Social Attitudes Survey: Support for co-producing local services
The 2015 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey has found an overwhelming desire for local people to be involved in the design and delivery of their public services.
The findings showed that the majority of people in Scotland support the idea of co-production, with 96% of people saying that people "definitely‟ or "probably should‟ be involved in how public services operate.
This year titled Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2015: Attitudes to Social Networks, Civic Participation and Co-production, the research is carried out annually by ScotCen Social Research and provides a picture of changing public attitudes over time.
Around co-production, 8 out of 10 people felt that people should be involved in making decisions about how local services are run, as well as about how money is spent on local services. People also said that they should be able to volunteer alongside paid staff to provide local services.
In its conclusion, the report notes:
"The increased levels of civic participation show that people in Scotland are becoming more willing to engage with government and community organisations to register what they think about issues that are important to them. However, there is also evidence that those living in deprived areas are less likely to engage in civic participation activities, [making it important to] support people living in deprived areas to become more involved in activities and enable them to put their views across and be involved in local decision making processes."
The findings were announced by Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance, while visiting the Glasgow Disability Alliance. GDA are hosting a training day for ‘Drivers for Change' which is their policy and campaigns forum of disabled people who take an active role in making change in society.
Ms Constance said:
"This report makes clear that there is a huge appetite within communities right across Scotland to get involved and make a real change in their local area.
"We all want to make our communities better places to live and this will only be possible by working together and putting people at the heart of service design and delivery will enable public services to flourish."
