Scottish Welfare Fund: action plan

Part B: Long-Term Improvements and Future Safeguards

The following actions will be developed and implemented in partnership with stakeholders by the end of Summer 2024:

Theme 7: Creating a New Data, Monitoring and Audit Approach

We will work with stakeholders to:

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.

The Review highlighted that "the quality and range of data on the SWF collected by Local Authorities and collated by the Scottish Government far exceeds that available publicly for analogous schemes in the UK" (p. 83). With that said, the Review also points out gaps in the data collection, particularly with respect to the equalities characteristics of applicants. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of collecting applicant characteristics information. This is crucial for understanding who is accessing the SWF, and where there are unmet needs that could be addressed. The Scottish Government has already undertaken work in this area following the Review publication and we are currently working to update gender categories in the annual review of the SWF data. We will continue to assess how we can enhance equalities data collection as we go forward.

We will also work to ensure detailed and fulsome collection of information on decision outcomes, spend and budget to also ensure that Local Authorities and the Scottish Government can monitor trends and be alerted to potential issues. We will commit to using this improved data collection to strengthen the annual reporting undertaken by the Scottish Government. This will provide the opportunity for more in-depth examination of patterns and anomalies in the data, enabling more targeted support, learning and development to take place across Local Authorities.

We also recognise the need to improve the consistency in which application and review information is monitored, reviewed and reported across Local Authorities. We will work in partnership with the SPSO to develop an approach to ensuring that data is used to help inform learning and improvement. This will drive greater consistency across Local Authorities and help to safeguard the SWF in the long-term.