New Scots Core Group Minutes June 2026

Attendees and apologies

 University of Glasgow (Chair)

COSLA

Public Health Scotland

SLAED

Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees

Bridges Programmes

Scottish Government

Scottish Government

Scottish Government (online)

Scottish Refugee Council

Scottish Refugee Council

New Scots Core Group Adviser (NSCGA)

NSCGA

 NSCGA

NSCGA

NSCGA

NSCGA (online)

UNHCR UK (observer) (online)

Scottish Refugee Council (online) (Secretariat - Minutes)

COSLA (Secretariat)

Scottish Government (Secretariat)

Guests

Scottish Government (online)

Scottish Government (online)

Poverty Alliance
Poverty Alliance
Poverty Alliance

Apologies

Police Scotland

Items and actions

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

 

• Chair welcomed guests to the meeting, including FW and KI from Scottish Government, and representatives from the Poverty Alliance.

 

• Chair highlighted changes to group membership, including:

 

• • Representative from COSLA who will be joining the secretariat.
  • The new Chief Executive of Bridges Programmes, who has joined Core Group.

 

 

1. MINUTES/ACTION POINTS FROM MEETING ON 12 MARCH 2026

 

• Minor changes were suggested to the minutes and then agreed as an accurate record of the meeting on 12 March 2026.  

 

• Chair confirmed that a number of actions have been closed since the last Core Group meeting.

 

ACTIONS

• Action 1 - Secretariats to make suggested changes to minutes of the March meeting.

 

 

2. LINDA BAULD UKRAINE REVIEW UPDATE

 

• SG representative highlighted Linda Bauld’s Review of Ukraine's Super Sponsor Scheme and Scotland's wider Ukraine response. She outlined that the review comprises three strands: Strand 1 covering New Scots Delivery and lessons learned from Scotland's Ukraine response; Strand 2 covering the Warm Scots Welcome/Scottish Super Sponsor Scheme with a focus on its future; and Strand 3 covering Scotland's humanitarian response.
   
• SG representative outlined the review process for the draft report, including opportunity for Core Group members to provide feedback, and confirmed a summary page will be included.
   
• Chair asked whether translation into Ukrainian would be possible; SG representative agreed to raise this with the team, noting a translated summary would be valuable.

 

ACTIONS

• Action 2 - SG representative to ensure that a summary and an acronym explainer are both included when the draft is circulated to Core Group members.
• Action 3 - SG representative to explore whether translated summary into Ukrainian would be possible.
• Action 4 – Updated paper draft to be brought to the next Core Group meeting on 22 September.

 

 

3. POVERTY ALLIANCE RESEARCH: DISABLED PEOPLE AND CARERS NAVIGATING THE ASYLUM SYSTEM
    

•  Presentation on Poverty Alliance’s research paper ‘From Rights to Realisation’: Disabled people and carers navigating the asylum system – rights in action community research project’. They noted this is Poverty Alliance’s third study examining issues experienced by people with experience of the asylum system (following research on mental health and the right to education). The presentation detailed the challenges and outlined the study’s key recommendations.
   
• Members noted much of the presentation reflects what they have also heard and reflected the need for change to the asylum system which produces this distress. They also commended the evidence as helping to effect change. Members shared details about the work being done through the Scottish Government and COSLA’s Ending Destitution Together strategy, including a session on the rights and entitlements of those subject to No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF).

 

 

4. IMPACT ASSESSMENT WORKSHOP SESSION

 

• SG representative spoke about evidence gaps that had been noted in the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy Equality Impact Assessment, including data on older refugees, gender reassignment and sexual orientation at Scotland level. They noted that it is also important that any impact on children and young people, socio-economic disadvantage, and island and rural communities is considered.

 

• Discussions focused on the challenges facing children and young people in terms of wellbeing, safety, and opportunities; poverty, income and barriers to accessing services; and challenges and opportunities faced by rural and island communities.

 

 

ACTIONS

• Action 5 - All members to consider any further evidence that they can share on this and to send this to secreteriat
• Action 6 – share relevant COSLA contacts with Scottish Government.
• Action 7 –  share Nuffield document with PPG
• Action 8 – SRC to follow up  on children’s educational and mental health organisations.
• Action 9 –  provide data from Public Health Scotland

 

5. ELECTION AND NEW GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

 

• SG representative confirmed that Scottish Government’s commitment to the New Scots strategy would continue under the current administration. All partners are updating the New Scots Delivery Plan, with a programme of engagement underway to identify and sense-check key policy priorities.
• It was noted that Simita Kumar MSP has been appointed as Minister for Equalities and International Development.
   
• The Ukraine-focused work has now been almost entirely integrated alongside Asylum and Refugee Integration work into a single division: Refugees, Resettlement and Asylum, with teams working closely together under this structure.
   

 

6. SURVEY AND ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS

 

• Secreteriat provided an update on SRC's policy engagement survey and sessions with regional integration networks to help establish policy priorities for the next Delivery Plan, with ESOL, safety and community, housing, advice and support, and mental health identified as key themes.
   
• The New Scots Core Group Advisers reflected on lived experience focus group discussions, highlighting significant challenges around housing, ESOL, further education, employability, and instances of people being treated inappropriately by services.

 

• COSLA reported broadly consistent findings, with housing, access to ESOL and patchy employability support identified as key issues. Partners are seeking short, medium and long-term actions, and COSLA will be sharing its response with partners.

 

• Chair  noted that she had invited academics to submit their research evidence and policy recommendations to help inform this work and had received a number of submissions.

 

• Scottish Government confirmed that they are holding an online engagement session for organisations on 18 June.

 

 

7. REGIONAL INTEGRATION NETWORKS UPDATE

 

• Secreteriat outlined a new approach to communication between the regional networks and New Scots structures, developed in response to partner and network feedback. Regional Networks will have a dedicated opportunity to engage with the Core Group and Partnership Planning Group with SG attending regional network meetings as far as possible.

 

• The Secretariat and Partnership Planning Group has agreed to publish minutes more promptly, aiming for within a month of each meeting, with SRC also planning to produce a more accessible bulletin-style version following publication. This will entail Core Group agreeing to minutes via correspondence.

 

ACTION
 

• Action 10 - Secretariat to circulate minutes to Core Group for sign-off by correspondence

 

8. DELIVERY PLAN UPDATES

 

• Due to time constraints, there was no discussion under this item.

 

9. AOB

 

• SRC highlighted the upcoming Refugee Festival Scotland and encouraged everyone to attend events.