Social Covenant Steering Group minutes: April 2024

Attendees and apologies

Social Covenant Steering Group Members

• Cathie Russell
• Dr Jim Elder-Woodward
• Dr Pauline Nolan
• Marion McArdle
• Dr Caroline Gould
• John Whitfield
• Tommy Whitelaw
• Shubhanna Hussain-Ahmed

Scottish Government

• Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport – Maree Todd (Chair)
• NCS Rights and Accountability
• NCS Communications and Engagement

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and provided a verbal update on the National Care Service (NCS) Bill. Since the previous meeting the Bill passed Stage 1 on 29 February and has entered Stage 2. The Chair thanked members for their ongoing support.

The members were informed that a full response has been issued to the Health and Social Care Committee’s report. One of the recommendations taken forward is the creation of an Expert Legislative Advisory Group – this group has met three times. The last two meetings focussed on the National Board and members can read the minutes from these meetings on our website, along with the Terms of Reference.

 

Complaints - Insights from understanding phase of co-design for complaints

Officials from the NCS Rights and Accountability team presented slides and discussed the paper shared with members ahead of the meeting.

The group raised the following points:

• People are afraid of losing the little support they have by complaining. The SG needs to work on changing the culture of complaint-making, so people are not afraid to complain.
• People are often unaware that they can complain straight to the Care Inspectorate rather than to their service provider.
• When people complain directly to their service provider, the complaint may not be addressed fully or addressed only locally, and not escalated as needed.
• When people complain to the Care Inspectorate, complaints may be misunderstood, as they do not have the local knowledge.
• There needs to be a culture of candour.
• There are two types of complaints: how a decision was made, and the outcome of a decision.
• There needs to be a culture change towards curiosity and learning, rather than punishment and blame.
• Creating psychological safety within the complaints process is crucial. Active listening is needed to transform conflict into a constructive conversation.
• There are concerns that the NCS complaints system will be like the NHS complaints system.

Action: SG to provide a further, more detailed update to the group on complaints as we progress into the sense-making co-design stage.

 

Co-design - Segmentation strategy

An SG official gave a presentation on the co-design segmentation strategy for the coming months – slides were shared with the group.

The group raised the following points:

• SG needs to create an environment where in-depth discussions can take place.
• SG should consider how they will manage a change in dynamics during the sessions, if perhaps the same people cannot attend each meeting.
• Language is very important. We should refer to “disabled people” and not “people with disabilities”.
• Mixed groups may have challenging dynamics. SG should consider training for facilitators to support these group sessions.
• Concerns around the proposed makeup of the governance group, with only one unpaid carer.

Action: SG to consider proposed makeup of co-design groups considering feedback from the group.

 

Discussion on the definition of Third Sector

An SG official gave a presentation on the third sector and how it can be defined.

The group raised the following points:

• Definition is important as it will be set in legislation.
• SG to consider campaigners and ethical commissioning carefully.
• A large national charity delivering services and a small grassroots community organisation would both be considered third sector organisations. For procurement purposes, SG needs to consider whether they would both be viewed as the same ‘type’ of organisation.

 

Any other business

There was no other business and an official closed the meeting.