Date: 24 February 2022
Time: 13:30 – 17:00
Venue: MS Teams

Present:

• Dr Sally Witcher (Chair);
• Judith Paterson (Member);
• Sharon McIntyre (Member);
• Dr Mark Simpson (Member).

Apologies:

None

In Attendance:

• Lorraine Cairns, SCoSS Secretariat Manager;
• Alan Henderson, SCoSS Analysis and Participation Officer (acting);
• Lisa Kinnear, SCoSS Administrative Assistant;
• Fiona Lodge, SCoSS Governance and Engagement (Lead) Officer.

In Attendance for agenda item 2:

• Ian Davidson, Scottish Government Social Security Policy Deputy Director;
• Stephen Martin, Scottish Government Social Security Policy Head of Parliamentary Unit.

The Chair welcomed the Members and Secretariat. There was one declaration of interest from Judith Paterson regarding a forthcoming submission on the draft The Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Transitional Provisions and Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 from the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland however Judith was not involved in the submission to SCoSS.

The Chair welcomed Ian Davidson, Scottish Government Deputy Director of Social Security Policy to the meeting. Stephen Martin, Scottish Government Head of Parliamentary Unit in Social Security Policy also joined the meeting. The Secretariat left the meeting to allow for the Board, Ian and Stephen to have a confidential discussion.

Members discussed the draft report and considered further questions for SG officials, secretariat agreed to seek further clarification from SG officials on specific points and share responses with board. The Board agreed the next steps for the second draft of the report. SCoSS’s Analysis and Participation Officer gave an update to the Board on the stakeholder responses received from the call for views that was issued (update – from 20 stakeholders contacted 11 responses were received).

• Action –Secretariat to seek further advice from Scottish Government officials on the DLA-ADP regulations.
• Action – A further meeting to be scheduled with board members to discuss the updated DLA – ADP report.

Sharon gave an update to the Board following a recent meeting with Mark and Secretariat and a further meeting the group attended with Scottish Government officials. A subsequent meeting with officials was to be arranged following the Board meeting. Members discussed the available data and the potential of having dedicated research resource to inform the future report. Mark and Sharon agreed to further explore aligning the report to the roll out of Adult Disability Payment.

• Action – Sharon / Mark to scope out a person specification for the Charter work role and also to confirm the outline of the Charter report for the March Board meeting / Lorraine Cairns to support person specification drafting and Alan Henderson to support initial Charter work. It was also agreed that a meeting with official policy research leads be organised (set for 14 March 2022).

The Chair gave an update from the Audit Committee meeting the previous day and noted that a Terms of Reference was required for the new Committee. The Chair and Secretariat Manager highlighted amendments to the work plan, rolling actions and minutes of the previous meeting papers.

Members discussed the handling of requests that were outwith SCoSS’s remit. The Chair noted that she had been invited to participate in a media interview in relation to Adult Disability Payment.

Date of the next Board meeting: 24 March 2022