Hello Everyone!
I wanted to share a short update on work on-going under Commitment 4 of Scotland’s National Action Plan.
First off, the baseline research on the existing accountability landscape for public services in Scotland, commissioned by Scottish Government and conducted by EKOS Consultants, concluded in June. I have attached the relevant report findings here for anyone interested. I would note that a preliminary “map” (directory) of relevant scrutiny and regulatory bodies has also been compiled to accompany this report - due to IT constraints I am unable to upload here but it will be published in due course.
Secondly, in terms of next steps in development of Commitment 4 our Partners to the Collaborative Working Group have agreed that we should commission a more in-depth peoples engagement process to take place throughout Autumn/Winter, to develop a comprehensive evidence base of the key challenges, and opportunities for improvement in accessing accountability of public services. This is in line with our Year 1 programme of delivery, and it is anticipated that the engagement activities will allow us to develop and approve a set of robust, citizen based solutions to be taken forward and piloted in 2020. Design considerations for the engagement work are currently underway - a group of CWG Partners participated in a design workshop during June to begin thinking through key issues regarding the engagement methodology and target audiences. A summary note of the workshop discussions is attached. The engagement work is also being informed by the conclusions reached in the EKOS baseline research report. Please watch this space for further info!
Alongside this process of formal engagement, we will also undertake some ad hoc engagements as appropriate, to ensure the work under Commitment 4 is communicated clearly and broadly across a range of interested organisations and community groups. The plan is to piggyback on existing group meetings or events to help inform stakeholders of the work, and to contribute to the formal evidence base gathered during the Autumn. Please feel free to get in touch if you feel that your organisation’s clients / members would be interested in feeding into the considerations under OGP Commitment 4 in some way; and if you have any meetings or other events coming up that would provide an ideal platform for facilitating this, between now and, ideally, the end of November. I look forward to hearing from you!
Saskia Kearns
Scottish Government OGP Commitment 4 Lead
Email: saskia.kearns@gov.scot