Children's Hearings Advocacy Expert Reference Group: June 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Chair, Pam Semple, Scottish Government 
• Alicja Piliszczuk, Borders Independent Advocacy Service 
• Bryan Evans, Children First 
• Athena Lynch, Scottish Government
• Bryan Evans, Children First
• Elaine Adams, Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection 
• Heather MacMaster, Angus Independent Advocacy 
• Jane Crawford, CAPS Independent Advocacy
• Julie Hutton, Independent Advocacy Perth and Kinross 
• Kay McKerrell, Who Cares? Scotland 
• Louisa Brown, Scottish Government
• Louise Piaskowski, Scottish Government
• Mel McDonald, Children’s Hearings Scotland 
• Mel Parkinson, Scottish Government
• Melissa Hunt, Scottish Children’s Report Administration 
• Neill Clark, East Ayrshire Advocacy Services
• Pete Grant, Scottish Government
• Rebecca Scott, Clan Childlaw
• Sarah Fogg, Independent Advocacy Perth and Kinross 
• Selwyn McCausland, Barnardo’s 
• Susan Downes, Scottish Government
• Vicki Pirie, Clan Childlaw
• Vivien Thomson, Social Work Scotland 

Apologies

• Annmarie Denny, East Ayrshire Advocacy Service
• Amerdeep Kaur, Law Society of Scotland 
• Alistair Hogg, Scottish Children’s Report Administration 
• Gordon Main, Our Hearings, Our Voice 
• Kevin McBeath, Advocacy Service Aberdeen
• Tom McNamara, Scottish Government

Items and actions

This note provides an overview of the agenda, discussion, and action points from the meeting of the Children’s Hearings Advocacy Expert Reference Group (ERG). Once agreed by members the meeting note will be published. 

The meeting was held by videoconference on Thursday 26 June 2025. Papers issued for this meeting included: the agenda; minute of the last meeting 6 March 2025; Scottish Government (SG) update paper; and Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) update papers. 

The chair welcomed members, noted apologies, and introduced attendees joining for the first time including Neill Clark from East Ayrshire Advocacy Services and Vicki Pirie from Clan Childlaw. The chair also welcomed Scottish Government colleagues supporting agenda item inputs at this meeting on the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 implementation and the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill. It was noted Vivien Thomson would join later.

Minutes and actions from previous meetings

The chair invited any changes to the draft note of the 6 March 2025 meeting. No changes were requested. The note was agreed, and it was confirmed it will be published on the Scottish Government website. 

The chair provided an update on the actions (17 in total) and activity from the last meeting.

Action 1: Scottish Government to provide Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) with the grant reporting cycle timeframes for running future data reports for advocacy in Children’s Hearings. 
Update: completed. The agreed cycle is, three times during 2025 Jan – April, May – August and Sept-Dec, plus annual report covering 1 April to 31 March from 2026.

Action 2: Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) agreed to check the circulation details of the Reporter Practice Notes used for the advocacy query answers and would update on whether the notes can be shared with Expert Reference Group (ERG) members. 
Update: ongoing action. Melissa confirmed this is still under consideration.  

Action 3: All members to consider Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) paper on the working model of advocacy in the Children’s Hearings System and offer feedback directly to Melissa on how useful this is, and any suggestions for development. 
Update: ongoing action. Melissa confirmed no feedback had been received and the paper has not gone anywhere.

Action 4: Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) will arrange to have an initial conversation with socical work Scotland about process of checks at future review hearings and consider whether this needs to be addressed more widely.
Update: ongoing action. Melissa confirmed there has been no discussion yet.

Action 5: All members invited to get in touch with Mel to discuss any ideas on feedback mechanisms or to provide feedback on how Hearings are being experienced in the views of the children they are supporting or from their own professional role and perspective. The contact information for e-mail feedback to feedback@chs.gov.scot or via the feedback section on the website Give us feedback as a professional.
Update: ongoing action. No feedback received directly. Work on initiatives happening in Ayrshire was briefly mentioned.

Action 6: In relation to the child/young person’s greeting/introduction with the Chair of the Hearing, Mel will share feedback made by members to the Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) / Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) Project Team about messaging to prevent confusion or uncertainty that could play out to the child. Clarity on the role advocacy workers can take in support may follow.
Update: completed. An update will be given under members update item.

Action 7: Scottish Government to reflect on the discussion of non-instructed advocacy (NIA) and will identify and support collaborative action to agree a plan to move the conversation forward constructively.
Update: ongoing action. A workshop on NIA was held on Wednesday 25 June 2025, with Expert Reference Group (ERG) member organisations invited. A note of the meeting will be produced, circulated and the next steps identified will be progressed over the summer.

Action 8: Tom McNamara accepted an invite to join the National Provider Network (NPN) meeting on 13 March 2025 to speak about Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 implementation, and Hearings Redesign.
Update: completed. Tom attended the NPN on 13 March and provided updates.

Action 9: Expert Reference Group (ERG) members to let Scottish Government team know if they want to be invited to the Training and CPD sub-group meeting before end of March.
Update: completed. The Expert Reference Group (ERG) training and CPD sub-group met on 29 April and actions from that meeting are being progressed. A further meeting will be held in the coming weeks.

Action 10: Scottish Government would welcome receiving details of any successful communications and engagement strategies we can share and work on with the group.
Update: ongoing action. We still would welcome details to support good implementation.

Action 11: Expert Reference Group (ERG) members please continue to promote the www.hearings-advocacy.com website.
Update: ongoing action. The latest analytics for the website are included in the Scottish Government Update paper.

Action 12: National Provider Network (NPN) advocacy organisations should check contact details on www.hearings-advocacy.com are correct and notify SG of any changes required.
Update: ongoing action. Reminder provided at this meeting.

Action 13: Kay will invite Clan Childlaw to a meeting of the National Provider Network (NPN) to speak about the training session plans to ensure all staff sign-up/complete this and about encouraging use of the legal advice service.
Update: completed. Clan Childlaw attended an National Provider Network (NPN) meeting in April.

Action 14: Advocacy organisations managers were asked to ensure all new advocacy workers sign-up for and complete the online self-study induction training prior to the practical session/s in this next year.
Update: ongoing. Clan Childlaw confirmed communications are happening regularly.

Action 15: Advocacy organisations managers were asked to ensure all their advocacy workers and relevant managers complete the refresher training sessions in this next year. Clan Childlaw will share details about the dates and venues in due course.
Update: completed. Dates are confirmed and were noted in the written update paper.

Action 16: Scottish Government invited any comments to be shared with the team on the structure and agenda items for future meetings.
Update: completed. It was confirmed no comments were received for this meeting. Views are welcomed anytime.

Action 17: handling provisions for children in out of area placements was raised and a further discussion requested about practicalities and consistency across all local authority areas and the service providers.
Update: ongoing. Scottish Government are aware that discussion on this has been part of National Provider Network (NPN)  agenda. Scottish Government passed on concerns raised at both Expert Reference Group (ERG) and National Provider Network (NPN)  meeting in March to policy colleagues to inform developments in these crosscutting areas including care placements, siblings, children’s  plans. Louisa Brown has been invited to this meeting to speak about foster care legislative changes and kinship care policy, and written updates are provided in the Scottish Government update paper. Scottish Government will keep this under review and bring forward updates and discussions as appropriate.

Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 implementation 

The chair introduced this agenda item. The chair highlighted previous implementation work such as swift movements last summer to commence provisions from 28 August 2024, which ensured that Scotland does not imprison children. Instead, child friendly settings such as secure care accommodation are being used, should a period of detention be required. Updates on matters around secure care capacity, stability and sustainability were provided in writing. The chair invited Scotthish Government colleague Pete Grant to provide an update on what is happening with the provisions in this Act moving forward.

Pete explained he has been working with Brendan Rooney on implementation matters. The first annual report of the review of the operations of The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 was published on 11 June 2025.

Careful planning and preparations are underway to commence wider provisions both within this Parliamentary term, and further ahead. Pete shared a few slides showing a timeline for elements of the planned work including considerations to the parliamentary procedure and timescales. Working Groups are being convened to support the necessary planning and preparation work for oncoming provisions. System readiness and social work planning for implementation for the elements needed for the age increase for referrals to the children’s reporter are critical for this work programme.

Matters such as support for victims and children’s hearings System readiness are also important to work through before commencement points to prepare and reduce pressures on the system. It is anticipated the raise in age of referral to the children’s reporter will happen towards the end of the parliamentary period. The Implementation resourcing group meetings in February and October this year, will offer feedback to ensure work is aligning and in turn inform Ministerial updates. The group will provide oversight body with working level groups working under this umbrella made up of representatives of the statutory duty bearings organisations.

Questions were asked from members including:

The timeline looks busy, what will happen this parliamentary term? Pete confirmed the implementation timeline mapped is aggressive showing milestones and to visualise what needs to be done by next spring when the parliament will dissolve. This is all caveated with system readiness and available parliamentary time to manage lead in time particularly for affirmative regulation procedures. If there are any changes to the timeline for commencement these will be communicated. 

How is the timeline considering when financial support will be required for delivery partners including advocacy organisations to prepare for the expansion of advocacy services for the change in age for referrals to the Children’s Reporter. For example, ensuring financial support is in advance for recruitment of staff and necessary training to be completed before full operation. Pete explained the modelling and projection work put into the Financial Memorandum which accompanied the Bill is relevant. Further, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) has produced updated profiling impact of the Care and Justice Act on the Children’s Hearings System. Scottish Government will share the refreshed figures, noting welfare hearing numbers are not so easy to project. Financial support is bound in Ministerial considerations and as soon as decisions are reached, this will be communicated and worked through. 

Action

• Scottish Government to share updated Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration projections for change in age of referral to the children’s reporter, and the Financial Memorandum that supported the Bill. Update: the information is shared with this note.

The Children (Care, Care Experienced and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill

The Chair introduced the agenda topic, noting The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill was introduced to parliament on 17 June 2025. This represents a significant step forward in our work to redesign the Children's Hearings System and our commitment to keep The Promise. There are several areas covered in the Bill, at this meeting Scottish Government policy lead colleagues will speak to the group about children’s hearings and foster care. Questions and initial thoughts on the Bill content will be invited.

The Bill introduction is just the first stage so there will be continued engagement throughout the process. This Bill is only one aspect of the work that is being done across Scotland to keep The Promise by 2030, but it is a vital one. 

Children’s Hearings

The chair introduced Scottish Government colleagues Nick Rougvie and Susan Downes from Children’s Hearings Team in the Youth Justice Unit to provide updates on the provisions in the Bill for reforming Children’s Hearings and the non-legislative work programme supporting Children’s Hearings redesign.

Nick started his update explaining the journey and approach taken to develop the provisions within the Bill. This included deep analysis of Sherrif Mackie’s Report and the 100 plus recommendations including on some highly complex matters. Scottish Government then producing a response to this report and its recommendations. The Bill consultation and analysis of the responses then followed. All information was considered, reflecting on ideas and concepts, some were not wholesale, and the evidence for change factored into the policy development and drafting of legislative provisions on areas deemed necessary. Non-legislative work is the remit of the Hearings Redesign Board established to drive forward necessary practice change.

Nick provided a summary of the provisions as explained more fully, particularly in the Explanatory Notes and Policy Memorandum that accompanied the Bill. The suite of published information will be shared. There has been a lot of work put into grounds hearings processes ensuring there is a degree of flex and into addressing drift and delays. Other key areas include the renumeration for panel members and specialist panel members. Future proofing and other matters such as relevant persons, following current supreme court review, are under considerations for stage 2 of the Bill.

Children’s Hearings Redesign

Susan provided an overview of the Children’s Hearings Redesign Board established 2024 with the remit of providing governance and oversight on practice issues. The Board is co-chaired by Scottish Government and Convention of Scotland Local Authorities (COSLA) and membership is Social Work Scotland, Children’s Hearings Scotland, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (the main duty bearers). The Board is supported by implementation group, currently there are four identified projects being scooped and groups started on the themes of: Culture, Preparing for Hearings, Referrals and Data. Our Hearings, Our Voice and Champs Boards are connected in with the Preparing for Hearings Group. Currently advocacy organisations/Children’s Hearings Advocacy National Provider Network (NPN) nominee represented on the Preparing for Hearings Group is Selwyn McCausland. A further four projects have been identified up to 2030 and are still to be approved by the Board.

Questions and reflections from the group included:

There seems to be a narrow vision of people with lived experience. Lived experience of children and their family members involved in children’s hearings will be important to keep at the forefront of all the Hearings redesign work. Advocacy organisations work directly with these people, and many be able to support evidence and participation work. Lived experience extends out, including within people in professional roles should also be recognised and valued.

Robust information for children about when they may take issue with aspects of their Children’s Hearings and what can they do would be welcomed. Equally robust information for the adults supporting children to express issues/seek remedy is also important e.g. understand renumeration aspects, oversight, regulation, professional standards and complaints process. Nick expressed matters are noted for further discussion but updating of training and Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) complaints process will be for the National Convener to consider. Mel added that there is an established complaints process and CHS are interested to encourage and support children and young people to give feedback generally and particularly about conduct and behaviours. Changes may be needed, but not sure what it will look like.

What are the plans for the Culture workstream, and will the membership be widened out? Susan answered that the intention was to keep the groups concentrated to take action. Developing thinking and testing ideas would be facilitated within the Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership (CHIP) group. The next CHIP meeting is scheduled for 21 August, Kay McKerrell is a member nominee of this group representing advocacy organisations/Children’s Hearings Advocacy National Provider Network. There were concerns expressed that not having an advocacy organisation represented on the Culture Group was a missed opportunity. Advocacy organisations are representing the people going through the system, experiencing the culture and knowing the child’s experiences and are independent of statutory bearers. If not group representation, there needs to be a proper method for feeding into developments from a children’s rights context. Nick acknowledged the point about the importance of advocacy. Nick clarified the Redesign Board is co-chaired and representation expressing concerns should be directed to the Board. 

The chair concluded this part of the discussion and thanked Nick and Susan for their inputs. The chair reiterated Nick’s invite to have further engagement with members individually or as a group on any aspects of the children’s hearings work throughout the Bill process. 

Actions

• Scottish Government to share the suite of published information supporting the introduction of the Children (Care, Care Experienced and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill.
• Update: The information, including the Bill and full set of documents, is available on the Scottish Parliament website: Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website
• Scottish Government to share the link to the published Redesign Board remit, membership and minutes. Update: the information is available on the Scottish Government website here: 
• Children’s Hearings Redesign Board and contact email address: childrenshearingsredesignboard@gov.scot

Foster Care and Kinship Care

The chair invited Scottish Government colleague Louisa Brown to provide an update. Louisa used some slides, explaining where she works within the Fostering and Kinship Care team under the Care Givers Good Childhood Unit. Louisa explained why there was a consultation on the future of Foster Care. There is lots to be proud of but there is also a clear need to focus on issues to ensure things work better for all. Children and young people engagement provided as strong sense of passion. Some of the issues and ideas brought together included Foster Care needs to operate more like a national system, for foster carers to be recognised properly, as a skilled role. Matters such as social work being under resourced means there is not the proper time for foundational work to hold placements together. There is a national recruitment campaign for foster carers, which is co-produced work, and went live at the end of June. The tag line is ‘ordinary can be extraordinary’. There is a national campaign website, so information is in one place and a toolkit to go alongside the campaign.

The review of the Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA) for Foster and Kinship carers, has recently concluded. We are considering the review findings, and these have potential to inform amendments at stage 2 of the Bill. Scottish Government has also committed to provide an additional £1.9 million in 2025-26 to fund an uplift to the Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers, backdated to 1 April 2025.

Louisa explained the provisions in the Bill to create a National Register of Foster Carers and the issues this aims to address. Next steps: consultation analysis will be published; Scottish Recommended Allowance review to be published; implementation planning is underway, and advocacy organisation input may be beneficial; kinship care vision will be developed by the end of this year; and wider reforms for social work workforce also in motion. Louisa welcomed contact to discuss any matters further.

Questions and reflections from the group included:

What allowance do foster carers get. Louisa clarified foster carers received both an allowance and a professional fee. SRA is a recommended minimum; allowances are not standardised across Scotland. Kinship carers are unpaid carers, they do not a professional fee, they get allowances to cover the child. 

Issues from a child’s rights perspective and their carers are visible by advocacy organisations. In particular, impacts of no foster carer available, and decisions being made on resourcing. Very young children being cared for by elderly people – this often does not offer the normal family life for children and young people. Advocacy organisations noted they are keeping an eye on what is happening. Louisa acknowledged that recruitment is not a quick fix, it is a slow burn. The National register aims to provide a better national picture and data on profile and availability.

It was commented that the campaign slogan is fitting, advocacy organisations are supporting the ordinary every day. Linkages should be made where there are training synergies in professional standing. Lived experience need to be better validated.

Some members flagged they would be in touch with Louisa to follow up on discussion and offer briefs on aspects that could be considered for stage 2 amendments.

Action

• Louisa Brown welcomed contact on matters relating to foster and kinship care. Scottish Government will share Louisa’s contact email for any members to get in touch.

Strengthening section 122 of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 – children’s hearings advocacy

The Chair invited initial thoughts from members on the Children (Care, Care Experienced and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill provisions covering children’s hearings advocacy. The provision includes strengthening signposting to advocacy services by public bodies at the earliest point when a referral is being made; and information to be shared with advocacy organisations about the scheduling, when and where information. Offers of separate discussion as well as further discussion at the next National Provider Network (NPN) meeting on 17 July were made.

The chair invited initial comments on these provisions and contributions included:

Some views were that the provisions do not go far enough. From a children’s right perspective, cost should not be used as a reason not to make the provision a right and opt-out model for all children. Commented that uptake would be significantly greater in the current demand-led model if the role of advocacy was explained correctly and with all children involved in children’s hearings. It must not be a tick box exercise. Referrals to advocacy need to be better.

Advocacy for care-experienced individuals is being introduced as a right, is helpful and useful. The culture and spirit in how this will be fulfilled will be an issue to deal with.

Tensions expressed in recent meetings of the group demonstrate what happens in real time with the barriers in practice come up. Advocacy role is to reduce barriers, not in a duty bearing way. There is a deeper issue around culture and spirit that is not being addressed.

Scottish Children's Reporter Administration  data shows most referrals are made by the police. The strengthening of 
referrals from other public bodies as the provisions are making for are welcomed. Supporting training for all professionals, robust comms and awareness raising campaigns will be needed to support public bodies to understand what advocacy is and to be proactive in supporting referrals.

Lifelong advocacy will be deeply impactful. Elements of the provisions will be more deeply considered with in the National Provider Network (NPN).

Member Updates

The chair asked Louise to lead on this part of the agenda.

Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) Update – written papers accompanied this item. 

Louise expressed apologies from Melissa who joined for the early part of the meeting but had to leave the meeting for this later part. Louise referred members to the written update provided on advocacy update from Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration. The paper presented Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration data for the period 1 January to 30 April 2025. Headlines:

• Total count of children with an advocacy worker recorded as present at their hearing in the period for this update – 953 or 20.5% (total for the period is 4640 children)
• The total count of hearings with an advocacy worker recorded as present is 1225 or 17.3% (from a total of 7198)
• Children linked with advocacy support tabled information, by age of child, and by local authority
• 196 children were recorded as having a legal representative (4.2% of the 4640 children at a hearing) and there were 329 hearings where a legal representative was recorded as being present (4.6% of the 7198 hearings)
• 619 children recorded as having a safeguarder (13.3% of the 4640 children at a hearing) and 1009 hearings where a safeguarder was recorded as being present (14% of the 7198 hearings).

Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) Update

Louise invited Mel McDonald to provide an update. Mel confirmed the roll out of the Chair introduction/hello meeting with the child immediately before the Hearings is about halfway, expected to be fully in place for by end September. The postcard polit with QR codes has progressed by a QR in output letters to encourage children and families to express views after the hearing. Views from Safeguarders, advocacy workers and others is encouraged and welcomed too. Angela Phillips is leading general outreach work, if interested in finding out more let me know of your interest.

Discussion followed with comments around the importance for children to have information available/published in a child friendly style. It should explain what will happen, worry of reproduction can be strongly felt for example, if the same person/s are involved in the next decisions. Mel confirmed resources and updating on the website content is happening.

Action

• All members to contact Mel McDonald, Children's Hearing Scotland (CHS), if interested to speak with Angela about Children’s Hearings Scotland outreach work.

Children’s Hearings Advocacy National Provider Network (NPN) Update

Louise invited Kay McKerrell, Chair for the National Provider Network (NPN) to provide an update. Kay made note the ERG Non-Instructed Advocacy Workshop the day before on 25 June was a difficult meeting and confirmed there is more work to do. The remit of the Expert Reference Group (ERG) is to discuss and address barriers and there are some issues that are arising repeatedly with further unwelcomed barriers. A more action focussed approach is needed to address and change poor practices. The National Provider Network (NPN) members are now recording identified practice barriers to build a picture of local, regional and national issues. The members have been supporting aspects of the Scottish Government led cross border residential placements regulations development work. 

Clan Childlaw – training and legal advocacy service for children’s hearings advocacy workers

Louise invited Rebecca Scott to give an update. Rebecca mentioned there had been 23 calls to the help line from advocacy workers. Information has been shared, and the calls have been extended, from the single approach to follow on calls. This has been helpful and has shown a good number of returning contacts for support happening. There have been 69 sign-ups to the follow-on mandatory refresher training. The training dates are noted in the Scottish Government update paper. Advocacy organisation managers were reminded to support advocacy workers to sign up on one of the sessions. Advocacy organisation managers were also reminded to share new starts contact details to enable access and to support workers to complete the induction online training package and to sign up to the induction training session. Reach outs to advocacy organisation managers and post training feedback has helped to identify training topics for this new round of training. Topics requested to be included are care leavers rights, cross border Deprivation of Liberty Orders. Any further feedback on training topics is welcomed.

Action

• Advocacy organisations to contact Clan Childlaw email advocacy@clanchildlaw.org to discussion and suggested any relevant training topics that would be useful to cover.
• Advocacy organisation managers are reminded to ensure advocacy workers are signed up for one of the mandatory training sessions in the year period. Contact Clan Childlaw to check any details.

Scottish Government Update – a written paper accompanied this item.

The chair and Louise signposted to updates in the written paper. Grant claims and monitoring. Scottish Government are expecting the first quarter April to June claims and reports after end of June.

Access to advocacy services for people with care experience provisions in the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill. Scottish Government colleagues, Sean and Hollie were unfortunately not able to attend this Expert Reference Group (ERG). A written update was shared, engagement opportunities are being planned, and contact details have been provided if anyone is interested in a conversation.

Sub-group meeting. A meeting of the ERG Training and CPD sub-group took place on Tuesday 29 April. The original intention had been to discuss the Skills and Knowledge Framework and to convene a separate meeting of the group to progress the qualification work. However, it became very apparent very quickly that it was not possible to separate the two areas of work, therefore the meeting also produced actions to take forward to further qualifications development. A more detailed paper for endorsement by the full ERG will be forthcoming – it is not fully developed yet – but the headlines actions being progressed are:

• SQA contact for advice in train
• Accreditation – options being explored
• Contact West Lothian college – awaiting response
• Discussion with SIAA held re certification, ruled out

The sub-group will meet again to discuss next steps once fuller information is available. The subsequent report and recommendations from the sub-group will then be brought to the Expert Reference Group (ERG) for discussion and endorsement.

Hearings Advocacy Webpage analytics. Between 1 March and 13 June 2025 - 1,267 views, almost half on the homepage but a significant number – 209 views – on the contact someone local page. The question and answer page also receives a number of visits, 52.

National Care Service Advocacy. The Care Reform (Scotland) Bill passed stage 3 on 10 June and will receive Royal assent by end of July 2025. £500,000 in funding for 2026-27 to increase the provision of independent advocacy for accessing social care support has been announced.

Any other business

No other business was raised.

Date of next meeting 

The date of the next meeting is Thursday 30 October 2025 at 10:30-12:30. The diary invite will be sent.

The chair thanked everyone for their attendance and participation and closed the meeting.

Action

•  Scottish Government to send the next Expert Reference Group (ERG) meeting details in a diary invite.