Proposed national Good Food Nation Plan consultation: statement

Part A: Summary of Consultation Process

5. The programme of stakeholder engagement involved a broad range of key elements: the public consultation which included an open call for responses on the Scottish Government consultation platform on Citizen Space, a series of stakeholder workshops and distribution of interactive materials to schools across Scotland. There was also targeted engagement with key stakeholders and extensive engagement across a wide range of policy areas in the Scottish Government. A distribution list of interested parties was maintained and updates sent as needed. The text below summarises the main aspects of the consultation.

The Citizen Space consultation

6. The public consultation opened on 24 January 2024 and closed on 22 April 2024. The documents consulted on included the draft national Good Food Nation Plan and Specified Functions Consultation Document, an Easy Read version of the consultation, a summary of the Plan in Gaelic and the consultation paper in Gaelic.

7. Responses to the consultation were submitted using the Scottish Government’s consultation platform Citizen Space, by email or by post. Most respondents submitted their views via Citizen Space. Where responses were submitted in email or hard copy, these were entered manually onto the Citizen Space system to create a complete database of responses.

Stakeholder workshops

8. As well as the consultation on Citizen Space, as part of the public consultation, Nourish Scotland, on behalf of, and in partnership with, the Scottish Government, conducted a series of stakeholder workshops. This included 15 workshops and information stalls delivered during the time the consultation was open for responses. This was to provide an opportunity for attendees to learn more about the Plan and ask any questions before they responded to the consultation.

9. Ten in-person and five online workshops were held. The in-person events were held in Edinburgh, Alloa, Glasgow, Dundee, Dumfries, Galashiels, Oban, Peterhead, Orkney and South Uist. The locations were chosen to provide as wide a coverage of Scotland as possible and to represent urban, rural, island, farming and fishing communities.

10. In addition, information stalls were set up in five locations (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Galashiels and Oban) a day or so prior to the in-person events. This was to raise awareness the events were happening and to provide an alternative way of engaging with people who might not be able to attend the events.

11. The materials produced to support this part of the consultation included:

• For the in-person workshops, a PowerPoint presentation setting out the background to the Act , the consultation and the concept of a food system. The presentation included a video message from Cabinet Secretary Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands and information on how to respond to the consultation on the draft national Good Food Nation Plan.
• A workshop plan that provided an opportunity for participants to consider the Outcomes and the targets set out in the Plan.
• The online workshops had a similar presentation but broken up in such a way as to have online breakout rooms that allowed participants to discuss the Outcomes and the targets.
• The workshops were promoted via a range of communications such as tailored press releases in and around each workshop location, paid for social media, network outreach (newsletters etc.) and community outreach (libraries and community centres etc.).
• A range of branding materials such as posters and leaflets were also produced to create consistency and credibility for promoting the engagement events. These were used to develop an online presence e.g. event listings, online articles, a physical presence e.g. flyers for general distribution, leaflets for the information stalls and a stand-up banner for the information stall.

Engagement activity with children and young people, and teachers

12. To encourage children and young people to contribute to the consultation, a Good Food Nation “Session Plan” was distributed to schools. This was intended as a resource for teachers to lead a session on the consultation during the school day. It was distributed via well-established educator networks to ensure as wide a coverage as possible. A cover note explained why the children and young people were being asked to contribute and linked this to work on their human right to be heard^[2], a concept that is already embedded in their education.

13. The session plan included a work plan with suggestions for different length discussions and focussed on the aspects of the Plan that were most relevant to children i.e. the Outcomes and the snapshot box that described what life in a Good Food Nation would look like for a child. This work plan was supplemented by a PowerPoint presentation that could be used by the teachers. This included a video message for the children and young people from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands encouraging them to contribute.

14. The session plan included a Microsoft Form which asked questions about the Outcomes in Easy Read format. Teachers and pupils were encouraged to participate and offer their views, guided by the session plan.

Internal engagement within Scottish Government

15. Extensive consultation was undertaken across the Scottish Government. This included working with a wide range of policy teams whose work touches on food. A list of policy officials with a link to food policy was created and maintained to ensure regular updates on the work and development of the Plan were disseminated as widely as possible across the Scottish Government.

16. As well as email updates at key points in the process, presentations were also given at established working groups such as the Cross Policy Forum on Food, or at Directorate level as and when the opportunity arose. There were also meetings with individual teams to discuss the Plan in more depth or to understand better how the policy touched on food.

Distribution lists and Good Food Nation email address

17. A distribution list of external stakeholders and other interested parties was created and maintained^[3]. This distribution list was used to provide: updates at key points in the process, details of the consultation events, and links to published documents. These regular public facing updates were sent to a range of external stakeholders and those who had requested to be kept informed about the development of the Plan.

18. A dedicated Good Food Nation email address and associated inbox was also used. This was widely disseminated, both internally across the Scottish Government and externally, and people are actively encouraged to get in contact with any questions or queries they might have.

Targeted engagement with key stakeholders

19. The targeted engagement involved a range of key stakeholders who have a particular interest in the Plan e.g. had been involved in the Bill process, have a specific link with food and/or are a representative organisation with an interest in the food system.

20. The purpose of this engagement was to meet with organisations with a wide and varied membership that would be interested in food. The stakeholders included third sector organisations, business representatives, specific industry representative groups and local government.

21. For this engagement, a short update on the progress of drafting the Plan was provided alongside information on the Outcomes and the Plans for consultation. Initial feedback from these organisations was gathered in the meeting and they were encouraged to submit formal responses through the Citizen Space consultation portal. They were asked to encourage their networks to participate in the consultation to ensure as wide a range of voices as possible was heard.

Engagement with groups with an interest in the Good Food Nation

22. As and when opportunities arose the Good Food Nation team provided updates and information on the work to develop the Good Food Nation Plan to interested groups. This engagement was wide ranging and included, amongst other things, giving presentations or contributing to; the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Conference, the University of Edinburgh Good Food Nation Living Lab project, the National Community Food Reference Group, the Scottish Pantry Network Conference, the Public Sector Food Forum and the Perth and Kinross Food Partnership Event.

Ministerial engagement

23. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands provided updates and contributions about the Good Food Nation work at a range of different events. These were numerous and varied and cannot all be listed here but the following list gives a flavour of the wide range of events e.g. Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Food, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) World Food Forum, the Hospital Caterers Association Learning and Development Forum and GO Falkland (event about regenerative farming, forestry and food).

24. The Ministerial Working Group on Food was kept informed throughout the process of developing the Plan and were asked to consider and provide views on the draft Plan at key stages of the process. The Ministerial Working Group on Food aims to ensure cross-Government working on issues relating to food policy, including, but not limited to, the Good Food Nation ambition.

Inclusive communication

25. When preparing the draft Good Food Nation Plan and the public consultation, the Scottish Government used the Place Standard Inclusive Communication Toolkit including Guidance and Practical Resources for guidance on inclusive communication. Inclusive communication means communicating in a way that ensures individuals who have difficulty communicating (in relation to speech, language or otherwise) can receive information and express themselves in ways that best meet their needs. The Scottish Government took into account that people use a wide range of ways to communicate e.g. verbal; written; pictures and symbols; and sign language.

26. Good inclusive communication practice is not only helpful for people who have differing communication needs but is beneficial to everyone. Below are some examples of steps the Scottish Government took to ensure the consultation on the draft national Good Food Nation Plan was inclusive:

• Asking stakeholders how best to engage their networks with the consultation, asking participants to indicate if they have any accessibility needs prior to the consultation workshops so this can be accommodated.
• Using a range of methods to communicate about the consultation (e.g. in-person, 1:1 engagement, online, small group discussions with facilitators, productions of visual / easy-read / translated versions).
• Offering the option to provide translation services at consultation events (e.g. Gaelic).
• Being open to the different ways that people express themselves, including capturing and recording all responses that are relevant to the content of the Good Food Nation Plan.
• Ensuring that locations selected for in-person engagement were accessible (e.g. appropriate parking and toilet facilities, ensuring there were clear instructions on how to get to the venue, details of what to expect, clear signage, someone to greet people at the door). Where possible, steps were also taken to ensure that the locations were familiar, e.g. engaging children during term time in their school.
• Consideration was given to the length and timing of the engagement e.g. the time in the school year, the time of week/day.
• Providing refreshments and frequent breaks to enable people to settle in and relax.
• Asking for feedback from participants about how sessions could be improved.