Note of the meeting
Scottish Third Sector Research Forum
29 May 2014, 12:30 pm
Scottish Government, Commercial Street, Edinburgh, EH6 6QQ
Present
Steven Marwick (Chair) (ESS)
Patty Lozano-Casal (Minutes) (ESS)
Joanna McLaughlin (Minutes) (TRT)
Louise Meikleham (OSCR)
Ilse MacKinnon (SCVO)
Stephen Plunkett (The ALLIANCE)
Sandy Watson (Scottish Enterprise)
Jacqueline Rae (Scottish Government)
Mark Meiklejohn (Scottish Government)
David Cruickshank (Scottish Government)
Mark Shaw (Scottish Government)
Carolyn Sawers (BIG)
Andrew Dey (ACOSVO)
Dr Artur Steinerowski (SRUC)
Prof Stephen Osborne (UoE)
Duncan Thorp (SES)
Susan Lowes (VHS)
Sophie Flemig (UoE)
Apologies
Mark McGeachie (JIT)
Jonathan Coburn (SVL)
Anne MacDonald (HIENT)
Sara Redmond (The ALLIANCE)
Kathleen Doyle (VS)
Welcome and introductions
Steven welcomed everyone to the meeting and extended a particular
welcome to Artur Steinerowski who has replaced Mike Woolvin as the
SRUC’s contact on the TSRF. Introductions around the table followed.
Minutes and matters arising
The minutes of the previous meeting (3 March 2013) were approved
although it was noted that Ilse MacKinnon’s name was misspelt on page 2
(this was corrected prior to the meeting).
The group went through the actions from the last meeting and
provided updates on these. We noted that:
 The SHRC’s new strategy is now available to read online at
http://www.scottishhumanrights.com/actionplan.
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 Duncan provided an update on the Social Enterprise Local Authority
Group (SELAG) which has been setup to share information and support
social enterprises across Scotland.
 Patty/ Jo will circulate the dissemination plan for the KTN’s ‘Evidence
for Success’ Guide once it is available.
 Ilse noted that there are still no updates on what is happening with the
Data Centres but she is continuing to monitor this.
 Carolyn noted that BIG is about to publish their paper on preventative
grant-making and spending and will circulate a link when it is available.
 Invitations to join the Forum have been extended to IRISS and Glasgow
Centre for Population Health.
Jacqueline and Steven provided an update on the ‘What Works
Scotland’ (WWS). She noted that the successful bidder is a consortium
between the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. WWS will officially be
launched at an event on 26 June and is intended to help policymakers and
practitioners in the public services in Scotland transform the way they
work.
Forum’s engagement with Scottish academic sector
Patty circulated an update on the Academic Event which she confirmed
will take place at Victoria Quay on the 9th October.
A sub-group has been set up to organise the event, which is being led by
Stephen Plunkett and Artur. Stephen circulated a list of potential
attendees from the event and noted his aim to ensure the event was
attended by people across a range of universities and departments.
It was suggested that:
 It should provide a forum to bring together academics and third sector
practitioners
 The October event should focus on the theme of ‘collaboration’ and
could provide an opportunity to showcase how the third sector and
academics have collaborated on projects and the benefits and
challenges in doing so. Carolyn suggested that PEAK might offer a
good example of this because of their work with the University of
Glasgow.
 The event should feature case studies of partnership working between
academia and the third sector. If this is successful, a wider event
looking at specific topics could be arranged for summer and could also
include a market place to allow different organisations to promote their
work.
 A potential output from the October event could be a short guide to
support the third sector to better engage with academia.
 Social enterprise leaders to be present at the event too and limit
number of representatives from universities and organisations to one,
unless they are wearing different ‘hats’.
 The event might include some roundtable discussions on some of the
research topics that the Forum’s sub-groups are currently exploring.
The programme could be:
o AM – Process and case study presentations
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o PM - Conversation/ What can we do to help? (subgroups)
Stephen P noted that the attendee list for the event would be revised
based on today’s discussions. In particular, he noted that it would be
useful for the sub-group to identify and invite the ‘collaboration brokers’
within each university to the event along with third sector organisations
who are interested in this agenda.
Stephen P noted that he was happy to take suggestions about who the
best people to attend the event would be but highlighted that numbers
were limited due to the capacity of the venue.
Stephen P also provided an update of the fringe event that the ALLIANCE
are hoping to run after the Academic Event on the 9th which will focus on
the developments around their Health and Social Care Academy.
Carolyn advised to be careful about how we market the event and to
whom.
Action: Everyone to send details on any ‘collaboration brokers’ they are
aware of to Stephen Plunkett.
Action: Stephen P to update the list and circulate to the Forum.
Action: Stephen P to get in touch with Interface to find out if they have
a list of brokers. Stephen P to talk to Shelley Gray, who leads the H&SC
Academy.
Action: Ilse to identify potential speakers at the SCVO/ GCU conference
in June.
Sub-Group Updates
Steven noted that in order to make an impact and achieve its strategic
goals, the Forum needs to produce outputs but that we also need to
recognise that everyone is very busy. He suggested that the sub-groups
keep this in mind when they meet and that any work they produce is
manageable given their other time commitments but is also of value for
the sector.
Each sub-group gave a short update on what they had been focussing on
so far and discussed/ agreed plans for going forward:
Benefits of volunteering for people with complex needs
Steven noted that Kathleen was unfortunately unable to attend today’s
meeting but had provided an update on the group’s progress. The group is
focusing on the advantages of volunteering to the volunteer and the
organisation they are volunteering to assist with this they have put out a
call for knowledge and evidence on this topic. Kathleen will be pulling
together any reports and evaluations she receives into one paper which
will focus on good practice in this area, benefits in volunteering and any
gaps in evidence. The paper should be ready for the Academic event in
October and may also link into any other third sector research events that
are happening during the same period.
Action: Steven and Kathleen to issue a call for evidence.
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Health of the Sector working group:
Louise is pulling together a one page paper outlining: (i) what the third
sector is in Scotland, (ii) the issues faced by the sector and (iii) where the
sector can get support to adapt to the challenges they’ll face going
forward. The paper will point at the What Works Centre, Public Service
Reform, etc.
Action: Louise and Ilse to finalise the paper.
Partnership, personalisation and people working group
Sara Redmond currently has a lot of work commitments so it was agreed
that Patty would lead on this workgroup going forward. The group agreed
to focus their research to look at the current tools and models that exist
across Scotland to support partnership working between the third sector
and the public sector. They agreed to produce a short paper by October
2014 that highlighted the main models and included case studies of how
they were being used in practice and any opportunities and challenges
they presented. The group also noted that they would be interested in
looking at another piece of work around self-directed care but this was
something that they’d like to pick up again next year once SDS had
become more embedded.
Action: Patty to draft a call for evidence, circulate it to the subgroup for
comments and finally, issue externally.
‘Key Update’ Workshop – share learning/ identify gaps
Steven suggested that the Forum should put the evidence and research
that it is discussed at the meetings onto the website. The group agreed
that ESS would include short summaries to put on the Forum’s webpage
so people can see what Forum members have been up to. Ilse has
already put any actual research reports, where they exist, on SCVO’s
Evidence Library and will continue to do so as these are produced.
Action: Patty to ensure this happens after each meeting.
Action: Ilse to continue to add resources to the Evidence Library.
‘Scottish Charity Surveys 2014’ and ‘Accessibility of Scottish
Charity Data’ – Louise Meikleham, OSCR
Louise provided an overview of the key findings from OSCR’s Scottish
Charity Surveys which were carried out during February and March 2014
and gathered the opinions of charities and the public.
For charities:
 Finance remains the main issue (especially meeting running costs).
 Recruitment and local authority cuts are also of concern (recruitment of
volunteers was most important for small volunteer run charities).
 There is a view that charities are having to work harder for their
money.
 Increase in charities seeking advice from support organisations
(accompanied by increases in the level of satisfaction with the advice
given).
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 Increase in charities seeing OSCR as fair, and accepting annual
reporting as part of what they do.
 OSCR also asked about the benefits and drawbacks of being a charity
for the first time.
For the public:
 More people have used a service provided by a charity (with more
young people having contact).
 Increase in the donation of goods, but a decrease in large donations.
 Overall increase in trust and confidence in charities (higher for local
charities).
 Top drivers for trust are: (1) knowing how much of a donation goes to
the cause; (2) seeing evidence of what is achieved; (3) knowing the
charity is regulated.
 Trust and confidence is important when considering donating
 Regulation is important for trust and confidence in charities, but
awareness of OSCR is low.
Action: Louise noted that the research would be published in June and
should be kept in confidence until then. She noted she would find out the
date of publication and circulate the link to it when it was on their
website.
Louise also noted that at the end of last year OSCR approved plans to
revise their policy on making copies of the Scottish Charity Register
available for re-use and improved the accessibility of Scottish charity
data. Going forward there will be a number of ways in which people can
obtain information on Scottish charities including:
 Searching the Scottish Charity Register from www.oscr.org.uk.
 Making a Charity Register Download available so that the information
from the Register can be re-used.
 Providing a detailed breakdown of financial information for all charities
(this is currently only available for a small number of larger charities).
Finally, Louise noted that her maternity post is currently being advertised
and the advert has now been circulated if anyone is interested in applying
for it.
Health Inequalities Project – Susan Lowes, VHS
Susan noted that VHS are working to develop an evidence-base about
what’s being done to improve health inequalities across Scotland and the
effect that the current policies are having on people’s lives. The research
will have a particular focus on the third sector’s contribution to this area
and they are currently undertaking a review of the activities being
delivered by the voluntary health sector.
VHS will be hosting 4 events on this topic over the coming 6 months and
will be publishing a final report of their findings which will be launched at
a parliamentary event in January 2015.
Evaluation of vInspired cashpoint – Kathleen Doyle, VS
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Note of the meeting
Kathleen was unfortunately unable to attend today’s meeting to give an
update on this item. However, a link to the vInspired cashpoint evaluation
is available to read at
http://www.volunteerscotland.net/media/281988/vinspired_cashpoint_ev
aluation_2014_report.pdf
AOCB
Ilse noted that SCVO are currently producing a 4 page guide looking at
why the third sector is involved in public services. The guide will have a
particular focus on collaboration and competition within the sector. Ilse
also said that SCVO will be hosting a couple of events that might be of
interest to the Forum. Action: Ilse to send the date of these events to
Patty and Jo for wider circulation.
Jacqueline noted that the Scottish Government are currently undertaking
a piece of work around public sector commissioning and procurement to
the third sector. They will be looking at the Spikes Cavell Data Hub to
analyse where public sector money is currently going. Jacqueline noted
that SG is also collaborating with OSCR on the topic of procurement.
Action: Jaqueline to circulate link to OSCR’s income survey, which uses
SG model, once it goes live next week.
Dave noted that SG are also currently doing some work around social
enterprise which will build on the mapping work that the lottery previously
undertook of social enterprises across Scotland.
Stephen P noted that JIT are doing some work around housing and hosted
4 housing innovation events across Scotland (300 people engaged in the
process). Stephen said that a Housing Innovation Ideas Network might
be potentially set up and that a number of pilots might take place in the
future, which might be evaluated.
Steven concluded the meeting thanking Louise for her work in the Forum
so far. Louise will be on maternity leave from June until the winter.
Date of the next meeting: 28 August 2014.
Summary of actions:
Matters arising:
Patty/ Jo will circulate the dissemination plan for the KTN’s ‘Evidence for
Success’ Guide once it is available.
Ilse noted that there are still no updates on what is happening with the
Data Centres but she is continuing to monitor this.
Carolyn noted that BIG is about to publish their paper on preventative
grant-making and spending and will circulate a link when it is available.
Forum’s engagement with Scottish academic sector:
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Note of the meeting
Everyone to send details on any ‘collaboration brokers’ they are aware of
to Stephen Plunkett.
Stephen P to update the list and circulate to the Forum.
Stephen P to get in touch with Interface to find out if they have a list of
brokers. Stephen P to talk to Shelley Gray, who leads the H&SC
Academy.
Ilse to identify potential speakers at the SCVO/ GCU conference in June.
Sub-group updates:
Steven and Kathleen to issue a call for evidence.
Louise and Ilse to finalise the paper.
Patty to draft a call for evidence, circulate it to the subgroup for
comments and finally, issue externally.
‘Key Update’ Workshop – share learning/ identify gaps:
Action: Patty to ensure this happens after each meeting.
Action: Ilse to continue to add resources to the Evidence Library.
Louise noted that the research would be published in June and should be
kept in confidence until then. She noted she would find out the date of
publication and circulate the link to it when it was on their website.
AOCB:
Ilse to send the date of these events to Patty and Jo for wider circulation.
Jaqueline to circulate link to OSCR’s income survey, which uses SG
model, once it goes live next week.
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