WHAT IS THIS?
This guidance document is an initial consultation draft on which Scottish Ministers welcome comments. Its main aim is to describe the new duties to which local authorities will need to have regard, and to provide guidance about putting these into practice.
The guidance is the product of significant consultation and discussion with local government bodies, cultural agencies and a range of stakeholders; the Cultural Planning and Entitlements Working Group assisted in its preparation 1. The guidance will be developed further in light of the Cultural Pathfinder programme and to reflect comments by consultees.
The guidance has no effect at this stage. When the Culture (Scotland) Bill is implemented, it will be updated, further consulted upon and issued formally. Final decisions in relation to the Bill will be a matter for the incoming Administration, after the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in May 2007. This should not deter local authorities who judge it useful from considering the advice in this document and acting on it. Similarly, the Annex on national cultural organisations may be found useful by the bodies it concerns.
The Working Group agreed a collaborative approach to the development of the draft guidance, so discussion and consultations about the issues, concerns and opportunities arising from the new policy agenda have taken place with a range of local authorities and their partner agencies across Scotland. Discussions have also been held as part of more formal meetings and conferences, such as the annual VOCAL conference in August 2006 2. Meetings were held with some of the Cultural Pathfinders in England, enabling their experiences to be reflected.
The Working Group aims to continue this approach throughout the consultation process by providing further opportunities for discussion and comment.
Inevitably, this approach has led to an extensive amount of information and comment being collected. To include all of this in the draft guidance would have produced a large and impractical document, so the Working Group agreed to keep the draft guidance as concise, but pertinent, as possible and to provide supplementary information on the website.
Comments on this initial draft guidance on the operation of the Culture Bill should be sent to:gillian.miller@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.