The national policy environment in Scotland is very supportive of efforts to develop and empower communities, with a raft of rights and duties enshrined in legislation, enabling guidance, and bodies that exists to support such efforts (For an extensive list of relevant measures enacted or being developed by the Scottish Government, visit their webpage). Some of the key policies are set out below.

Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act received Royal Assent on 24 July 2015. It gives significant rights to communities and places commensurate responsibilities on public authorities. The three major elements of the Act that communities, and those supporting them, should be aware of are:

  • the strengthening of community planning to give communities more of a say in how public services are to be planned and provided for
  • new rights enabling communities to identify needs, issues and opportunities and request action to be taken on these in order to tackle inequality, to contribute to regeneration or economic development, or to improve health or wellbeing
  • the extension of the community right to buy, various measures to enable the transfer of public assets into community ownership and enabling communities to otherwise have greater control over property assets such as abandoned, neglected or detrimental land.

Underpinning all these provisions is an intention to address disadvantage and inequality.

The Scottish Government has produced an easily digestible version of the Act, while the Scottish Community Development Centre has also produced summary guidance on the Act.

National Standards for Community Engagement

The National Standards for Community Engagement are a set of nationally recognised good-practice principles designed to support and inform the process of community engagement and improve what happens as a result. Originally launched in 2005, they have been used by a range of practitioners to support community engagement and user involvement in areas such as community planning and health and social care. They were reviewed and updated in 2015/2016, so as to reflect the developing policy and legislation relating to community empowerment in Scotland, and to build on the growing range of practice.

It is recommended that these standards are followed when consulting with the community in relation to community benefits and any strategy that will shape it. See the module Creating a lasting legacy for more information on this.

The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013

The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013 (The CLD Regulations) support the achievement of the following policy goals, in turn aimed at improving the provision of community learning and development (CLD) in Scotland:

  • To ensure communities across Scotland – particularly those who are disadvantaged – have access to the CLD support they need;
  • To strengthen co-ordination between the full range of CLD providers, ensuring that community planning partnerships, local authorities and other providers of public services respond appropriately to the expectations set by the CLD Strategic Guidance;
  • To reinforce the role of communities and learners in the assessment, planning and evaluation processes, enabling them to shape CLD provision;
  • To make the role and contribution of CLD more visible.

Local (education) authorities are responsible for the implantation of these regulations.

Support for Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting is a way of enabling local people to have a direct say on how a funding stream is spent. This practice has developed internationally and tends to see a proportion of public sector budgets distributed in this way, with a focus on democratising public expenditure decisions by involving the community(ies) in these decisions.

The Scottish government supports participatory budgeting as a tool for community engagement and for developing participatory democracy in Scotland. It has funded participatory budgeting through the £1.5 million Community Choices Fund. However, practice to date has tended to be more about participatory grant-making rather than proactive budgeting, with community groups and organisations ‘pitching’ for grants for projects that fellow residents then vote for (either electronically or at a community event).

The PB Scotland website provides information on events, policy and resources in Scotland, as well as examples of participatory budgeting in action.