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Under agenda item 2, we will take evidence on community councils from two panels of witnesses. This year marks 50 years since the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which created community councils to bridge the gap between local authorities and communities. We are taking the opportunity to hear about how community councils are working in Scotland, to look at good practice and at how we could make community councils more effective. It is important to acknowledge that they exist and that a tremendous amount of volunteer time goes into them.

For our first panel, we are joined in the room by Brian Davey and Emma Swift, both of whom are communications officers from the Improvement Service. Along with them is Dr Oliver Escobar, senior lecturer in public policy at the University of Edinburgh. Online we are joined by Andrew Paterson, policy and research officer from the Scottish Community Development Centre, and Jackie Weaver, the chief officer at the Cheshire Association of Local Councils.

We have a number of questions, and I will start with a question for everyone in general. First, however, I need to say a couple of things. Those who are in the room do not need to operate your microphones. We will do that for you. If you want to come in on something, just indicate to me or Kath Byrne, the committee clerk. Jackie Weaver and Andrew Paterson, if you want to come in, please put an R in the chat function.

I am interested to hear what you think are the strengths of community councils in Scotland and what role they could play in democratic renewal at a local level. What proportion of the Scottish population is covered by community councils and has that changed in recent years? Do you get the sense that they are more prevalent in certain areas than in others? I will start with Oliver Escobar.

Brilliant. That is amazing.

That sounds great. I am interested in that issue, and I have been racking my brains about how to get young people engaged, so there are a couple of things that I would be interested to hear your views on. I am going to open up the discussion as we move to a close, so you do not necessarily have to respond to what I say—there might be other things that you want to add.

One thought that I had was about collaboration with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. People are going through its scheme, and it has a community aspect. Also, I have been wondering about the idea of universal basic income, although I know that that would be a big thing that might involve the rebuilding of the whole of Scotland. We have talked about the amount of time that people have to put in to do this properly. If people had some kind of fundamental financial support, a more diverse group would be able to participate much more in what we need to do, which is helping Scotland plc do its thing and provide for our communities.

Along with that, I have been thinking about how the Improvement Service provides training once people are in a community council, and I wonder whether we need to teach young people at high school about facilitation skills, decision making, proposal making and how to go into situations of tension with people with whom they do not agree—how to move through that process rather than getting stuck in being adversarial. I feel that teenagers should learn those kinds of skills. My sense is that, at the moment, schools still tend to teach just to the job. Of course, it is not totally limited to that but, if we taught to the community—how to be a member of a community and civil society—that would be great for people in their job, but they would also have the underpinnings to be part of the community.

I have been racking my brains about those issues, but maybe you think differently from me, as you are actually involved in those experiences.

Who wants to come in on that briefly? Debra Duke’s hand shot up.

That point about technical support for planning is critical.

Steve Kerr wants to come in.

That is what we are going for with this question.

That is fantastic. Those are the things that we want to hear—tremendous.

Thanks very much for that. Does anyone online want to come in on the perspective of strengths? Does no one have anything to add? No strengths? Gosh!

I am going to weave my next two questions together. We have started to touch on them a little bit. What are your views around the support that you receive from local authorities where you are? Are they good relationships? What are your views on the community council liaison officers and on national support? Is there enough training, grants from the Scottish Government and support from the Improvement Service? What are your thoughts about the Scottish community council website and the knowledge hub?

There are a couple of things there on working with the local authorities and also that national support. We have some people in the room who you will be commenting on but, as we know, all feedback is constructive and it all helps us to develop in a good way.

I live in Moray and I have had that experience of very early engagement on the next local development plan. It has been tremendous.

That is a good point.

Thanks very much. On the questions on working with local authorities and/or reflections on the support that you get at a national level, Donald Stavert wants to come in.