Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to halving the disability employment gap in Scotland. We do not underestimate the very significant challenge this ambition presents - achieving it will require action across a range of partners.

We are already taking steps in a number of areas to support more disabled people into work in line with our commitments in A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People.

This includes:-

• the implementation of transitional employment services in 2017-2018 and the letting of contracts to providers for Fair Start Scotland which will run from April 2018. Disabled people are a priority group for both services;

• the implementation of the highest level of Modern Apprenticeship funding until the age of 30;

• Delivering a successful campaign to business during the summer to highlight the benefits of employing people with disabilities, showcasing case studies and videos and an updated information on the Scottish Government’s Employability in Scotland website detailing support available to employers; and

• meeting our commitment to deliver a disability internship programme in the third and public sector and in politics.

We are working with stakeholders to develop the further actions to be taken to achieve our ambitions for disability employment and will set these out in more detail at the major congress on disability, employment and the workplace planned for early 2018.

The Scottish Government only holds location information for those organisations to which it provides an HR service. Data is available for all Core Directorates, most Agencies and some Non-Ministerial departments. Location information is not collected for other organisations which contribute to the Public Sector Employment statistics.

Scottish Government Core Directorates, Q2 2017

Note:

1. The total headcount for Scottish Government Core Directorates is the same from the Scottish Government HR and Public Sector Employment data sources.

Agencies, Q2 2017

Notes:

1. The total headcount for Agencies in the above table is not the same as the total in the Public Sector Employment publication as the Scottish Government HR data source only includes those agencies for which the Scottish Government provides an HR service.

2. Agencies included: Accountant in Bankruptcy, Disclosure Scotland, Education Scotland, Student Awards Agency for Scotland, Scottish Public Pensions Agency, Transport Scotland.

Non-ministerial Departments, Q2 2017

Notes:

1. The total headcount for non-ministerial departments in the above table is not the same as the total in the Public Sector Employment publication as the Scottish Government HR data source only includes those departments for which the Scottish Government provides an HR service.

2. Non-ministerial departments included: Food Standards Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Revenue Scotland, Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scottish Housing Regulator.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) to mitigate the bedroom tax are administered by Local Authorities, information on the age and Pension Credit eligibility of claimants is not collated for the purpose of administering or reporting on DHPs.

How information is being collected from Experience Panels depends on the research design. Taking part might include completing short surveys, or taking part in interviews and workshops. Activities can be carried out face-to-face, on the phone and online.

The information collected from both the "About Your Benefits and You" survey and focus groups will be used to develop a programme of work in collaboration with the Experience Panels that reflects what is important to our panel members.

Experience Panels research will be analysed and reported by Scottish Government researchers working on Social Security. The findings of Experience Panels research will be shared with Experience Panel members, and published as part of the Scottish Government’s social research publication series. Links to all publications will be made available at www.gov.scot/socialsecurity.

It is crucial that Experience Panel members - all of whom are unpaid volunteers - are able to see how their knowledge and direct, personal experience is shaping the new Social Security system for Scotland, So we will be communicating with them regularly, giving updates on the research programme and how the results are being used.

Scottish Government researchers are now working on the next stage of the Experience Panels process, the ‘About Your Benefits and You’ research. This will help us understand in a bit more detail what panel members think works well in the current system, and where there is room for improvement. This research involves a survey of panel members, as well as a series of focus groups around Scotland.

The survey element closed on 1 September 2017 and over 1,000 people have responded. The final respondent count will be made available in due course. Alongside this, in July and August, Scottish Government researchers held a total of 34 focus sessions across Scotland as part of this work, involving over 250 participants. A variety of morning, afternoon and evening sessions were held. The Table in the background notes provides a breakdown of the number of sessions held.

A new expenses process for the Experience Panels was set up over the summer. This expenses scheme covers any reasonable receipted expenses incurred in taking part in Experience Panel research (for example, travel, childcare and subsistence expenses). Following this set up phase we aim for members to receive payment within 2-3 days of Scottish Government receiving a completed form.

We are determined that there should be as few barriers as possible to participation, and are therefore reimbursing panel members for travel and childcare costs incurred as part of their contribution to designing and building a new Social Security system for Scotland.

We minimised travel costs and the time that people were away from home by holding sessions across Scotland. We offered to cover expenses to all participants who took part in Experience Panels focus groups. However, some participants did not need to claim, for example, they were pre-booked taxis or had bus passes.

Up until the 27 August 2017, we received 58 completed expenses claims as part of the About Your Benefits and You research. Five claims did not include bank details and these are being followed up; the rest have been processed and paid.

We are determined that there should be as few barriers as possible to participation, and are therefore reimbursing panel members for travel, subsistence and childcare costs incurred as part of their contribution to designing and building a new Social Security system for Scotland.

As part of registering for the event, participants were asked to provide details of how they intended to travel to the focus group. The Experience Panels expenses process covers all receipted travel costs covering all forms of transport (for example rail, air, tram, bus, taxi, ferry, motor mileage). As the Scottish Government has contracts in place with Edinburgh and Glasgow taxis, for sessions in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Scottish Government arranged taxis for participants when required. Where participants used taxis elsewhere, they were reimbursed for their costs using the standard Experience Panels expenses claim form.

The Scottish Government has not requested the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to produce a Scotland-only version of the take-up statistics.

DWP emphasise a number of data quality issues in the methodology note accompanying these statistics, including challenges around matching survey and administrative data. For this reason, DWP provide range as well as point estimates for take-up. These challenges would be greater if attempting to replicate this methodology with Scotland-only data.

The Scottish Government continues to make relevant data requests to DWP in relation to devolved benefits.