Developing the Social Security Charter: co-design process

5. Next steps: Parliamentary process and measuring the charter

The charter was laid before Parliament for approval at the same time as this report was published. After the parliamentary process we will design a measurement framework that will be used to ensure the charter is being delivered in practice.

Measuring the Charter

A measurement framework will be designed to ensure that all aspects of the principles as described by people with lived experience of social security are closely and robustly monitored. This will be used for a full practice evaluation of the Charter.

Why will we measure the Charter?

The Act makes it clear that the development and approval of the charter is not an end, rather it is the initial blueprint for how the new social security system will function. The system is now expected to live up to the commitments in the charter and Ministers will be held accountable by the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Commission on Social Security for ensuring that it does so. For Ministers to report on progress effectively and to ensure the vision articulated by the principles is being realised in practice it is necessary to monitor and evaluate the performance of the system from the point of view of those who are using it, including clients and staff in the new system.

Monitoring is about learning and the charter measurement framework will be designed to ensure maximum learning is delivered back into the system, to the right place at the right time.

Who will take part?

The same groups of people that have been involved in developing the charter will also input to the development of a measurement framework. It will be led by Scottish Government officials and input will be collected from:

1. Agency clients and Experience Panels members

2. Stakeholders

3. Agency staff

What will it measure?

The framework will be based around the content of the charter and the more detailed checklist of statements in Annex E.

What will we do with the information?

Information collected under the measurement framework will be made publicly available through annual Government Social Research publications.