Improvement Service

Information sheet for councillors on Scottish Water explaining what the organisation is, its responsibilities and its role in the planning process.

A list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) for elected members in relation to the Key Agencies' (Architecture + Design Scotland, Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Water, SEPA and Transport Scotland) involvement in planning.

Information note for councillors on Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) explaining what the organisation is, its responsibilities and its role in the planning process.

Information note for councillors on SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) explaining what the organisation is, its responsibilities and its role in the planning process.

Information note for councillors on Historic Scotland, explaining what the organisation is, its responsibilities and its role in the planning system.

Information sheet for councillors on Architecture + Design Scotland (A+DS) explaining what the organisation is, its responsibilities and its role in the planning process.

Information sheet for councillors on Transport Scotland, explaining what the organisation is, its responsibilties and its role in the planning process.

Executive summary of the Elected Member Briefing Note on Migration, which sets out factual information on migration and its economic, social and cultural effects in Scotland.

The IS has developed an Elected Members Briefing Series to help Elected Members keep apace with key issues affecting local government. This briefing note, produced in partnership with the COSLA Strategic Migration Partnership, provides factual information on migration and its economic, social and cultural effects in Scotland.

The IS has developed an Elected Members Briefing Series to help Elected Members keep apace with key issues affecting local government. This briefing outlines the role elected members have to play before, during and after an emergency.

Guidance for elected councillors from the Local Government Association to help them in meeting local housing needs and aspirations. The Guide presents three scenarios - large-scale housing growth, ensuring existing towns and cities remain vibrant, and sustainable small-scale development - and highlights the scale and opportunity of each, and demonstrates the need to tailor local activity to local need. It also sets out where councils might need to consider cross-cutting issues such as planning, equality, demographic change and changes to health and welfare systems.

The IS has developed an Elected Members Briefing Series to help Elected Members keep apace with key issues affecting local government. This Note provides an overview of Growing Up in Scotland (GUS), a research study tracking the lives of over 10,000 children and their families across Scotland from birth to the teenage years. It explores why GUS findings are important to councils in terms of policy development, and service planning and delivery, and provides councillors with a list of questions to ask of their own authority.

Local authorities are required by various statutes to make appointments to a number of specified offices; these people are known as statutory officers. This briefing note outlines what the principal statutory officer roles are, their responsibilities and the role they play in governance and decision-making.

This COSLA/IS guide is designed to assist individuals thinking about standing for election in the May 2012 Scottish local government elections. Topics covered include: what councils do; what councillors do; who can be a councillor; how the electoral system works; and what support councillors will receive.

The IS has developed an Elected Members Briefing Series to help Elected Members keep apace with key issues affecting local government. This one, developed with Audit Scotland, explains what Best Value is, outlines the Best Value audit process and emphasises councillors' responsibilities.