Open Government action plan 2021 to 2025 - commitment 5: participation

Commitment 5: participation

Action 1: Participation framework - developing knowledge and skills across the Scottish Government (beginning autumn 2021).

Milestone: Delivery of Participation Framework training sessions across the Scottish Government.

Progress and next steps

The Participation Framework was published 17 February after work had taken place earlier in the year to improve the Framework’s usability, accessibility and functionality. Advice and input was sought from internal colleagues and external partners on how to ensure the Framework could be improved for accessibility.

The updated Framework acts a guide to good practice in participation work across Scottish Government and provides information about participatory methods and when to use them, the development of an effective participation strategy, and signposts to further resources. The Framework primarily makes it clearer for staff what the key questions and considerations are to think about when planning inclusive engagements with people, and what further support and expertise they will require. The publication of the resource also means stakeholders and potential participants can inform themselves about Scottish Government’s approach.

The team delivered an additional two pilot training sessions with internal policy teams to further inform general training opportunities currently being developed for wider organisational rollout.

The delivery of in-depth participation training to SG Social Researchers is currently being planned.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Delivery of in-depth participation training to SG Social Researchers.

Progress and next steps

The delivery of in-depth participation training to SG Social Researchers is currently being planned.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Development of Scottish Government wide procurement framework for participation work.

Progress and next steps

Procurement colleagues will be contacted to support in the development of a Scottish Government wide procurement framework.

Status

In progress.

Action 2: Participation Framework - embedding equalities and an inclusive approach (beginning autumn 2021).

Milestone: Development of processes and guidance for paying participant expenses and compensating for participant time.

Progress and next steps

Guidance for paying participant expenses and compensating for participant time is currently in development. This is in an initial phase.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Develop and embed ethics, equity and safeguarding principles, standards and guidance in the Participation Framework and further guidance.

Progress and next steps

Two expert facilitators were commissioned by the Open Government team in March to deliver a series of public workshops which were designed to consider equality and diversity, as well as inclusive practices with regards to the Participation Framework. Workshops were delivered over the month of April and took place both in person and online.

A report detailing the outputs from the workshops will be produced and published. Findings from the report will feed into the next iteration of the Participation Framework.

The Open Government team facilitated a cross government meeting to discuss guidance and processes related to ethics and ethical decision making in Scottish Government. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how to ensure colleagues are equipped with a consistent understanding of ethical practise, and how it affects their roles. The group also considered gaps in the provision of ethical guidance, and areas of potential overlap. To further discussions, the group agreed for Scottish Government’s ethicist to conduct an initial mapping exercise of guidance available to staff across government.

Status

In progress.

Action 3: Institutionalising Participation and Deliberative Democracy working group - reporting and beginning processes of change to make participation routine and effective (autumn 2021 onwards).

Milestone: 

Continue to progress initial milestones as outlined.

Progress and next steps

A response to the IPDD working group’s report and recommendations was issued by Scottish Government on 27 March. This is available to view on the Scottish Government’s website.

The response addresses each recommendation that was detailed in the report, and outlines what Scottish Government will now do to deliver on its commitments to participatory and deliberative democracy.

The Open Government team are looking to build on the progress made when co-ordinating and compiling the response with others, and will support the delivery of actions outlined in the response where possible with relevant teams and partners.

The Open Government team are working with relevant colleagues to progress the audit that was outlined in the response. The audit will be carried out to determine what leadership, governance, budget, skills and experience will be required from within the organisation to fully deliver the establishment of a Unit within Scottish Government with responsibility for Participation. This is currently in an initial phase.

Status

In progress.

Action 4: Embedding Open Government principles in the planning, conduct and outputs of annual Citizens’ Assemblies (from December 2021).

Progress and next steps

The planning of annual Citizens’ Assemblies is at an early stage but is ongoing.

The Open Government team have been engaging in this process where possible, but ongoing resource uncertainties have so far limited the scope of input.

The publication of the IPDD response will contribute to this work.

Status

In progress.

Action 5: Developing an active and inclusive Open Government Network for Participation (2022 onwards).

Milestone: Ongoing diversification of the civil society network with SCDC.

Progress and next steps

As part of the process for reviewing milestones for 2023 with civil society, a set of activities have been developed to understand what initiatives will support in developing an active, informed and inclusive network.

The rollout of the revised activities are in the initial phase and work to progress this will continue into Q2.

Status

In progress.

Action 6: Review of consultations - spend, approach, monitoring (autumn 2022).

Milestone: Restructure Scottish Government internal guidance on consultation to embed it within a wider narrative around participation and engagement.

Progress and next steps

Proposed Saltire structure has been approved by Saltire team. Content is being reviewed by the working group and final edits made ahead of sharing content with Saltire team. Will not be launched until after new Saltire site is live later this year.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Launch a new digital engagement service offer to support the delivery of different digital engagement activities by Scottish Government.

Progress and next steps

New digital engagement service in trial period assisting local government funding and council tax policy colleagues on potential project – pending budget allocation in comms for coming financial year.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: An analysis of evaluation data by external analysts to provide insight into the accessibility and effectiveness of consultations will be produced, and will inform the guidance and training provided, and form an evidence base to promote non-consultation options for engagement.

Progress and next steps

Analysis of evaluation data has been procured and analysis work is underway. Report due in summer 2023.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Launch a new digital engagement hub on gov.scot for the public to find out about opportunities to engage in policy making in Scottish Government.

Progress and next steps

Initial discussions on new digital engagement hub taken place with website team. Integrated gov.scot hub will be a multi-year project and in the meantime we are scoping improvements to the consultation pages on gov.scot and options for developing the current provision on consult.gov.scot as an interim hub.

Status

In progress.

Action 7: Monitoring the completion of local authorities delivery of 1% of budgets through participatory budgeting (from autumn 2021).

Milestone: 

Continue to progress initial milestones as outlined.

Progress and next steps

1% PB target reached. In 2021/22, 110,000 local people engaged in participatory processes and directly decided on how public money is spent in their local communities. £154 million of council budgets in Scotland have been spent on priorities identified by the communities most affected by the outcomes through PB.

COSLA Vice President Councillor Heddle met with Minister for Community Wealth & Public Health to discuss progress update on PB and the 1% target on 26 April 2023.

COSLA to showcase and celebrate the achievements of local authorities, with support from Scottish Government. Councillor Heddle and Mr Arthur scheduled to meet before June 2023 for joint PB visit. 

Status

In progress.

Action 8: Implementation of the National Participatory Budgeting Strategic Group’s framework for the future of participatory budgeting and embedding open government principles (September 2021).

Milestone: Continue to support the National Participatory Budgeting Strategic Group as they provide the strategic direction for participatory budgeting (PB) across Scotland.

This includes work to raise awareness of the National PB Framework’s priorities and indicators for success, championing open government values and principles.

Progress and next steps

Four Short Life Task Groups established to support priority recommendations from the National PB Framework, including: raising an understanding of PB; evaluating and monitoring impact of PB; PB in climate justice; PB in Education. Groups meet out with the wider strategic group meetings.

Open Government SG team met with the National PB Strategic Group on 18 April 2023 to discuss expanding the remit of the group to the wider participatory democracy agenda.

Next steps are to present the proposal (discussed at the meeting on 18 April) to the wider strategic group in June 2023.

Status

In progress.

Action 9: Explore the use of Participatory Budgeting in 2021‑22 as part of our wider support for community‑led climate action.

Milestone: Embed Open Government principles in Green Participatory Budgeting. This includes: continuing to explore the use of PB as part of our wider support for community‑led climate action​; identifying opportunities to support Green PB programmes across Scotland and; continuing to work with COSLA to support local authorities’ PB initiatives, including Green PB.

Progress and next steps

Scottish Government commit to continue supporting PB for Year 2 (2023/24) of the Just Transition Fund. Based on demonstrated success and impact in Year 1 (2022/23), a new round of £1 million capital funding will be available to communities across Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray through PB. £1 million will be spent on projects and services that address a just transition to net zero.

Status

In progress.

Action 10: Embedding Open Government principles in the Community Empowerment Act parliamentary review (2023).

Milestone: Review of Section 10 of Community Empowerment Act. As part of the Scottish Government’s review of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, the Open Government values, principles and approaches will be applied throughout the process.

Progress and next steps

The Open Government team met with some members of the National PB Strategic Group on 18 April 2023 to discuss the potential expanding remit of the group to wider participatory democracy. Planning a new model of working is still in its very early stages, with reference to exploring Part 10 of the Community Empowerment Act.

Status

In progress.

Action 10: Use best practice approaches to support high quality engagement and participation, while undertaking work to review the National Outcomes.

Milestone: We will use desk based research and stakeholder meetings alongside our consultation and call for evidence to inform the Review of National Outcomes. Desk-based research will be ongoing and has involved reviewing our existing citizen engagement exercises, a review of community Action Plans, commissioning the Children’s Parliament to contribute, and will also include a thematic gender review. The stakeholder meetings will be carried out from March to June, and will bring together particular groups whose insights will be pertinent to the development of the National Outcomes.

Milestone: We will analyse the outputs of these four strands (consultation, call for evidence, desk-based research, stakeholder meetings) over summer, with a view to getting a report to parliament by the end of 2023.

Milestone: We will develop an implementation plan and set of resources to support the use of the reviewed NPF.

Milestone: We have established an Expert Advisory Group made up of leaders from across Scotland to advise on the process for the Review of National Outcomes. This group will continue to meet throughout the Review to provide feedback and advice. Some members of this group are joining with other stakeholders to test out and prototype a framework for wellbeing conversations. We will explore how this test phase can feed into the Review of National Outcomes.

Progress and next steps

The consultation, call for evidence and stakeholder meetings are currently live and taking place. The analysis of the outputs of these methods of engagement will take place once engagements have concluded.

Further milestones detailed are to be progressed from May onwards.

Status

In progress.

Action 11: Embedding participation as a core skill in centre of expertise (new name TBC) (October 2021 to December 2021).

Milestone: 

Continue to progress initial milestones as outlined.

Progress and next steps

This milestone is delayed and is currently still in the set up phase.

The Open Government team will continue to work with the relevant Scottish Government teams to progress.

Status

In progress.

Action 12: Improving children and young people’s participation in decision-making and policy design.

Milestone: Support the delivery of the the UNCRC (Scotland) (Bill).

Progress and next steps

We remain committed to the incorporation into Scots law of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as far as possible within devolved competence and to doing that as soon as practicable.

Our intention is to address the Supreme Court’s judgment by returning the Bill to Parliament via the Parliamentary ‘reconsideration stage’. Preparation for Reconsideration Stage is well underway.

While the Supreme Court judgment means that the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill could not receive Royal Assent in its current form, the majority of work in relation to implementation of the UNCRC is continuing at pace.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Develop the Children and Young Persons Participation Framework to enable policy areas across Scottish Government and public bodies to identify, recruit and engage with organisations that have the skills and expertise required to design and deliver bespoke, high quality participation activities with children and young people.

Progress and next steps

The Scottish Government intends to commission a Framework Agreement to respond to the growing need for children and young people’s participation in decision making and policy design across Scottish Government and to ensure approaches are meaningful, coordinated and sustainable.

Specifically, the Framework is being created to establish an efficient and effective mechanism that provides the Scottish Government and other public bodies with a strategic, high quality and sustainable approach to meaningfully engage with children and young people as part of its decision-making and policy design process.

The Framework will enable policy areas across Scottish Government and public bodies to identify, recruit and engage with organisations that have the skills and expertise required to design and deliver bespoke, high quality participation activities with children and young people.

We anticipate the Framework will be operational in late summer 2023.

Status

In progress.

Milestone: Co-create a Young Persons Participation Toolkit with Young People to support policy teams looking to engage with young people in policy making.

Progress and next steps

We funded the Scottish Youth Parliament to deliver a UNCRC Participation Project – The Right Way, which aims to support and challenge decision-makers to work to ensure young people’s Article 12 right is respected. The work aims to build capacity by offering training and work shadowing opportunities, and delivering a participation hub where resources and case studies will be made widely available to SG and beyond. Funding of £61,157 is being met from Children and Families Directorate across 2021/22 – 2022/23 to support this work and aid UNCRC Implementation.

The Right Way website launched in April 2023.

Milestone: Support the delivery of the Children and Young Peoples Takeovers.

Progress and next steps

Annually since 2017, Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) and Members of the Children’s Parliament (MCPs) have joined the Annual Cabinet meeting with Children and Young People (#CabinetTakeover). The meeting gives children and young people the opportunity to bring some of the issues most important to them and their peers, directly to Cabinet Ministers. The annual meeting is, as far as we know, one of its kind anywhere in the world. The next meeting date will be arranged for 6 June 2023.

Status

In progress.