Scottish Government

2 PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS

2.1 The engagement practices of public bodies are expected to adhere to the principles and standards set out in three key papers:

• The Principles of Effective Engagement with Communities ¹ 2004
• The Nationals Standards of Community Engagement ⁷ 2005
• Good Practice Guidance Consultation with Equalities Groups 2002, updated 2006 ¹⁵

2.2 Two of the reports are not exclusively about disability organisations, nor do they refer specifically to disability issues, but are relevant when planning engagement with disabled people and organisations.

2.3 Research in 2008/09 with disability organisations in Scotland found many examples of engagement practices which had not met the standards, suggesting that many public bodies may also be either unaware of or not implementing the standards. Disability organisations see value in the already available National Standards for Community Engagement. They ask that, rather than reinventing the wheel, public authorities actively adopt, promote and implement them.

2.4 The key principles and standards are re-stated here.

2.5 The Principles of Effective Engagement with Communities¹ were set out in April 2004 in a Scottish Government Community Planning Advice Note relating to The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/04/19167/35261)

2.6 These principles ¹ focus on community engagement by councils with their community planning partners in general, and are very relevant to engaging with disability organisations. The principles are:

• Commitment: Demonstrating genuine commitment to working with communities, making appropriate use of the wide range of methods now available for doing so - and involving not just the 'usual suspects'.
• Outcome orientated: Engaging with communities in ways that lead to meaningful and tangible outcomes - and not as an end-in-itself - in terms of significant improvements to services and people's quality of life, giving communities more control over the circumstances in which they live.
• Appropriate level: Engaging with communities at levels they can best relate to, rather than expecting communities to relate to partners' own organisational structures and processes.
• Recognising diversity: Acknowledging the wide range and diverse nature of communities.
• Independence: Recognising that the most effective representation of community interests is likely to be via community bodies which are independent and accountable to their communities.
• Learning lessons: Increasing their own knowledge and skills to successfully engage community bodies.
• Support: Ensuring that support is provided for informal learning and community action focusing on the real issues affecting people's lives.
• Reaching out: Reaching out to socially excluded communities and to groups, such as people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and young people.

2.7 The Nationals Standards of Community Engagement⁷ were published in 2005 by Communities Scotland. They were developed with the involvement of over 500 people from communities and agencies throughout Scotland. They are a practical tool to help improve the experience of all participants involved in community engagement to achieve the highest quality of process and results.

2.8 The Involvement, Support and Working Together Standards in the National Standards for Community Engagement ⁷ are designed to reduce barriers, which include those most frequently faced by disabled people: attitudes, transport, financial costs of participation, the built environment and lack of information.

2.9 The Glasgow Disability Alliance⁸ ( GDA) adapted the National Standards for Community Engagement to relate specifically to disabled people and their particular needs.

2.10 GDA's Top Tips state principles and suggest practical steps for making the National Standards for Community Engagement relevant to the needs of disabled people. The principles for each standard are given in full here.

2.11 Good Practice Guidance Consultation with Equalities Groups 2002, updated 2006 ¹⁵

The purpose of this booklet is to provide some basic guidance about how to ensure that 'equalities groups' are not excluded from public consultation exercises. The main guiding principles that underpin consultation with equalities groups involve preparation, inclusiveness and accessibility.

Preparation

• Equalities groups should be included in all consultations and consideration of equalities issues should be built in from the beginning of any process.
• Effective consultation with equalities groups requires careful planning, making sure that there is enough time at each stage of the process.
• It is good practice to provide feedback to respondents on how their views have contributed to policy and practice, as well as giving reasons why some suggestions may not have been taken forward.
• The way that inappropriate staff attitudes and behaviour can affect the involvement of equalities groups should be acknowledged. Appropriate training and guidance should be provided.
• Long-term relationships between the public sector and equalities groups (often involving support) are now developing. These can enable groups to take part in consultation, as well increasing the overall understanding of wider issues.

Inclusiveness

• It is important to get beyond the 'usual suspects' and take proactive steps to identify and include 'hard to reach' groups which are not traditionally involved in consultation.
• In virtually all cases, the best way of identifying how to involve equalities groups in a consultation is to include them in the planning process.
• Each method chosen must be appropriate for the group involved, for example, in some cases written methods may be suitable; in others face-to-face methods or a mix of methods may be better.
• Many equalities groups lack resources and this often affects whether they can respond to consultations. It is important to take steps to ensure that all views can be included by providing support (financial or otherwise) to allow them to participate.
• At the very least, it is important to allow some flexibility in how people can respond to a consultation, for example, by accepting telephone comments.

Accessibility

• Accessible information is central to good consultation, but needs careful planning and can be time-consuming. Assistance should be sought from specialist organisations to identify, for example, which formats or languages will be required and how the information should be presented.
• It is critical that inclusive language (verbal and written) is used.
• Images used in documents, or in presentations, must reflect diversity. If not, the process will suggest that the participation of equalities groups is not valued.
• There is no justification for any consultation event being inaccessible to any group.
• Venues should be physically accessible and support for interpretation, transport or care responsibilities should be provided.
• Good practice suggests that consultations should be open and transparent. There are, however, good reasons why some equalities groups might require confidentiality and this should be offered and respected.

2.12 Communication Forum Scotland ² is an informal alliance of organisations representing people of all ages with varied communication support needs. Their Communication Support Principles were developed to help achieve their aims of highlighting the diverse range of communication support needs and promoting ways of meeting these needs. The principles are:

• Recognise that every community or group may include people with communication support needs.
• Find out what support is required.
• Match the way you communicate to the ways people understand.
• Respond sensitively to all the ways an individual uses to express themselves.
• Give people the opportunity to communicate to the best of their abilities.
• Keep trying.

2.13 Further principles are set out within Don't Treat Us All The Same.³ This is an Advice Note developed by the Scottish Community Development Centre and Communities Scotland. Four seminars were held to support development of the Advice Note: on engaging young people, older people, minority ethnic communities and refugees and people with a disability or health condition. The advice largely comes, therefore, from people with substantial experience of engaging communities who face barriers to their involvement. It is not intended to be comprehensive but to get people and organisations thinking about equalities and community engagement and to provide practical tips on how to get started on making community engagement more inclusive.

2.14 The Advice Note includes the following principles:

• Recognise the diversity of needs people will have in terms of accessibility - be flexible.
• Be proactive about accessibility so that people don't have to ask for support.
• Get beyond meetings!
• The timing and pace of engagement activities is critical.
• Recognise British Sign Language as a first language.
• Be careful when people have advocates or supporters that the views expressed are those of the participants.
• Allow for the fact that people may need to drop in and out of processes if the effects of a disability or health issue are variable.
• Produce the Standards in different formats, e.g. for people with learning disabilities.
• Be creative about training techniques.

2.15 Fair For All⁴ is good practice guidance developed by the Fair for All Disability team, to assist all staff within NHS Scotland to understand and meet their responsibilities under Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act. It includes Disability: Principles of Good Engagement as follows:

• Monitor:
  • How are disabled people depicted in your communications and publicity material?
  • Review your corporate images to make sure they include positive images of all 6 of the equality and diversity strands.
• Involve:
  • Take a proactive approach to disability equality.
  • Work with specific groups of disabled people to identify possible strategies to increase uptake of services among disabled people.
• Training:
  • Demonstrate leadership.
  • Invite directors, senior managers and board members to attend equality and diversity training alongside other staff groups.

2.16 How to Actively Involve Disabled People⁵ was published by The Learning and Skills Network ( LSN). It has one overarching principle - involve disabled people at every level of decision making. This document is one of a suite of materials from the project, The Duty to Promote Disability Equality, which is designed to assist all those who are involved in the provision of Further and Higher Education to respond positively to the duty to promote disability equality. The project ran from May 2005 to March 2006 and individuals from more than 25 organisations were involved in the project as research sites, advisory group members and or partners.

2.17 The booklet covers the specific duty to involve disabled people; the principles of involvement; mechanisms to involve disabled people and barriers to involvement. (see Section 2 on page 9 of the booklet). It sets out principles of involvement by answering the questions:

• Why should we involve disabled people?
• What do we mean by 'involvement'?
• Which disabled people should we involve?