More than 7,000 children from low income families will have access to healthy and nutritious food during the Christmas school holidays, Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said this morning. Continue reading Tackling food insecurity during school holidays
Scotland’s Local Storytelling Campaign “Growing Stories” is underway and is running to Friday 30 November.
The Local Storytelling Campaign is a creative outreach initiative that bookends and runs alongside the Scottish International Storytelling Festival (SISF); an annual celebration of live storytelling & cultural diversity that takes place each year at the end of October, organised by Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland (TRACS). Continue reading Community groups encouraged to Grow Stories as part of local campaign
Working together, Community Development Alliance Scotland, The Scottish Community Development Centre and the Poverty Alliance invite you to discuss the next phase of the Local Governance Review and share your ideas about how local democracy could change.
Join us for the morning, chat to us over lunch and learn how you can help others have their voice and make a difference.
The Scottish Government has launched the next phase of its Local Governance Review, inviting people to join a conversation called ‘Democracy Matters’.
The campaign asks five key questions about how decisions should be made at a more local level. It asks whether communities, of place or identity, should have more control of decisions and what those might be. It also asks how this should look and what new or existing decision-making processes could be used.
The Local Governance Review was launched earlier in the year aims to find out what changes are needed to encourage a more local, participatory and inclusive democracy in Scotland.
A short animation summaries the review and the five questions being asked:
“In modern Scotland power must work in a way that involves and benefits everyone. To get this right, we will review how responsibilities and resources can be shared across national and local government in a way that delivers the greatest benefit to Scotland’s different places. However, the starting point must be with our citizens and the power and potential within our communities themselves.”
The review encourages people to hold conversations in their communities to discuss Democracy Matters and includes a community engagement fund where groups can apply for £100 – £300 to help make conversations happen. They have also published guidance about how the discussion might work and how it could be facilitated.
The review of local governance was set out in the Scottish Government’s 2017-18 programme for government and will be part of the forthcoming Local Democracy Bill
You can download the report and view more information on the Scottish Government website here.
Register for the event here >>
People across Scotland are being invited to join a conversation about community decision-making to help make public services more locally focused. The Democracy Matters conversation will identify new legal rights for communities which would place them at the heart of decision-making.
As part of the conversation people are being invited to consider a short set of questions on shaping local democracy. Community groups can also apply for grants of up to £300 to host their own events related to the project.
Communities Secretary Angela Constance said: “The start of the Democracy Matters conversation is an important moment for community decision-making in Scotland. We believe that more decisions about public services should be taken locally, and that communities should be able to influence those decisions.
“We want to hear from people across Scotland about the issues they want decisions on in their neighbourhood, town or village, and the kind of arrangements that would help that happen.”
COSLA President Alison Evison said: “Across the country, it is widely recognised that Scotland needs local solutions to the opportunities and challenges it faces.
“The conversation is a vital contribution to the change that is needed across all spheres of government to make Scotland a more democratic place, and to ensure that Scotland’s public services are built around the communities they serve.”
Scottish Community Alliance Director Angus Hardie said: “As things stand, communities often find that the really important issues that affect them the most are decided without their involvement and in faraway places.
“But if democracy is working well, most of those decisions would be taken much closer to these communities and often by local people themselves. Democracy Matters is a rare opportunity for communities everywhere – especially for those groups whose voice doesn’t always get heard – to become involved and to re-imagine how democracy can be made to work for everyone.”
The Democracy Matters conversation is a joint venture between the Scottish Government, COSLA and the community sector and will run over the next six months.
More information on how to take part in the conversation and how to apply for funding to run an event is available online.
You can also contact the organisers via: democracymatters@gov.scot
More than £14 million of funding will support the work of 117 charities helping children and young people throughout Scotland. The money, from the 2018/19 Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund, will enable a wide range of projects aimed at improving outcomes for children and young people and supporting adult learning to be delivered. Continue reading £14 million for young people and communities
A 28% funding increase will help deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes over this Parliament, as announced in the Draft Budget by Finance Secretary Derek Mackay. Communities Secretary Angela Constance said that, while the target is challenging, the government has shown that it can deliver. Continue reading Building a fairer Scotland?
Will proposed changes to the planning system in Scotland give communities a greater say on their places? And will this protect the built and natural environment in Scotland? Continue reading Holyrood committee seeks your views on proposed planning changes
The ‘ArtRoots fund’ is still live but you must get those applications in soon!
This is a Sustrans fund for grants of between £100 – £1,500 for community groups to improve sections of the National Cycle Network with aesthetic improvements such as sculptures, landscaping, benches, murals and so on. It is open to applications until 10th February 2017 with all funding to be spent this financial year.
See below for details:
Community and third sector projects that try new ways to tackle poverty and improve people’s lives can now apply for a share of £29 million funding, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced. Continue reading Creating a fairer Scotland: Aspiring Communities Fund launched
Council seeks your views on budget priorities
Edinburgh residents are being asked by the City of Edinburgh Council for their views on reshaping council services as part of public engagement for the 2017/18 budget, which will be set early next year.
This year people will get the chance to contribute ideas of their own on how city services are provided, by having meaningful conversations online with other residents in their local area. Residents will also be able to see the suggestions of others in their community and rate those ideas.
The Council has agreed draft spending and saving plans for the next three years and is now looking for residents’ views on how best to change the delivery of some services.
A seven-week engagement period, beginning today (Friday, 30 September), will run until Friday, 18 November. It will focus on three key themes, new ways of working, lean and agile services and working with partners.
The online survey will ask residents to think about how the changes below could affect them, their community and the city as a whole as well as what challenges and opportunities they present for the Council.
Developing the ways customers do business with the Council to include more online tools which are accessible and respond to customer needs so that services are delivered right first time.
Working with Edinburgh Leisure to maintain access to quality facilities and programmes whilst achieving savings and efficiencies.
The Council will also be working closely with communities, equality groups and partners over the coming months by running workshops around reshaping services, working with communities to agree how local budgets should be spent and creating a city vision for Edinburgh for 2050.
A Question Time event will also be webcast from the City Chambers on Thursday, 10 November to give members of the public a more personal opportunity to ask questions about changes to services.
Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Finance and Resources Convener, said: “We have an increasing population, inflationary pressures, decreased budgets and greater demand for our services so it is really important that we get residents’ views on how we can more efficiently deliver services.
“In previous budget engagements residents told us to protect education, care for older people, culture, and services for vulnerable children and adults. These continue to be our priorities.
“Using our online engagement tools, we’re making it easy for people to contribute their views and ideas, and to understand the different challenges there are reshaping our services.
“We are improving our engagement tools this year by allowing people to speak to other residents in their local area about issues which specifically affect them. This will give us quality feedback on how people would like their services delivered in the future.”
Councillor Bill Cook, Finance Vice-Convener, added: “Everything you say will be taken into account when we draw up the final budget to be considered by Council in early 2017, so we are extremely interested in hearing your views. Whether it’s via the online survey, dialogue page, phone, letter, email or social media we welcome all feedback.”
At a meeting of the Finance & Resources Committee on Thursday, 29 September, councillors approved a report on the draft budget.
The draft budget, online survey and dialogue page can be accessed at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/
Residents can have their say by:
Completing the online survey
Commenting on the online dialogue page
Phoning on 0131 200 2305 (8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 3.40pm Friday)
Writing to Freepost, RSJC-SLXC-YTJY, Budget, Council Leader, City Chambers, High Street Edinburgh EH1 1YJ
Speaking to your local councillor(s)
