Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 - part 3 participation requests: findings report review

Executive Summary

Introduction

This report presents findings from a review of participation requests as introduced by Part 3 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The aim of this review is to present and synthesise findings on the use and impact of participation requests over the last seven years by Public Service Authorities and Community Participation Bodies. In addition, this review will assess whether an appeals or review mechanism for participation requests is required. Findings will help to inform what practical or statutory updates might be required for participation requests to further empower communities.

Methodology

This review was undertaken by the Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform Directorate. It draws on a range of sources including evidence available prior to the review launch from Glasgow Caledonian University’s three year independent evaluation of participation requests published in 2020, the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and Communities Committee post legislative scrutiny in 2021 and a Scottish Government online participation requests national conference in March 2022 that was designed to share learning and gather views. Following the review launch, the Scottish Government gathered information from Public Service Authorities to help collate accurate data on participation requests activity and experience of use. Public Service Authorities were asked to complete an additional section in the participation request annual reporting template in 2022 and 2023 and they were contacted again by email in August 2024 to invite further views. Regional workshops hosted by the Scottish Government in November 2023 provided further information on the use and impact of participation requests legislation.

An academic research project commissioned by the Scottish Government and undertaken by the School of Innovation and Technology (SIT) at Glasgow School of Art between August 2023 and January 2024 explored the impact of participation requests. The Scottish Government also commissioned the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) between 2022 and 2024 to explore potential approaches for strengthening participation requests, including the potential need for an appeals and/or review mechanism. SCDC established an independent working group to consider this work and this report synthesises findings from both of those reports.

The review focuses on the following key questions:

• Is Part 3 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 being implemented as intended by Public Service Authorities?
• Are participation requests enabling Community Participation Bodies to be more involved in decisions and processes aimed at improving outcomes for communities?
• Should an appeals or review mechanism be introduced for participation requests?

Limitations

This review was conducted using available quantitative and qualitative data. Not all Public Service Authorities have made their reports publicly available and many did not return their annual reporting templates to the Scottish Government. As a result, the findings in this report cannot be said to reveal the full picture of participation request activity in Scotland. It is also important to note that an application may be received and an Outcome Improvement Process subsequently agreed informally, outwith the legislative framework. Furthermore, Public Service Authorities can accept an application in one year and decide on this in a subsequent reporting year.

Key Findings

• Since participation requests legislation was introduced in 2017, 104 participation requests have been made with 56 granted and 27 refused. Of the remaining 21, no further details were provided except that a request had been made
• The number of applications have decreased from a high of 26 in 2018-2019 to a low of five in 2023-2024, with some variation in numbers over this period
• Since 2017, 96 participation requests were received by Local Authorities, seven by Health Boards, and one by Police Scotland. Thirty eight of these participation requests were made by Community Councils, the most common Community Participation Body type. Out of a total of 77 Public Service Authorities, 55 have never received a request
• Participation requests have helped to enable Community Participation Bodies to be more involved in decisions and processes aimed at improving outcomes for communities, but there is mixed understanding of their purpose and when they are needed
• Capturing robust data to define the value and impact of participation requests remains a challenge due to low numbers and reporting practices by Public Service Authorities, and in particular understanding the relationship between inequalities and participation requests
• There is patchy implementation of, and adherence to, the participation request legislation by Public Service Authorities including continued low annual reporting
• Many Public Service Authorities believe that participation requests should only be used when informal engagement has failed and therefore do not proactively promote them
• The Outcome Improvement Process is not consistently implemented by Public Service Authorities and further monitoring of what a good Outcome Improvement Process looks like is needed
• There are calls to explore a local review and/or national appeals process, however the majority of Public Service Authorities expressed concern that appeals for participation requests has the potential to impose significant administrative and financial burden on them
• Strengthening the Participation Requests Statutory Guidance and promoting a set of participation requests principles has been proposed as a more practical approach than implementing legislation to introduce a local review and/or national appeals process for participation requests

Conclusion

The Scottish Government introduced Part 3 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 in 2017 to enable communities to have greater involvement in, and influence, over public sector decisions. This legislation has supported communities to highlight local needs and become more involved in change or improvement at local level. Participation requests were not intended to replace good quality existing community engagement or participation processes.

The impact of participation requests has been assessed considerably since 2017, firstly by an evaluation undertaken by Glasgow Caledonian University in 2020 and Scottish Parliamentary scrutiny by then Local Government and Communities Committee in 2021. The Scottish Government has significantly invested in support for participation requests in response to the recommendations in the two aforementioned reports to increase awareness, understanding, and implementation of participation requests.

Despite Scottish Government investment in supporting the understanding and implementation of participation requests, this review has found that further work is required to ensure there is shared clarity on their purpose and when their use is most appropriate. It has also found that further work could be undertaken by all parties to ensure the experience of utilising a participation request is a positive one with improved outcomes for the local community.

This review found that the legislation is perceived differently by the Public Service Authorities responsible for implementation and the Community Participation Bodies who have used it. On the one hand, Public Service Authorities consider low numbers of participation requests to be a positive outcome as this could indicate that existing community engagement methods are effective. Additionally, some Public Service Authorities reported that receiving a participation request is a failure, as communities should not need to use a statutory route to be involved in discussions about positive change for their community.

On the other hand, Community Participation Bodies feel that participation requests are underutilised and have only gone some way to increase the involvement of communities in decisions and processes aimed at improving outcomes for communities. However, they acknowledge that the legislation has provided a useful framework for communities to turn to, particularly when other informal engagement routes with public authorities have been unsuccessful.

Based on the information available and gathered to inform this review, the use of participation requests legislation remains low with 104 applications made between April 2017 and March 2024, and only 22 out of 77 Public Service Authorities ever receiving one. Therefore, due to the contrasting views on their purpose and use, and the low number of participation requests made since 2017, capturing robust information to define their value and impact remains a challenge.

However, this review has found that participation requests have encouraged Public Service Authorities to be more accessible and transparent by using alternative engagement methods before a formal legislative route needs to be explored. Nevertheless, more work needs to be done by Public Service Authorities to raise awareness of the right to use participation requests, especially with disadvantaged communities. Although existing guidance for promoting and supporting participation requests is working well, it is not being implemented consistently and in some areas the right to make participation requests is not well known.

This review has identified the need for better understanding of the Outcome Improvement Process by Public Service Authorities and ways to explore how best to share good practice, including the experiences of Community Participation Bodies engaging with the process. Updating the participation requests statutory guidance and creating a set of principles for participation requests is a way in which this might be addressed.

A key part of this review was to investigate the potential need for an appeals or review mechanism for participation requests and there is some support for a local review or national appeals process. However, due to the low numbers of participation requests and the potential financial and administrative costs of an appeals or review mechanism, the Scottish Government’s view is that an appeals or review mechanism would add minimal value to the process at this point. It is anticipated that the requirements identified by this review outlined above could benefit both Community Participation Bodies and Public Service Authorities, more than an appeals or review mechanism could.

It is also important to note that this review of participation requests has been undertaken in parallel with the Scottish Government and COSLA’s Local Governance Review which is considering how powers, responsibilities and resources are shared across national and local spheres of government, and with communities. The Review’s community empowerment engagement process, Democracy Matters findings report was published in September 2024 and reflects a clear desire to have a greater control over decision making at a more local level and a diversity of views on how to achieve it. The Scottish Government and COSLA’s joint statement published alongside the findings report committed to a robust policy development process before an implementation phase in the next Parliament. This work is ambitious in outlook and will deliver new inclusive decision making arrangements which allow communities to take more decisions for themselves, ensures more local control over resource, and better enables everyone, regardless of their background, to participate in civic life.

The Democracy Matters Steering Group has been assembled to ensure that the policy development phase of Democracy Matters proceeds in the same spirit as the engagement process. The group has members from the community sector, local government, equalities groups and other local partners and is taking a co-production approach to model development, ensuring that models deliver on the ambitions set out by communities.

In response to the findings of this review, the Scottish Government will:

• undertake engagement with Public Service Authorities, Community Participation Bodies and interested stakeholders on the potential benefits of updating the Part 3: Participation Requests Statutory Guidance
• undertake targeted consultation with Public Service Authorities, Community Participation Bodies and interested stakeholders on the proposal for the adoption of a set of participation request principles
• explore options with Public Service Authorities and Community Participation Bodies on ways to improve understanding of the Outcome Improvement Process and raise awareness of the benefits of participation requests for when their use is required