New Scots Core Group Minutes March 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Chair, University of Glasgow 
• Representative from Bridges Programmes
• Representative from British Red Cross
• Representative from COSLA
• Substitute Representative from Glasgow Clyde College
• Representative from Mental Health Foundation
• Representative from Public Health Scotland
• Representative from Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees 
• Representative from Scottish Government
• Representative from Scottish Government
• Representative from Scottish Refugee Council
• Representative from Scottish Refugee Council
• Representative from SLAED People Group
• Representative from UNHCR (Observer)
• 5 New Scots Core Group Advisers
• Secretariat Scottish Government 
• Secretariat Scottish Refugee Council 

Apologies

• 1 New Scots Core Group Adviser
• Representative from Police Scotland
• Representative Glasgow Clyde College

Items and actions

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting. Everyone briefly introduced themselves. 

The chair highlighted changes to group membership: new representative from COSLA and a new NSCGA. One NSCGA has left the Core Group for personal reasons.

welcomed new members as well as an observer from UNHCR.

2. MINUTES / ACTION POINTS FROM MEETING ON 16 DECEMBER

Minor changes were suggested to the minutes and then agreed as an accurate record of the meeting on 16 December 2026. 

Chair reiterated to members that minutes of each meeting will be published on the Scottish Government website, following their sign-off by this group at the subsequent meeting. She noted that secreteriat will share the link with the group. Chair confirmed all actions agreed at the previous meeting have been closed off 
except Action 7 – SRC to make suggested changes to the September draft minutes identified at the December meeting. CM confirmed that this action would be closed off in the coming weeks.

ACTIONS:

Action 1 - Secreteriat to add the lines NSCGA raised on mental health for displaced Ukrainians to the December meeting note.
 

3. YEAR 1 REPORT

Chair invited representative from Scottish Government to give a brief update on the progress and current status of the New Scots Year 1 report before opening to the group for comments and reflections.

SG represenative confirmed that the New Scots Year 1 report, which covers updates on the New Scots Delivery Plan from July 2024 – August 2025, was on track for publishing on the target date of 20 March 2026.

SG representative went through the highlights of the report including the ESOL work and the delivery of the Refugee Support Service.

ACTIONS:

Action 2 – Secreteriat to share the New Scots Year 1 report with the Core Group once it is published.

4. DELIVERY PLAN ACTION UPDATES

Chair invited representatives from Scottish Government to provide a short update on Action 2.2 of the Delivery Plan and the planning for the ESOL small conference taking place on 24 March. They gave a brief overview of Action 2.2 and its outcomes.

They confirmed that the small ESOL conference will focus on partnership working and coordination when gathering further views from ESOL experts, professionals and learners to feed into the work being taken by CLD (Community Learning and Development) on the provision of ESOL across Scotland.

They acknowledged that there had been concerns previously raised that funding from Scottish Government’s Asylum and Refugee Integration Unit for ESOL provision was only focused on Glasgow and that there is need across Scotland, for example in Aberdeen. She noted that the focus to date on Glasgow has been due to evidence of high demand for ESOL in the city.

Discussions by group members highlighted that they see ESOL as one of the top priorities within the New Scots Delivery Plan work, as well as noting the importance of conversational English language skills, ESOL classes and vocational opportunities on the impact of refugee integration. During the discussion, several acronyms were used which several members raised they were unfamiliar with.

 

 

ACTIONS:

Action 3 – Secretariat for each meeting to add acronyms to the chat box or circulate a glossary ahead of each core group meeting.

4. FUNDING UPDATE

A brief update was provided by SG on future funding for New Scots work. Limited information was provided as discussions on next steps were ongoing.

1. 5. DP 3.2 – ENGAGEMENT APPROACH

SRC shared information on their plans to engage through undertaking a survey to seek views and experiences of New Scots in relation to refugee integration policy.

BRC Representative offered to connect with BRC’s Voices Network to help with producing the survey.

ACTIONS:

Action 4 - Partnership Planning Group to discuss a wider communication strategy.

Action 5 – Chair to gather information from academics which will be put into a template and shared in May.

 

1. 6. Integration Networks

Secreteriat updated the Core Group on the recent issues raised by the integration networks, which included a real focus on the free bus travel pilot for people seeking asylum, which ends on 31 March. Networks reported that their understanding is that as soon as a claim for asylum is successful, an individual’s entitlement card immediately becomes invalid, which is causing issues as they are still on asylum support for that initial period. SG representative noted that that would not be the case and that individuals should still have access until the scheme ends on 31 March 2026.

There was a discussion on feedback from integration networks for partners to consider including:

• • A lack of connection between local and national support.  People in different areas don’t feel as connected as they would like to the Strategy. They find that where there is a local plan in line with the strategy working alongside the national intention is the only time they can see the benefits locally, which is not reflected across the whole of Scotland.  
  • They don’t see the value of feeding back into the Core Group and local structures, as they find their feedback is not acted on. reflected. They have asked if the Core Group would be happy to take direct questions from local orgs and partners to improve the communication and connection.

 

- Edinburgh is looking at setting up an advisor group modelled on the NSCG. They made a suggestion of one of the ways to engage with more people is to attend an integration network meeting from the CG so they can put faces to names and also begin a connection and conversation. 

- They would like a clearer steer on how to share data.  

 

Action 7: Partnership Planning Group to discuss how we can improve connection with integration networks and how we can involve them in core group.

 

1. 7. Mental Health

It was noted that New Scots partners are seeking the expertise and insights of Core Group members to help shape processes for monitoring Delivery Plan actions and outcomes. Chair invited members to share their top priority action for mental health to help shape a mental health action in the delivery plan. This was opened to the table for feedback.

Public Health Scotland is currently working with COSLA and IOM (International Organisation for Migration) to deliver a training session at the end of March, for health and social care staff on raising awareness of No Recourse to Public Funds. This will include information on rights and entitlements and how people can be supported.

Discussion included the need for war – trauma related support specifically to be rolled out for New Scots, trauma informed training for staff across Integration Network members and also a need for running peer support groups for refugees and people seeking asylum.

ACTIONS

Action 8: NSCG Advisers to share their single request with back up evidence before 1 May.

Action 9: MHF to share mental health resources with SRC, who will be looking to put these resources on their main website from March 2026 onwards.

 

ANY OTHER BUSINESS 

Secreteriat highlighted Action 4.3 of the Delivery Plan - the organisation and delivery of the Refugee Festival Scotland 2025 by SRC. He said that this year’s Festival runs from 13 - 22 June, with the theme of ‘Milestones’, marking 25 years of the Festival and 40 years of Scottish Refugee Council. It was noted that it is an open programme model and event registration is open until 25 April, with volunteer opportunities advertised at the end of March.

Chair highlighted that the next meeting of the Core Group is being planned for June and that the secretariat will be in touch when a date is confirmed. 

Bridges Representative  noted that she will be leaving as Bridges Interim Chief Executive and a replacement for New Scots Core Group will be announced.

ACTIONS:

Action 9 - Secreteriat to share Refugee Festival Scotland event registration links via email after the meeting