As part of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 coming into force this year, the Scottish Government is currently asking for the views of stakeholders and the general public on the new draft guidance and regulations for Community Planning.
Why is this consultation important?
Improving core local services are key to regenerating communities. Community Planning can aid this process by helping to plan and coordinate public services through cooperation and consultation between relevant organisations. In doing so, Community Planning aims to place local people and communities at the centre of public service decision making.
Under the 2015 Act, Community Planning Partnerships have a strengthened role, especially with their new statutory duty to reduce ‘socio-economic inequalities’ locally. As part of this, they must produce ‘locality plans’ for those communities experiencing particular disadvantage, as explained in a recent SURF briefing here. The 2015 Act also contains stronger provisions to help Community Planning partners to secure the participation of any community body and in turn, aims to allow greater involvement of the community itself.
Therefore, this consultations aims to garner further information to inform guidance and thus allow greater participation for those who wish to participate in community planning.
“The views gathered will be used to gauge the appropriateness of what is proposed and identify gaps or shortcomings.”
The consultation closes on the 13th of June 2016 – the consultation document and link for responses are available here.
