The Charter for Involvement was developed by the National Involvement Network, supported by Arc Scotland. The Charter establishes how disabled people who use support services want to be involved and to have a say about the services they receive, the organisations that provide their services and their wider communities.
ILF Scotland signed up to the Charter for Involvement in 2018. We spent a considerable time over several meetings with the Advisory and Stakeholder Groups to tailor the Charter Statements so that they were meaningful to our recipients and we co-produced the Charter for Involvement Action Plan and published this in April 2021. This report provides an update to the Board on the progress made during 2021/22.
In 2021, all of our policies were simplified and more complex revisions were made to certain key documentation, in consultation with the Advisory and Stakeholder Groups, including the ‘Your Responsibilities’ Guide Employer Support Information Note, Policy 41 Use of ILF Scotland funding, and Policy 19 Independent Living. At the request of the Groups, we held a successful online Award Manager Session to provide clarity on the revised Your Responsibilities Guide. We intend to offer similar sessions to agencies and Award Managers to help support them in their role.
We have produced Easy Read versions of some key documents including minutes of Advisory and Stakeholder Group Minutes and have secured training for communications team staff to enable us to produce Easy Read documents in-house. We have already produced an ‘at a glance’ version of the Employer Support Information Note and during 2022/23 will identify other documents in collaboration with the Advisory and Stakeholder Groups, that would benefit from being produced in alternative formats.
SDS staff are looking at how our current review process works for recipients, ensuring they remain at the heart of the visits and making it easier for them to get a copy of the Assessor report if they wish. We continue to signpost and advise recipients on benefits entitlement and have identified Community Officers within HSCPs to assist Assessors with signposting to other types of local support and involvement.
We are working together to create more meaningful recipient satisfaction feedback methods on the review process and our services generally. We have further reviewed our complaints procedure and documentation and delivered staff induction and updated training on complaints handling to make sure we provide an efficient and comprehensive response to any complaints and we take the opportunity to full learn from any lessons to further improve our service.
We have made good progress against the Action Plan, however, this is ongoing and will continue throughout 2022/23. The Charter has offered us a valuable opportunity to bring recipients, via the Advisory and Stakeholder Groups, closer together and has facilitated greater collaboration in service improvement and involvement in the organisation. Board members can arrange to attend Stakeholder meetings and we will aim for Advisory and Stakeholder Group members to be included in certain staff meetings and external/internal events. The Chair of the Northern Ireland Stakeholder Group has already attended one full staff development day, both Chairs are attending a Board meeting in 2022 and a member from each group is participating in the upcoming interviews to appoint a Senior Communications Officer who will have an ongoing relationship with the Groups.
