A Partnership Approach to Implementing Welfare Reform Presentation to Third Sector Employability Group 16 November 2012

The story so far The cuts to welfare through the UK budget process The UK Welfare Reform Bill/ Scottish enabling Bill Our collective work to influence the political outcome The beginning to understand what we know and don’t know about UC and other changes

What did we achieve Some strong examples of working collaboratively at a political level We have a shared knowledge and baseline of understanding on which to build The Welfare Reform Committee was formed and is growing in its understanding An emerging sense of the areas where the impact will be felt relevant to devolved interests.

What are the strands of current activity The Scottish Welfare Fund will be introduced from April 2013 to replace Crisis Loans for living expenses, and Community Care Grants Responding to the challenge for housing - HB Advisory Group Localised Council Tax Support by April 2013 LA pilots to test out UC delivery models and further SG supported pilots

What are the opportunities? To continue to influence the shape of the detail as it develops. SG is doing this through available DWP governance arrangements Local Authority pilots to inform the planning and delivery of services, aligned to Scottish priorities (Christie etc) To add Scottish value to the work being supported by DWP and their thinking about local delivery alliances and future commissioning strategies

Implementation – fresh challenges We still don’t have a lot of the detail There is a lot going on in different groups and organisations within DWP, SG, Cosla, third sector Growing complexity Little new money Need to move from policy/ influence role into doing things that will make a difference, but not lose the campaigning spirit

Working in partnership Identified a need to bring together the strands of activity in a coherent whole, through the lens of local authority delivery Partnership Manager in SG and in Cosla To fund the Improvement Service to deliver a programme of activities to support Councils and their partners ( knowledge hub, preparedness assessment, training and mentoring support) To get a feedback loop so that learning from the delivery infrastructure can inform policy and funding interventions in the future The Health Impact Delivery Group

What happens now? Minsters and Cosla President will sign a Joint Statement setting out intention to work together in immediate phase ( to April 2013) and beyond We will be capturing all that is going on and identifying new things that need to be thought about and done We will be working with Cosla and Improvement Service to give shape to their work programme We need to review the role and contribution of the third sector in all of this, and the role of the Welfare Reform Scrutiny Group in this implementation phase.

The Third Sector Challenge Demand for services Budgeting, online support and financial capacity as part of transition Feeding back on impacts at local level Role in delivery – UC pilots and beyond Joining up the sector contribution operationally and more strategically Getting serious about duplication of services and resources Building capacity and expertise

Beginning to meet the challenge Using our partnership to target resources and interventions in a coherent and collaborative way. We have asked SCVO to lead a piece of work to map current third sector contribution to welfare reform, identifying good practice and gaps in provision. SCVO event on 21 November – Working beyond organisational boundaries to develop a joined up approach. Programme of third sector led interventions to complement the range of activity currently underway.