Open Government action plan 2021 to 2025 - commitment 5: participation
Overview of the participation commitment, including milestones and their co-creation process, alongside progress reports submitted throughout the action plan.
Part of
Progress to March 2025
Commitment 5: participation
Objective
Developing knowledge and skills across Scottish Government (SG).
Milestone
Delivery of Participation Handbook training sessions across SG.
Progress
As previously reported, the introduction of a procurement framework (to assist staff with procuring high quality participatory work) has led to a change in the staging of activities. Staff training will need to be designed around the framework, as this will be a key resource for staff.
Next steps
It is proposed that training is finalised and delivered once the Framework Agreement is in place, which is currently estimated early 2025. This can align with the upcoming Policy Profession Standard.
Revised training content will be agreed and developed with civil society members. This will be rolled out to Scottish Government staff and incorporated into relevant internal guidance.
Planning is underway for how this training can be incorporated into a programme of work to establish an internal network of staff trained as community representatives for public participation. This is currently a pilot initiative seeking to upskill civil servants across directorates on participation practice, and to embed the use and understanding of resources to deliver high quality participation.
Status
Behind schedule.
Objective
Developing knowledge and skills across SG.
Milestone
Delivery of in-depth participation training to SG Social Researchers.
Progress
Training for SG Social Researchers was delivered in early 2025, in collaboration with SCDC, on co-production and community-led action research.
Community-led action research (CLAR) is a process where a community decides on an issue, designs and carries out the research, and makes use of the results.
Social Researchers were provided with:
- an understanding of community-led action research and its links to co-production
- an opportunity to consider how CLAR approaches can be applied/developed in a social research context
- links to useful information and resources which can be used in the future
As part of the sessions around co-production, Social Researchers explored:
- what co-production is and its core principles
- where co-production is positioned within engagement practice and what appropriate methods can be adopted
- possible opportunities to apply a co-production approach and embed co-production activities to ongoing work and practices
- key resources and approaches to support co-production and practice development, including the newly launched SCDC Co-Production Guide
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Developing knowledge and skills across SG.
Milestone
Monitoring and evaluation of participation work.
Progress
The Open Government team recruited a social research intern via the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS) in 2024.
The research project explored the topic of public participation in policymaking – with a specific focus on considering and understanding its impact. The research question was agreed with members of the participation commitment working group.
The Open Government team supported the delivery of the research project, and a report was published in February 2025.
Next steps
As previously reported, it is proposed that key aspects of this work are integrated into the procurement framework, as a mechanism that can introduce some standardisation to monitoring and evaluation of commissioned participatory work. Discussions are ongoing about the possibility of developing an SG monitoring and evaluation approach to public participation.
The Open Government team intend to support the delivery of another SGSSS social research intern in 2025 to focus on the topic of trust in government. The research project will be an analysis of evidence on levels of trust in government, and potential contributing factors across different areas, demographics and protected characteristics in Scotland.
It is intended that the project will result in a publishable report that provides a literature review of existing evidence on trust and sets out new analysis resulting from the project.
If possible, this work will build on the previous research project to help SG to understand the impact of participation on levels of trust.
Status
Some aspects on schedule.
Objective
Developing knowledge and skills across SG.
Milestone
Development of an SG wide procurement framework for participation work.
Progress
Following external engagement with stakeholders over summer 2024, the Scottish Government revised its approach and adopted a new route to market to address feedback raised from external and internal stakeholders on the proposed use of a Framework Agreement.
Scottish Government will use a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). This is similar to a Framework Agreement as it will still provide a list of quality-assured suppliers, organised into ‘lots’ according to their specialisms, who will be the primary route to market for Scottish Government officials looking to commission participatory work. A DPS differs from the previously proposed Framework Agreement in the flexibility it offers to add new suppliers at any time during the lifetime of the DPS, and the reduced workload for suppliers at initial tendering stage.
The decision making process around this new approach means that we have not been able to follow our original timescales. We now anticipate issuing an Invitation to Tender (ITT) in early 2025.
Next steps
- continued engagement with external stakeholders to support sign up to the DPS, with a focus on needs and capacity of smaller, grassroots organisations
- consideration of evidence from engagements to draft specification for the DPS
- issue Invitation to Tender (ITT)
- evaluation of bids submitted
- post-award work (such as the creation of a buyer guide)
- establishment of DPS
The Open Government team continues to engage with targeted policy areas to gain advice and expertise to inform the DPS’s development. This has focused on the needs of smaller, grassroots organisations to be able to apply or operate within the DPS, but now will look to consider how teams can aid the development of guidance to support staff to commission work through the DPS.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Developing a Participation Handbook.
Milestone
Embedding equalities and an inclusive approach.
Progress
No further update from December 2024.
A new iteration of the Participation Handbook was published in March 2024. This iteration seeks to better reflect practical guidance around equalities and inclusive approaches.
We co-wrote a blog with Deciding Matters – the organisation that designed and facilitated several public workshops to help us gather recommendations on improvements that could be made to the guidance. The blog outlines the approach, learnings and reflections taken to gather the views, opinions and ideas from the public. Deciding Matters share several learning and development takeaways they had with regards to accessibility and inclusion when running the workshops.
Scottish Government will respond to the final report findings, detailing how the outputs from the workshops were integrated into the next iteration of the guidance.
Status
Behind schedule.
Objective
Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy.
Milestone
Beginning processes of change to make participation routine and effective.
Progress
No further update from December 2024.
Work to date has involved addressing a foundational recommendation advised by the working group – to establish a central team at Scottish Government with responsibility for participation.
This work is ongoing and milestones to measure progress against further, early recommendations will be outlined following the outcome of this work. Its outcome is dependent on the availability of additional resources.
Status
Behind schedule.
Objective
Developing an active and inclusive Open Government Network for Participation.
Milestone
Diversify and increase capacity of the Open Government Civil Society Network.
Progress
External communications and engagement with civil society is taking a phased approach with the first phase focusing on research and review.
Review of current communication and engagement methods is in progress. It is proposed that additional channels are established and changes are made to existing content in order to provide clear and accessible information to civil society members and wider civil society.
Mapping of current members as well as a wider exercise of civil society mapping in Scotland is underway. Discussions are also happening at UK level and with other open Government Partnership nations to share knowledge and good practice in supporting civil society.
Conversations with civil society members and committee are being used to build a clearer picture of what being a civil society member looks and feels like. This is also highlighting the needs of civil society – this information will form the basis for the external communication and engagement strategy.
Next steps
A next step is to develop an Open Government Partnership narrative in Scotland in collaboration with civil society.
On the participation commitment consideration is being given to planning civil society engagement for the remainder of the Action Plan.
Status
Behind schedule.
Objective
Review of consultations - spend, approach, monitoring.
Milestone
Maintenance and iterative development of internal guidance. Regular review and evaluation of content.
Progress
The internal consultation guidance is reviewed iteratively on a regular basis. The latest iteration has updated content. Future aims are for content to be more easily navigable and more comprehensive.
Status
Complete.
Objective
Review of consultations - spend, approach, monitoring
Milestone
Development of digital engagement service offer:
- reviewing the digital engagement team strategy and offer
- be responsive to the developments of the CivTech project and other organisational developments
Progress
The aim for this milestone was to refocus the support available to Scottish Government staff from primarily consultation support towards a broader digital engagement offer.
Guidance materials are now fit for purpose so that colleagues needing consultation support are able to access this without needing one-to-one support.
A new place-based consultation format was launched in 2024.
A CivTech Challenge is underway to explore the development of a new digital engagement tool for government.
Next steps
The digital engagement team will continue to be responsive to developing digital engagement tools and the needs of colleagues for alternatives to consultation. The nature and extent of the service offered by the team will be continually reviewed to align with Scottish Government’s organisational goals, new developments internally, and the capacity of the team.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Review of consultations - spend, approach, monitoring.
Milestone
Analysis of evaluation data:
- an improvement action plan was developed based on 15 recommendations identified during the evaluation process. We are currently implementing this action plan
- publication and promotion of the report are being explored
Progress
Evaluation data collected alongside each consultation was to be analysed by external analysts to provide insight into the accessibility and effectiveness of consultations.
It was planned that these insights would inform guidance and training provided on consultations and to form an evidence base to promote non-consultation options for engagement. Analysis of evaluation data was completed in late summer 2023.
Action on the report’s recommendations has taken place to the extent possible. Publication and promotion of the report were put on hold due to changes in staffing.
Next steps
Reviewing.
Status
Behind schedule.
Objective
Review of consultations - spend, approach, monitoring.
Milestone
Explore external communications tools to promote digital engagement.
Progress
Challenges were identified in the discovery phase of the engagement hub project. Longer term work on website development and on organisational culture and processes has had to be undertaken before it would be feasible to offer an engagement hub.
As a complimentary approach, an external communications plan to raise awareness of consultations and other digital engagement activities has been developed and implemented.
Improvements to the Scottish Government website have launched which allow visitors to the website to see when a consultation is closing, more easily access a link to the online consultation hub, and will link the consultation paper and analysis paper when launched.
Communications work to promote consultations is continuing including closer liaison with the social content hub in digital communications and audience analysis of current communication channels.
Status
Complete.
Objective
Supporting PB to take an Open Government approach.
Milestone
Monitoring the completion of local authorities delivery of 1% of budgets through participatory budgeting and supporting local authorities to develop new ways to measure the success of PB.
Progress
We continue to work with COSLA to support all Local Authorities to reach the 1% milestone. Scottish Government are awaiting the publication of 2023/24 figures but early indications suggest that this has again been met.
As previously reported, we are also working with COSLA to further develop the 1% target to take into account other forms of success in PB, such as best practice. The timeline to develop a paper to outline options available has been postponed due to resource and capacity issues.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Supporting PB to take an Open Government approach.
Milestone
Support the National Participatory Budgeting Strategic Group (NPBSG) as they provide the strategic direction for participatory budgeting (PB) across Scotland.
This includes work to raise awareness of the National PB Framework’s priorities and indicators for success, championing open government values and principles.
Progress
The group’s annual report was published on 17 June 2024.
Next steps
There are currently no further meetings scheduled for the group.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Supporting PB to take an Open Government approach.
Milestone
Support the expansion of the NPBSG remit and function, in collaboration with SG’s Open Government team.
Progress
A workshop was held on the 14 June to discuss progressing this action and what the newly formed group’s remit and reporting instructions will include.
Next steps
This has been placed on pause due to resource and capacity.
Status
Paused.
Objective
Supporting PB to take an Open Government approach.
Milestone
Embed Open Government principles in Green Participatory Budgeting:
- continue to explore the use of PB as part of our wider support for community led climate action
- identify opportunities to support Green PB programmes across Scotland
- continue to work with COSLA to support local authorities’ PB initiatives, including Green PB
Progress
Just Transition PB Fund in the North East of Scotland concluded for year 3. Over 18,000 people voted to distribute £1 million capital to 47 successful projects.
Next steps
Work is ongoing to secure a further £1 million capital funding for year four of the fund.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Embedding Open Government principles in the Community Empowerment Act parliamentary review.
Milestone
Review of Section 10 of Community Empowerment Act.
As part of the Scottish Government’s review of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, the Open Government values, principles and approaches will be applied throughout the process.
Progress
Scottish Government are drafting a report that will inform the approach taken to the Review. Timescales to share these findings have been amended from summer 2024 to early 2025 to take into account further drafting requirements on this aspect of the review.
Status
Behind schedule.
Objectives
Embedding Open Government principles in the National Performance Framework refresh
using best practice approaches to support high quality engagement and participation, while undertaking work to review the National Outcomes
Milestone
Analyse outputs from research and engagement undertaken (consultation, call for evidence, desk-based research, stakeholder meetings) and submit a statutory report to the Scottish Parliament by Spring 2024.
Progress
A report was laid in Scottish Parliament on 1 May 2024 and published on the NPF website.
The report describes the process followed to review the National Outcomes and summarises the evidence analysed.
The Finance and Public Administration Committee launched an inquiry into the report on 13 May. Parliamentary scrutiny concluded with the debate on 8th January 2025 and the Scottish Government’s response to the Committee report (14 January 2025).
Status
Complete.
Objective
Embedding Open Government principles in the National Performance Framework refresh.
Using best practice approaches to support high quality engagement and participation, while undertaking work to review the National Outcomes.
Milestone
Publish a suite of Impact Assessments undertaken as part of the NPF Review and a thematic gender review.
Progress
The Impact assessments were published on the NPF website on 10th July 2024.
The Thematic Gender Review was published on 31st October 2024.
Status
Complete.
Objective
Embedding Open Government principles in the National Performance Framework refresh.
Using best practice approaches to support high quality engagement and participation, while undertaking work to review the National Outcomes.
Milestone
Develop an implementation plan and set of resources to support the use of the reviewed NPF.
Progress
The Parliamentary Review of National Outcomes has completed. The inquiry report was published on 15 November, with the SG written response to the report published on 14 January 2025. In the response, the Deputy First Minister publicly committed Scottish Government to a period of reform of the NPF.
Next steps
This reform will enable us to learn from UK and international good practice to develop a stronger framework that is embedded in decision making and sets a vision and measurable outcomes that are relevant to Scotland’s context, circumstances and challenges.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Embedding Open Government principles in the National Performance Framework refresh.
Using best practice approaches to support high quality engagement and participation, while undertaking work to review the National Outcomes.
Milestone
The NPF Expert Advisory Group to continue to advise on the Review and on the development of the implementation plan.
Progress
An Expert Advisory Group workshop, hosted by the University of Glasgow, took place in April 2024.
A further workshop took place virtually in June 2024.
The Parliamentary Review of National Outcomes has completed. The inquiry report was published on 15 November, with the SG written response to the report published on 14 January 2025. In the response, the Deputy First Minister publicly committed Scottish Government to a period of reform of the NPF.
Next steps
This reform will enable us to learn from UK and international good practice to develop a stronger framework that is embedded in decision making and sets a vision and measurable outcomes that are relevant to Scotland’s context, circumstances and challenges.
The NPF Expert Advisory Group met in February 2025, to agree the remit for NPF reform, and how they can best support the reform project.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Improving children and young people’s participation in decision-making and policy design.
Milestone
Support the implementation of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.
Progress
The UNCRC Act commenced on 16th July 2024. Work continues to support Public Authorities, including the Scottish Government. A number of resources are available to support decision makers to engage with children and young people.
Status
Complete.
Objective
Improving children and young people’s participation in decision-making and policy design.
Milestone
Raise awareness and support policy teams within SG to use the Children and Young Persons Participation Framework and build capacity.
Progress
No further update from previous progress report (June 2024).
Our work to promote the Framework includes the development of a training page on our internal professional learning platform Pathways. Over 100 colleagues have attended the training and information sessions so far.
This training helps colleagues to understand the background to, and purpose of, the Framework and how to engage with contractors via the mini-competition process.
We have also included signposting to the Children and Young People (CYP) Participation Framework Buyer Guide and professional learning and reading to support colleagues to develop their understanding of meaningful engagement with children and young people.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Improving children and young people’s participation in decision-making and policy design.
Milestone
Grow the evidence bank of examples of how Children and Young People have engaged in decision making process within policy design.
Progress
We continue to grow the Evidence bank to ensure policy teams have access to historical and current examples of CYP participation in policy making. The bank will be linked to SG’s internal Public Participation group to ensure wider access.
Status
On schedule.
Objective
Improving children and young people’s participation in decision-making and policy design.
Milestone
Support the Children and Young Peoples annual meetings with the Cabinet and the Executive Team.
Progress
The ET Takeover was successfully held in June 2024.
The Scottish Youth Parliament publish the speeches MSYPs have delivered at Executive Meetings as blogs with reflections on the experience from the MSYPs involved.
You can read those delivered in 2024 below:
- End gender-based violence
- Increase mental health training and education
- Invest in and protect youth work services
The annual Cabinet meeting with children and young people was held on Tue 19th Nov 2024. An interview by children and young people (CYP) with FM: https://x.com/scotgov/status/1859295717652643870 Interviews with Cab Sec by the young people https://x.com/OfficialSYP/status/1859290715789853125 and https://x.com/i/status/1859572274463981928 on the third sector organisations social media.
Status
On schedule.