Social Security Charter Review: research findings

4. Proposed revised Charter

This section presents the output of the research process – a proposed revised Charter. The original Charter can be read online: Social Security Scotland: our charter - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). The final recommendations presented to Parliament may include some amendments made following final discussions between Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland officials.

Section 1: A People’s Service: We’re here to help you get everything you’re entitled to.

Our colleagues and culture

Social Security Scotland colleagues will:

1. Be patient, kind and consider how you might be feeling.

2. Listen to you, trust you and treat you as an individual.

3. Support your wellbeing and make your contact with us as positive and stress-free as possible.

4. Treat everyone equally, fairly and without discrimination.

5. Be knowledgeable about social security and help you get answers if they do not know.

We’ll achieve this by:

6. Including requirements in our recruitment criteria and questions to make sure we recruit people who care about delivering a service based on dignity, fairness and respect.

7. Building a workforce that reflects the diversity of people in Scotland.

8. Making sure colleagues are trained, supported and well-equipped to do their jobs in line with our values.

9. Providing training to ensure colleagues understand the needs of different people and the barriers they face – so that no-one experiences discrimination because of who they are.

10. Involving people with diverse lived experiences of social security, and the organisations that represent them, in training our colleagues.

How we support you

Social Security Scotland and the Scottish Government will meet your individual needs by:

11. Providing information in different formats and languages and communicating with you in ways that meet your needs as much as we can. For example, by providing interpreters.

12. Delivering in-person, local services that are convenient, welcoming and accessible for you. For example, home visits if appropriate.

Social Security Scotland will help you get support from outside organisations if you need it. We’ll:

13. Refer you to a free and independent advocacy service. If you have a disability, this service can help you to understand and be involved in decisions which affect you. You can also ask someone that you know to support you.

14. If you want someone, or an organisation, to support you with your application or contact with us, with your permission we will make this as straightforward as possible.

15. Direct you towards other organisations and services that may be able to give advice or guidance.

16. Tell you if we think you might be entitled to benefits, services or help not delivered by Social Security Scotland and how to find out if you are eligible.

You can help us by:

17.Treating our colleagues with dignity, fairness and respect.

18.Telling us how we can make it easier for you to use our service. For example, if you have communication or cultural needs – we’ll do our best to meet them.

Section 2: Processes that work: We‘ll design services with the people who use them.

If you go through an application process, Social Security Scotland will support you along the way, keeping you updated and explaining what will happen and why. We’ll do this by:

1. Supporting you to complete an application in a way that suits you for example, online, over the phone or in-person if appropriate.

2. Letting you know that we have received your application and what you can expect to happen next.

3. Working with you to gather any supporting information we need so that your application can be processed as quickly as possible. This includes being clear about the supporting information needed and helping as much as possible to gather that information, if you’re unable to easily provide it yourself.

4. Introducing ways to update you on the progress of your application and expected timelines, including if things might take a bit longer.

5. Contacting you to help clarify information in your application and making decisions based on your application and supporting information whenever possible.

6. Having a dedicated team of decision makers who will review the information provided in your application and supporting information, and who will work closely with Social Security Scotland’s qualified health and social care practitioner team as needed.

7. Only carrying out a consultation for disability benefits when we’re not able to decide based on the information that is already available or if you request one.

8. Making sure that when consultations are needed, they are carried out by a qualified Social Security Scotland health and social care practitioner who understands your condition and the impact it’s having on you.

9. Making sure consultations are carried out in a way that puts your wellbeing first, including offering a consultation over the phone or in person, at a place that suits you.

10. Providing information to help answer any questions you may have along the way and responding to enquiries as quickly as we can.

Throughout, Social Security Scotland will make sure you are treated with dignity, fairness and respect. We’ll:

11. Make decisions in a way that is consistent and accurate – and aim to get them right first time.

12. Be honest, give clear reasons for decisions and explain what to do if you disagree.

13. Pay you the right amount, on time.

If you do not agree with a decision made, we’ll:

14. Look at your application again. This is usually called a re-determination. When we do this someone different will look at it as if it was a completely new application.

15. Explain how you can appeal if you still do not think the right decision has been made after we have looked at it again.

16. Continue to pay you at the same level if you challenge a decision to reduce or stop certain benefits you receive. This is called “Short-term Assistance” and you do not need to pay this back.

You can help us by:

17. Giving us the information we need to help you. This includes working with us to gather any supporting information needed to help us come to the right decision on your application.

18. Telling us about any problems with getting this information that we might be able to help with.

19. Telling us if something changes that might affect your entitlement, so that we can make sure you’re getting the right payments.

Section 3: A learning system: We’ll encourage feedback and work to deliver the best service possible.

Social Security Scotland and the Scottish Government will improve our services by listening to the people who use them. We’ll:

1. Make communications, processes and systems as simple and clear as possible by testing them with the people who will use them.

2. Encourage you to provide feedback, explain how you can complain and do everything we can to make things right.

3. Listen, learn and improve by owning up to mistakes and valuing feedback, complaints and appeal decisions.

4. Carry out regular research with clients to hear about their experiences and work with them to make improvements to our services. This includes a survey that goes to all clients.

5. Involve people using the service in measuring how well it works – including the commitments in Our Charter.

Social Security Scotland and the Scottish Government will be held to account by:

6. Creating a culture of trust by being open and transparent.

7. Encouraging colleagues to speak up when they feel we could provide a better service.

8. Working with other organisations to make sure services and policy are joined up to provide the best possible help and support.

9. Encouraging other organisations working in social security to adopt the approach described in Our Charter.

10. Measuring each year how we are delivering the commitments in Our Charter and taking lessons learnt from this into future improvements to our services.

11. Communicating how we’re performing on these commitments to clients and partner organisations.

12. Working with the Scottish Commission on Social Security who provide independent scrutiny of the Scottish social security system.

You can help us by:

13. Telling us how you feel about the service. We always want to get better, and your ideas can help us do that. Details of how to do this are at the start of Our Charter.

Section 4: A better future: We‘ll invest in the people of Scotland – making a positive difference to all our lives.

When making decisions that affect social security in Scotland, the Scottish Government will:

1. Embed the social security principles and Our Charter in the policymaking process.

2. Involve people with diverse lived experiences of social security in developing policy.

3. Develop policy that seeks to advance equality, non-discrimination and the human right to social security as defined in laws, treaties and guidance.

The Scottish Government will use social security powers to contribute towards tackling poverty by:

4. Looking for ways to make eligibility rules fairer and consider creating new benefits to meet people’s changing needs.

5. Increasing the value of disability, employment-injury, carers, funeral expense benefits and the Scottish Child Payment every year in line with inflation.

6. Reviewing the payment levels of all other Scottish benefits every year.

7. Making sure as many people as possible get what they are entitled to by delivering on the principles set out in the Benefit Take-up Strategy.

8. Reaching people who are most likely to be excluded including by providing information about social security in community locations.

9. Working with other public services to support delivery of the Scottish Government’s National Outcomes for a fairer, more prosperous Scotland.

10. Putting people first as we deliver an efficient service and deliver value for money for the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government will use social security to advance equality and human rights by:

11. Using social security powers to help make sure people can play a full and active part in society.

12. Promoting a positive view of social security as a human right and a public service to be proud of.

13. Publicly challenging myths about social security and stereotypes about the people who use it, focussing on using more positive words to describe both.