Accountability of public services in Scotland: baseline evidence review and analysis

6. Involving People

6.1 Introduction

This Section provides five examples relating to regulators and scrutiny bodies in Scotland, each covering a different thematic area (e.g. education, environment, health, housing, and justice):

• The Scottish Housing Regulator;
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland;
• Education Scotland;
• Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland; and
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

It provides a description of their role and how each organisation goes about involving people in its approach to scrutiny and regulation. It also touches on some examples of how each body is held to account.

There are many reasons why organisations engage with people/the public, and this usually spans fives levels of the Public Participation Spectrum (as referred to be Involve)^[35] – Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate, Empower .

From a rapid review of regulatory bodies’ Involvement Strategies (or similar) and other organisations’ engagement strategies, many set out adapted “ladder of participation” diagrams which align closely with the Public Participation Spectrum. Essentially the Public Participation Spectrum reflects different:

• degrees of participation;
• levels of engagement with the public; and
• opportunity for public influence

Introduction

The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) is the independent regulator of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and local authority housing services in Scotland. This spans 192 social landlords delivering housing services, comprised of 160 RSLs and 32 local authorities^[36].

The SHR, which has powers to obtain information and carry out inquiries^[37], is an independent Non-Ministerial Department, directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Parliament has the power to require any Board member, Chief Executive or any member of staff of the SHR to attend a Parliamentary Committee. Further, in order to ensure good communications, the SHR must ensure that the Scottish Government’s Housing and Social Justice Directorate (HSJD) is informed in advance of any significant announcements or publications which may have implications for the Government (and vice versa).

The statutory objective of the SHR is to "safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants of social landlords, people who are or may become homeless, and people who use housing services provided by RSLs and local authorities" .

The SHR regulates social landlords to safeguard and promote the interests of a large and diverse range of people, including:

• nearly 600,000 tenants who live in homes provided by social landlords;
• almost 123,000 home owners who receive services from social landlords;
• some 45,000 individuals and their families who may be homeless and seek help from local authorities; and
• 2,000+ gypsy/travellers who use official sites provided by social landlords^[38].

Regulatory Framework

The SHR’s main functions are to:

• keep a publicly available register of social landlords; and
• monitor, assess, report, and intervene (as appropriate) in relation to:
  • social landlords’ performance of housing activities (i.e. RSLs and local authorities)
  • RSLs financial well-being and standards of governance. The SHR does not regulate these aspects for local authorities, and liaises closely with partner scrutiny bodies to consider the full range of scrutiny activity available for local authorities.

The SHR has recently published a new Regulatory Framework and Statutory Guidance that sets out how it undertakes a risk-based and proportionate approach to regulating social landlords (2019)^[39]. It undertook consultation events, including with tenants and other service users, to help shape the Framework’s content.

The focus of the Regulatory Framework is on: securing assurance that landlords are well run organisations; that they deliver good outcomes for tenants, people who are homeless and others who use their services; helping tenants and others to hold their landlords to account, and driving improvement in the provision of social housing.

Landlord self-assurance (with appropriate supporting evidence) is a fundamental element of the new SHR Regulatory Framework. Landlords are required to assure themselves, their tenants and service users that they meet the Standards and Requirements as set out in the Framework. Landlords must prepare an Annual Assurance Statement confirming that they meet the Standards and Requirements, or provide details of plans put in place to address any instances of material non-compliance. Annual Assurance Statements are submitted to the SHR and landlords must make them available to tenants and service users.

The SHR uses the Statements and notifications as part of its risk assessment to decide whether it needs any further information or assurance from the landlord (e.g. it might ask for more information, it might carry out work to verify or check the information/data provided, it might ask a landlord to get external verification). The Statements are also published on the SHR website.

Each year the SHR publishes information on the indicators it will use to assess risk (subject to change in response to e.g. changes in the operating environment for RSLs). As part of the risk assessment process, the SHR considers the Annual Assurance Statement and Scottish Social Housing Charter Return alongside other information it has received from the landlord, from past/current engagement, thematic work, notifiable events, whistleblowing, etc (and for RSLs financial returns) – to decide what its regulatory engagement will be (if it needs to engage with the landlord, and to what degree).

The SHR undertakes an annual programme of visits to RSLs – based on its risk assessment process and where it needs more assurance. This is set out in more detail in Engagement Plans (published on the SHR website), and which are under continuous review and updated accordingly.

The Framework sets out the regulatory requirements for all social landlords (i.e. Annual Assurance Statement, Annual Return on the Social Housing Charter, etc) and wider standards of governance and financial management for RSLs only. The latter relates to the following standards (and their associated guidance):

• Standard 1: The governing body leads and directs the RSL to achieve good outcomes for its tenants and other service users.
• Standard 2: The RSL is open about and accountable for what it does. It understands and takes account of the needs and priorities of its tenants, service users and stakeholders. And its primary focus is the sustainable achievement of these priorities.
• Standard 3: The RSL manages its resources to ensure its financial well-being, while maintaining rents at a level that tenants can afford to pay.
• Standard 4: The governing body bases its decisions on good quality information and advice and identifies and mitigates risks to the organisation’s purpose
• Standard 5: The RSL conducts its affairs with honesty and integrity.
• Standard 6: The governing body and senior officers have the skills and knowledge they need to be effective.
• Standard 7: The RSL ensures that any organisational changes or disposals it makes safeguard the interests of, and benefit, current and future tenants.

From April 2020, it will publish a regulatory status for each RSL which will set out its judgment on compliance with regulatory requirements and the regulatory standards of governance and financial management (i.e. compliant, working towards compliance, statutory actions). Regulatory status will be published on the SHR website alongside the associated Engagement Plan. The regulatory status is reviewed after the SHR engages with the RSL or when it receives new information.

Involving and Engaging People

The SHR seeks to actively involve tenants, homeless people and others who use social housing services in its work, as outlined in its latest Consultation and Involvement Strategy (2016-2018)^[40]. Individual landlords also have an important part to play in developing and supporting tenant engagement and tenant-led scrutiny (e.g. tenant conferences, satisfaction surveys, consultations).

The main ways that the SHR involves and engages people are as follows^[41]:

• National Panel of Tenants and Service Users to understand views and priorities;
• Registered Tenant Organisation (RTO) Liaison Group to help involve tenants in the SHR’s regulatory approach
• feedback gathered from all tenant organisations;
• involving Regional Networks and RTOs in regulatory consultations
• working with Volunteer Tenant Assessors to give a tenant perspective to scrutiny.

The SHR has two involvement objectives for the period 2016-2018, namely to: understand the priorities and views of tenants and service users; and involve tenants and other service users in its regulation of social landlords.

The SHR’s involvement activities are monitored and reported on in its Annual Performance Report and Accounts. Information on the main tenant and service user engagement mechanisms are outlined below.

National Panel of Tenants and Service Users

Panel members are volunteers and the Panel is open to new recruits on an ongoing basis, with membership standing at almost 500 members in Scotland^[42]. The SHR seeks the views of Panel members around two or three times a year, and this typically involves a survey of all Panel members and in-depth qualitative discussions with Panel members.

Five Panel Reports have been published between July 2014 and March 2018 and cover a range of topics, including:

• tenants’ priorities around rents, affordability and value for money;
• specific aspects of landlords’ service delivery and tenants’ understanding and awareness of SHR;
• drivers of value for money judgements, affordability, rent consultations, and demonstrating value; and
• tenant safety in the home.

Registered Tenant Organisations (RTO) Regional Network Liaison Group

There continues to be ongoing engagement between SHR and tenant representatives. The Liaison Group was originally formed to ensure that the SHR had meaningful contact and dialogue with Regional Networks which represent social landlord tenants across the country, and that their views are gathered to inform its regulatory approach^[43]. The Group met quarterly, and included one representative from each of the nine Regional Networks plus representatives from SHR. The latest minutes on the SHR website are from a meeting held in March 2017.

The SHR would also, for example, invite tenant representatives to round-table policy discussions or publication launches where these affected tenants, and SHR presented at the main tenant support agencies conferences.

The SHR involves tenants and service users when it consults on new regulatory proposals that impact on those who use landlords’ services. The Regional Networks and the RTO Liaison Group are key routes to gather such feedback. The National Panel and regular liaison with representative bodies or those who work on behalf of service users are also used to gather the views and interests of more “hard to reach” service users (e.g. equalities groups).

It would appear that following an organisational review a new regional network structure was launched on the 1^st[44] November 2017 to help RTOs (of which there are now around 470 in Scotland), engage with the Scottish Government on issues of national policy.

There are now four Regional Networks^[45], and each covers a number of local authority areas. The Networks aim to improve the housing and well-being of tenants and residents in Scotland, and promote tenants and residents interests in housing, planning, community regeneration, the environment and community safety.

It would appear that the Liaison Group is continuing in some shape or form.

Volunteer Tenant Advisors

The SHR has recruited a team of Volunteer Tenant Advisors from across Scotland as another mechanism to bring a tenant perspective to its scrutiny of landlords’ services. The Volunteer Tenant Advisors take part in an induction day, and examples of how they are involved include:

• speaking directly to other tenants to gather their views on landlords services, which provides a tenant perspective to add to other regulatory evidence gathered by the SHR;
• testing landlords’ services (e.g. mystery shoppers) and assessing the information and materials provided by landlords for their tenants; and
• reviewing draft SHR publications and leaflets and its website content to ensure that materials are accessible and user-friendly for tenants.

When the SHR assesses the quality of services provided by social landlords, the views of other service users are also gathered to provide a user perspective to add to wider regulatory evidence.

Scottish Social Housing Charter

The Scottish Social Housing Charter (2017)^[46][47] has sought to make it even easier for tenants and service users to scrutinise social landlords’ housing activities. It sets the standards and outcomes that social landlords should aim to achieve when performing their housing activities. The Charter therefore helps improve the quality and value of the services that social landlords provide.

Of note, is that tenants and homeless people (among other stakeholders) were consulted on its content to ensure that the Charter:

• described the results that tenants and other customers expect social landlords to achieve;
• covered social landlords’ housing activities only; and
• could be monitored, assessed and reported upon by the SHR.

The Charter holds social landlords accountable to their tenants and other customers for how well they do across 16 outcomes/standards, covering themes such as Customer and Landlord Relationship, Housing Quality and Maintenance, Neighbourhood and Community, Access to Housing and Support, Getting Good Value from Rents and Service Charges, and Other Customers.

Public Media (Print, Online and Social Channels of Engagement)

The SHR website provides a wide range of publications and other resources, including but not limited to, those that provide evidence on how the agency itself is held to account:

• Annual Report and Accounts;
• Corporate Plan;
• Consultation and Involvement Strategy;
• statements on compliance with public services requirements;
• Regulatory Framework and associated guidance;
• what we will do – planned activity for the year ahead;
• Engagement (Regulation) Plans that set out details of SHR’s engagement with social landlords in a given year (and level of engagement – low, medium, high) and for local authorities (planned scrutiny, no scrutiny, or ongoing monitoring);
• Landlord documents (e.g. Annual Report on the Charter, Landlord Reports, Inquiry Reports, Local Scrutiny Plans);
• complaints handling procedure;
• access to information - adopted the Model Publication Scheme 2017 produced by the Scottish Information Commissioner;
• Landlord Annual Assurance Statements;
• the Scottish Social Housing Charter e.g. a report for each landlord, online interactive tools to allow users to compare landlords performance, an annual report summarising all landlords’ progress and performance; and reports and analysis on related thematic work; and
• other statistical information that is collected from social landlords.

All publications (including short summary versions) and policies are available on the SHR website. It uses social media to promote new publications and announcements, and around 100 tenant organisations subscribe to its bi-monthly newsletter.

Summary

The SHR is the independent regulator of RSLs and local authority housing services in Scotland. The SHR and indeed the organisations it regulates have well-established mechanisms for involving and engaging people and families who live in homes provided by RSLs and local authority housing services and/or who access wider housing services. This is perhaps not surprising given their strong presence in local communities across Scotland.

The SHR has a Consultation and Involvement Strategy (2016-2018) – while it is out of date, it is likely that a refreshed strategy will be published in due course. In terms of the Public Participation Spectrum, the SHR has a good spread of activities that span all levels of engagement:

• Inform – e.g. annual reports, engagement plans, landlord reports, social media, etc;
• Consult – e.g. National Panel of Tenants and Service Users to understand views and priorities; feedback gathered from all tenant organisations; consultation events to help develop the Regulatory Framework;
• Involve – e.g. National Panel of Tenants and Service Users; RTO Liaison Group to help involve tenants in the SHR’s regulatory approach;
• Collaborate - involving Regional Networks and RTOs in regulatory consultations
• Empower – e.g. working with Volunteer Tenant Assessors to give a tenant perspective to scrutiny.

Of note is that the SHR has developed a useful tool for people to compare the performance of different landlords across a range of financial and performance monitoring information and data.

Find and Compare Landlords Statistical Information

It has also developed an informative video introduction to this landlord reports and comparison tool.

Introduction

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is a Health Body under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. It is directly accountable to Scottish Ministers for the delivery of its strategic objectives.

HIS provides public assurance about the quality and safety of healthcare. It does this through the scrutiny of NHS hospitals and services, and independent healthcare services. It has the following statutory powers:

• powers of access and right of entry (for the purposes of inspection) in relation to the health service and independent healthcare services;
• the power to direct a Health Board to close a ward to new admissions where there is a serious risk to the life, health or wellbeing of persons;
• the power to require documents in relation to the functions of the Death Certification Review Service; and
• regulatory powers in relation to the independent healthcare sector^[48].

Regulatory Framework

HIS’ scrutiny role is to support healthcare providers to make sure that their services are safe, effective and person-centred. For NHS hospitals and services, HIS undertakes announced, unannounced and follow-up inspections.

Its inspections currently focus on two key areas:

• safety and cleanliness inspections; and
• inspections to measure NHS boards against a range of standards, best practice statements, and documents related to the care of older people in acute hospitals.

NHS Board self-assessment (does not appear to be shared publically) and any previous hospital inspection reports are reviewed prior to the inspection, and informs decisions on which “Standards” (see below) to focus on during the inspection. A key part of the role of the public partner (i.e. members of the public) is to talk with patients about their experience of staying in hospital and listen to what is important to them.

The Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) standards^[49] set out the range of standards for all healthcare organisations to adhere to, and cover the following:

• Standard 1: Leadership in the prevention and control of infection.
• Standard 2: Education to support the prevention and control of infection.
• Standard 3: Communication between organisations and with the patient or their representative.
• Standard 4: HAI surveillance.
• Standard 5: Antimicrobial stewardship.
• Standard 6: Infection prevention and control policies, procedures and guidance.
• Standard 7: Insertion and maintenance of invasive devices
• Standard 8: Decontamination.
• Standard 9: Acquisition of equipment

The Care of Older People in Scotland standards^[50] sets out some 16 standards, and were developed in recognition of the integration of health and social care services. Everyone is entitled to the same level of care regardless of their age – and it is recognised that older people are admitted more often to hospital, and can face problems not experienced by younger age groups.

HIS also regulates independent healthcare by inspecting services to ensure that they comply with standards and regulations - using announced and unannounced inspections.

Its inspection methodology^[51] outlines the various quality indicators used for self-evaluation and external quality assurance, and which centre on Outcomes and Impact, Service Delivery and Vision and Leadership.

Copies of the latest (plus all previous) inspection reports are published on the HIS website, as are any Improvement Action Plans which set out any:

• “requirements” – action(s) required from an NHS board to comply with the standards published by HIS (or its predecessors). A requirement means the hospital or service has not met the standards and there is concern about the impact of this on patients using the hospital or service. It is expected that all requirements are addressed and the necessary improvements are implemented. Improvement Action Plans set out details of the actions to be undertaken, timescales to meet the action(s), who is responsible for taking action, progress, and date completed. Of note is that actions should be implemented across, for example the NHS board as a whole, and not just at the hospital inspected; or
• “recommendations”- relates to national guidance and best practice which highlights where a hospital or service should follow the recommendation to improve standards of care.

HIS has a role to play in the continuous monitoring of NHS board improvement plans.

All NHS Boards need to ensure that people has a say in, for example decisions about their care and the development of local health services. The Participation Standard is used to measure performance against: how well NHS Boards focus on the patient; how well NHS Boards involve the public; and how NHS Boards take responsibility for ensuring they involve the public. Each NHS Board is required to submit a self-assessment report. The Scottish Government use the reports to form questions put to each NHS Board at its Annual Review.

Involving and Engaging People

HIS’ Engaging People Strategy 2014-2020^[52] sets out the range of ways that people (e.g. patients, carers, public partners who work with the organisation on a voluntary basis, and voluntary groups and networks) can get involved with the organisation.

In driving improvement in healthcare, the Strategy identifies five specific objectives:

• evidence – including that assessment of patient experience and feedback is built into all its products;
• quality assurance – including using the intelligence gathered from patient, carer and family feedback about NHS Scotland to inform quality assurance of services;
• quality improvement implementation support – including sharing best practice, supporting innovation and quality implementation, and adopting collaborative approaches to improve effectiveness, person-centred care, and patient safety programmes;
• valuing people – including encouraging, enabling and supporting patient and public attendance at public sessions of the Board, and supporting patients and the public to participate in Committee work; and ensuring work with volunteers meets and goes beyond the Investing in Volunteers standard; and
• better use of our resources – including that equality, personal experience and engagement are embedded in all of the organisation’s work via planned and targeted engagement.

Involving the public is viewed as critical to:

• learn from the experiences of patients and carers;
• ensure that health services are sensitive to the needs and preferences of patients; and
• enable the public to review the quality of the NHS.

The main ways which HIS involves the public in its work include:

• voluntary organisation staff and members who help design advice and guidance and support scrutiny teams;
• public partners (volunteers) who receive training and support to provide a public perspective to HIS’ work;
• associate patient focus inspectors (volunteers) who participate in inspections to help ensure that they focus on the things that matter most to patients; and
• participants involved in consultation activities (e.g. focus groups and surveys).

The Strategy goes on to identify various channels and methods for public engagement, as outlined in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1: Healthcare Improvement Scotland – Key Channels and Methods

Public Partners	Ongoing work to develop a pool of public partners (i.e. volunteers – 18 years+) to bring a deeper and wider public perspective to the organisation’s work Public partners help make sure that people’s experiences of care are used to make care better Volunteers can be involved in lots of ways: helping make sure that people who are affected by decisions are involved in those decisions collecting feedback about people’s care in various settings reading public-facing publications to make sure they are accessible and easy to understand
Voluntary Organisation Networks	Continuing to work with, and drawing, on the expertise of voluntary sector organisations that provide services for patients and the public Connecting into the wider networks of voluntary sector organisations, including people with lived experience of the health and care system to gather insights and evidence
Focus Groups	The organisation’s 14 local offices in each health board area are well placed to gather views from people on key issues using focus groups or other approaches to help inform and influence the work of Healthcare Improvement Scotland (see below)

Source: Healthcare Improvement Scotland, engaging People Strategy 2014-2014

The Scottish Health Council, which is part of HIS (but with its own governance committee), is worthy of further comment. It supports NHS boards and health and social care providers to involve patients and the public in the development of services. The Scottish Health Council has a network of 14 local offices across Scotland – one in each NHS Board area and a national office
in Glasgow.

“Our Voice: working together to improve health and social care”^[53] is about engaging the people of Scotland to make health and social care better.

There are various ways people can get involved:

• at an individual level, people can provide feedback on health and care services (e.g. feedback, comments, complaints, etc);
• at a community level, there are various networks for people to come together – either in person, online or in other ways – to talk about and share thoughts and ideas (e.g. The ALLIANCE Involvement Network, Patient Participant Groups, Third Sector Interfaces, etc)
  • For example there are over 100 Patient Participant Groups in Scotland^[54]. The patient-led group, linked to a local GP, works alongside GPs and practice staff to provide a patient perspective on healthcare services that are offered to the community. Ideally, the Group should include patients that reflect the diversity of the catchment population.
• at a national level, there is a:
  • Citizens’ Panel which is made up of around 1,300 people who are asked their opinions on various issues through surveys (online, postal, telephone), discussion groups and workshops. The Panel was established in 2016 and there have been four reports to date covering:
    • public perceptions on social care support, use of medicines and pharmacy services, and dental services for improving oral health
    • views on loneliness in Scotland and shared decision-making with health and social care professionals
    • digital technologies for healthcare improvement, using and sharing personal health and social care information and access to healthcare professionals other than doctors
    • knowledge about HIV and how it is transmitted, their attitudes to mental health and wellbeing and how to make communication between health and care services and those that use them more inclusive.
    Citizen Panel Reports are published on the Scottish Health Council website, and among other things, findings have been used to inform Scottish Government consultations, service improvement and policy and strategy development
  • Citizen’s Jury which brings together members of the public and health and social care professionals to talk about and debate an issue then arrive at a conclusion. Last year a diverse group of Scottish people (usually between 12 and 25 people) gathered over three days to consider and make recommendations on shared decision-making in health and social care. Reports are published.

The Scottish Health Council website also provides wider useful information on Participation Tools and Participation Toolkits.

Public Media (Print, Online and Social Channels of Engagement)

The HIS website provides a wide range of publications and other resources (evidence, scrutiny, improvement) including but not limited to, those that provide evidence on how the agency itself is held to account. The search function allows search dates from 2010 to 2019 (or by town, city, postcode of hospital or hospice).

Some examples include:

• Annual Report;
• Annual Accounts;
• Corporate Plan;
• Strategic Plans;
• Operating Framework that sets out how HIS and the Scottish Government SG will work together;
• a short video about its scrutiny work;
• latest Inspection Reports published;
• Inspection Reports;
• Inspection Action Plans; and
• Thematic Inspection Reports.

Summary

HIS provides public assurance about the quality and safety of healthcare in Scotland, and is responsible for the scrutiny of NHS hospitals and services as well as independent healthcare provision. HIS also has long-established mechanisms in place for people (patients, carers, public) to get involved with the organisation. Public involvement and engagement is viewed as critical to drive change, improve public health, and strengthen public confidence in the NHS – it is seen as an ongoing process.

The Scottish Health Council (which is part of HIS) also has an important role to play in supporting NHS boards and health and social care providers to involve patients and the public in the development of services.

In terms of the Public Participation Spectrum, HIS and the Scottish Health Council has a good spread of activities that span all levels of engagement:

• Inform – e.g. annual reports, inspection reports, inspection actions plans, thematic inspection reports, social media (Twitter, Facebook), YouTube videos, blogs, podcasts, etc;
• Consult – e.g. focus groups, Citizen’s Panels;
• Involve – e.g. volunteers that make sure public-facing publications are accessible and easy to understand;
• Collaborate – e.g. volunteers that make sure public-facing publications are accessible and easy to understand; and
• Empower – e.g. volunteers that collect feedback about people’s care in various settings, Citizen’s Jury, Patient Participation Groups.

It has also live streamed the HIS Annual Review – this process holds Boards to account for their performance, highlights key achievements during the past year, and plans for the year ahead.

Annual Review of Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Introduction

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland is required to inspect and monitor the conditions and the treatment of prisoners in the 15 prisons across Scotland^[55], inspect court custody provision in Scotland, and report its findings publicly. Its main statutory responsibilities are defined as follows:

• the regular inspection of individual establishments;
• responsibility for the monitoring of prisons;
• the production of an Annual Report which is presented to the Scottish Ministers and laid before Parliament; and
• the inspection of the conditions and treatment of prisoners under escort.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland is independent of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), the Scottish Court Service (SCS) and the Scottish Government.

Inspection Framework

The lived experience of those in prison lies at the heart of the inspection and monitoring process. Its programme of regular inspections is informed by an assessment of risk and requirement. Follow-up inspection via return visits by inspectors are undertaken, and ongoing monitoring is led by Volunteer Independent Prison Monitors (see below for more detail).

In its role to inspect the conditions in prisons and the treatment of prisoners, this is done against a set of published standards first launched in March 2015 and revised in April 2018^[56]. There are nine standards – based on national and international agreed human rights law standards (plus associated Quality Indicators which are graded individually to inform the overall grade for the Standard as a whole):

• Standard 1: Lawful and Transparent Custody.
• Standard 2: Decency.
• Standard 3: Personal Safety.
• Standard 4: Effective, Courteous and Humane Use of Authority.
• Standard 5: Respect, Autonomy and Protection Against Mistreatment.
• Standard 6: Purposeful Activity.
• Standard 7: Transitions from Custody into the Community.
• Standard 8: Organisational Effectiveness.
• Standard 9: Health and Wellbeing.

The standards articulate what is expected of a well-run prison and contain statements identifying what is important and what will be monitored and inspected. It is designed to assist those who are running prisons and to encourage openness and transparency in the scrutiny of prisons. A human rights-based approach is adopted – “prisoners are recognised, not as mere passive receivers of treatment, but as active parties who have an influence in how their rights are realised and how the state can fulfil its obligations”^[57].

There is reference that these standards were drawn up through a process of consultation, however, it is not clear whether the public were involved.

It is recognised that there is a power imbalance that exists between the prison establishment and the prisoner, and the inspection process places a particular emphasis on ensuring that all prisoners have the right to participate in the decisions which affect them. For example, a number of Quality Indicators are highlighted where “participation” is particularly important, including:

• Is the establishment proactive in engaging with prisoners to hear their opinions?
• Is prisoner participation routine and embedded in the approach to decision making?
• Has the prisoner voice been an influential component of the decision making process; have their opinions been taken into account?
• Do prisoners feel able to participate and do they know when they are permitted to do so?
• Do staff understand the need for prisoner participation?
• Are there effective lines of communication between the prison and the prisoners regarding decisions made?
• Are all prisoner groups represented, including those who are in vulnerable situations, with protected characteristics and those who are not often heard?
• Is the prison proactive in providing support to those who need it in order to participate?

The Inspectorate also has Standards for Inspecting Court Custody Provision in Scotland (2017)^[58] which set out six standards (and associated Quality Indicators) for regular oversight and scrutiny of places where people are detained (e.g. police cells, court custody, prison):

• Standard 1: Lawful and transparent use of custody.
• Standard 2: Decency, Dignity, Respect and Equality.
• Standard 3: Personal safety.
• Standard 4: Health, wellbeing and medical treatment.
• Standard 5: Effective, courteous and humane exercise of authority.
• Standard 6: Respect, autonomy and protection against mistreatment.

There is reference that these standards were drawn up through a process of consultation, however, it is not clear whether the public were involved.

In undertaking inspections of prisons and court custody provision, HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland gathers and reviews information and data from a range of sources. For example, for prisons this includes:

• obtaining information and documents from the SPS and the prison inspected;
• shadowing and observing Prison Service and other specialist staff as they perform their duties within the prison;
• interviewing prisoners and staff on a one-to-one basis;
• conducting focus groups with prisoners and staff;
• observing the range of services delivered within the prison;
• inspecting a wide range of facilities impacting on both prisoners and staff;
• attending and observing relevant meetings impacting on both the management of the prison and the future of the prisoners such as Case Conferences; and
• reviewing policies, procedures and performance reports produced both locally and by Scottish Prison Service headquarters specialists.

In relation to each standard and quality indicator, inspectors record their evaluation as follows: a colour coded assessment marker – ranging from good to unacceptable performance; and a more narrative assessment – a written record of the evidence gathered. In terms of inspection reporting, HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland reports (prisons and court custody provision) are published on its website. This includes Summary Reports, Full Inspection Reports, and News Releases. Reports contain: recommendations and examples of good practice identified.

Our understanding is that, for example, prisons/ court custody provision are expected to produce an action plan in response to the findings provided in Inspection Reports (not available on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland website). HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland have a role to play in the continuous monitoring of action plans.

Follow up inspections are also undertaken to follow up any points of interest noted in previous inspections.

Involving and Engaging People

Independent Prison Monitors

Independent Prison Monitors is a volunteering role for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland. They are volunteers from local communities who monitor treatment and conditions in Scotland’s prisons (there are over 120 volunteers).

Each prison is monitored at least once per week. Independent Prison Monitors make observations about treatment and conditions, and also look into issues raised by prisoners. Any prisoner can ask to see an Independent Prison Monitor by:

• calling the IPM Freephone on 0800 056 7476. Calls are confidential;
• submitting a paper request form via request boxes in prisons.
• approaching Independent Prison Monitors while they are visiting prisons.

Their findings are communicated regularly to prison Governors and Directors throughout the year.

There is an Independent Prison Monitoring Advisory Group which meets on a quarterly basis. Its membership includes experts in prisons, human rights and related fields, Independent Prison Monitors, Prison Monitoring Coordinators and HM Inspector of Prisons for Scotland. Its remit is to ensure the continued independence of Independent Prison Monitors and supports the development and improvement of prison monitoring in Scotland. Its key functions are to:

• keep the effectiveness of prison monitoring under review;
• contribute to and review the guidance for prison monitoring;
• review training for Independent Prison Monitors; and
• make recommendations for improvement.

Calls for Evidence

The Inspectorate also undertakes calls for evidence. For example, this includes oral and written evidence on prisoner voting to the Equality and Human Rights Committee, and on the use of remand to the Justice Committee.

Print, Online and Social Channels of Engagement

The HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland website provides a wide range of publications, news alerts and other resources that people (and others) can have sight of, including:

• Standards of Inspection and Monitoring of Prisons in Scotland;
• Standards for Inspecting Court Custody Provision in Scotland;
• recent and upcoming inspections – name of prison and date of inspection;
• published documents – a searchable function for the years 2016 to 2019 and spanning:
  • Full Inspection Reports
  • Follow Up Inspection Reports
  • Annual Reports
  • Thematic Inspection Reports (e.g. Lived Experiences of Older Prisoners in Scottish Prisons)
  • Monitoring reports
  • Other publications; and
• archived publications - search facility for the years 2009 and 2015.

It is our understanding that Prison Monitoring Summary Reports are aimed at prisoners and are placed on noticeboards within the prison. It is drawn from reporting and discussion at quarterly meetings at establishments.

An Independent Prison Monitoring Advisory Group provides oversight of the effectiveness of Independent Prison Monitoring and the training and guidance available to Independent Prison Monitors, and makes recommendations for improvement.

Summary

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland inspects and monitors the conditions and the treatment of prisoners in Scotland, and inspects court custody provision in Scotland.

In terms of the Public Participation Spectrum, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland’s activities cover the following aspects:

• Inform – e.g. annual reports, monitoring reports, inspection reports, thematic reports, social media (Twitter), etc;
• Consult – e.g. calls for evidence, consultation on developing standards for inspection and monitoring;
• Involve – e.g. Independent Prison Monitors; and
• Empower – e.g. Independent Prison Monitors.

Introduction

Education Scotland is the national improvement agency for education in Scotland. It is a Scottish Government executive agency tasked with supporting quality and improvement in Scottish education. This is with a view to ensuring the delivery of better learning experiences and outcomes for Scottish learners of all ages.

Education Scotland operates independently and impartially, while remaining directly accountable to Scottish Government ministers for the standards of its work.

Inspection and External Review

Among other things, Education Scotland provides assurance to Scottish Ministers and the public on the quality of education in Scotland. In its inspection and external review role, Education Scotland evaluates the quality of learning and teaching in individual Scottish schools and education services.

A few years ago Education Scotland undertook a consultation on approaches to education inspection. This was largely driven by significant changes to the delivery of education in recent years (e.g. Curriculum for Excellence). This included consultation with education organisations, local authority education staff, practitioners, learners and parents.

Education Scotland sets out its intended programme of inspection and review activity across all sectors for the forthcoming academic year. Sectors span: Early learning and childcare settings, Schools, Community learning and development services, Colleges, Private colleges and English language schools, Career information, advice and guidance services, Prison education, and Education functions of local authorities.

It also undertakes National Thematic Inspections. For example: readiness for empowerment; curriculum leadership; and parent and pupil participation.

The Education Scotland website contains detailed information on how it goes about:

• inspecting schools (early learning and childcare, primary and secondary schools, including all-through schools), including special schools and Gaelic Education;
• external review of Scotland's careers information, advice and guidance services;
• external review of Scottish colleges; and
• inspecting community learning and development (CLD)^[59].

Schools and colleges use the following quality frameworks or toolkits to evaluate and report on their performance to Education Scotland:

• How good is our school?^[60]; and
• How good is our college?^[61].

The focus of the frameworks are on self-evaluation and self-improvement – supporting and building on the internal quality arrangements that educational institutions have in place. This is with a view to helping identify what is working well, what needs to improve, and having a greater positive impact on learners (i.e. continuous cycle of improvement – looking inwards, outwards and forward).

Schools and colleges are therefore required to demonstrate their accountability through a number of formal processes – including self-evaluation audit and development planning, and external processes via inspection by Education Scotland. They are also accountable to parents and the general public.

Early Years and Schools – An Example

Education Scotland aims to promote improvement in schools and successful innovation that enhances learners' experiences. Its inspectors focus on the quality of children’s and young people's learning and achievements.

From 2016/17 it has operated two inspection models for early years and schools:

• full inspection model
  • evaluated across four standardised Quality Indicators and a further Quality Indicator that is chosen by the school: Leadership of change; Learning, teaching and assessment; Raising attainment and achievement; and Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion;
  • Inspections incorporate themes from other Quality Indicators to ensure they capture the evidence needed to promote improvement and provide evidence to inform national policy development. Themes are reviewed regularly to ensure they remain relevant;
• short inspection model
  • is being piloted in primary schools - short, focused visit inspection model in a small sample of schools, involving a two-day visit with a smaller number of inspectors (dependent on school roll). Two of the four Quality Indicators outlined above are evaluated; and
  • developing a short visit model for use in secondary school inspections.

The latest edition of “How good is our school?” - and its associated Quality Indictors - has a particular focus on efforts to improve attainment for all learners, and closing the attainment and achievement gap been the most disadvantaged children and their peers. It has a focus on equality, well-being, and skills for learning, life and work. The importance of partnership working and collaboration is also emphasised. The framework, which helps evaluate how well a school is performing, covers three categories (and has 15 associated Quality Indicators):

• leadership and management – how good is our leadership and approach to improvement;
• learning provision – how good is the quality of care and education we offer; and
• successes and achievements – how good are we at ensuring the best possible outcomes for all our learners.

As part of the inspection process, schools have the opportunity to feed in self-evaluation evidence (and complete a brief self-evaluation summary form).

An important aspect of self-evaluation and for the inspection is to provide opportunities for a school’s key stakeholders to feed in their views. A pre-inspection questionnaire is used to gather the views of learners (children and young people), parents, staff and wider partners (e.g. colleges, universities, employers, third sector organisations). As part of the inspection process, inspectors also meet with a range of stakeholders, including parents and the school’s Parent Council chairperson.

Following the inspection Education Scotland publishes a letter for parents on its website and sends it to the education authority, and to the chair of the Parent Council.

Education Scotland publishes Evidence Reports, Inspection Reports and Summarised Inspection Reports on this website.

If necessary, the school, with the support of the education authority, will amend its development plan to bring about any improvements that the letter says are needed. Further inspections might be undertaken to support staff to make improvements or to gather information about effective practice.

Public Media (Print, Online and Social Channels of Engagement)

Education Scotland’s website provides a wide range of publications and other resources, including but not limited to, those that provide evidence on how the agency is held to account:

• Framework Document - sets out how Education Scotland will operate, its relationship with Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Government and how it is expected to fulfil its remit and purpose.
• Corporate Plans;
• Business Plans;
• Annual Review Reports;
• Annual Accounts;
• complaints handling procedure;
• annual programme of planned inspection and review activity across all sectors for the forthcoming academic year;
• inspection and review – sector-specific guidance and briefings;
• self-evaluation quality frameworks and toolkits for different sectors;
• a report that sets out details of inspection reports published in the previous month;
• inspection evidence reports (i.e. self-evaluation);
• inspection reports (full reports and summarised findings);
• thematic reports;
• National Improvement Hub – digital hub that provides information/support for practitioners to improve their practice and increase the quality of learners' experiences and outcomes (e.g. self-evaluation and improvement frameworks, research, teaching and assessment resources, exemplars of practice and support for on-line collaboration and networks through Glow);
• monthly e-bulletin newsletter that provides information on education news and events, and details of resources and activities to help parents’ support their child's learning; and
• plus a quarterly e-bulletin newsletter for parents and carers.

Article in The Herald, 30^th September 2017

An article in The Herald reported that school inspection reports over five years old were difficult for the public to gain access to, and those over eight years old had been deleted from the website. It was reported that Education Scotland had a policy of removing out dated reports.

It would appear now that reports still appear on the website for five years, and there is an enquiries email address should an older report be required.

Source: The Herald article can be read here

Summary

Education Scotland is the national improvement agency for education in Scotland. It provides assurance to Scottish Ministers and the public on the quality of education in Scotland. Education Scotland evaluates the quality of learning and teaching in individual Scottish schools and education services. This activity spans a number of sectors: Early learning and childcare settings, Schools, Community learning and development services, Colleges, Private colleges and English language schools, Career information, advice and guidance services, Prison education, and Education functions of local authorities.

In terms of the Public Participation Spectrum, Education Scotland undertakes activities that lean more towards the first part of the spectrum:

• Inform – e.g. annual review reports, annual programme of planned inspection and review, inspection evidence reports, inspection reports, thematic reports, e-bulletins, social media (Facebook, Twitter); and
• Consult – e.g. consultation on approaches to education inspection; learners and parents (and other key stakeholders) are consulted to help inform self-evaluation evidence that feeds into inspections and reviews.

There does not appear to be activity around the Involve, Collaborate or Empower stages of the spectrum.

Introduction

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, protecting and improving Scotland’s environment. It is a non-departmental public body accountable through Scottish Ministers to the Scottish Parliament.

SEPA predominantly regulates small, medium and large businesses, but also some public and third sector bodies. SEPA’s role is to make sure that:

• the environment and human health and well-being are protected (social success);
• Scotland’s natural resources and services are used as sustainably as possible and contribute to sustainable economic growth (economic success); and
• it delivers on obligations relating to Scotland’s flood warning system, Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan, Scotland’s Radioactive Incident Monitoring, and works with the Health and Safety Executive to limit the risk of major accidents at industrial worksites.

Sector Road Map

In terms of environmental regulation, following the sector road map, SEPA aims to:

• ensure that regulated entities meet legal obligations and compliance standards; and
• support as many regulated entities as possible to go beyond compliance.

Regulatory Framework

In recent years, the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 has shaped SEPA’s new regulatory framework called, One Planet Prosperity^[62]st. SEPA has modernised its regulatory strategy to be fit for the 21 century by adopting a more integrated approach. This combines the ways it can influence the behaviour of businesses with all the other factors that can influence business behaviour, namely:

• consumer demand for environmental credentials;
• investor and supply-chain requirements for environmental performance;
• assessment by external ratings bodies;
• trade association membership standards;
• expectations of potential employees about environmental performance; and
• social scrutiny from the public, NGOs, etc. via social media.

Further, this 21^st[63] Century regulation has to be carried out in accordance with SEPA’s six new Organisational Characteristics:

• Characteristic 1: Producing information and evidence that people use to make decisions;
• Characteristic 2: Helping people implement successful innovation, not minor improvements on ‘business-as-usual’;
• Characteristic 3: Helping communities see the environment as an opportunity to create social and economic success;
• Characteristic 4: Routinely interacting with regulated businesses through their boardrooms and executive teams and owners;
• Characteristic 5: An organisation that people are clamouring to work for; and
• Characteristic 6: Using partnerships as our principal way of delivering outcomes.

Sector Plans

Sector plans are the cornerstone of SEPA’s new regulatory strategy/framework – it marks a shift from regulating individual sites to a sectoral approach he aim of getting all businesses to reach compliance and pushing ahead as many as possible to go beyond compliance.

There are currently eight finalised sector plans - SEPA’s website clearly lays out the sector plans (pdf or online flipbook formats), links to, or information on, other relevant regulation or guidance for the sector, and how each sector plan will deliver against UN Sustainable Development goals.

Figure 5.2 lists the current state of SEPA’s sector plans. There are a further seven sector plans which have recently been consulted on (discussed more in the following section), and exist in draft form subject to further research, comment and revision. Additionally there is one plan coming soon.

Taken together, there will at least 16 sector plans covering a broad spectrum of businesses within the Scottish economy.

Figure 5.2: SEPA’s Sector Plans

Completed Sector Plans	Landfill Leather Metals Nuclear power generation and decommissioning Oil and gas decommissioning Scotch whisky Tyre Water supply and waste water
Draft Sector Plans (recently completed consultation phase)	Chemicals manufacturing Crop production Dairy processing Dairy production Finfish aquaculture Housing Strategic infrastructure (transport and utilities)
Coming Soon	Forestry and timber production and processing

The Landfill Sector Plan^[64]

To explore SEPA’s approach in more detail the following section considers its Landfill Sector Plan. Within the landfill sector, SEPA has regulatory power over 55 operational sites and 217 non-operational sites in Scotland.

The environmental legislation of the landfill sector mandates that all activities must be in accordance with the EU Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the waste hierarchy. In terms of environmental regulation by SEPA, operational landfills are regulated through the issue of Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime permits which reflect the standards set out by the EC Landfill Directive 1999 and the Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003. SEPA also enforces Duty of Care and other legal compliance requirements of operators. Further, SEPA works with partner organisations (e.g. Scottish Landfill Tax, Landfill Tax Community Fund, law enforcement agencies) when appropriate.

SEPA acknowledges that merely enforcing regulation to compliance is not enough to meet their One Planet Prosperity goals, and that efforts to promote and support activity within the landfill sector that goes beyond compliance are necessary. This includes adopting a wider sectoral approach that considers the influence of other players with a stake in the sector including industry bodies like the Scottish Environmental Services Association, landfill/waste removal competitors, consumer influence from those like National Grid and Transport Scotland for example, the supply chain - for example supermarkets, NGOs, and government and regulators including local authorities and Scottish water amongst others^[65].

The landfill sector consistently delivers the lowest compliance rates, so much of what SEPA aims to do in the sector is to promote compliance with regulation. Major factors contributing to non-compliance include, inter alia: plant maintenance and/or condition, waste acceptance, capping, monitoring and reporting, management plan, staff knowledge, and odour and/or litter.

The sector plan lays out a series of actions on how SEPA will work to improve compliance across the sector. This includes, inter alia:

• promoting adequate financial provision of operators within the sector;
• producing clear guidance that is easy to understand across operators, partners and the general public;
• developing landfill permits and licenses that are fit for purpose;
• developing and sharing across the sector best practice examples that support compliance;
• investing in and empowering SEPA staff so they can provide knowledgeable, consistent and effective support;
• helping responsible, compliant businesses by increasing scrutiny and financial burdens for those who consistently do not comply; and
• developing strategies in conjunction with Police Scotland to deter illegal activities.

For example, SEPA publishes an extensive set of guidance documents informing the pollution prevention and control regime and its processes^[66][67]. These help explain the regulations and obligations that operators must meet as defined by the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012. The guidance is extensive and covers topics such as best available techniques, permit application guidelines, soil and groundwater technical testing guidance, guidance on the control of noise, monitoring guidance, and guidance on odour control, burning biomass, and timber treatment.

While the sector plan does not explicitly lay out any actions or strategies for engaging the public when it comes to the landfill sector, the plan references several instances that suggest the public’s voice is coming through in the policy. For example, the sector plan mentions that the landfill sector receives the greatest number of public complaints, and that:

• regulatory effort will be focussed on sites with the greatest negative impact on communities; and
• support will be given to those operators who actively engage their community.

Two targeted outcomes include:

• building better relationships between landfill operators and communities; and
• preventing communities being negatively impacted by neighbouring landfills.

Involving and Engaging People

SEPA utilises several mechanisms to encourage community/public participation and engagement. It seeks to operate in accordance with the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 designed to help communities have a greater say in the decisions that affect them.

SEPA regularly holds public drop-ins and events, is an active participant in Community Planning Partnerships, encourages participation requests from the public, opens the doors for the public to comment on, and influence its policies, and operates a 24-hour pollution hotline to respond to public concerns as appropriate and a specific telephone number for reporting fly tipping and illegal dumping.

In May 2019 SEPA held drop-in events at the Elgin Library and Forres Town Hall to help local people learn about new and improved flood warnings. SEPA also wrote directly to 120 households who are now within a newly defined flood warning area to help them learn about the benefits of signing up to Floodline, SEPA’s national flood warning service.

Full Article is found on SEPA’s media page, accessed here.

Community Planning

Community Planning Partnerships are placed on a statutory footing. SEPA, along with community planning partners, having a duty around the planning and delivery of local outcomes. SEPA has a designated mailbox to receive information relating to Community Planning Partnerships.

Participation Requests

“Participation requests are intended to provide opportunities for communities to work with SEPA and others to be involved in service delivery and improving outcomes in order to make services and people’s quality of life better”.^[68]

Participation requests are a formal process where a member of the public can either submit a form or write a letter to SEPA to request involvement with one of SEPA’s activities. SEPA published an annual report on participation requests during the 2017-2018 year^[69]. Apart from this formal process, SEPA encourages the public to contact their local offices to discuss outcomes and improvements, and how they might be able to help.

Asset Transfer Requests

Communities can reach out to SEPA for an asset transfer request if they can make the case for a better use of one of SEPA’s assets. The Scottish Government provides guidance on this process, and SEPA published an asset transfer request annual report for 2017-2018^[70].

Consultations

The SEPA consultation platform^[71] welcomes stakeholder involvement in its policy development activities. Open consultations at the time of drafting this report include: SEPA’s WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Charging Scheme Consultation. Examining the WEEE Charging Scheme shows how the consultation scheme works in practice:

• SEPA lays out the consultation document explaining the proposed changes to the scheme - i.e. rate changes to operators within the sector;
• SEPA provides a draft version of the policy document;
• it provides a consultation form containing two questions to be answered by the stakeholder and submitted to SEPA; and
• at the end of the open consultation period, SEPA reviews the consultation responses and posts a ‘We Asked, You Said, We Did’ summary highlighting the policy in question, what types of responses SEPA received from stakeholders, and how SEPA used those responses to inform policy. More detailed summaries of responses and consultation outcome reports are typically available.

SEPA’s open consultation process represents an opportunity for people to directly engage with the agency and influence what they do and how they work. In practice, the extent of involvement from individual members of the public seems limited, however their views may be well represented by community groups and local councils who are frequent respondents.

24 hour pollution hotline

Anyone can call this hotline to report an environmental event. Reports can also be submitted via a web application. An example of how complaints through this channel have influenced SEPA actions is highlighted below.

Responding to over 600 complaints coming through the 24 hour pollution hotline about days of unplanned flaring at the ExxonMobil chemical plant at Mossmorran in Fife, SEPA launched a formal regulatory investigation into the operation.

From SEPA CEO, Terry A’Hearn, “The unprecedented number of complaints we have received is a clear message and it’s one that we have heard powerfully and clearly. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to help us understand the impacts of this flaring, and I encourage people to continue to report to us.”^[72]

Public Media (Print, Online and Social Channels of Engagement)

SEPA’s website provides a wide range of publications and other resources, including but not limited to, those that provide evidence on how the agency is held to account:

• Corporate Plan;
• Annual Report and Accounts;
• Annual Operating Plan;
• Sector Plans;
• Enforcement Reports;
• Quarterly Corporate Performance Reports;
• Procurement Annual Reports; and
• access to information – SEPA has adopted the Model Publication Scheme, produced by the Scottish Information Commissioner.
• complaints handling procedure;
• SEPA’s dedicated media website – media.sepa.org.uk, providing;
  • Media releases, statements, media team contact details and media library.
• Various reports and position papers including:
  • SEPA’s Social Impact Pledge, equality mainstreaming and outcome report, Promoting and increasing sustainable growth, and Board Reports.

Summary

SEPA is Scotland’s environmental regulator – protecting the health and well-being of the public and promoting and enforcing good environmental practices and innovation to support a healthy sustainable economy. SEPA has well-established channels that provide opportunities for people to input into the agency. A focus on communities and focussing on those who are the most impacted by environmental damage is a key driver of SEPA’s regulatory actions going forward.

In terms of the Public Participation Spectrum, HIS and the Scottish Health Council has a good spread of activities that span all levels of engagement:

• Inform – e.g. annual reports, online media centre, social media (Twitter, Facebook), YouTube videos, etc;
• Consult – e.g. open consultations;
• Involve – e.g. participation requests, environmental emergency hotline;
• Collaborate – e.g. participation requests, community planning partnerships; and
• Empower – e.g. local drop-ins, community planning partnerships.

Of note is SEPA’s efforts to make environmental data transparent and readily available to the public. SEPA continually revises and adds to its data publication page and can be contacted if an individual cannot find the data they are looking for.

https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment/environmental-data/

6.2 Summary Analysis

Table: 5.1: Summary Analysis across the Five Scrutiny Bodies

	SHR	HIS	Education Scotland	HMIPS	SEPA
Annual Reports or Annual Reviews	√	√	√	√	√
Annual Accounts	√	√	√	Annual Report contains summary financial information	Annual Report contains summary financial information
Corporate and/or Operational Plan	√	√	√		√
Financial Plan		√
Operating Frameworks (or similar) e.g. Relationship and Working with Scottish Government/Ministers	√	√	√		√
Involvement Strategy (or similar)	√	√
Regulatory Framework/Standards and Guidance	√	√	√	√	√
Videos, including about Scrutiny Role/Work	√	√			√
Monitoring Information/Reports (or similar) e.g. self-evaluation evidence	√		√	√	√

Table: 5.1: Summary Analysis across the Five Scrutiny Bodies (Cont’d)

	SHR	HIS	Education Scotland	HMIPS	SEPA
Planned Programme of Inspection/Engagement Plans (or similar)	√		√	√
Full Inspection Reports		√	√	√
Summary Inspection Reports			√
Follow Up Inspection Reports		√		√
Inspection Action Plans		√
Thematic/National Reports	√		√	√
Reports on Statutory Intervention	√
Recommended Practice Reports or Improvement Resources/Hubs (or similar)	√	√	√		√
Consultations (commissioned by the regulator and/or their organisation’s response to external consultations) or calls for evidence (or similar)	√	√	√	√	√
Consultation Reports	√	√	√		√

Table: 5.1: Summary Analysis across the Five Scrutiny Bodies (Cont’d)

	SHR	HIS	Education Scotland	HMIPS	SEPA
Freedom of Information - Access to Information, Publication Scheme	√	√	√	√	√
Complaints Handling Procedure Guidance	√	√	√	√	√
Social Media	√	√	√	√	√
Press/News Releases/Feeds		√	√	√	√
Newsletters and/or e-bulletins	√	√	√
Speeches, Presentations and/or Blogs	√	√
Input from people as part of self-evaluation process that feeds into Inspection	√	√	√		√
Volunteers involved in Monitoring and/or Inspection Process	√	√		√
Citizen Juries and/or Panels (or other similar Panels)	√	√

Some key messages arising from this Section include:

22. All scrutiny bodies have mechanisms in place to involve and engage people in their scrutiny work. The nature and extent of approaches is, however, varied. The regulatory bodies related to housing and health (and to a certain extent education) appear to have the greatest level of engagement, and perhaps reflect the extent to which these public services are embedded within local communities.

23. Some, but not all of the regulatory bodies, have an Involvement and Engagement Strategy (or similar). Such a strategy might be considered an example of good practice, as these documents set out explicit organisational objectives and priorities around how regulatory bodies will actively look to involve and engage the public, and commitments to publicly report and evidence progress. These strategies typically highlight the importance of having different ways for the public to become involved, and recognise that some people might want lighter touch engagement, while for others a deeper level of involvement might be desired. It is therefore important to ensure that anyone who wants to be involved are fully able to participate, and that any barriers to participation are removed.

24. Over the years regulatory bodies have sought to ensure that greater levels of information and data are in the public domain . With regards to the Public Participation Spectrum, this largely falls under “Inform”. This is in recognition that openness, transparency and accountability of public services is crucial in building and maintaining public trust and confidence in those services. Access to information typically spans traditional methods (e.g. publications, leaflets, newsletters, e-bulletins, etc), and a growth in the use of other methods to engage a broader audience (e.g. blogs, podcasts, social media, videos, live streamed events). Given differences in people’s preferences for receiving and digesting information, there will always be a need for a blended approach to information provision.

25. An Inform or education or awareness raising piece is important for delivery of activity under OGP Commitment 4 because previous research (albeit somewhat outdated) has found, the public have limited awareness of scrutiny organisations and processes, and are familiar with some but not all external scrutiny bodies. While “inform” does not provide any opportunity for public participation, it does serve a useful purpose in terms of improving access to accountability. It does this by:

• providing people with the information they need – e.g. to understand the accountability framework; and
• allowing people to then make their own mind up about if and how they might become involved.

26. All regulatory bodies “Consult” the public (and others) in some shape or form. There are some good examples of meaningful consultative approaches to, for example, the refinement of regulatory approaches and frameworks. Some bodies also undertake their own consultations on a particular subject matter or issue – and good practice is to publish the consultation findings/analysis. The importance of regulators closing the feedback loop is critical. Others promote or publicise other organisations’ or agencies’ consultations (including publishing their own organisations consultation response to an external consultation).

27. As highlighted above, among the case study examples the SHR and HIS (including Scottish Health Council) appear to have the most extensive mechanisms for involving and engaging people in their work – which align to later stages of the Public Participation Spectrum (Involve, Collaborate, Empower). For example, both have “panels” of service users which ensures regular two-way dialogue/contact between service providers and users. They have a number of benefits (note there are both pros and cons), including providing early indication of emerging concerns and difficulties, sounding out new ideas or proposals, etc. While they can be resource intensive to set up, once established panels are typically an inexpensive method of gathering a high response rate than some other methods. It is good practice to produce and publish Consultation Reports (i.e. key findings, how feedback has/will been used, what actions have/will be taken. Both SHR and HIS publish panel reports on their websites.

28. A good example of Involve, Collaborate and Empower is the identification, training, and use of members of the public in the monitoring and inspection process . This is a mechanism that has been used to good effect by SHR and HMIPS (it is also used in a health and care setting e.g. Care Inspectorate). In the case of SHR, Volunteer Tenant Advisors play an important role as they bring a tenant perspective to its scrutiny of landlords’ services. As a service user themselves, they will be empathetic when they speak directly with other tenants on their views of landlord services, and can use their own shared experiences.

29. There are wider good examples of regulatory bodies (e.g. SHR) involving members of the public in the review of draft publications, promotional materials, and website content to ensure that materials in the public domain are accessible and user-friendly.

30. From a review of the regulatory body websites, there does not appear to be any evaluation evidence around the effectiveness and/or impact of different methods of public involvement and engagement. However, remote tools will be most cost effective and have the potential to achieve a greater “reach”. That being said, this should not be at the expense of more in-depth mechanisms (e.g. face-to-face engagement, etc) that allows for deeper levels of public engagement and participation (and influence).

31. Regulatory bodies have various duties placed on them – some report directly to the Scottish Parliament others report directly to the Scottish Government (this includes attendance at relevant committee meetings). All have a common set of mechanisms in place that aim that as organisations they are held to account. This includes publishing a wide range of information spanning Corporate Plans to Annual Reports and Accounts, and on Freedom of Information and access to information to Complaints Handling.