Tag: report

Every Fixed Penalty Notice issued under coronavirus regulations ‘must be reviewed’

A cross-party committee of MPs and Peers says fixed penalty notices (FPNs) – which can be as much as £10,000 – are muddled, discriminatory and unfair.

Today’s report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights calls for:

  • comprehensive review of all FPNs which have been issued
  • a mechanism to challenge new FPNs
  • a decision that no criminal record should result from covid-19 FPNs
  • an assessment of income for big fines.

In The Government’s Response to covid-19: fixed penalty notices, the Committee sets out significant concerns about the validity of FPNs, the inadequacy of the review and appeal process, the size of the penalties and the criminalisation of those who cannot afford to pay.

More than 85,000 fixed penalty notices have been issued to people in England and Wales said to have broken covid-19 laws on restrictions since March 2020. FPNs allow people to pay a penalty instead of facing prosecution and a potential criminal record.

Penalties range from £200 for the failure to wear a face covering to £10,000 for organised gatherings offences.

It is possible to tell from penalties that have not been paid and have then progressed through the system towards a prosecution, that a significant number of FPNs are incorrectly issued.

A Crown Prosecution Service review of prosecutions brought under coronavirus Regulations that reached open court in February 2021, found that 27 per cent were incorrectly charged. Many more penalties may have been paid by people too intimidated by the prospect of a criminal trial to risk contesting their FPN through a criminal prosecution.

The high rates of error and the disproportionate impact on different groups in society are concerning and the Committee suggests a more graduated approach and consideration of removing these convictions from criminal records.

With no adequate mechanism to seek a review of an FPN other than through a criminal prosecution, the risk that breaches of human rights will not be remedied is significantly increased. The Committee says the current review processes are not clear, consistent or transparent and calls on Government to introduce a means of challenging FPNs by way of administrative review or appeal.

Regulations related to coronavirus restrictions have changed at least 65 times since March 2020, providing obvious challenges for police. Far more must be done by Government and police to ensure officers understand the Regulations they are asked to enforce, says the report.

This is crucial to ensure there is no punishment without law (Article 7, ECHR) and no unjustified interference with an individual’s right to family and private live (Article 8, ECHR). The Committee calls on the National Police Chiefs Council to undertake a review to understand why police are issuing so many incorrect FPNs and to take steps to correct this.

However, in respect of offences relating to potentially infectious persons under the Coronavirus Act 2020, which hasn’t changed since March 2020, the Committee’s report says it is ‘astonishing’ that the Coronavirus Act is still being misunderstood and wrongly applied by police to such an extent that every single criminal charge brought under the Act has been brought incorrectly.

The Committee says there is no reason for such mistakes to continue.

The Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Harriet Harman MP, said: “Swift action to make restrictions effective is essential in the face of this terrible virus. But the Government needs to ensure that rules are clear, enforcement is fair and that mistakes in the system can be rectified. None of that is the case in respect of covid-19 Fixed Penalty Notices.

“The police have had a difficult job in policing the pandemic. We hope that their initial approach – to engage, explain and encourage before issuing fixed penalty notices will continue. However, since January there have been greater numbers of FPNs as police move more quickly to enforcement action, and because of a lack of legal clarity, likely greater numbers of incorrectly issued FPNs.

“This means we’ve got an unfair system with clear evidence that young people, those from certain ethnic minority backgrounds, men and the most socially deprived are most at risk.

“Whether people feel the FPN is deserved or not, those who can afford it are likely to pay a penalty to avoid criminality. Those who can’t afford to pay face a criminal record along with all the resulting consequences for their future development. The whole process disproportionately hits the less well-off and criminalises the poor over the better off.

“And once again, this Committee is calling on the Government to distinguish clearly between advice, guidance and the law. Fixed penalty notices were originally designed to deal with straightforward matters of law – easily understood by all involved. But our inquiry has demonstrated is that coronavirus Regulations are neither straightforward nor easily understood either by those who have to obey them or the police who have to enforce them.

“With fixed penalties of up to £10,000 awarded irrespective of the individual’s financial circumstances, there is much at stake. The Government needs to review the pandemic regulations and create new checks and balances to prevent errors and discrimination.”

The UK Government has robustly defended it’s stance and says it will continue to support police efforts to enforce legislation.

Covid-19 is undermining confidence in public transport

Research suggests pandemic will drive the public from planes, trains and buses

THE Covid-19 pandemic may have long-term repercussions for the use of public transport in Scotland, a new study by Edinburgh Napier University suggests.

A survey found far fewer members of the public anticipate using buses, trains and aeroplanes after the country emerges from lockdown.

The Impact of Covid-19 on travel behaviour, transport, lifestyles and location choices in Scotland report was produced by the University’s Transport Research Institute with backing from the Scottish Funding Council.

Nearly 1000 (994) Scottish residents completed a detailed survey, designed to inform understanding of how Covid-19 might alter travel choices in the near future and guide appropriate policy responses.

Steps were taken to ensure age and gender were broadly representative of the wider population. More than a fifth (21 per cent) of respondents lived in households without access to a car, while 29 per cent lived in households with two or more cars.

The survey found 45 per cent of respondents expected to walk more, 29 per cent expected to cycle more and 25 per cent expected to drive their car more in the post-Covid future than they did before the pandemic.

However, in stark contrast, 42 per cent anticipated using aeroplanes less, 36 per cent using buses less and 34 per cent using trains less.

The most common reasons given for using public transport less in the future were the possibility of getting infections from other passengers, lack of cleanliness/hygiene on board and overcrowding.

Dr Achille Fonzone, Associate Professor of Transport Analysis and Planning at Edinburgh Napier, said: “Although part of it may be due to current overexposure to discussions about infective diseases and so be transient, such lack of confidence in public transport is not good news for the industry.

“It is not good news for Scotland either, considering the importance of public transport to ensure an equitable and sustainable mobility.”

Dr Greg Fountas, from the University’s School of Engineering and the Built Environment, said: “A shift to private cars post-pandemic would hamper the efforts to drastically reduce the carbon footprint of the transport sector.

“That is alarming for Scotland, where transport constitutes the largest source of greenhouse emissions – more than one third of the country’s total emissions in 2018, according to the Scottish Government.”

Dr Fonzone added: “Reducing inequalities and the impact on the environment are the two top priorities of the National Transport Strategy of the Scottish Government.

“The potential loss of demand for public transport must be understood better and suitable actions must be taken as soon as possible.”

The report’s lead author Lucy Downey, from the School of Engineering and the Built Environment, highlighted the finding that walking and cycling are among the lockdown behaviours likely to remain popular in the post-Covid future.

She said: “The findings are positive for active travel, which seeks to promote healthy journeys and offer viable alternatives to the private car or public transport for short journeys and an opportunity for exercise.”

In other findings, over half of workers (54 per cent) expect to work from home more in the post-Covid future than they did before the pandemic and 64 per cent stated that they will use technology more to communicate with colleagues, customers or clients. Over half (52 per cent) of respondents expect to use technology to communicate with family and friends more.

When asked about their anticipated future shopping habits, 45 per cent expected to do more online non-grocery shopping in the future and 36 per cent anticipate using home delivery for supermarket shopping more.

Covid may affect the housing market as well, increasing the number of those considering relocating. Respondents who indicated that they expect to move from their current accommodation were asked where they would like to move.

The majority (57 per cent) would like to stay in the same local area, but move to different accommodation, 33 per cent would like to move from their local area but stay in Scotland and 10 per cent would like to move away from Scotland.

Edinburgh Napier’s Transport Research Institute, Scotland’s largest and longest established transport research group, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

An open Timeline event this Thursday (29 April), in the form of an online webinar, will chart its inception and development, and offer a glimpse of future plans. 

Lords report: Over half of UK citizens ‘financially vulnerable’

The House of Lords Liaison Committee has published its third follow-up report; Tackling Financial Exclusion: A country that works for everyone?

This report examines the progress made by the Government in the implementation of the recommendations made by the Select Committee on Financial Exclusion in its 2017 report Tackling Financial Exclusion: A country that works for everyone?

In the Liaison Committee’s report Review of House of Lords Investigative and Scrutiny Committees: towards a new thematic committee structure published in July 2019, the Committee recommended that the Liaison Committee (on a case by case basis) could hold follow-up evidence sessions on a former special inquiry committee’s recommendations, followed by the publication of a report.

This is the third occasion on which this new procedure has been utilised.

The inquiry found that over half of the population are classed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as having characteristics of financial vulnerability.

This issue has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic with 14.2m people in the UK now estimated to have low financial resilience – characterised by over-indebtedness or with low levels of savings or low or erratic earnings.

Types of financial exclusion can include: not being able to open a bank account, not being able to access financial services due to bank branch and ATM closures, not being able to access affordable credit.

The report recommended that a clear Government strategy and increased FCA powers are brought forward in order to stop people experiencing financial exclusion.

The report calls on the Government to introduce a requirement for the FCA to establish a statutory Duty of Care that banks and other financial services providers must operate toward their customers. This should replace the current insufficient requirement to ‘treat customers fairly’.

Other recommendations in the Committee’s report, Tackling Financial Exclusion: A country that works for everyone? follow-up report are:

  • The proposed legislation to protect access to cash should be brought forward without delay.
  • The Government should publish the timescale and details on the no-interest loan pilot.
  • The powers of the FCA to mitigate the trends in bank branch and free ATM closures should be reviewed and enhanced.
  • The Government should continue to work with the Post Office and UK Finance to roll out a public information campaign about the banking services that the Post Office offers.

Baroness Tyler of Enfield, who was Chair of the Select Committee on Financial Exclusion, said: “It’s time for the financial services industry to recognise they have a fundamental duty to ensure that banks act in their customers’ best interests and that products and services are fair by design.

“That duty of care should now be established in law and overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure greater consumer protection and prevent banks and others from profiting from their customer’s vulnerability.

“The COVID crisis has laid bare the extent of financial exclusion across the UK. We continue have more than a million adults in the UK without access to a bank account and more than half the country now have characteristics of financial vulnerability.

“It is now more important than ever that Government come forward with a comprehensive financial inclusion strategy that will ensure access to cash, protect the public and end the scandal of the poorest being overcharged for financial and other services. The Government should publish that strategy within 12 months and allow Parliament to assess it and hold them to account for its delivery.”

Gareth Shaw, Which? Head of Money, said: “Millions of people rely on cash as they are not ready or able to take advantage of digital payments. However, rapid closures to the cash machine and bank branch networks in recent years mean that many of these consumers risk being abandoned by their banks.

“Our research has shown that people in some deprived areas have seen significant cuts to free ATMs in recent years, while a domino effect of bank branch closures has taken place without enough regard to whether suitable alternatives are in place.

“The government must urgently set out its vision for the future of cash, including its promised legislation to protect access to it. This should include putting the FCA in charge of the cash system so that it can take the steps that are needed to ensure cash remains a viable payment option for as long as it is needed.”

Digitally Kind: a new report from Carnegie UK Trust

Over the past decade and particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen increasing use of digital technology in service provision by third and public sector organisations.

But with this increasing use comes challenges. The development and use of these technologies often outpace the organisational structures put in place to improve delivery and protect both individuals and organisations.

Digitally Kind is devised to help bridge the gaps between digital policy, process and practice to improve outcomes, and introducing kindness as a value to underpin an organisational approach.

Based on workshops with over 40 practitioners and frontline staff, the report has been designed as a starting point to support organisations open up conversations around their use of digital in delivering services. 

Digitally Kind explores a range of technical, social and cultural considerations around the use of tech when working with individuals covering values and governance; access; safety and wellbeing; knowledge and skills; and participation.

While the project predominantly focused on the experiences of practitioners and organisations working with young people, many of the principles hold true for other sectors.

The research also highlights a short set of considerations for funders, policymakers (including regulators) and online platforms.

A plain text version of this report is also available here.

One in seven Scots suffers data poverty, says Nesta report

The pandemic has shown that access to the internet is essential for individuals and communities. Vital services such as education, social security, health and work are now online meaning data poverty affects opportunities and deepens existing inequalities.

By data poverty, we mean those individuals, households or communities who cannot afford sufficient, private and secure mobile or broadband data to meet their essential needs.

We heard of many people who were struggling to get online, but we found a lack of detailed information to quantify the scale and depth of data poverty.

This report seeks to fill that gap.

With the help of Survation, Nesta commissioned demographically representative polling of over 2,000 people in Scotland and Wales in late January 2021.

Using telephone interviews, we asked a representative sample of adults in each nation about barriers to going online and whether they were experiencing data poverty.

We then interviewed people in Wales and Scotland struggling to afford the data access they needed, adding the human story to the survey findings in a series of case studies.

This is the first study that we know of to attempt to describe the depth and extent of data poverty.

Key Findings

  • One in seven adults in Scotland and Wales are experiencing data poverty: Nearly a million adults in Scotland and Wales struggle to afford sufficient, private and secure access to the internet.
  • Data poverty widens inequalities: Not going online impedes life chances, increases social isolation, impacts on wellbeing and limits economic opportunities.
  • Connected but compromised: Individuals’ and families’ needs for data are often not adequately met. One in ten people with monthly mobile contracts regularly run out of data before the end of the month and larger households struggle to meet very high data needs.
  • Financial and data literacy compounds data poverty: Only about half of the people we spoke to felt they were able to shop around for the best data deals. People with low digital and financial literacy and weak purchasing power may not realise that better deals are available to them. Our case studies highlight the high costs of exceeding contract allowances.
data-poverty-in-scotland-and-WalesDownload

Councillors to discuss zero emissions plan

The City of Edinburgh Council has unveiled its draft plan to become a net zero organisation by 2030.

On Tuesday (20 April), councillors will consider a draft report outlining some of the first steps the Council could take in its own operations, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. 

The draft plan commits the Council to: 

  • Ensuring that all new council operational buildings are constructed to the highest energy criteria and using alternatives to gas boilers for heat as a standard.
  • A £0.6m investment in scoping and planning for the retrofit of existing Council buildings so they can meet the highest energy efficiency standards.  
  • A plan for electrifying all Council car and van fleets.
  • An immediate improvement to school recycling facilities. 
  • Investing in the organisations funding capacity and expertise.
  • Investing in a programme of staff training to develop climate knowledge and skills.

The draft Council Emissions Reduction Plan follows on from the Council signing the Edinburgh Climate Commission’s Climate Compact in December 2020 where it committed to make changes to its operations, transport and buildings to reduce its emissions footprint and support the city’s target of net zero by 2030. 

Councillor Adam McVey, City of Edinburgh Council Leader said: The Council’s carbon emissions have fallen by 62% since 2005/06, well above the 42% target we were aiming to hit by 2021. We’ve made particular progress in recent years, with a 51% reduction since 2017/18. 

“This ambitious plan aims to build on that success and sets out some of the first steps we’ll need to take across our major emissions sources, to become a net zero organisation by 2030.

“Although the Council’s own emissions only account for 3% of Edinburgh’s total emissions, we need to lead by example in our own work to show others what’s possible.

“The journey to net zero emissions will undoubtedly be difficult, but we have a track record of delivery and firm commitment to deliver on our responsivities to future generations. 

“By taking action on climate change and committing to a 10-year strategic approach to deliver a net zero organisation, we’ll not only deliver environmental benefits but deliver wider health, economic and welling benefits for the whole city.

“Becoming a more energy efficient Council; encouraging sustainable travel choices and reducing the amount of waste we produce will positively impact on all of us and help to unlock opportunities to reduce inequalities as we build back better and greener.”

Depute Council Leader, Councillor Cammy Day said: “Edinburgh’s net zero ambition is embedded in a number of our strategies and programmes currently being developed. These will have an impact on both the city and the Council’s emissions footprint. 

“Our commitment to only build to net zero or Passivhaus standard wherever possible is an important preventative measure. Investing in the knowledge, skills and capacity to decarbonise and retrofit our Council estate is an important priority to unlock future plans to deliver change. 

“We all have a part to play in reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions. This report shows the Council’s leadership and a commitment to action as well as a culture shift in how the organisation thinks about and plans for climate change.”

According to the most recent emissions footprint calculations for the Council, buildings make up 63% of the organisation’s emissions. Other energy consumption is 16%, fleet 9%, waste 8%, business travel 3% and water 1%. 

And, as well as suggesting actions that the Council could take to reduce its impact on the environment, the Emissions Reduction Plan report also highlights opportunities to invest in skills and maximise external funding coming to the Council and the city.

The report is set to be discussed at the Policy and Sustainability Committee on 20 April. 

Read the Council Emissions Reduction Plan

New working frontier: a people focussed blended model for the post-Covid future

A new report by the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) reveals that the workforce of the future – predominantly those who have been office based – will want to make informed choices of where and how to work most productively and more beneficially for their wellbeing.

Post the pandemic, organisations should consider the three ‘Hs’ of working – from Home, a nearby hub or local location, where employees can meet clients or have time to concentrate on projects, or the HQ and head office, where people can gather to socialise, brainstorm ideas or collaborate face-to-face. 

The New Frontiers for Smarter Working, Work and Workplace Report also finds that this new blended future will depend on how employers gauge the benefits from the improved working set up while ensuring the wellbeing of employees.

Shona Adam, SFT’s associate director of Workplace Change and co-author of the report, said: “This exciting future is about allowing both employer and employee to make an informed choice of where they want to work from, on any given day, that is going to best achieve the outcomes that need to be delivered by both the employee and the organisation.

“As a result of the pandemic, we know that people have benefited from the lack of the daily commute and that the majority of office-based roles can be done remotely. However, some people are struggling with mental health and isolation problems. Each organisation will have to assess the preferences of their workforce as well as explore the impacts, and weigh up the longer-term benefits and risks.” 

Working in conjunction with an SFT-led group comprising of public, private and third sector ‘smarter working’ professionals, a variety of opportunities for the future have been identified. 

Analysis of a sample of public sector organisations from the Working Group identified employees’ preferences and found 88% wanted to work at least one day a week from home, with 24% happy to continue to work full-time from home, while only 10% preferred not to work from home.

Shona Adam, went on: “Smarter working isn’t just about the physical place. It’s about understanding the people aspect, and this will be the future focus. This is a social revolution, accelerated by the pandemic. It’s not a static situation where we simply return to old ways.

“As a result, the reoccupation of physical office space requires radical rethinking and one of the most common questions that the group is now receiving is about how organisations reorganise the physical office spaces that have been used in the past. Organisations need to understand ‘the purpose’ of physical workspace in the future and how they will use it.” 

Ms Adam said the culture of ‘presenteeism’, where employers and managers expected to see their colleagues sitting in the office, is being swept away: “What the pandemic has demonstrated is that we have gone from the head office or HQ, to hundreds and thousands of offices in homes. We have a dispersed workforce working on the basis of trust to get the job done.”

However, home working for prolonged periods is having an impact for some people on their mental health and in certain cases, causing social isolation. Acknowledging this, the report explains how employees could continue to go to the Head Office to socialise, integrate with colleagues, cooperate on ideas and strategy, innovate products and services and to share the culture.

Neutral ‘Hub’ locations, such as a café or a digitally connected public library, could also become part of the flexible working solution, allowing face-to-face meetings or research to be undertaken away from home.

SFT hopes organisations embrace the opportunity driving the momentum for change, with the report pointing out that there will be clear differences between organisations depending on their purpose and function and how supportive employers are to the concept.

This will require different thinking around Human Resources and Organisational Development functions such as employment contracts and leadership structures while monitoring of mental health and wellbeing will be crucial to everyone in the evolving situation. 

Summing up, Shona Adam said: “Collectively, across both public and private sectors, we need to use the experience we’ve had during the pandemic in a positive way, to dispel presenteeism and consign it to the past.

“Workers can be located anywhere provided they undertake the activities they are paid to do. This is a tremendous opportunity to explore a distributed network for delivering outcomes.”

Scottish Parliament to commend the contribution of Churches after report identifies over 200,000 acts of support during lockdown

The Scottish Parliament will today commend the work of churches throughout the pandemic in a debate on the Stories of Hope report, published in December 2020 by the Evangelical Alliance and Serve Scotland.

The report calculated that churches across Scotland had delivered 212,214 acts of support during the first lockdown and that these acts were delivered by 3,212 volunteers and impacted 55,671 beneficiaries.

The motion, which has been submitted by Jeremy Balfour and will be held at the Scottish Parliament on the first anniversary of the UK COVID-19 lockdown, acknowledges that: “churches in 180 locations across Scotland worked in partnership with key stakeholders, including supermarkets, community councils, NHS boards, food banks, voluntary support groups and charities, to deliver services to support vulnerable groups, including older, homeless and young people; recognises the important role that it considers churches and charities play in communities across Scotland, including in the Lothian region, and praises all those involved in delivering these services during the pandemic.”

The report found churches across Scotland had developed support networks and established projects to support the most vulnerable and isolated in their communities.

Projects were active across the country from the Highlands to the Borders, across the breadth of denominations and in partnership with a number of charities including CAP Scotland, the Bethany Trust, and Glasgow City Mission.

Kieran Turner, Public Policy Officer for the Evangelical Alliance in Scotland said: “Often the work of churches in the community goes under-reported and as a result government and parliament are not aware of the role of the church in wider society.

“We are grateful to Jeremy and to all the MSPs who are supporting the debate for the opportunity to show how the church spreads hope and the impact that has been made at a national level during the pandemic.”

The report also highlighted the importance of churches partnering with local businesses and other agencies as more than two-thirds of the projects identified were delivered in partnership to provide support to those in need.

Supermarkets, community councils, businesses, NHS boards, housing associations, voluntary support groups, and food banks have all worked with churches on the ground in these projects. In addition, 11 local authorities were identified, sometimes by multiple projects, as providing emergency funding for weekly support costs.

Keiran Turner continued: “Having the Scottish Parliament debate the report and commend these churches will raise awareness and challenge perceptions of what the church is and what the church does in Scotland.

“The church is a force for good in Scotland and operates at a scale  of national significance meaning it must be a core part of the government’s rebuilding plans post pandemic.”

The parliamentary debate has been welcomed across the political spectrum and is being supported by Michelle Ballantyne, Miles Briggs, Donald Cameron, Peter Chapman, Alex Cole-Hamilton, Maurice Corry, Murdo Fraser, Kenneth Gibson, Rhoda Grant, Jamie Greene, James Kelly, Liam Kerr, Bill Kidd, Gordon Lindhurst, John Mason, Stuart McMillan, Pauline McNeill, Margaret Mitchell, Anas Sarwar, Elaine Smith, Stewart Stevenson, David Stewart, Alexander Stewart, Annie Wells and Brian Whittle.

To find out more and download the full report go to:

https://www.eauk.org/resources/what-we-offer/reports/stories-of-hope

Carnegie UK Trust: What next for Fair Work in Scotland?

The Carnegie UK Trust has published a new report:What Next For Fair Work in Scotland? 

With the approach of Scottish Parliament elections in May, the country is at a critical juncture, having spent the last year confronting COVID.

The Scottish Government has a strong pre-existing commitment to the achievement of ‘Fair Work’ – defined as that which offers opportunity, security, fulfilment, respect and effective voice – and a dedicated Fair Work Convention acts as an independent source of advice and scrutiny on Scotland’s progress towards becoming a ‘Fair Work Nation.’

However, COVID-19 has significantly altered the context in which that Fair Work agenda is being moved forward. The pandemic has severely impacted lives and livelihoods – but has also seen labour market interventions and business innovations that were previously unimaginable, and given rise to calls to build back a better labour market.

Our report considers the progress of Scotland’s Fair Work agenda so far, and sets out our recommendations about how Fair Work can continue to be advanced in a way that is responsive to the significant challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic.

While many different actors -employers, public bodies, trade unions, and wider civil society –influence the achievement of Fair Work, our recommendations are focused on the government in Scotland, looking ahead to what actions can be advanced in the next parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government’s existing commitment to and programme of Fair Work activities provides a strong foundation for Scotland to adapt to the challenges and opportunities exacerbated by COVID-19.

Our report makes 18 recommendations about how progress can be sustained and Fair Work expanded to many more people, including that Scottish Government should:

  • Increase support to grow ‘Fair Flexibility’ in Scotland.
  • Continue to articulate the compelling business case for Fair Work, starting with a ‘Fair Work in the Recovery’ campaign targeted at employers.
  • Support the delivery of a ‘Living Hours’ programme in Scotland.
  • Dedicate resources towards a renewed focus on work-related health and safety.
  • Continue to improve how Fair Work is measured in Scotland.

We would be delighted to hear your views on the ideas in the report.

You can get in touch with us on Twitter @CarnegieUKTrust, using the hashtag #FairWork, or you can let us know your thoughts by emailing the report author, Gail Irvine, Senior Policy and Development Officer, on gail.irvine@carnegieuk.org

Scottish Government pledges more say for communities in health and social care services

The public will have a greater say in how major decisions around health and social care services are delivered in Scotland.

New guidance will ensure NHS Boards, Integration Joint Boards and local authorities uphold their legal duty to consult and engage with local communities about major planning decisions.

This will guarantee people with real experience of using local services will be able to shape decision making at a local and national level, from building or rebuilding hospitals, to transferring health and social care services into the community.

This ‘forward thinking’ approach will ensure lessons are learned from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by giving people with lived experience a say in the future of NHS Scotland and the reshaping of Adult Social Care. It will also help ensure services are effective, safe, value-for-money and meet individuals’ needs.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “Community engagement and participation is vital as we look to reform health and social care services, ensuring they are fit to meet the needs of the public as we deal with the long term impact of the pandemic.

“This guidance will help ensure people have a greater say in decisions which affect the care they receive.

“Our collective response to the pandemic has shown the strength of our public services and how we can come together to address challenges. Since the start of the pandemic we have been delivering services differently and have engaged with communities to ensure they are involved in decisions that affect them. This guidance captures that learning and seeks to ensure we all benefit from it.  

“The Scottish Government will continue to listen to the views of people who use health and social care services and actively involve them in re-shaping how we deliver care as we re-mobilise beyond the pandemic.”

COSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson Cllr Stuart Currie said: “Planning with people promotes real collaboration between NHS Boards, Integration Joint Boards and Local Authorities.

“It sets out the responsibilities each organisation has to community engagement when services are being planned, or changes to services are being planned, and it supports them to involve people meaningfully.

“Fundamentally, good engagement means that services are developed which are effective, safe and value-for-money. And there is no doubt that greater participation brings better outcomes for communities all round.

“So, we encourage people in communities across Scotland to read this guidance and find out what they should expect when it comes to engagement about care planning. Ultimately, it is their experience that will be the real measure of what impact it is making.”

Care services – planning with people: guidance – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)