I’ve been involved with the Community Empowerment Bill for around three years now and as time has passed its limitations have become increasingly apparent. I remember when it was “potentially the greatest transfer of power since devolution” but now some serious life needs to be injected into if it’s ever going to lead to real change. Sadly, participatory budgeting (the terrible name that has been given to the process where people are directly involved in deciding the budget priorities in their area) didn’t make it through to the bill. It could well have been the radical proposal required. Participatory budgeting brings together the community, improves accountability of decision making and delivers outcomes that reflect the needs of the people – what’s not to like? [SCVO, in our response to a committee enquiry](http://www.scvo.scot/long-form-posts/scvo-response-local-government-regeneration-committee-enquiry-community-empowerment-bill/), have suggested that 10% of the total public sector spend in each local authority should be assigned for [participatory budgeting processes](http://pbnetwork.org.uk/pb-unit/). This is considerably more than has been proposed before but still less than the 18% that was committed in Porto Alegre Brazil, where the process was first developed.

> **Let’s be more ambitious with this bill and start giving people a real say in the decisions that affect them**

The current proposal is for the Scottish Government to provide consultancy support for local authorities to establish participatory budgeting schemes. This is hugely underwhelming and won’t touch on the serious decisions taken on local priorities or involve other public bodies. To do that we need to look at core budgets and how they are spent, giving people a real say on what happens in their area. The [report from the Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy](http://www.localdemocracy.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Final-Report-August-2014.pdf) highlights the need for change in our democracy and suggests greater participation as a key element for reform. The Christie Commission in 2011 suggested we should build public services around people and communities. Participatory budgeting could help deliver these ambitions but it needs to be done on a scale that matters. Let’s be more ambitious with this bill and start giving people a real say in the decisions that affect them.

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## About SCVO

SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector.

Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact.

SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector.

Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners.

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Discounts and savings savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org).

For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)