The Commission recommends the Scottish Government establishes a National Participation Centre for Scotland, which will be tasked with working across Government and its agencies, as well as within communities and businesses, to support genuinely effective public engagement. This will also support the development of a National Participation Strategy for Scotland, in which third sector bodies and academic experts set out a vision for how best to engage citizens in the development and delivery of public policy and services.
An independent foresighting centre should be established, tasked with assessing future risk and preparedness. It would be responsible for advising Government, its bodies and business leadership organisations on effective management of these risks and how best to support resilience. The Commission also recommends that the RSE should work with the Scottish Government and the university sector to develop a rapid response service that enables the Government and wider public sector to rapidly access good quality, independent evidence and expertise from across the academic community, in a crisis situation.
A fully independent fact-checking service should be created to review and challenge misreporting and support the accurate presentation of scientific information in the public domain. The Scottish Government should also work with partners to support an informed national conversation about the use of personal data and data sharing for public good, to inform responses to future pandemics and other societal challenges.
The Scottish Government should set up a public service transformation partnership to actively promote the principles and experience of social prescribing from around Scotland and beyond. The Scottish Government should also reaffirm and recommit to the principles of the Christie Commission, and work with delivery partners to implement them across public services and beyond, with business champions engaged to support the approach.