The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Information about this consultation

This consultation seeks views on a draft Advice Note on Engaging Children and Young People in Community Planning. The Advice Note adds to existing Community Planning Advice Notes (especially Advice Note 5 on Effective Community Engagement), published to build on the Statutory Guidance issued under the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, and on the National Standards for Community Engagement. Copies of the statutory guidance on Community Planning and existing Advice Notes can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/localgov/cpan-00.asp

The National Standards for Community Engagement can be found at:

http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/lccs_008411.pdf

The Advice Note is intended to help Community Planning Partnerships ( CPPs) and their individual partners to interpret their responsibilities under the Act and other relevant legislation and to stimulate an exchange of ideas, experience and learning. Relevant bodies include Local Authorities, NHS Boards, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Joint Police Boards and Chief Constables, Joint Fire Boards, Communities Scotland, Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority, Regional Transport Partnerships, and other public bodies, voluntary sector organisations and private sector organisations participating in Community Planning. The note is not just for those involved directly in working with children and young people but also for people who make decisions about planning and resources, Chief Executives, service planners and managers.

The Advice Note sets out why it is important to engage with children and young people and draws together and highlights existing practice, learning points and materials which Community Planning Partnerships may find useful. The Advice Note is deliberately descriptive rather than prescriptive, it does not constitute a new policy statement but builds on existing policy on Community Planning set out in the Statutory Guidance (link provided above). The potential audience for the Advice Note is very broad and it therefore gives a high level overview and offers further contacts and links for investigation; it is not intended as a hands-on toolkit.

The Executive has worked with stakeholders to produce the draft Advice Note and would like to thank those who have offered their views, in particular, Youthlink, Dialogue Youth, Young Scot, Barnardo's and Save the Children.

Through this consultation we are seeking views on whether the Advice Note is:

• complete - does it make reference to the major points relating to engaging children and young people relevant to the audience outlined above?
• useful and relevant - will it help the target audience in planning and carrying out engagement activity?

The consultation is about what should form the content of the Advice Note. We are not seeking views on related policy areas mentioned in the Advice Note.

The consultation has been sent to:

• ACPOS
• Barnardo's
• Chairs of Community Planning Partnerships
• Chief Constables
• Chief Executives of NHS Boards
• Children 1 ^st
• Children in Scotland
• Children's Parliament
• Commissioner for Children and Young
• Communities Scotland
• Community Learning and Development Managers
• Community Planning Network
• Connect Youth
• COSLA
• Dialogue Youth
• Firemasters
• Leaders of Administrations
• Local Authority Chief Executives
• Local Authority Heads of Social Work, Education and Community Services,
• Local Enterprise Companies Chief Executives
• Save the Children
• Scottish Youth Parliament
• SCVO
• SOLACE
• Young Scot
• Youthlink

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by 25 February 2006. Please send your response to:

community.planning@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
or

If you have any queries contact Stephen Krzyzanowski on 0131 244 0420

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which parts of the Advice Note you are commenting on as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Executive consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations ( SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form, attached to this letter, as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Executive are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the attached Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library by 25 March 2006 We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SE Library on 0131 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next ?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us reach a decision on a final text for the Advice Note. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process by 7 April 2006 and plan to publish the Advice Note as soon as necessary changes can be made. The exact date will depend on how substantially it needs to be revised.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to

Name:
Stephen Krzyzanowski
Address:

E-mail: community.planning@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

« Previous | Contents | Next »