, shifting priorities and emerging pressures. As Jim concludes:

When I look back in 10 years and there’s been a huge amount of change that we’ve all navigated, if we have got a continued respectful partnership and dialogue between residents, communities and a council, and that is working to the strengths of that community and there is contentment to that, then that is what good looks like for me… If there is an alignment in terms of community aspiration, ambition, and how they’re working together, that is what I’m after.