Human Rights Bill consultation: facilitator guide

3. Guidance For Conducting A Meeting

You may choose to follow the below guidance if facilitating a session on the Human Rights Bill. This guidance is split into two sections: one for holding a session online, and one for holding a session in person. If holding a hybrid-meeting (where some people attend in person and others join over the internet), you may choose to refer to both sets of guidance, though some of this does overlap.

Chair’s role

As facilitator you may wish to formally chair your meeting. This means you will open and close the meeting, lead people through any information you want to share to support discussions, and help encourage your group to agree on things they would be happy to share as a joint-response to the consultation.

Guidance for Digital Meetings (using a digital application such as Microsoft Teams, or Zoom):

Beginning of session

• The Chair should introduce themselves
• Open the session by welcoming everyone and thanking them for attending.

• Introduce any interpreters or other people supporting the meeting. Check in advance if they have any requirements that may affect your meeting and make these known to your audience. For example, they may require an additional comfort break, or may need people to speak slowly to help with interpreting or translating.
• Acknowledge the challenges of holding an event online: possible IT glitches and pauses between people speaking.
• Ask people joining the meeting to mute their microphones when they aren’t speaking to reduce background noise.

Guidance of rules for discussion

You may also wish to set some ground rules for the discussion:

• Use ‘Raise Your Hand’ options if available instead of interrupting the current speaker.
• If numbers are high and there is limited time for everyone to contribute, you could ask people to try to keep statements short so that everyone has a chance to be heard.
• If the meeting application has a chat box option, you could encourage people to post questions or comments in the chat to help ensure everyone has a chance to speak. If using the chat function for this purpose, make sure you check the chat box throughout the meeting to pick up on these as you go.
• Ask participants to be respectful of other people’s views. Human rights concerns often emerge when people face difficulties in their lives for various reasons. You may wish to acknowledge that the session may touch on some topics that some may find difficult or sensitive to discuss. Ensure participants know that there is no obligation to discuss anything they don’t want to share and that they can take breaks if they are finding the session difficult to cope with. Remind participants that if someone is sharing a personal experience, it is helpful to be a kind and respectful listener.

Checking material

• You may wish to give time in your meeting to check that people have any documents or material you want to use to inform your discussion.
• You may also wish to lead your group through the material before starting a discussion (or invite others to do this).
• Present the group with consultation questions from the section(s) you wish to cover in your meeting.

Guidance for breakout rooms

Where breakout rooms are being used due to a high volume of participants, you might wish to ask people to be breakout room facilitators, who can keep a note of what is discussed and give feedback to the full room once the breakout group section of the meeting is completed.

• You may wish to make clear to participants that breakout discussion only lasts a limited time to ensure everyone gets a chance to speak.

Guidance for encouraging discussion

During the discussion, it can be helpful if the speaker encourages discussion by using open-ended questions:

• Can I ask you to expand on that?
• Does anyone else have a view on that?
• Have you any examples of how that might work?
• You may wish to give time near the end of the meeting to summarise key conclusions of your discussion.

Submitting a response to the consultation and end of session

• If your group plans to submit a joint response to the consultation, you should give time to ensuring everyone agree on the points from the discussion that should form the basis for the joint response.
• You may wish to remind people that they are free to submit individual responses to the consultation if they wish. If participants are unable to give their views, we welcome their responses on the consultation document or to the shared mailbox: HumanRightsOffice@gov.scot.
• At the end of the last session, you may wish to thank everyone for their time and encourage them to let other people know about the consultation.

Guidance for in person meetings

The Chair may wish to ask that mobile phones are switched off or silenced. The Chair may wish to note, and should follow, any health and safety guidance about the venue they are using for the meeting (such as noting the location of fire exits and assembly points).

Beginning of session

• The Chair should introduce themselves.
• Open the session by welcoming everyone and thanking them for attending.
• Introduce any interpreters or other accessibility support workers in attendance. Check in advance if they have any requirements that may affect your meeting and make these known to your audience. For example, they may require an additional comfort break, or may need people to speak slowly to help with interpreting or translating.

Guidance of rules for discussion

You may wish to set some ground rules for the discussion:

• Participants should signal they wish to speak instead of interrupting the current speaker.
• If numbers are high and there is limited time for everyone to contribute, you could ask people to try to keep statements short so that everyone has a chance to be heard.
• Ask participants to be respectful of other people’s views. Human rights concerns often emerge when people face difficulties in their lives for various reasons. You may wish to acknowledge that the session may touch on some topics that some may find difficult or sensitive to discuss. Ensure participants know that there is no obligation to discuss anything they don’t want to share and that they can take breaks if they are finding the session difficult to cope with. Remind participants that if someone is sharing a personal experience, it is helpful to be a kind and respectful listener.

Checking material

• You may wish to give time in your meeting to check that people have any documents or material you want to use to inform your discussion.
• You may also wish to lead your group through the material before starting a discussion (or invite others to do this).
• Present the group with consultation questions from the section(s) you wish to cover in your meeting.

Smaller group discussions

• Where smaller group discussions are being used due to a high volume of participants, you might wish to ask people to be group facilitators, who can keep a note of what is discussed and give feedback to the full room once the small group discussion section of the meeting is completed.

Guidance for encouraging discussion

• During the discussion, it can be helpful if the speaker encourages discussion by using open-ended questions:
  • Can I ask you to expand on that?
  • Does anyone else have a view on that?
  • Have you any examples of how that might work?
  You may also wish to ask anyone who has not had a chance to speak if they would like a chance to do so before the meeting ends.

Submitting a response to the consultation and end of session

If your group plans to submit a joint response to the consultation, you should give time to ensuring everyone agree on the points from the discussion that should form the basis for the joint response.

• You may wish to remind people that they are free to submit individual responses to the consultation if they wish.
• At the end of session, you may wish to thank everyone for their time and encourage them to let other people know about the consultation.