1. Community Empowerment Legislation – An Overview of Progress to Date
Malcolm Cowie – Scottish Government
Thanks for inviting me here today
Great to see wide mix of people here from authorities, partners, and from the communities themselves.
I aim to give you an overview of our SG progress on “implementing the legislation” – what I mean by that is where we are with our community empowerment agenda, and where we are hopefully going too.

2. What is Community Empowerment?
“….the process of enabling communities to increase control over their lives. ‘Communities’ are groups of people that may or may not be spatially connected, but who share common interests, concerns or identities.”
This description is from the WHO and is one of many attempts at trying to describe what community empowerment is.
The bit I liked most from it is the reference to both communities of geography and communities of interest.
The reality is however, our own definition of CE will depend on our own involvement in the land or buildings in question.

3. What does that mean for Scottish Government?
Scottish Government is committed to our communities being supported to do things for themselves,
and we are committed to people having their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services – community engagement and participation.
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 is a new law that will help people do this.
Other initiatives such as Community Choices help support communities too.
So what does this all mean for SG? Where do we fit in?
We are strongly committed to the CE agenda – but it must always be for the communities best interest , achieved with local partners and community organisations working closely together – this of course can be a challenge.
The Act builds on the good local partnership working already in place, and gives communities a voice in decision making and running of assets.
There are other initiatives that sit alongside this, such as our SG Community Choices fund.
This is known internationally as Participatory Budgeting, and is a way for local people to have a direct say in how public funds can address local needs.
Before we look at the Act, a little more on PB first……..

4. Participatory Budgeting
Recognised internationally as a way for local people to have a direct say in how public funds can be used to address local needs.
Known in Scotland as Community Choices – delivered in partnership with LA’s; communities and the Third Sector.
Complimentary to the aspirations of the Community Empowerment Act – giving communities more powers to take forward their own ambitions.
SG has invested £4.7 million in PB over the last 3 years. (the Community Choices Fund)
Councils are doing their bit too – and have agreed to have at least 1% of their budgets subject to Community Choices – this will be approximately £100 million by 2020/21.
Later today you will have an opportunity to hear from Kim Penman at Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership on participatory budgeting locally.

5. The Act
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 makes it easier for communities to take on public sector land and buildings.
It provides a mechanism for community bodies to seek dialogue with public sector providers on their own terms.
It creates new rights for community bodies and new duties on public authorities.
So what of the Act itself?
Community engagement has been happening for a long time before the introduction of the CE Act.
The Act is a complimentary device for good community engagement - its main focus is the creation of new rights for community groups and new responsibilities for the relevant authorities.
So who are the Relevant Authorities?

6. Relevant Authorities Local Authorities
Scottish Ministers (including agencies)
Further Education Colleges
Health Boards
National Park Authorities
Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Court Service
Scottish Police Authority
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
SEPA
Scottish Canals
Scottish Water
Historic Environment Scotland
And many more!
The Relevant Authorities are listed in the schedules at the end of the Community Empowerment Act, however this does not fully drill down into every RA affected by the Act.
The full list would be well over 100 entries – a good example being the Scottish Ministers entry in the schedules. This catch all phrase includes many non governmental bodies accountable to Scottish Ministers including Sport Scotland; The Scottish Funding Council; The Care Inspectorate; Disclosure Scotland; Food Standards Scotland etc.

7. Topics covered by the Act
Community Planning – Tackling inequalities is a specific focus, and Community Planning Partnerships will have to produce locality plans for areas experiencing disadvantage.
(in force 20 December 2016)
Community Rights to Buy Land – amends the 2003 Land Reform Act, extending community right to buy to all of Scotland.
Lets briefly look at the main points of the Act.
Community Planning - helps public agencies work together with the local community. All the public authorities form a Community Planning Partnership which in turn must prepare a Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP)
Community participation lies at the heart of community planning. CPP’s must support community bodies to participate in all parts of the planning process.
Community Right to Buy – the CE Act extends the Community Right to Buy to all of Scotland, both rural and now urban areas too. This came into force on 15 April 2016.
It introduces a new provision for community bodies to purchase land which is abandoned, neglected or causing harm to the environmental wellbeing of the community, where the owner is not willing to sell that land.

8. Topics covered by the Act
Asset Transfer Requests: provides community bodies with a right to request to purchase, lease, manage, or use land and buildings belonging to relevant authorities. (in force 23 January 2017)
Participation Requests: provide a mechanism for community bodies to put forward ideas of how services could be changed to improve outcomes for their community. (in force 1 April 2017)
These are the two parts of the Act that I have responsibility for in SG and am trying to promote and encourage.
We shall go into these two parts of the Act in more detail shortly.
But before we do…..

9. Other parts of the Act Football Clubs: supporters rights
Common Good Property: LA’s statutory duty to establish and maintain a register of property given to them for the common good.
Allotments: simplifies legislation on allotments.
Community involvement in Forestry leasing.
Participation in public decision making.
Non Domestic Rates: Councils can fund own business rates relief schemes.
Some parts of the Act are in place already, some others are yet to be put into force.
Football clubs/ Common Good/ Allotments/ Participation in Public Decision Making – all of these parts of the Act are not yet in force.
Non domestic rates – came into force on 31 October 2015/ Asset Transfer – 23 January 2017/ Forestry Functions – 23 January 2017/ Participation Requests – 1 April 2017/ Community Planning – 20 December 2016/ National Outcomes – 15 April 2016.
So we still have work to do on some parts of the Act, and these wide ranging topics affect many different parts of Government: “it will take time”.
We will now look at AT and PR a little closer.

10. Asset Transfer
Gives community organisations a right to take over control of land or buildings owned by local councils, Scottish Government, and other public authorities.
Legislation designed to encourage and support ownership and control of assets.
Should be considered in situations that recognise the public benefits that community use will bring.
Came into force on 23 January 2017.
AT has been going on long before the Act came into force.
We are currently trying to pull our knowledge together of what is happening locally regarding AT.
We know of some good examples of assets that have transferred to community responsibility from before the time of the Act, and some that started this process before the Act, and completed it after the implementation of the Act.
We know of a very small number of assets that have completed the whole transfer process since the Act was implemented – however we expect these cases to increase.
We are also aware of cases that have not been successful with AT, and SG work with partners and the community groups to try to understand why this is, and to see if problems can be worked through.
Later today you will hear from COSS (Community Ownership Support Service) who support both community groups and the relevant authorities throughout Scotland with the AT process.

11. Participation Requests
Focused on extending and improving community participation in improving outcomes for their communities.
The legislation enables communities to request to participate in decisions and processes aimed at improving outcomes.
Came into force on 1 April 2017.
PR like AT has been happening since before the implementation of the Community Empowerment Act.
The Act simply gives communities a right to request to participate in decision making processes.
PR can be more difficult to define than AT though. With AT, the land or buildings are either managed, leased, or owned by the community group.
But what about PR? What is successful PR?
SG is currently looking into this very question, and we are trying to find out examples of PR, both successful and unsuccessful, and what these look like.
We want to better understand the issues, and also if this legislation has made a difference.
Later you will hear from David Allan from SCDC (Scottish Community Development Centre) who carry out work to support the promotion of PR throughout the country.

12. Community Empowerment Act - Summary
Several parts of the Act are now in force and Scottish Government are developing secondary legislation and guidance to implement the remainder.
We recognise that all communities must be empowered and we brought forward amendments to the Act to make reducing inequalities a focus.
The Act sits alongside wider work by Government to support community empowerment including Community Choices budgeting and public sector reform.
As mentioned earlier, we are making good progress, but have some way to go to realise the full potential of the Act.
The middle bullet highlights that we want ALL communities to be empowered – we do have a strong focus on reducing inequalities, however the CE agenda is for every community in Scotland.
CE does not just mean the CE Act. This work sits alongside the wider SG work to support all communities in Scotland.

13. Evaluation and Review
The Scottish Government will keep under review the different parts of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to look at the impact on improving outcomes for people and communities.
Work is underway to look at evaluating Asset Transfer Requests and Participation Requests.
We have already undertaken a review of Participatory Budgeting in Scotland – known as Community Choices.
So how do we know what we are putting in place is working?
We don’t……!
Earlier I let you know that I was interested in what is going on locally with AT and PR – this information being gathered may not capture everything but will help give us a picture of what is happening throughout the country.
A full SG evaluation of Asset Transfer and Participation Requests is to start in April I am carrying out the necessary Prep work for this at present.
The evaluation will look at the analysis of the data – including from the annual reports from the RA’s (first ones are due in June); and capture the experiences and perceptions of both communities and the Relevant Authorities.

14. So what does all this mean for me?
Community Groups
Can request info on any public asset
Request to manage, lease, or own any public asset
Can appeal an adverse decision
Can request to participate in an outcome improvement process
Have their voices heard in decision making and service delivery.
You are not alone!
The community empowerment agenda is new for everyone and we are all learning these new rights and responsibilities together.
These themselves will evolve through time with amendments to legislation/ lessons learned from cases/ findings from evaluation of individual parts of the CE Act etc.
Support is out there from partner organisations such as SCDC, and COSS.

15. So what does this all mean for me?
Relevant Authorities
Must have an asset transfer policy
Must respond to requests for information on assets.
Must not dispose of the asset once an AT request has been received.
RA’s must agree to participation request unless there are reasonable grounds not to.
RA must consider how the participation will address socio- economic disadvantage
And how it will promote or improve economic development.
Same as last slide – support from COSS and SCDC extends to the Relevant Authorities too.
SG CE team happy to discuss through individual cases as well, and advise where appropriate – for both the community groups and the RA’s.

16. So how do I start?
There is no right or wrong way to start the process.
But…. Its good to talk …..!
Best for the Community Group and Relevant Authority to have a talk about things before any formal applications are submitted. (where possible)
As we have seen, Community Groups have gained new rights through the Act, as have Relevant Authorities gained new responsibilities.
It is best however to always encourage a conversation between the community group and the RA before an application is submitted, so that once the application does go in, it is complete and to a standard that gives the community group the maximum chance of a successful outcome.
Appreciate that this will not always be possible, but RA’s should be encouraged to raise local awareness where they can – events like today’s go a long way in doing this.

17. Useful Websites
Information about land or buildings: s.aspx Scottish Government - Asset Transfer: Community Ownership Support Service: Community Land Advisory Service Scotland: Scottish Community Development Centre Participatory Budgeting Scotland
Detailed information can be found on the SG website including full guidance ,and information on the different parts of the Act.
Presentation will be made available to Roisin if you would like the links to the websites.

18. Community Empowerment Team
Malcolm Cowie
Community Empowerment Team
Scottish Government
Thank you for your time this morning.
I will now hand you back to Roisin/ XXXX/ over to Scott Leitch.