SCoSS Charter Sub-Committee Meeting

Date: 18 August 2025
Time: 11:00
Venue: Microsoft Teams 

Minutes

Present—

  • Dr Marilyn Howard (Chair)
  • Dr Mark Simpson (Member)
  • Ed Pybus (Member)

Apologies: None

In attendance (SCoSS Secretariat)—

  • Andrew Strong (Head of Policy and Scrutiny, SCoSS Secretariat);
  • Keith Rae (Senior Policy Manager, SCoSS Secretariat);
  • Stephen Herbert (Commission Secretary, SCoSS Secretariat);
  • Lisa Kinnear (Governance Officer, SCoSS Secretariat);
  • Richard Morrison (Head of Research, Social Security Scotland) (for item 3);
  • Will McKinnon (Social Researcher, Social Security Scotland) (for item 3);
  • Carole Edwards (Social Researcher, Social Security Scotland) (for item 3).

1. Welcome and declaration of interests

The Chair, Marilyn Howard, welcomed the attendees to the eighth meeting of the Charter Sub-Committee in 2025.

There were no apologies and no interests were declared.

2. Social Security Scotland and SCoSS research

Researchers from Social Security Scotland outlined current and upcoming relevant research items, these included a focus on redeterminations, reviews and local delivery.  They also noted that they were considering publishing an areas of research interest document to identify knowledge gaps to external partners. Sub-committee members noted their ongoing work to prioritise areas of future charter research.

Marilyn highlighted that further engagement with the researchers would be welcome after the SCoSS Board have made prioritisation decisions with regards to the eight-draft criterion.

Action: Secretariat to highlight decisions made by the Board to Social Security Scotland researchers and invite them to a future meeting for knowledge sharing.

3. Charter research – decision making criteria

Marilyn noted that a meeting with stakeholders from Citizen’s Advice Scotland and the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland had taken place earlier in the day and had provided some helpful comments on the decision making criteria.

Noting these and further comments to be added to the background documents, the sub-committee agreed the final version of the decision making criteria.

4. Research ideas

With reference to the decision making criteria, members of the sub-committee determined the following ratings for prioritising upcoming projects:

  1. A research project on communication barriers and experiences of people for whom English is not their first language (e.g. take up);
  2. ADP determinations and Short-Term Assistance;
  3. Exploring the links between social security legislation and identifying areas of inconsistency which might have an impact on the client experience.

These recommendations will be made to the SCoSS Board at its August meeting.

5. Any other business

There was no other business to discuss. The next meeting of the Sub-Committee was scheduled for the morning of 09 September 2025, time TBC.

Next meeting: 09 September 2025 (10.30am – 12pm)

Meeting closed at: 12:46

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