Open Government Action Plan commitment 2: participation framework

1.1 Develop and begin to roll out a Participation Framework

Status: 🔴 Delayed

Considerable work on the framing documents for the Participation Framework have been carried out, to develop the language model and vision. This work is not as far ahead as we would like because of resourcing pressures, and although it is being done in partnership with Involve it has not yet brought in the diversity of voices from civil society to ensure it meets the needs of all people in Scotland.  Resources have been temporarily diverted to deliver a challenging test of the framework – a national Citizens Assembly on the future of our constitution.

The PF will be developed further over the autumn through a number of workshops with interest groups – including developing the policy on accessibility with expertise from inside government and civil society.

1.2 Improve the formal consultation process

Status: 🙂 On track

Consultations guidance has been reviewed to create a new ‘Handbook’ for ‘traditional written consultation’. The ‘Handbook’ has now been published on Saltire in a series of useful, ‘bite –sized’ resources and use and comments are being monitored to ensure iterative improvement.

The government Consultation Working Group continues to work with Participation Framework Working Group in development of the Participation Framework. In addition, work is ongoing with Parliament and COSLA to develop a more coordinated and system wide approach to the involvement of people in the work of government.

1.3 Development of a strategic approach to participation specific to Children & Young People 

Status: 🙂 On track

Research working group established, meeting 3 times (March, June and September).

Aim of the group is to consider the evidence base of existing guidance and research on participation of children and young people, practice examples and policy areas that have consulted with children and young people. 

Researcher commissioned for 3 months (June to September 2019) to work with us to take forward the tasks of the Research group.

A small subgroup of members, made up of academics and representatives from third sector organisations covering the age range 0-18 years, was also convened to help steer the work of the Research group.  This subgroup met twice, with 6 young people attending one of the meetings.

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Status: ✔ Complete

Hosted two events and began growing community on this subject to explore openness. Events hosted in collaboration with civil society partners with government and non-governmental participants.
1) ‘Working in the open’ event as part of FireStarter Festival (Feb 2019)

Since the event, we have been building a community around the idea of working in the open. Has since linked up with gov/public sector/civil society across the UK to explore what ‘openness’ means in different contexts. Continues as virtual meet-ups organised on Twitter.

2) Exploring openness and participation in area of planning, design and architecture to reach new communities and an alternative approach to openness from different sectors, as part of Architecture Fringe Festival (April 2019)

Status: 🙂 On track

Scottish Government is working with technology providers to scope feasibility and to pilot new approaches. These pilots may include but are not limited to the participation opportunities highlighted in recently published Programme for Government. Work to develop a consultation noticeboard or aggregator on the Scottish Government website is on hold.

Scottish Government are collaborating with a COSLA- led project exploring digital participation technology building on existing online participatory budgeting work across Scotland. COSLA has established a pilot to explore the use and development of the CONSUL platform across Scottish Local Authorities and their partners.  Currently the site has been live with 7 Councils who in the main have used the Participatory Budgeting element though 3 are actively using the collaborative legislation and debates sections of the site as well.  A total of 23 Councils are actively interested/engaged with the pilot and work is continuing with the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government to establish a Scottish open source programming community to take forward future developments.  Other partners interested include the Improvement Service, Public Health Scotland and Young Scot.  Discussions are also taking place with Warwick University and NESTA to consider the use of AI technology.

Tests have taken place in a number of policy areas. The principle of these is Scotland’s first citizens assembly, consisting of 100+ randomly selected citizens deliberating on the future of the constitution over 6 weekends. This work will be subject to independent research and evaluation to ensure the learning from the assembly can feed into the continued development of the Participation Framework. 

Other explorations of methods which have taken place include:

• A review of citizen’s forums in attitudes to agriculture, environment and rural priorities, link to report below
• A citizen Jury on Patient involvement in health, reporting to Chief Medical Officer and being implemented
• Social Security’s use of Experience Panels to design their services

4.1 Participatory Budgeting

Status: 🙂 On track

Charter on PB has been coproduced and published – collaborative work between COSLA, Scottish Government and the PB network is actively driving improvement.

COSLA has hosted a national conference for all 32 Councils to explore how PB can be further embedded as part of “how we do” and not just “what we do”.  Already Councils have identified at least 6% of budgets that could be subject to PB and work continues across all Councils to develop a strategic approach.

COSLA is proactively working with member Councils to develop appropriate training and ensure inclusion is at the core of activity.  Officers are working with colleagues as part of the international conference that will be hosted by PB Scotland in October.

4.2 Coproduction

Status: 🙂 On track

Support for the coproduction network has continued and the fed into the work on Homelessness and rough sleeping, a report is being finalised.

Status: 🙂 On track

The Digital Identity programme is on track and working actively with civil society and industry to deliver a trusted system.

Additionally, Doreen Grove of the Scottish OGP team is part of an international team working with Open Government Partnerships to provide guidance on improving the use of deliberative techniques and with OECD’ s Open Government team’s Democracy Innovation Network to share learning on the use of deliberative democracy

Status: 🙂 On track

Planning to deliver this commitment is ongoing.  We will hold an international workshop in Spring 2020 to examine current and future practice on gender sensitive policy making.  It will be developed with academics, feminist groups in Scotland and feminist network Open government Partnership and in co-ordination with First Ministers Council of Women and Girls.