People who feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area

Year	2016	2017	2018	2019	2021	2022	2023
Percentage of people who feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area over time	27%	32%	25%	27%	34%	30%	24%

The graph and table above shows that 24% of people felt they could influence decisions affecting their local area in Shetland in 2023. This is the lowest level seen while monitoring this indicator from 2016, and is a decrease of 6% from the previous year. However, Shetland, alongside Stirling and Fife had the joint second highest percentage of people who felt they could influence decisions affecting their local area in Scotland in 2023. The trend has fluctuated since 2016, with a low of 24% in 2023 and a high of 34% in 2021.  The Scottish average was 18%. 

As noted in the Source information, the results for 2021 were published as experimental statistics as this was done via telephone rather than face to face like prior years. Due to a small sample size in 2020, the date was not able to be broken down and published at local authority level. 

People feeling they can influence decsions links strongly to participation, which is a priority of the Shetland Partnership. The current rolling Delivery Plan for the Shetland Partnership is supported by a Place-Based Program of Change, which is about working alongside communities to achieve better solutions and outcomes. All improvement programmes within the Shetland Partnership Plan involve participation, and participation is a priority of the Community Learning and Development Plan 2021-2024.

To increase the number of people who feel they can influence decisions in their local area, partners involve the community in how services are delivered and when designing programmes and strategies. This may be done through surveys, consultations, verbal feedback, steering groups or liaising with Community Councils, for example. A piece of work is underway to produce a Participation Hub and Toolkit, to be published on the Shetland Partnership website. This Hub and Toolkit is for use by partners and communities, to support the planning and delivery of engagement activities.

Some examples of partners encouraging participation includes Shetland Islands Council and NHS Shetland having dedicated webpages with links to open consultations, feedback and complaint forms. These are all opportunities for people to provide feedback and influence decisions affecting their local area.

For example, in 2022/23 the OPEN Project began the process of forming a Board of Young People (aged 16-29), aiming to be the first fully youth-led organisation in Shetland. This has provided young people with the power to make decisions and have an active involvement in shaping their communities’ future resilience.

In schools, Participative Democracy Certification (PDC) gives accreditation for secondary pupils participating in representative roles in their school communities. For example, this could be sitting on pupil councils or equivalent. It also offers 2 credits at SCQF level 5 for those taking part. PDC gives a useful structure for participation in schools, recognising and rewarding young people’s involvement in decision making. Beyond this, each secondary school/department in Shetland has a participation forum, which is facilitated either by staff in school or partnered with Shetland Islands Council Youth and Employability staff.

The Active Shetland Strategy working group which includes representatives of Shetland Islands Council, Shetland Recreational Trust, NHS Shetland, Ability Shetland and ZetTrans carried out a Lifestyle Survey in 2021 gathering over 1400 responses. This is an example of where people’s responses have informed decisions affecting their local area. The feedback informed the group’s 2022 priorities, which included engaging with a variety of groups to better understand barriers to being active and creating family orientated and fun focussed activities in rural areas, for example. The survey results also provided information about what barriers to activity are and ideas to reduce them.

When the Council began to plan for the requirement to provide free period products free of charge to anyone who needs them, following The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021, a consultation was carried out to find out where people would like to see the products, which products should be available and any possible barriers.

Last updated: December 2024