On Friday 21 April 2017 LARIA in Scotland had an interesting and informative event which explored the topic of Engaging Communities and Understanding Poverty. Presentations and discussions of the day included:

• Learning from Participatory Budgeting in Paris: Coryn Barclay, Fife Council, presented a an overview of participatory budgeting in Paris based on her participation in the What Works Scotland’s two-day visit to Paris to learn about the city’s experience of participatory budgeting.
• Evaluating the use of the Place Standard Tool: Megan MacPherson, NHS Health Scotland provided a ‘sneak peek’ to the evaluation of the Place Standard Tool, how it has been used across Scotland.
• Less Heard Voices: Paul Nelis, SCDC, provided an overview of the National Standards for Community Engagement and how they can be used to engage with communities including those that are ‘less heard’.
• Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill: Alastair McAlpine, Scottish Government led a discussion about the data/information that may assist in understanding child poverty in Scotland and contribute to the proposed “Local child povety action report”.
• ScotPHO Profile Development: Vicky Elliot, ISD NHS Scotland, along with Jamie Villicampa, presented an update on the future development of the SCOTPho profiles with discussions about data sources, considerations when selecting /defining indicators, current challenges and using a new technical platform.

The next LARIA Listens event will be held in the autumn, topics TBD – ‘Watch this Space’, the Analysis, Intelligence and Research (AIR) – Scotland site, and the LARIA website.