December 2025
Contents
- Introduction
- Service Charter
- Existing Feedback Mechanisms
- Completed Feedback Projects Pre 2025
- Feedback Gathered During 2025 to 2026
- Future Feedback Mechanisms
Appendix 1
1. Introduction
Independent Living is, and always will be, at the centre of everything ILF Scotland does. To provide the best service we can, we must engage with Recipients and others who use our services to listen to their feedback, understand their experiences, and use this information to improve what we do and help address some of the challenges and barriers disabled people face.
Using a range of practical, co-designed mechanisms, we will continue to seek and encourage feedback from Recipients and our other stakeholders as appropriate. We will involve Recipients, particularly the members of our Advisory Groups in Scotland and Northern Ireland to help shape what we do and the way we do it.
We will use the data we gather to evidence how successfully we deliver our services. We will continue to evaluate our services, their effectiveness, and the outcomes they generate, so we can best understand the needs of those we deliver services to and continue to grow and evolve these services.
We will analyse the feedback we receive to identify any trends and continue to share our findings with ILF Scotland’s Board, with Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and with other key stakeholders where appropriate to support the wider policy landscape and influence improvements in social care in both countries to help disabled people achieve the independent living outcomes important to them.
Strategy Framework
The Feedback Strategy sits within ILF Scotland’s Strategic priorities 2025 to 2028 in which we are committed to:
- listen to disabled people and put them at the heart of our decision-making processes
- evidence success and satisfaction with the delivery of our services
- provide an evidence base to inform future policy and the potential to better support disabled people to live independently
- use feedback to develop the evidence base to support the improvement, expansion, and development of the organisation’s service offerings
The Feedback Strategy sets out the framework for feedback opportunities from Recipients and applicants who interact with our services. Initially we will focus on the feedback priorities for the 2025 to 2026 financial year as determined by the co-production events (see below) and then review at the end of the year to determine progress and to review completed projects and their effectiveness in providing us with useful data. This is a live document and will be reviewed on a regular basis to complement our annual Business Plans.
2. Service Charter
This section is also available as a stand-alone document.
ILF Scotland is a public body that administers social care funding for disabled people in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has two funds – the Independent Living Fund and the Transition Fund.
The Independent Living Fund
Through its Independent Living Fund, ILF Scotland provides an ongoing weekly financial award, paid monthly, to disabled people in Scotland and Northern Ireland. This funding enables people to purchase additional social care support, normally complimentary to statutory support, so they can live independently in their communities. Visit What is it? to find out more about the fund.
Transition Fund
ILF Scotland provides one-off, discretionary, grants of up to £4,000 for one year, through its Transition Fund to young disabled people aged 16 to 25, living in Scotland. These grants help young disabled people to become more engaged and active in their community. Visit Transition Fund to find out more about the fund.
As part of the ILF Scotland Feedback Strategy, we have developed an ILF Scotland Service Charter that outlines the minimum levels of service that we commit to provide to Recipients, Award Managers, and others.
The Charter sets out the service standards others can expect from us, and it explains how they will receive services from us, the expected timeframe for delivering those services, and the process people can follow if their expectations are not met.
Ongoing feedback about our services, both positive and negative, is central to ongoing review and development of our Service Charter.
Service Charter Statements
As an organisation we will:
- treat everyone with dignity, trust, respect, and compassion based on their individual rights and freedoms
- be open, transparent, and accountable in everything we do
- work with disabled people and those individuals or organisations who support them to develop our services
- act ethically, with empathy towards disabled people and the people who care for and support them
- meet our statutory obligations as listed in Appendix 1
- provide the best possible services as our finances allow
- support our Recipients in the most sustainable, carbon neutral manner to protect the climate
In the delivery of our services, we will:
- treat you politely, respectfully, and equally
- be helpful and open with you
- listen to you and your needs
- explain decisions and outcomes clearly
- respect your rights to privacy and confidentiality in line with the Data Protection Act 1998
- ensure our information is in a format that can be easily accessed and understood by you
- answer your telephone calls
- acknowledge your emails by receipt
- respond to social media communications promptly
- process your Transition Fund application within our published timescales
- take a human-rights based approach to decision making as opposed to automated decision-making processes
- acknowledge Decision Review requests within 5 working days and communicate the outcome of the Decision Review within 15 working days Policy 13 - Decision Review Requests
- carryout reviews for Independent Living Fund Recipients every two years
- complete support calls after one year after implementation for all Independent Living awards under the re-opened Fund.
- encourage and help you to complain and handle any complaints with professionalism and learn lessons if we fall short of our standards. For Stage One complaints we will investigate in 5 working days or less, or for Stage Two complaints, we will investigate within 20 working days. Complaints Handling Procedure
- endeavour to support our Recipients in the most carbon neutral manner to protect ourselves and the planet for the future
To develop our services, we will:
- encourage you to give us feedback using the methods set out in this feedback strategy
- put you at the centre when we are designing or developing our services and co-produce new policies and services with you whenever possible
- publish our performance to show you how we are doing
To help us, we would like you to:
- treat us politely and respectfully
- ask us to explain things you are not sure of
- acknowledge we may need to pass on your request (internally or externally) so we can deal with it in line with our Data Sharing Agreement
- acknowledge we may need to pass information to other authorities to ensure the protection of a child or adult and to safeguard the appropriate use of public funds: Policy TF05 - Protection of Children and Adults, Policy 34 - Protection of Children and Adults, Advice for Award Managers
- recognise that we will not be able to meet every need but be aware that we will record and report on unmet needs anonymously to our colleagues and partners to help shape future social care policy
- be aware of our financial constraints
- offer us ideas to help us improve what we do
- take part in feedback opportunities such as surveys or focus groups to develop our services and policies if you would like to
- take part in training opportunities for our staff teams if you would like to
- take part in awareness raising or promotional activities as part of ILF Scotland campaigns if you would like to
- let us know if we fall short of our standards and you wish to complain by using our Complaints Procedure
Review and Update of Our Charter
We will review and update our Service Charter regularly. The review process will include consideration of any changes to service delivery, policy amendments, wider policy issues and relevant emerging research / literature, feedback projects, complaints, equality impact assessments, and recent / pending improvements.
We will ensure that our charter is accessible, visible, flexible, and current. In line with our organisational principle of co-production, we will involve our key stakeholders in future development of the Charter.
3. Existing Feedback Mechanisms
Existing feedback mechanisms in place include:
- Assessors / Casework feedback from direct contact with Recipients / applicants – this can be in person during reviews or by phone, letter, or email to a specific member of staff, or via emails to our enquiries mailbox.
- Social Media. Individuals can comment or send a direct message through our social media channels on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
- Charter for Involvement. The Charter for Involvement establishes how disabled people who use support services want to be involved and have a say about the services they receive, the organisations that provide their services, and their wider communities. The Advisory Groups meet jointly three or four times each year, in addition to the individual Group routine meetings, to discuss the Charter. At these meetings, Group members provide us with direct feedback and work with us to identify and progress key priorities for current issues where relevant to the Charter Statements.
- Scotland and NI Advisory Groups. These Groups meet individually and jointly to support the improvement and development of ILF Scotland, for Recipients living in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Groups provide insight on all matters relating to the operation of the Fund, including experiences of using the Fund and of communicating and interacting with ILF Scotland, insight and advice into potential policy developments, content and accessibility of ILF Scotland publications, and any other relevant matters. The Advisory Groups report to the ILF Scotland Senior Leadership Team, who in turn report learning and outcomes from the Group to ILF Scotland’s Board and the Scottish Government, as required.
- Young Ambassador Group. This Group of young people have previously received funding from us. Members of the Group help spread the word about the Transition Fund and are integral to any changes to or development of the Fund. The Group attend quarterly meetings with other Young Ambassadors and attend events in person and online to raise awareness of the Fund. The Group also works with ILF Scotland on podcasts, vlogs and blogs to share their experiences of the Fund as a means of raising awareness for other young people.
- Complaints. We regard a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction about our action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by us or on our behalf. Anyone who receives, requests or is directly affected by our services can make a complaint to us. This includes the representative of someone who is dissatisfied with our service (for example, a relative, friend, advocate, or adviser). People can complain in the easiest way for them - in person at our offices, by phone, in writing by post or by email. We record all complaints on a learning log and take appropriate action such as introducing additional staff training or making changes to written procedures or correspondence, or operational processes.
- Compliments. We record all compliments and expressions of satisfaction with our services and / or staff, received by email, card, telephone, or in person. We share these messages with our staff team, our Board, Scottish and Local Government and Third Sector colleagues where appropriate to demonstrate the difference that ILF makes to the lives of disabled people.
- Meetings. We receive feedback from our meetings with external stakeholders including Disabled People’s Organisations, local authority colleagues, third sector professionals, Scottish Government sponsors and other relevant parties.
- Co-Production Working Groups. Over the past year, the Co-Production Working Group and its sub-groups met sixteen times. There work is ongoing as we continue to learn from the experience of re-opening ILF and we receive feedback relevant to this from members at each meeting.
- Engagement Events. These include the re-opening of the 2015 Fund in 2024, events in Scotland and Northern Ireland on the co-production of our 2025 to 2028 Strategy, and celebration events such as the Joint Stakeholder Parliamentary event and the Transition Fund 5-year anniversary.
4. Completed Feedback Projects Pre 2025
To date, we have completed the following feedback specific projects:
- Glasgow University Transition Fund Evaluation. December 2019 - internal report
- Transition Fund Review 2023. Internal report
- 2015 and Transition Fund Surveys. These ceased in 2022 due to low response rates, which made meaningful evaluation impossible. We believe this was influenced by survey fatigue, which is common in research, and the impact of COVID-19 on people’s lives. As a consequence, we decided to halt further standard surveys.
- COVID-19 Recipient Feedback Survey. We asked how COVID-19 affected people, how ILF Scotland helped during that period and what else we could have done. Recipient Feedback Survey Results 2021
5. Feedback Gathered During 2025 to 2026
During the current financial year 2025 to 2026, we sought feedback for the following projects:
- Group 4 ILF Recipient Support and Feedback calls. First update due in Quarter 4.
- Complaints. We record every complaint in our learning log and take appropriate action to learn from this feedback and improve our standards and services. We report all complaints quarterly to our Board and published annually on our website. Number of complaints each year.
- Compliments. We capture feedback from Recipients and Award Managers and circulate this anonymously to staff to demonstrate the impact of ILF Scotland funding for disabled people. We are currently compiling this feedback and will report on this in the next quarter.
We will produce a comprehensive report incorporating all feedback elements from the above and report this to our Board and our other key stakeholders no later than at the end of the financial year 2025 to 2026.
6. Future Feedback Mechanisms
The next stage of our Feedback Strategy is to consider and co-produce potential feedback mechanisms for the next financial year 2026 to 2027.
- Re-Opened ILF. We will continue to gather feedback from Recipients of the re-opened Fund through support calls after 12 months of the start of the award. We will evaluate this information on a regular basis and provide a report on findings to our Board via our quarterly performance reporting mechanisms no later than from Q4 onwards.
- ILF Reviews. We will gather feedback from Recipients following the two-yearly reviews. We will determine the questions prior to the year end, taking account of those relevant to the re-opened Fund, tailored as required. We will analyse these findings and report to our Board as part of our quarterly performance reporting mechanisms beginning in 2026 to 2027.
- Transition Fund. We will develop the scope and remit for an independent evaluation of the Transition Fund, building on the independent evaluation conducted in December 2019. Since then, there have been significant policy changes, including the increase of the maximum age from 21 to 25, the reduction of the maximum grant from £7.5k to £4k, and a change in policy to one grant only with the addition of a Technology Grant where required. This next evaluation will focus on the difference and lasting impact of a one-off Transition Fund grant on young disabled Recipients and the long-term sustainability of the Fund. We will provide a report on findings to our Sponsor Team and our Board by the end of March 2026.
- Peer Research. In September 2025, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (The Alliance) published a report, Commissioning Peer Research to Support Human Rights in Practice: Guidance for Duty Bearers in response to the lack of direct engagement of lived experience within human rights policy and practice and a need to include the voices of diverse communities within this process. The report highlights that for people to fully experience their human rights, they must be embedded in service delivery and practice, and this can be achieved by adopting a human-rights-based approach. The report sets out how peer research could be an important tool to help us meet our duties as a non-departmental public body to observe and implement human rights in practice.
Peer research is research that is conducted by and with people with lived experience of the topic being explored that commits to developing research with people, rather than just about or for people. It brings people and organisations together to explore issues, often investigating the experiences and needs of a particular group using a cycle of research, action, and reflection. This process in turn creates an evidence base, shapes decision-making, and informs actions that impact on people’s human rights. It also supports duty bearers in recognising and responding to the issues people encounter when claiming their rights. This aligns closely with ILF Scotland and our organisational principles of adopting a human-rights-based approach in all that we do. It is also timely given the introduction of the new Human Rights Bill, which may be implemented in 2026 to 2027 depending on the outcome of the Scottish election process. We are therefore keen to further develop our approach to Peer Research during 2025 to 2026.
We have identified an issue in relation to how we engage and obtain meaningful feedback from young people. We believe that traditional feedback mechanisms can be improved upon so we would like to review and revise our current approach. We believe that Peer Research will provide us with more effective ways of communicating, engaging, and obtaining feedback that will help us improve our service offering to young people using our services. As part of this, we will take account of our new responsibilities under the UNCRC (UN Convention on the Rights of a Child).
In the spirit of co-production, we commit to working alongside our Advisory Groups, Young Ambassador Group, staff members, and other key stakeholders to co-produce the detail of the surveys we intend to implement during 2025 to 2026. We will review our feedback mechanisms periodically as required, but at least on an annual basis.
To keep our Recipients and other stakeholders informed, we will implement a feedback loop by publishing feedback received from our surveys, at least annually in the format of ‘We asked, you said, we did.’
This feedback strategy will be reviewed to coincide with ILF Scotland’s next strategic plan 2028 to 2031.
Appendix 1:
Statutory Obligations / Public Body Reporting Requirements
Voluntary Reporting
