Democracy Matters: route map to reform

Why community governance reform?

Scotland has a wealth of existing community bodies and groups that play a critical role in involving people in decision making as well as leading the development of their local areas and communities. Over 1,200 Community Councils work every day to make a critical contribution to both community engagement and supporting service provision, elevating voices locally and working to bring improvements that make places, homes. The dynamism of our local third sector and development trusts (with well over 300 trusts in operation across the country) are also making a critical contribution to the biggest challenges of our time, bringing together communities and mobilising resources to: improve health and wellbeing; support a just transition to net zero; grow inclusive economies; and eradicate child poverty.

Land Reform and Community Asset Transfer legislation set out in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 has been instrumental in supporting this work. Data collected in 2023 showed that 533 community groups own assets equating to 208,597 hectares of land, which they are using for the benefit of the wider community.

Scotland’s record of participation and community empowerment more widely is also strong, since 2021, more than 450,000 people have taken part in participatory processes and directly decided how £550 million worth of Local Government budgets is spent. Participatory Budgeting today continues as an important element of participatory practice across Scotland and is an example of national and Local Government working together to build innovative approaches that put citizens at the heart of public service design and spending decisions, in line with the principles set out by the Christie Commission on the future of public services. These policies and initiatives have made participation and community-led action in Scotland easier for many and enabled vital work that fuels the development of many towns, villages and neighbourhoods across the country. Across local areas, communities have established a variety of innovative and impactful ways of working together and with local partners. Despite this commitment and these ambitious efforts, Democracy Matters showed that there are still some areas that lack the relationships and support to fulfil their ambitions meaning there is more to do, to both release the untapped potential of Scotland’s communities, and provide more routes into decision-making.

Scottish Government’s Commitment to Safeguarding Democracy signed by cross party-political leaders acknowledged that many people in our country still feel too distant from politics or failed by society, leading to many feeling unheard and disempowered by a polarising public discourse. It is noted that participation and openness in government, the sharing of power, robust accountability, and equal opportunity should be the principles that underpin work to design renewed democratic structures in ways that can be trusted.

Further to this, communities of place and interest from across the country have told us throughout Democracy Matters engagement that they don’t feel included by the current system, particularly people who already face systemic barriers to our public services and within society, including people with disabilities, ethnic minority communities, and children and young people.

Current approaches rely heavily on statutory consultation and have led in many cases to fatigue and a belief that people are not being listened to, as well as imbalances in representation, all whilst requiring considerable resources from across the public sector to deliver them.

These and wider issues raised during the Democracy Matters process are reasons to enhance participation and empower more place-based decision-making and are critical arguments for reform. We must design better approaches, together with communities, that support people living in the same places, with diverse lived experiences, to shape decisions locally and make democracy something we all do on a regular basis as a key element of civic life. This is something that cannot be done by the Scottish Government, public bodies or Local Authorities alone, it must be the mission and endeavour of all of us to protect and enhance our democracy.