Designing the Social Security Charter: report on the first stage of work

This report outlines approach and findings from the first stage of work undertaken with clients and stakeholder organisations to design the new social security charter.

This document is part of a collection


2. Working with people with experience of social security: the process

This report covers work that has taken place with people with experience of social security and stakeholder organisations, over approximately 10 weeks since the introduction of the Act. The plan for the work is flexible and evolving to reflect the needs of, and learning from the people with experience of social security and stakeholders who are involved.

The first part of the process working with people with experience of social security and professional organisations is concerned with designing the charter. In particular, this means deciding on the form, structure and content of the charter.

In this work the role for the professionals includes both stakeholders that represent or work on behalf of social security client groups and Scottish Government policy officals and analysts. The second group are people with experience of social security, specifically of the 11 benefits being devolved.

The roles of stakeholder organisations and people with experience of social security are to:

  • Listen and respond to input from professionals and each other
  • Provide their thoughts on the priorities for the social security charter, including what it should look like and what it should include
  • Explain where possible why these priorities are important

How these roles will be supported by Scottish Government is set out in section 2.

The Scottish Government policy officials' role is to:

  • Ensure the process is conducted in line with the terms of the Act
  • Advise people with lived experience on policy and technical matters
  • Liaise with wider social security officials and Ministers
  • Engage and work closely with key stakeholders to interpret the Act and foster buy-in

Scottish Government analysts' role is to:

  • Facilitate and enable people with experience of social security to put forward informed opinions on what the form and content of the charter should be
  • Collect information from stakeholders
  • Analyse this input, and share this learning with the people with experience of social security, policy officials and stakeholders to reflect and develop on

This report is written by the analytical team within Scottish Government. It covers the methods used to ensure a clear approach to informing people with experience of social security and stakeholder about the process and equipping them to contribute, and collecting informed information from them. The report includes analysis of the information collected and the findings from that information.

Contact

Julie.Guy@gov.scot

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