Scottish Welfare Fund: action plan

Summary of Actions

The Scottish Government will work with stakeholders to:

1. Investigate and introduce further training for Local Authority decision-makers, in partnership with the SPSO, third sector and other agencies.

2. Re-establish regular Practitioners' Forums to facilitate the sharing of best practice across Local Authorities. The Scottish Government will act as the secretariat in order to develop and implement a programme of work. We will include the opportunity for the third sector and other agencies to share their knowledge on particular issues and topics.

3. Improve Local Authorities' direct communication with applicants by investigating feasibility of:

i. Establishing and resourcing a freephone number;

ii. Requiring decision-makers to phone applicants, where it is in line with the applicant's needs and any reasonable adjustments, in the first instance to communicate their application decision, answer questions, and signpost other services.

4. Develop and provide standardised communication messages to Local Authorities and Scottish Prisons for SWF advertisement and information sharing. This information will detail the Fund's purpose, eligibility requirements, avenues for application, what to expect during the application process and the right to review.

5. Review the Statutory Guidance to provide clearer definitions on eligibility and what constitutes 'exceptional circumstances' with regard to repeat applications.

6. Update the Statutory Guidance to include the principles of the Social Security Scotland 'Our Charter' to ensure that the approach to decision-making is grounded in dignity, fairness and respect, including during the evidence gathering process.

7. Investigate and examine options for more centralised support for Local Authorities, recognising resourcing limitations and need to maintain discretion.

8. Investigate if language barriers are a significant and widespread issue for applicants to the SWF and work to implement long-term solutions with Local Authority delivery partners.

9. Prepare standardised decision letters to all applicants with details on the right to review and referral to national welfare debt services.

10. Explore and implement more specific requirements for advertisement beyond what is currently required within the Statutory Guidance to address unmet need across applicant demographics, while recognising resource implications.

11. Develop and implement a refined and standardised application form to be used across all Local Authorities and in all application avenues.

12. Provide guidelines for application referrals regardless of whether their application was successful or not.

13. Review timescales and assessment prioritisation within the Statutory Guidance revision, subject to future funding considerations.

14. Restructure the Statutory Guidance for improved accessibility and ease of use for decision-makers, organisations and service users.

15. Review the income thresholds for applicant eligibility and consider alignment with those used by the Self Isolation Support Grant, while recognising the need to firstly assess financial implications and the ways that Local Authorities can efficiently verify income. This review will also consider the removal of current requirements for applicants to first investigate other avenues for financial support, such as applying for an overdraft, or asking family and friends for help before applying to the SWF.

16. Assess the type and quantity of evidence required for decision-making and provide further guidance to Local Authorities to ensure that the assessment process embeds the principles of fairness, respect and trust.

17. Review and develop guidance on the methodology to calculate the cost of living award rates to ensure they are adequate to meet the increased cost of goods and services. This includes assessing the removal of the under 25-rate of payment and maximum daily award rate from the Statutory Guidance.

18. Implement guidelines and standards for Tier-One Reviews to include a focus on learning from the outcomes of review and sharing this learning.

19. Introduce a requirement for the Statutory Guidance to be reviewed annually, with a standing Statutory Guidance Review Committee established.

20. Review and establish a new process for data collection in partnership with Local Authorities based on an agreed set of standards. The new process will be developed to include:

i. Consistent and complete reporting of equalities characteristics;

ii. Detailed reporting of decision outcomes, including for those who are in and leaving prison, accessed the review system as part of their application or had an onward referral;

iii. Regular estimations of Local Authority SWF total budgets remaining.

21. Strengthen the usefulness of annual reporting undertaken by the Scottish Government through assessing and publishing further information relating to applicant characteristics and outcomes. This will help to ensure consistency and assist learning and development across Local Authorities, which will be central to shared efforts in tackling child poverty across Scotland.

22. Develop an approach, in partnership with SPSO, for ensuring there is a commitment to learning and improvement. This will include quality measures and consistent approaches to the way in which application and review information is monitored, reviewed and reported.