Recruitment and costs for Independent Care Review lead: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for: "The payment from the Scottish Government to the independent strategic advisor to the Promise and in her previous role as the lead for the care review in Scotland each financial year from 2016 to 2024. The information includes salary, daily rate and number of days each year with any additional expenses claimed by Ms Duncan.

"Please provide information on the recruitment process for Ms Duncan’s appointment as the lead for the Care Review and as independent strategic advisor to the Promise."

Response

Fiona Duncan was appointed in February 2017 to lead the Independent Care Review (of Scotland’s children’s social care). Her appointment was a direct Ministerial appointment following consideration of a list of suitable candidates.

Throughout the Independent Care Review, Ms Duncan was on secondment from her substantive role. A formal arrangement was reached with Ms Duncan’s employer, the Trustees of (then) Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland, rebranded to Corra Foundation in 2017, a charitable foundation, where Ms Duncan’s substantive role was the Chief Executive. During that time, Scottish Ministers reimbursed Corra Foundation directly for Ms Duncan’s time at a rate set by the Scottish Government of £700 per day, plus VAT. The time commitment was estimated at around 2.5 days per week. Throughout the Review, Ms Duncan continued part-time in her role as the Chief Executive of the Foundation and was paid her salary. Expenses incurred during the Independent Care Review were processed by the Secretariat, which was provided by Strathclyde University. 

The Independent Care Review published its conclusions on 5 February 2020 with a suite of seven reports (the Pinky Promise, Follow The Money, The Money, The Rules, The Plan and the Thank You) at its conclusion, with "The Promise” being one. 

Implementation of The Promise has cross Scottish Parliament support.

In May 2020, based on her experience of Chairing the Independent Care Review Ms Duncan was appointed as Chair of The Promise Scotland and Chair of The Promise Oversight Board, on a 5-year basis to support delivery of The Promise. Accepting this, required an extension to the arrangement with Corra Foundation, Ms Duncan’s employer, to be negotiated. Scottish Ministers continued to reimburse the Foundation directly for the number of days Ms Duncan’s worked, plus VAT. The day rate remained at £700, with the appointment letter in April 2020 outlining an initial time commitment of 2.5 -3 days per week for the first 6 months, reducing as set up demands reduce. In August 2021, it was amended to 4 days a week. The time requirement fluctuated to reflect the tasks and, in practice, the time commitment was averaging around 3 days per week.

On 1 September 2022 the appointment was changed to the Independent Strategic Advisor for The Promise, which included the role of Chair of The Promise Scotland. That Ministerial appointment was made by the then Deputy First Minister, John Swinney. The time commitment was capped at 144 days per year.

To accept, Ms Duncan’s employment with Corra Foundation’s Board of Trustees changed from Chief Executive to Strategic Director, reducing to one day per week. From September 2022, Ms Duncan was remunerated as Independent Strategic Advisor by Scottish Ministers. This remuneration to Ms Duncan was paid as a fee - not a salary (no pension, holiday, sick pay etc.)

The day rate remained at £700. Scottish Government payroll administers Ms Duncan’s fee and deducts tax and National Insurance.

For the period of 1st September to 2022 to 1st August 2023, Scottish Ministers agreed to increase Ms Duncan’s time commitment from 144 days to 151.5 days to reflect increased workload.

In May 2025, Ms Duncan was reappointed by the First Minister, John Swinney for a further five years.

The time commitment remains at an estimated 3 days per week, capped at 144 days per year. To accept, Ms Duncan resigned from Corra Foundation. Ms Duncan will continue to be paid a fee - not a salary - at £700 per day for day and the Scottish Government payroll will continue to administer this, and deduct tax and National Insurance.

In relation to each of the appointments described above, Ms Duncan was appointed as a direct Ministerial appointment (without competition). Please find the other payment details you requested in the table below:

Year	Paid to Corra	SG Payroll
2017-18	113,400
2018-19	100,800
2019-20	100,800
2020-21	100,800
2021-22*	167,017.85
2022-23 (April to August)	78,937.05
2022-23 (September to March)		59,500
2023-24		103,250
2024-25		108,828

*Q4 payment for 2021-22 was made in 2022-23 Q1 financial year

From February 2017 to August 2022 the Scottish Government paid Corra for Fiona Duncan’s secondment.

Payments to Corra Foundation were for the number of days worked multiplied by the day rate of £700 + VAT at 20%

Fiona Duncan moved to Scottish Government payroll in September 2022, with a final payment to Corra in November 2022.

Since October 2022, all Ms Duncan’s expenses have been processed by The Promise Scotland.

Please see this FOI response from expenses incurred by and reimbursed to the Independent Strategic Advisor by The Promise Scotland in 2024-25

Since 2017 the day rate has remained at £700 a day.

Table relates to days paid by financial year

Year	Days
2017-18	135
2018-19	120
2019-20	120
2020-21	120
2021-22	208
2022-23*	178.5
2023-24*	147.5
2024-25*	155.5

*From 9th March to 8th March to align with financial year reporting

Whilst we aim wherever possible to provide all information requested the following exemption has been applied when reviewing the information s.38 (1)(b) personal data relating to third party.

We also applied the public interest test and concluded that the exemptions would still apply.

You may be interested to view the document released as part of FOI 2023003830839 response.

About FOI

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