This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Putting the public back into public policy-making
10/02/2005
A new survey asking people how much they know about
elected representatives, how often they deal with them and
whether they want more say was launched today.
Commissioned by the Executive, the MORI survey aims to
help improve public participation in policy making.
At the same time, the Executive is gathering information
on how people are currently involved in policy making and
on what the SE is doing to promote participation more
widely.
And following a meeting with the Scottish Civic Forum
today, Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Business Tavish
Scott also announced a grant of £100,000 for the
organisation. He said that the Executive wanted to bring
more organisations into this field alongside the SCF to
encourage sharper and more creative ways to engage with the
public.
He said: "We spend a great deal of time and money on
communicating with the public and seeking their views on
what we do. It is vital that we hit the target, and make
the best possible use of public money.
"Speaking to organisations and interest groups is an
important part of the process. But I also want to see us
getting beyond those and talking to Scots who aren't
members of a particular organisation.
"Our recent consultation on smoking in public places was
a great success: over 53,000 responses, from all walks of
life. If we're to get close to repeating that kind of
success, we need to do much more.
"First we need to find out what people want and need
from us. Then we need to see how well we are meeting those
needs. The research represents an important step in
addressing these issues.
"Only then can we move forward to call for new and
interesting ways to grab people's attention and get them
involved in the democratic process."
The three strands to the announcement are:
Public attitudes to participation. As part of their
wider quarterly Scottish Social Survey, MORI will be asking
questions such as knowledge of different elected
representatives and how people currently communicate with
Government, interest in participating and preferred ways of
participating.
Public participation activity in the Scottish Executive.
This study, carried out by The Research Shop, will provide
a comprehensive picture of what the SE is doing currently
to engage with people and what they are doing to promote
civic participation more generally, and will contribute to
how work in this area develops in the future
Scottish Executive diversifies its approach to civic
participation . The Executive wishes to broaden the way it
engages with people and wishes to develop its links with a
range of organisations with skills and experience in this
area. Since 1999, the Executive has provided over
£1,000,000 of support to establish the Scottish Civic
Forum. Ministers today announced a further grant of
£100,000 to enable the Forum to realign itself to this new
environment and to be able to compete to conduct further
specific participation activities.
The Executive has taken forward its commitment to the
principle of civic participation in a number of different
ways. Examples include:
- promoting citizenship education
in schools;
- supporting volunteering and the
voluntary sector;
- promoting community engagement
locally in Community Planning Partnerships;
- supporting grassroots
capacity-building through the Community Learning and
Development strategy;
- increased opportunities for civic
participation in SE policy-making processes; and
- promotion of good practice in
consultations.
The MORI survey into public attitudes to participation
will run to April 2005, and costs £11,750 (exc VAT). The
Research Shop study of public participation activity in the
Scottish Executive will run to March 2005, and costs
£14,530 (exc VAT).