Participation

Last updated: 19 April 2026

Participation and equality sit at the centre of everything we do. They guide us toward our vision where everyone in Scotland experiences high-quality, compassionate care, support and learning when they need it, which upholds their rights and choice.

Our role is to help improve the quality of social care and social work across Scotland. We can only do that by involving the people who experience care. Many will have protected characteristics or face disadvantage or exclusion, so it’s vital their voices are heard.

We believe people who use services are the real experts in what works for them. When they share their experiences, it strengthens our scrutiny and quality improvement work. Their knowledge helps create care that is safe, compassionate, and tailored to people’s rights, choices and individual needs.

The Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 requires scrutiny bodies to have a duty of user focus. This means we consider the view and experiences of people who use services. This ensures that scrutiny:

  • takes proper account of the user voice

  • provides stronger public assurance

  • is more likely to lead to meaningful service improvements.

Participation is also a key expectation in Scotland’s Planning with People guidance, which says public bodies must:

  • involve people and communities meaningfully in decisions about health and social care

  • make decision‑making transparent and clearly informed by people’s views.

Participation can take many forms, including:

  • co‑designing care plans

  • joining consultation groups

  • giving feedback

  • helping shape changes to services.

At its heart, participation means that care in Scotland isn’t just delivered for people, it’s shaped with them.