Exploring trust and transparency in government
Trust sits at the heart of relationships, and what trust means to you is the question SCDC and the Scottish Government are seeking to explore with communities across Scotland.
Through a series of sessions and self-facilitated discussions for community members and people who support their communities, SCDC will be providing an open space for people to share priorities and reflections on their relationship with government.
You’ll have a chance to talk about and explore:
Your personal experience of trust: Who do you trust and why?
Trust in government: What are your positive and negative experiences?
Trust in the process: What needs to happen for you to trust this engagement process?
Facilitated session times:
Breakfast session: Weds 26th Nov 2025, 8:30am - 9:30am
Afternoon session: Tues 2nd Dec 2025, 1pm - 2:30pm
Evening session: Tues 2nd Dec 2025, 6pm - 7pm
Evening session: Thurs 4th Dec 2025, 6pm - 7:30pm
Sign up below.
Co-creating Open Government’s Action Plan 2026 to 2030
Your participation will shape the next Open Government Action Plan with trust and transparency being a core theme of the plan.
The Action Plan is a way for civil society and government to work together on agreed priorities. This partnership aims to ensure people in Scotland can see, understand, and be involved in the decisions that affect them.
There’s more information here.
If you have information from a session you have been involved in to submit to the team, please get in touch here.
Get involved
Facilitated online sessions
Join SCDC for short online participative sessions to explore trust and transparency in government.
With a team of experienced facilitators, we’ll encourage participants to share their views and ideas and record these as part of the engagement process.
A range of session times are available, and are scheduled for 1 and 1.5 hours. Space for 20 participants per session.
Self-facilitated sessions for equalities and lived experience organisations
These supported self-facilitated sessions are aimed at equalities and lived experience organisations and their members.
Update: We’ve had significant interest from a range of equalities and lived experience groups and have reached the the maximum number of stipends available. Groups are still encouraged to host discussions and to feed into the overall engagement process.
Self-facilitated sessions
To enable as many people as possible to share their views, groups and individuals can download a set of materials designed to support local discussions around trust and transparency in government.
The facilitation pack will include everything you need to carry out a discussion and, crucially, capture people’s views to inform the wider engagement process.
Sign up to the Trust and Transparency Newsletter
Drafted and published in partnership between civil society and Scottish Government, this e-bulletin provides the latest information around policy, research, and events relating to trust and transparency in Scotland. The bulletin will provide updates on the co-creation of Open Government’s Action Plan.
