Places, people and planning: update on proposal 16

Proposal 16: Developing skills to deliver outcomes.

We will work with the profession to improve and broaden skills.

Why we are making a change

A strong, effective and efficient planning system needs to be operated by skilled and knowledgeable people.

What we are doing

• Research - Developing skills, behaviours and knowledge to deliver outcomes
• Research - Planning graduate intern programme for Scotland
• Research - Shared services in planning
• Funding - grants for planning authorities to assist with elected member training following the 2017 elections.
• Funding - grant provided to the Improvement Service to implement projects which support the repositioning of planning in local authorities.

How we will deliver change

• Primary legislation – Elected member training is included in the Planning Bill
• Secondary Legislation – detailed requirements for training will be set out in regulations
• Guidance – no
• Non legislative action – yes

Next steps

• We will work with key stakeholders to develop a framework for elected member training.
• We are considering the research recommendations for skills development and the graduate intern programme and will work with key stakeholders to identify ways to support skills development.
• We will also explore the scope for shared services, and expect there could be particular benefit in developing more effective sharing of expertise in some specialisms such as archaeology or environmental assessment.