We\u2019re going back to basics on the blog today. Let\u2019s revisit what do we mean when we talk about Open Government, and what has been achieved so far in Scotland?<\/p>\n
When we talk about \u2018Open Government\u2019, what we mean by that is making the work of government and decision makers more accessible, transparent, and inclusive by involving the public, or the people the government serves.<\/p>\n
And what we mean by \u2018the people the government serves\u2019 is everyone<\/em><\/strong>, regardless of age, race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, birth, disability, nationality or other status. Open government functions for everyone.<\/p>\n An open government is about:<\/p>\n Participating<\/b> (or taking part) in public and political life is a basic human right<\/strong>.<\/em> It is a way to empower people and groups, and is important in eliminating marginalisation and discrimination. This is why open government advocates for public involvement in governmental processes.<\/p>\n This is not an exhaustive list, but by being an open government benefits can be:<\/p>\n Still not too sure what we mean? Watch the video here to find out more What is Open Government in Scotland? – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Scotland is part of an international \u2018family\u2019 of countries and places where the values of transparency, inclusiveness and accountability are being applied. We have been a member of the Open Government Partnership<\/a> (OGP) since 2015, which is a group of like- minded reformers from around the world. The partnership is a place where countries and places can share learning and experiences with one another. Currently, 77 countries and 106 local governments are members of the partnership, and together these represent more than two billion people \u2013 and thousands of civil society organisations!<\/p>\n Scotland, like other governments who are OGP members, has to create an action plan. Each member can choose to either create an action plan every two years or every four years to show how they are working towards making their government an open one. Scotland’s current action plan<\/a> is four years long, running from 2021-2025.<\/p>\n An action plan is a collection of all the different ideas that we and our partners from civil society (or people outside government) are going to put into practice over the next two to four years. It is a roadmap or plan of how we put the principles of open government into action. It includes:<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s open government action plans are structured around commitments relating to specific areas, such as participation, health and social care or climate change.<\/p>\n This work is led by the Open Government team at Scottish Government, but also stretches across lots of different departments and teams. It is the responsibility of everyone who works on areas identified in the action plan to uphold open government principles, involve the public, and make the changes outlined in the action plan.<\/p>\n We also encourage other teams who are not signed up to our action plan to work in the spirit of open government and its principles. If someone in government has a question on how to be more transparent, accountable or inclusive, we are on hand to help advise, provide guidance or simply point them in the right direction.<\/p>\n Scotland has delivered three action plans since 2015. The first action plan helped the major advancement in the roll-out of participatory budgeting<\/a> (PB) in Scotland, including agreement to the target of at least 1% of local authority budgets being decided through PB. Participatory budgeting is a process in which people decide directly how to spend part of a budget. This came under the theme of \u2018financial transparency\u2019, which aims to help people understand where, and how, money is spent, alongside having a direct say in where this money goes.<\/p>\n Children and young people across Scotland have been involved in making decisions about what happens in their schools using PB. Watch this video<\/a> created by PB Scotland<\/a> to hear from pupils about their experience and the impact it has had on them.<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s second action plan<\/a> built on the successes of the first action plan<\/a>, developing the financial transparency theme further. This included:<\/p>\n This action plan also delivered improved access to information, through publishing all datasets behind the National Performance Framework in open data format and increasing the number of datasets available for small areas. During the pandemic, coronavirus (COVID-19) management information has been published regularly online, supporting the development of interactive data dashboards.<\/p>\n Scotland has also tested different ways to involve the public in decision making, including two Citizens\u2019 Assemblies in 2019 and 2021. Scotland\u2019s Climate Assembly in 2021 used a world first approach by involving children and young people. Scotland has also developed an online platform to support participatory budgeting, alongside a crowdsourcing platform, and the development of the Scottish Approach to Service Design<\/a>. The learning gained through these activities was fed into the development of a Participation Framework. This was designed to guide good practice across government in open policy making, and is now being rolled out and will be improved as we learn.<\/p>\n You can check out Scotland\u2019s Climate Assembly journey on its dedicated YouTube channel here<\/a><\/p>\n\n
What happens when governments do these things, and people are supported to help shape decisions?<\/h2>\n
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How has Scotland been an open government?<\/h2>\n
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What has been achieved so far?<\/h2>\n
Scotland’s first action plan (2016 – 2018)<\/h3>\n
Scotland’s second action plan (2018 – 2020)<\/h3>\n
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What else has been done?<\/h2>\n