We’ve been working for years (through Wisdom in Practice, Rural Wisdom, and Connecting Equalities) to increase Older Peoples’ opportunities for sharing their skills and experience to make communities work better. In 2022 we worked in partnership to re-establish one important channel, the Cross-party Group for Older People and Ageing. It gives individuals and organisations a chance to discuss the impacts of policy on older people with decision-makers, raising any concerns and sharing ideas.

We've been helping people across Scotland get involved, and also take part in networks like OPSAF and give evidence in Human Rights Forums. With more people involved, sharing experiences, encouraging each other and scrutinising plans, it’s possible to make things work better for everyone.

Moments of Freedom have been raising awareness in Clydebank and New Scots communities around voting and ways to participate, as part of their work building connections and equality. The group brought women in the community together for sessions on council elections and rights to vote, led by our fantastic intern Rahmah who drew on her passion around human rights and knowledge from studying Scots Law.

Moments of Freedom also reached out to local councillors, and met them in person at their community-connecting event – full of delicious food, cultural sharing and good conversations – to talk about ways to create inclusion and good places to live. The women in Moments of Freedom also engage with policy in different ways – supporting each other to share their collective experiences with the Universal Periodic Review of human rights.

In our work in Moray, we supported community members to develop their own plan to address a problem. Transport has long been a gap for people in coastal and rural areas who can’t drive, especially for getting to hospital appointments. We helped local people feed into HSCP plans for health transport, and work with the community bus, empowering it to adapt to Covid-19 and what people need, and develop its confidence and strategy for growing to support more people over the next 5 years. Hopeman Community Bus is a shining success, getting people to medical appointments and working in partnership with the HSCP to extend the timetable.

Self-Directed Support is a way of organising social care in Scotland that gives people choices around the support they get. Everyone has their own needs and priorities for a good life, and people across Scotland were highlighting how important this right to make decisions about support is.

However, there was a gap in the rural Perthshire and Kinross area. There simply wasn’t advice and information, and people there couldn’t access the Self-Directed Support option. We started developing ‘Support Choices’ to enable people to access their rights in law and live how they choose to. After people in the community responded so positively, we worked with the team and community to establish Support Choices as an independent local advice and information organisation. It was incorporated as a SCIO in 2021, making it a sustainable part of the local wellbeing economy so community members can continue to know their options and make choices about the support they get.

Creating shared plans is often the first step in shaping how things work in a local area. And good plans listen to everyone who’s impacted. We support organisations, towns and villages with their planning, with a focus on including everyone and giving them a say. In East Lothian this year we helped consult with 60 people on the Community Transformation Agenda for Adults with Complex Needs. We went to where people are – from different activities, chats over afternoon tea, to an online survey – using multiple methods to make it accessible to everyone.

Maureen from Volunteer East Lothian said “It was really important that we talked and listened to people in the community about what was important to them.” We agree – the impact so far has been adults who use the services, and their friends and families, feel heard and valued. Their priorities, like being involved early on so they can plan for changes, are at the heart of the community agenda.