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

Annex B

Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 Part 3 Participation Requests

Questions Issued to Public Service Authorities in August 2024

Question: Outcome Improvement Processes

Section 25 and Section 26 of the Act describe actions each Public Service Authority must take to provide information about participation request Outcome Improvement Processes. The public authority must report this information annually on a website describing the operation of the Outcome Improvement Process, and how the community organisation participated in this. Please provide us with any examples of the Outcome Improvement Processes resulting from the participation requests that you have agreed or signpost us to this information on your website.

Question: Invalid Participation Requests

Section 27 of the Act provides the power for Public Service Authorities to decline certain participation requests. Please provide information on any participation request applications received that were refused or invalid including reasons why they failed to progress.

Question: Reporting

Section 31 of the Act requires that Public Service Authorities publish an annual report by 30 June setting out numbers of requests received, agreed, refused and resulted in changes to a public service. Please let us know where you display this information and if you have not published it, can you let us know why this is. Also, could you provide feedback on the reporting template issued by the Scottish Government annually and any changes that we should make that you would find helpful.

Question: Promotion

Section 32 of the Act requires each Public Service Authority to report annually on promotion activities undertaken by the Public Service Authority to promote the use of participation requests and to support a Community Participation Body in making a participation request. Please update us on actions taken by your authority since 2017-2018 to promote participation request activity and support community organisations in their participation request applications.

Question: Appeals

The Act allows for a Public Service Authority to refuse a participation request if it has reasonable grounds to do so. This is outlined in Section 24 of the Act. It also makes provision for an appeals or review mechanism for participation requests although to date one has not been enacted. This is covered in Section 30 of the Act. Please share any thoughts on the potential need for an appeals or local review mechanism for participation requests and any examples of alternative solutions to involving community groups in local service delivery.