Social Security Experience Panels: legacy report

6. Conclusion and Next Steps

This report has documented the legacy of the Social Security Experience Panels through examining their impact across the areas of policy, Social Security Scotland, and Scottish Government research. While there was not a clearly defined set of project goals for the Experience Panels, this report is also interested in determining if the panels were able to fulfil their original aim of involving people with lived experience of the benefits system in the design and development of the new Scottish social security system.

This report has found that the contributions made by Experience Panels members through research have had a meaningful impact across the different areas of policy, Social Security Scotland, and Scottish Government research. This includes in key areas of policy design and service delivery. Most importantly, the Experience Panels successfully demonstrated that participatory research has an important role to play in government research overall, and service design specifically.

In policy, Experience Panels research had been used extensively in the design of new benefits delivered by Social Security Scotland. Policy colleagues were able to demonstrate that there had been significant use of research findings when developing or supporting policy positions and considering changes to benefits. Importantly, it was felt that having access to the views of people with lived experience of the social security system could provide new and different viewpoints to those gathered from other sources, and allowed policy teams to challenge existing viewpoints and test assumptions. This clearly demonstrated the value of using participatory research in this way, ensuring that the perspectives and opinions of service users were built into service design.

Experience Panels reports and research findings have also established a broad evidence base that policy teams are able to draw on for contemporary work, demonstrating a longevity to Experience Panels work that ensures their impact will last beyond the closure of the panels themselves.

Looking at the impact of the Experience Panels for the design and development of Social Security Scotland, the impact of the panels was again found to be significant. Panel members were closely involved in key aspects of designing the social security system, not least the significant contributions to the culture and ethos of service delivery in Social Security Scotland, most notably the creation of Our Charter, which underpins all the work of the agency.

The impact of the panels across research was also found to be considerable. The creation of specialised research expertise, resources and processes was found to have been utilised by other researchers across Scottish Government, demonstrating the value of running research projects such as this in-house rather than through external contractors. There was also limited but encouraging evidence that the approach to service design used by the Scottish Government has been of interest within other devolved administration contexts.

In addition, the panels were clearly valued by colleagues across government, as demonstrated in the positive feedback that was gathered throughout this research. Policy teams, researchers, Social Security Scotland staff, and most importantly panel members themselves all felt that including people with lived experience of the benefits system had been a valuable aspect of designing the new Scottish system.

Collectively, these findings indicate that the panels have successfully fulfilled their original aim.

An additional benefit of surveying the impact of the Experience Panels was the identification of some learnings. Although the research for this report specifically focussed on panel research, many of these learnings will also be applicable to other participatory research. These learnings span the entire lifetime of the Experience Panels, from inception to closure. These related to sampling of panel members, the importance of building trust, offering multiple ways to participate, the need to manage expectations, the importance of feeding back to panel members and finally, the significance of culture in the delivery of social security.

The future of lived experience in social security

Following the closure of the Experience Panels, the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland will continue to improve the social security system by listening to and working with thousands of people who have experience of it. Social Security Scotland’s Client Survey, Client Panels and User Research are key ways that this will be achieved.

While Experience Panels’ research informed the design of Scotland’s social security system, the Client Panels will ensure lived experience is embedded in ongoing improvement. The Client Panels are a significant legacy of the Experience Panels and will ensure people with lived experience remain at the heart of the delivery of social security in Scotland.

Evaluation is continually being carried out by Scottish Government researchers to explore the impact of the benefit system in achieving the government’s objectives: that social security is an investment in people, reduces poverty, and delivers value for money. User Research is also ongoing, being carried out to test and develop processes and materials for Social Security Scotland and the benefits that it delivers. Social Security Scotland clients are also invited to take part in evaluation and User Research based on their experience.

The findings of this report indicate that an ongoing engagement with people who have lived experience of the benefits system should continue to be an important element of service design and delivery in Scotland and can be of significant value to the people of Scotland.