Effective community engagement in local development planning: guidance

1. The big picture

The importance of engaging people in planning

Places matter to people. By engaging in planning, people have an opportunity to help shape the future of their places and influence outcomes.

Community involvement in Local Development Plans is an important part of the planning process. How and when people can get involved in planning is set out in legislation.^[1] Effective community engagement can ensure the views and experiences of local people are taken into account in the plan making process. It helps to build better relationships and trust between people, planning authorities, and other organisations.

Local Development Plans have important links with local place plans. When a local place plan has been prepared by a community and registered with the planning authority, it must be taken into account in the making of Local Development Plans.

It is important to involve people not just in Local Development Plans, but also in the impact assessments that support them. By combining the two, planning authorities can maximise the benefits of engagement.

Planning authorities should be clear and open about whether people’s proposals and ideas are suitable to include in the local development plan. Decisions on the plan are ultimately for the planning authority and the elected members of a local authority but these must be informed by the views of communities.

Approaches to community engagement

This guidance aims to support the participation of people in local development planning but is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to community engagement. Planning authorities should decide how to best engage. A wide range of advice can be drawn on to ensure that engagement is undertaken effectively, including:

• The Place Standard tool
• Planning Aid Scotland resources page
• Planning Aid Scotland Guide to Effective Community Engagement
• Scottish Youth Parliament The Right Way
• Scottish Community Development Centre National Standards for Community Engagement
• The Our Place website.

We have included information and practical examples of engagement on the Our Place website which may help with putting the principles set out here into practice. We are interested in innovative engagement practices that you have undertaken with successful results. If you have examples of good engagement that you want to suggest for inclusion on the website, please let us know by emailing: placestandard@gov.scot

This guidance complements these wider approaches and focuses on effective community engagement at the various stages of the Plan Preparation process. The ‘levels of engagement’ and ‘stage by stage’ parts of this guidance aim to help everyone understand the ways that people and community groups can work together and across sectors to influence their future places.

Getting the basics right – key principles

Engagement in local development planning should be:

• early – and not left only to later stages, such as when a Proposed Plan is published for formal consultation
• collaborative – so that people and organisations are encouraged to form partnerships and work together
• proportionate – not every single person in an area will want to be involved, but a wide range of views should still be sought
• meaningful – enabling discussion about things that affect people and including feedback, so that, even where a decision is not what they hoped for, people understand how their views have been considered.

How engagement is carried out affects how people feel, whether they feel valued, and their willingness to carry on participating. Effective engagement not only helps with gathering first-hand information on the experiences of people in a place, but it can also help to create positive relationships and trust between people and organisations. Engagement that does not go well or where people feel their views are ignored can harm relationships and trust. Those organising the engagement and those participating need to be clear from the outset about:

• what is to be discussed
• any limitations on what can be discussed
• the extent to which participants can help shape the design and quality of a development
• how participants’ input will be recorded, used/considered
• how feedback will be provided to participants about the engagement
• feedback being sought from participants aimed at making engagement better in the future.

It is important to remember that there will be varying levels of knowledge and understanding of the planning system amongst participants. The information provided should be easily understandable, with jargon and technical language minimised.

The outputs of previous engagement exercises can form a helpful starting point to engagement and can help with avoiding ‘consultation fatigue’, making best use of people’s time. Working to the Place Principle^[2], planning authorities should work together with other council departments and key local partners who are also involved with communities, including community learning and development practitioners, health and social care partners, and the third sector. This can make use of other engagement and events, strengthen existing networks, and avoid unnecessary repetition of engagement activity. As well as minimising the time that is being asked of people, all participants can learn from shared experiences.

Sometimes planning authorities or communities may appoint companies, consultants or third sector organisations, like charities, to support their engagement. This can be effective where time and resource is limited, or it can help to ensure the people with the right skills are involved.

Promoting an inclusive approach – equality and human rights

Engagement should be meaningful and inclusive. This includes gathering contributions from lots of different people, including ‘seldom heard’ groups.

Thoughtful, creative, and innovative approaches to involving people in Local Development Plans can capture the views of many different groups, including people with protected characteristics and those who are experiencing social and economic disadvantage. This will protect human rights and children’s rights, promote equality, and put the Place Principle into practice.

A Participation Statement, which will be part of the Development Plan Scheme, prepared by the planning authority, sets out how people can get involved in their local development plan. The Development Plan Scheme will also set out the proposed timetabling for the various stages in Local Development Plan Preparation. The Participation Statement can be used by people to plan their involvement, and to identify how and when they wish to focus their efforts. In preparing this statement, planning authorities must work with the public/people who are likely to be involved in the plan, to help shape the approach to engagement. This should reflect people’s needs, the topics being discussed, and the location of the engagement. Working with the people who are going to be engaged can help organisers understand what they can do to meet the needs of people taking part in engagement. The Council has to publish the Development Plan Scheme at least annually.

To ensure that everyone who wants to participate can do so, it is important to consider how the engagement can be inclusive for everyone. Special consideration should be given to methods which help overcome the barriers to engagement faced by people of all ages and particularly, children and young people, those who are disabled, those who are neurodivergent, do not have English as their first language, and Gypsy/Travellers and Travelling Showpeople.

Some practical matters to consider in preparing for open and inclusive engagement are:

• how people will access the engagement
• will engagement be online or in person
• how to involve people who want to be involved but are unable to attend
• can people get there, will it be local to them, for example getting to and from a venue, or participating in an online group
• whether participation is impacted by physical barriers or other challenges for people who have mobility requirements or are disabled. For example, access into and throughout a venue, the need for places to sit, the facilities in the venue
• whether start and finish times of events affect people’s ability to engage, thinking about work commitments, childcare, and school hours
• whether people with learning disabilities or neurodiversity require key documents available in advance of the engagement or as ‘easy read’ versions
• how to provide communications and language support to deaf or blind participants and others experiencing communication disadvantage
• whether approaches are suitable for the participation of people of different genders
• accommodating different languages
• whether they will feel comfortable and confident to engage, considering their age, culture, race, physical or mental needs, for example neurodiversity; pregnancy; culture; suitability of spaces for children, and the sensitivity of topics being discussed
• how dominant contributors will be managed so that everyone can make their views known
• whether people will be able to use and understand information provided, for example the methods of presenting information, font size, colours used, use of plain language or child friendly language, and availability of alternative formats.

Not all of the above considerations are required by law, but they can make a real difference to the range of people who are able to get involved, enriching the depth and quality of information gathered and improving the understanding of aspirations that people have for their place. The Inclusive Communication toolkit gives an overview of inclusive communication.

How this guide will be put into practice and monitored

Planning authorities must have regard to this guidance.

Individuals and communities who would like to be part of making Local Development Plans are encouraged to refer to the contents and to work with planning authorities to put this guidance into practice.

The Scottish Government will:

• be open to receiving feedback about the guidance and how it has been used
• support and encourage sharing of experiences and examples of community engagement
• consider reviewing the guidance after 2028, to learn from the experiences of making of new Local Development Plans across Scotland.