Carer Support Payment: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Monitoring and review

Following launch of Carer Support Payment an annual client evaluation is planned to monitor how the new benefit is working in practice, to identify any unintended consequences at an early stage, and to gauge any requirement for continuous improvement. The Scottish Government will also continue to ensure that carer voices and experiences are reflected in policy development by continuing to work alongside both the Experience Panels members and the Carer Benefits Advisory Group to monitor any arising issues raised by either group or in any Ministerial correspondence. This will be a continuous improvement process and where any unintended consequences are identified, steps will be taken to rectify them as early as possible.

The Scottish Government will also put in place a monitoring and evaluation plan for Carer Support Payment prior to implementation and will engage with stakeholder organisations in developing this plan.

Everyone who applies for a Social Security Scotland benefit is asked to fill in an equalities and client diversity monitoring form that cover the protected characteristics so we can see which groups are applying for Carer Support Payment and this will include children over the age of 16 who meet the eligibility criteria.

The Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 places a duty on the Scottish Ministers to report annually to the Scottish Parliament on the performance of the Scottish Social Security system during the previous financial year. The report is to describe what the Scottish Ministers have done in that year to meet the expectations on them set out in the Social Security Charter.

The Scottish Government has established the independent Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS), an advisory non-departmental public body set up to provide independent scrutiny of the Scottish social security system (including benefit regulations) and hold Scottish Ministers to account.