Participation requests were designed to improve community input to how services are run. Six years on the way they are being used is under review to make them more useful. Don’t miss your chance to shape how they might work in future.

As part of work on participation requests (PRs), SCDC is carrying out a survey asking people’s thoughts on strengthening the process and improving the quality of participation with the public sector. This includes asking people’s thoughts on the need for a review or appeals process and what one could look like. This will also feed into the review of the Community Empowerment Act (Part 3 – participation requests) and SCDC is keen to hear from people who have experience of submitting PRs, people working in public sector organisations and those who have never submitted one.

The results of the survey will help inform a report that will go forward to the Scottish Government, which will contain recommendations on how the process could be strengthened, as well as outline the scope of what a potential review or appeals process could look like. The survey will take 10-30 minutes to complete and is open until 19 April. Find out more at https://www.scdc.org.uk/news/article/2023/4/3/strengthening-participation-requests-survey.