Democracy Matters: route map to reform

What community governance could look like in the future

Changes should ensure that communities are empowered and supported, to take decisions for themselves to improve and develop the places they live; they should also ensure that the design and delivery of public services are informed and led by communities, reflecting the priorities and needs of those living in the local area.

Improved participation and engagement in local decision-making should be enabled by a representative community body – integrated within wider local governance arrangements – bringing together diverse members of the community with the public sector and community anchor organisations to provide effective oversight, support and collective leadership.

Enhanced governance structures will be representative of people who live in the local area, provide a vehicle for progressive democratic decision-making and embody national values of equality and inclusion. They will be inclusive of, and accessible to, the people who are mostly likely to be excluded from existing processes, as well as those who face significant inequalities within communities.

Models of community governance will be flexible; but we will work to ensure that there are shared standards, guidance and requirements and a common set of rights, powers and accountabilities for community decision-making along with support for evolving functions and assistance when relationships break down or disputes arise.

For some local areas that body will be an existing structure such as a Community Council or Community Planning Partnership-led Locality Plan arrangement whilst in other areas a new community body may need to be established. These structures will need a democratic mandate from the local community to form and then take on new powers or functions.

Stronger requirements will more effectively guide public spending decisions locally, for example, requiring public bodies to set budgets in line with the priorities identified by communities and to support participation in budgeting decisions. Where decisions are taken by public bodies contrary to local plans, they will need to clearly set out why.

This will be complemented by mechanisms to enable the transfer of control over discretionary budgets to community bodies for communities who are ready to take on these responsibilities and have the capacity to manage delivery, so that they can be supported to take decisions with local people to support community-led delivery, in line with their local plan.

To underpin any transfer of decision-making powers or control over public funds from public bodies, robust governance arrangements with clear checks and balances should be in place for community bodies entrusted with spending public money for the betterment of all in their community. These arrangements should guarantee high standards of transparency, financial stewardship, and democratic accountability safeguarding against the risk of unrepresentative groups exerting undue influence within communities. Equally, public bodies must remain accountable for how they support, resource and respond collectively to community led plans and spending decisions, with clear duties to justify actions taken to ensure that public funds are used lawfully, fairly and in line with locally agreed priorities. Together, these safeguards are essential to building trust and ensuring empowered communities and public bodies operate with integrity, inclusivity and accountability.

The public sector policy environment and grant-giving processes could also be simplified and streamlined, helping communities to access Fairer Funding and in some cases generate their own sources of sustainable wealth and income through greater ownership and stewardship of land and assets, to create improved conditions for communities to access and leverage funding for their priorities.

They should also be supported to have a community led plan for place, setting out what communities want to see achieved in their local area; what they want and need from public services and what they want to deliver and achieve for themselves. These plans should build on work already carried out by communities and the public sector such as Locality Plans, Local Place Plans and Community Action Plans. For communities starting out on their empowerment journey, plans may be iterative and reflective of local capacity, focusing on a few initial priorities and potentially expanding in strategic scope over time.

It is noted that communities already have statutory rights to input into planning decisions via local place plan processes and therefore these reforms will specifically look to address the need for stronger deliberative and participative mechanisms and rights for community-led planning and to enable greater community participation in the design and delivery of public services.

Plans should be developed through regular inclusive and deliberative community participation processes that are rights-based and facilitate open and transparent dialogue between communities and the public sector to understand, set and deliver local priorities, as well as drawing on trusted sources of local data about who lives in the community and what they want from local services. This will require further collective investment in the infrastructure to support these processes locally and continuous improvement in their quality. This is particularly important to ensure that local areas are able to confidently and effectively organise themselves in ways that are safe, inclusive and accessible including to children and young people, people with disabilities and others facing system exclusion and discrimination.

Communities will not be required to take part in these processes if they don’t feel ready. There will be an increase in support for the capacity of communities to work together and with the public sector to lead changes locally. This could include the new models of support for community empowerment, development and participation as well as better co-ordination of existing support services provided by public bodies. Support will need to assist community bodies to put in place robust democratic community governance and leadership.

It will see a renewed focus on how we support community development in Scotland and how this can prepare and enable communities to take on enhanced powers and responsibilities within local planning and decision-making processes. Support will differ depending on communities’ relationships with public bodies, the stage of empowerment they have reached, and be proportionate, ensuring that wherever possible communities draw on their existing assets and community wealth and that support is targeted to areas that need it most and are most ready to achieve the greatest impact for their local area.

A significant challenge for local partners in working effectively with communities has been the substantial reduction in Community Learning and Development (CLD) services within Local Government. These teams have historically played a central role in building confidence, skills and organisational capacity of community groups and connecting them with public bodies, yet their diminished size and that of the wider third sector in recent years now limits the level of hands-on support that Local Government can provide. Developing community groups to the point where they can meaningfully participate in the governance of public bodies, manage complex planning processes, or take informed decisions about public spending requires sustained time, resource and trusted relationships. Without sufficient investment in community development infrastructure, it will be difficult to ensure that all communities – particularly those with fewer assets or greater inequalities – are able to reach the stage of readiness needed to take on enhanced powers and responsibility.

While CLD (if properly resourced) can support communities to engage constructively in local decision-making, it cannot ensure good conduct. Additional systems and resources shared from across public bodies will be required to provide appropriate oversight and safeguards.

New rights will be underpinned by strong local accountability for all public bodies to ensure that reporting and monitoring on decisions and assessments on progress and performance in delivering them is routine, accessible and transparent, and take place with the communities they seek to serve. It will be important to ensure that through this process communities understand what decisions have been taken by public bodies and by community bodies and why. They should be able to easily track and monitor: the activities that are delivered; how money is spent; how well those bodies are delivering for communities; and improvements in the quality of services locally. There will need to be clear, accessible and participatory approaches for communities to raise questions, concerns or ideas for improvement. This work will also be progressed as part of the review of accountability set out in the Public Service Reform Strategy.