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

5. Conclusion and Next Steps

This report has provided findings from a review of the use and impact of participation requests by public authorities and community organisations and has assessed whether an appeals or review mechanism for participation requests is required. The findings will help inform what practical or statutory updates might be required for participation requests to further empower communities.

The review found that participation requests legislation has provided a useful framework for communities to turn to, especially when other informal engagement routes with public authorities have been unsuccessful. The number of participation requests made remains low with only 104 made over the last seven years with numbers decreasing from a high of 26 in 2018-2019 to a low of five in 2023-2024. From information provided by the 35 Public Service Authorities who took part in this review, they consider low numbers of participation requests submitted to be a positive outcome which indicates that existing community engagement methods are effective outwith legislation. However, numbers might be low as after seven years there is still ambiguity in how participation requests work, and it can be difficult to determine whether they have made things easier or more complicated. Capturing robust data to define the value and impact of participation requests remains a challenge due to low reporting practices by Public Service Authorities, particular around the relationship between inequalities and participation requests.

Participation requests promotion remains challenging as encouraging a statutory route to initiate dialogue is considered by some Public Service Authorities as a failure and should only be considered when informal engagement has failed. Participation requests have encouraged Public Service Authorities to be more accessible and transparent for communities to engage with. However, it is proposed that Public Service Authorities should continue to raise awareness of participation requests, especially with disadvantaged communities, and ensure their policies are transparent and easy to access. The review found that the Outcome Improvement Process is not well understood or implemented and Public Service Authorities role is important in supporting and agreeing the Outcome Improvement Process with Community Participation Bodies.

There are mixed views on the need for a local review and/or national appeals for participation requests. The SCDC working group proposed exploring a local review and national appeals process and have provided proposals for consideration. However, the majority of Public Service Authorities expressed concern that a review and/or appeals mechanism for participation requests has the potential to impose a significant administrative burden on Public Service Authorities.

The low numbers of participation requests and evidence presented in this review suggests alternative mechanisms are being used that may minimise the need for participation requests as Public Service Authorities continue to develop their own community participation mechanisms. These include creating their own community empowerment and community engagement webpages, undertaking activities with their communities through existing community participation methods and working in partnership with their communities to help local groups develop their plans.

Other suggestions include better monitoring of the Outcome Improvement Process once agreed and more sharing of good practice examples. Alternatives proposed are for a set of principles for participation requests to be adopted and for the statutory guidance to be updated to ensure equity of access and continuity of experience which could reduce the need for a review and/or appeals process.

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 reflects 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