Policy
Community empowerment
We are committed to supporting our communities to do things for themselves, and to make their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services.
Actions
To empower communities in Scotland, we are:
- funding community-led regeneration through the Empowering Communities Fund
- funding participatory budgeting through the £1.5 million Community Choices Fund, giving people more power to make decisions on spending in their local areas
- making it easier for communities to take over land and buildings in public ownership through asset transfer
- supporting community councils to represent communities' opinions and needs to public bodies
- giving communities the ability to request to participate in decisions and processes which are aimed at improving outcomes through participation requests
- setting out best practise for public bodies to engage with communities via the National Standards for Community Engagement
- providing guidance on common good property
- launching the Local Governance Review, a comprehensive review of how local decisions are made and how local democracy is working
- supporting public service providers to work together and with local communities via community planning to shape and deliver better services
Background
Research has shown that when communities feel empowered, there is:
- greater participation in local democracy
- increased confidence and skills among local people
- more people volunteering in their communities
- greater satisfaction with quality of life in the neighbourhood
Better community engagement and participation leads to the delivery of better, more responsive services and better outcomes for communities.
In 2015 Parliament passed the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to give new rights to community bodies and new duties to public sector authorities. To explain further, we have published:
Bills and legislation
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 gave community bodies new rights and public sector authorities new duties.
Contact
Email: community.empowerment@gov.scot
Twitter: @commempower
Post:
Community Empowerment Team
Area 3F North
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ