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The Future of Support in the Right Direction Funding – Consultation now open!

November 3, 2017

The Scottish Government

The Future of SIRD – Consultation now open!

Dear all

You will be aware that the Minister for Cabinet for Health and Sport announced that, in addition to a 6 month extension for currently funded Support in the Right Direction projects, Scottish Government would engage in a collaborative process to design the next round of the Support in the Right Direction funding to March 2021. This email is to give you more information on what that engagement will look like, and when. We are working to a timetable intending to communicate decisions on applications to the new Fund by the end of June 2018 as this timescale has been highlighted as important in engagement so far.

I hope that many of you will already be aware/ have engaged in some of the early consultation work, which has included some 1:1 discussions with stakeholders, engagement with SDSS members at their AGM and most significantly, the ongoing Craigforth piece of research around independent support. The Craigforth research has worked with 141 service users (including 28 without a budget), all relevant Support in the Right Direction and Innovation Fund projects, and a range of local authorities and other stakeholders .The final report is due out in November and will provide the basis for further discussion with a wider range of people on the detail of the process and criteria.

We are clear, given all that we know from the Audit Scotland report and other learning, that the outcome for the new fund is that there will be increased delivery of independent support for people who require social care. Budgets are not yet confirmed, but we do not expect to have a larger budget than currently (£2.9M per year).

We would like to invite you to discuss both the process of the applications, and also the criteria for the new Fund. We anticipate that opportunities to do this will include at least 1 online survey, 1 webinar and 3 face to face events (see details below). Your thoughts on this would be welcome – is this a good balance of on and offline, are there better tools to use?

Consultation events have been scheduled for late November/ early December. They are aimed at those who are considering applying for funding and are already active in the realm of social care and support.

  • 28th November –10am – 2.30pm, Scottish Youth Theatre – Glasgow
  • 29th November –10am – 2.30pm, COSLA – Edinburgh
  • 4th December – 11am – 3pm, University of Aberdeen (if sufficient demand)

If you are unable to attend an event, we hope the online approach will allow you to take part.  Details for the webinar and survey are still to be confirmed but they are likely to be in December.

If you would like to attend a consultation event or register your interest in a webinar, please use the link here  – http://sgiz.mobi/s3/SiRD-2-Development-Consultation-events . Please register your interest in the events by Monday 20th November so we can confirm numbers with venues.

Currently the organisations leading this work are Scottish Government, Inspiring Scotland and SDSS. We intend to get input from local authority SDS leads and would welcome thoughts on who else might contribute to the design and delivery of the process.

If you would like to suggest how best we can hear what you have to say, want to offer productive areas for discussion, have thoughts on what would be a good use of time, or have any concerns at this stage, please email Ross.McCleary2@gov.scot.

We look forward to discussing this further with you, and please forward on this message as you think relevant.

Karen, Jess, Kaylie and Ashley

CC:

All SIRD and Innovation Fund projects

SDSS members

SDS National team

SDS LA leads