Minimum Income Guarantee: Experts by Experience Panel report

A deliberative methodology

The Minimum Income Guarantee Experts by Experience Panel was delivered as a citizens panel; this is a deliberative approach that brings together a diverse group of publics to learn about, deliberate on, and make recommendations as part of a programme of decisions that are taken over a longer timeframe than other deliberative processes such as citizens assemblies and citizens juries. As such, this panel was underpinned by the following methodological process:

• A learning phase. The learning phase in a deliberative process is essential so that members have received access to a range of relevant information. Members of the Experts by Experience Panel were supported to learn about the policy context and enabling and constraining factors. They heard from members of the Expert Group and other professional experts and were given time to discuss what they had heard in facilitated small groups, and ask questions of professional experts.
• A deliberation phase. In facilitated small groups members weighed up what they had learned from professional experts, synthesised this with their experiential expertise and considered what this means for the design of a Minimum Income Guarantee.
• A decision-making phase. The decision-making phase in the deliberative process usually centres around a set of final recommendations. As a long-term citizens panel the decision-making made by this group included both specific topic based recommendations and the production of a set of final principles to guide future decision-making on the Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Experts by Experience Panel took a collaborative approach to session design:

• Design of each panel meeting was led by Involve, working in a codesign process with the Minimum Income Guarantee Secretariat and representatives of the Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group, and supported by the social research team of the Scottish Government. This co-design process ensured that the work of the Experts by Experience Panel was relevant to the current work of the Expert Group.
• A Research Advisory Group was convened to provide a critical friend function, ensuring that the information provided to the panel was relevant, high-quality, free from bias, and would provide the Expert by Experience Panel with the right level of contextual information. Membership of this group was made up of Expert Group members and Scottish Government officials, including those who did not work directly on the panel.

The Experts by Experience Panel were equals to the members of the Expert Group, bringing a different kind of expertise to the development of a Minimum Income Guarantee that is equally valuable. However, it is also recognised that members of the Experts by Experience Panel have faced systemic inequalities and barriers to participation in society which were essential to overcome as far as possible. The working relationship between the Expert by Experience Panel and the Expert Group was facilitated by:

• Members of the Expert Group were invited to attend the Experts by Experience Panel meetings. While sometimes this was to present evidence or speak to their professional expertise, members were also encouraged to attend meetings and observe the facilitated small groups. Speakers were also available for questions to aid the Panel in their small group discussions while observers were initially invited to listen in. In some Panel meetings, observing Expert Group members were then invited to share their reflections and engage in a two-way dialogue with the Panel members. Note that the level and style of Expert Group engagement varied across meetings.
• After each Experts by Experience Panel meeting, between two and six (mostly three) members of the Experts by Experience Panel attended the next meeting of either the Expert Group or the Steering Group. When attending these meetings, members provided reflections on their reason for participating and interest in a Minimum Income Guarantee and the previous panel topic that was deliberated upon. They were supported by Involve to attend and take part in the full meeting as equals to the Expert Group present, this includes receiving papers in advance and opportunities to input in discussion.

Delivery of the panel meetings and meeting summaries

Each panel meeting was delivered by a lead facilitator who was responsible for the meeting design and holding the overall space and timings, they were supported by a member support team of two for the in person meetings and one for online meetings. Four small group facilitators (five in the first and the final meetings) supported members in table (in-person) and breakout (online) groups. Small group facilitators were responsible for guiding members through the exercises and ensuring that everybody had their say.

Each meeting is summarised here, describing the aims of the meeting, the information heard by the panel in that meeting, and the outputs of the meeting.