Chamber and committees

Do you have a view about what that would look like?

I have one further question about staffing and resources. In your opening statement, you mentioned that you are a “lean” organisation and you said that you hope to build up to having 14.5 members of staff during the coming year. We will talk more about the incorporation of the new human rights bill, but if that was required, do you think that you would need to exceed that number of staff for further incorporation, and do you have a sense of why you are leaner? Are you proportionately leaner, or do you have less resource and staff?

Do you have a permanent physical base in Scotland?

Excellent. Convener, I have one final quick question. You said that you have done two redeterminations. I might be making assumptions, but I think that the figures suggest that five redeterminations have been decided on adult disability payments and 250 have been decided on child disability payments. Do you have any sense of why only two redeterminations have gone through your service?

Convener, could I ask one short follow-up question?

I, too, am keen to know about the number of jobs. When the minister came to the committee, he said that VoiceAbility would create 100 new jobs and that 75 per cent of staff would come from the long-term unemployed. When will those 100 new jobs be available? Mr Senker, I hear your point about the number of staff not being a limiting factor. If there is another limiting factor, it would be helpful to know what it is so that we can help you to address it. If the minister says there will be 100 new jobs and you are saying that the number of jobs will be demand led, I am wondering how long it will take to get to that point. I think that there will be quite a bit of demand, so it would be helpful to know about that.

The figures that we have show that £0.5 million has been spent so far and that there is a projected spend of £20 million over four years. Is that forecast based on the recruitment of a specific number of staff?

I have one further question about training. I appreciate your answers, so thank you.

I know that Susan Douglas-Scott will realise the importance of this next issue, because she has done some of the training in the past. It is important that your organisation and staff have an understanding of the lived experience of disabled people and what that means for a service such as yours. Will you set out the ways in which you train your staff to understand disability equality and what that means? Do you have any relationships with disabled people’s organisations that could help with that?

Thank you. I am interested in what Mr Senker said about the relationship between Social Security Scotland and VoiceAbility. There is obviously an expectation that you will promote your service, and I am sure that you are doing that. Could more be done? Is there something specific that Social Security Scotland could do that would help with the referral process?

I wonder why this has happened twice, now, in relation to these regulations. I know that it is important that we make the changes to the Scottish child payment, but this has been quite a long time in coming and the Government has still had to break the rules to do it. I just wanted to put that on the record. Should we write to the minister and ask whether things could be planned a bit further in advance in the future? Continually breaking the rules is not a good way of doing business.