FR Evaluation combined
Renfrewshire Council · 3 September 2025
Back to Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-committee — 3 September 2025 and its agenda
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0 ___________________________________________________________________ To: Fairer Renfrewshire Sub Committee On: 3 September 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Executive ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Evaluation ___________________________________________________________________ 1 Summary 1.1 After two years of meeting, the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel took the decision to carry out a self-evaluation. The evaluation has resulted in a Report examining progress and impact of the Panel to date, as well as arrangements to support Panel work and identification of future priorities. 1.2 This Report, which was finalised at the end of April, summarises the discussions and findings of the self-evaluation exercise and is intended to inform the Panel’s future work with the Council’s Fairer Renfrewshire Team, wider Council Services and provide an update to the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee. 2 Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Sub-Committee: • Notes the content of the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self- Evaluation 3 Background
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1 3.1 Initially supported by Poverty Alliance as a national partner with expertise of models of participation and STAR Project as a local partner, in December 2022, Renfrewshire Council established a Citizens Panel for residents with lived experience of poverty to facilitate meaningful involvement in Council policies and practice that affect their lives. Initially piloted for 6 months, the Panel has been running on an established basis since May 2023, and within the pilot period, made the decision to name themselves the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel. 3.2 The Panel is made up of a diverse group who have experience of disadvantage. Their experiences include being in poverty, disabled, in the care system, New Scots and in in-work poverty. 3.3 After the initial 6-month pilot, Poverty Alliance stepped back from the Panel, and the Panel are now supported by STAR Project and work closely with the Fairer Renfrewshire team, who are responsible for facilitating engagement between Council services and the Panel and providing opportunities for the Panel to influence Council policy and practice. 3.4 The report recognises that the experience of the Panel has been a positive one, and that the Panel has contributed to Council plans and processes, and wider, for example, working with Renfrewshire HSCP on their most recent Health Survey. From a Council point of view varied Council services have welcomed the opportunity to engage with a Panel of Renfrewshire residents with a focus on ensuring the voice of lived experience is included in developments of and changes to services. 4 Overview of Evaluation Report 4.1 The Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation report was collectively authored by the whole Panel. It evaluates Panel progress and impact and determines priorities for future. The report summarises findings and discussions of the self-evaluation exercise carried out by the Panel. 4.2 Initially the Panel determined four main priorities: • Services supporting young people • Services supporting New Scots • Services supporting people with poor mental health • Housing Transport was subsequently identified as a priority
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2 Services Supporting young people 4.3 The Panel have input into a number of areas and influenced services relating to the support of young people up to the age of 18. For example, school meals, Cost of the Nursery Day, Summer of Fun and employability services for young people and individuals with children. 4.4 While the Panel consider they haven’t fully achieved this priority, they recognise that they have had the opportunity to influence some services which provide support for young people, and this remains a priority for the coming year. Services supporting New Scots 4.5 At many meetings with Council services, the Panel have taken the opportunity to question those attending about information provision and services for New Scots and challenges faced by New Scots and especially those with ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’, however consider that they have not been able to achieve their aim of influencing the services provided for New Scots in a more systematic way. 4.6 In the coming year they intend to engage with the newly recruited Senior Policy Officer for Migration, Asylum and Population Change to further this priority. Service Supporting People with Poor Mental Health 4.7 The Panel has had the opportunity to contribute to priority setting by the HSCP through their work on Renfrewshire’s Health and Wellbeing Survey, much of which was concerned with mental health. This work will continue in the coming months. Housing 4.8 The Panel had met with the Council’s Housing team, however consider that an area-wide strategy around housing involving all Registered Social landlords would be beneficial. This is something they will look to pursue in future work. Transport 4.9 The Panel had the opportunity to input to the development of the draft Local Transport Strategy, and held a session with Transport during the consultation period. There is a further session planned and transport remains a priority. 5 Other work and impact
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3 5.1 Outwith their own identified priorities, the Panel has also been worked with a number of different Council services. These include Digital Inclusion, Council Tax, Events Strategy, Communications and Marketing, including the development of the Council Website and Invest in Renfrewshire. 5.2 They have also met with the Convener and Depute of the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee on a number of occasions and members of the Sub-Committee along with members of the Fairer Renfrewshire Officer Group at an event in October 2024. This session examined what could be done to make Renfrewshire Fairer. 5.3 In a separate piece of work, the Panel were commissioned by Renfrewshire HSCP to contribute to the analysis of the results from the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 2022/23 adult health and wellbeing survey: Renfrewshire report. An animation was developed around the Panel’s findings. 5.4 The Panel consider that the Council has engaged with them well and their input is regarded as valuable. The Report points to areas of success, such as changes to school meals and Events, however also records that the Panel is keen to extend its influence. 6 Priorities for the year ahead 6.1 Apart from the initial 5 priorities on which work continues, the Panel has identified a number of areas for focus in the coming year such as Community Safety and Local Capacity Building. They are keen to develop a workplan with the Council as well as having a longer-term aim of contributing to the development of a Fairer Renfrewshire plan. 6.2 The Panel also considered their own development needs within the Report and intend to better record progress against priorities which will support further self-evaluation, and will organise relevant training that they consider necessary as well as developing a code of conduct. 6.3 The Panel would like to be more visible within the Council and will explore how they can achieve that with officers from the Fairer Renfrewshire team in the near future. 6.4 The Panel are keen to see the development of a wider Fairer Renfrewshire plan, and officers will work with the panel in the development of the action plan over the coming months. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial – No implications
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4 2. HR & Organisational Development – No implications. 3. Community/Council Planning – The Report highlights the continued activities which support the key priorities set out in the Council and Community Plans to tackle inequality use the voice of lived experience. 4. Legal – No implications 5. Property/Assets – No implications. 6. Information Technology – No implications. 7. Equality & Human Rights - It is anticipated that activities within the Report will have a positive impact on Equality and Human Rights considering the overrepresentation on equality groups within low- income households. 8. Health & Safety – No implications 9. Procurement – No implications 10. Risk – No implications 11. Privacy Impact – No implications. ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Annabelle Armstrong-Walter, Connected Communities Manager.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 1 of 34 1. About the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel 2 2. Introduction 3 3. Summary 3 4. Initial Panel Priorities and Progress after two years 4 5. Other Panel Work, Impact and Progress after two years 9 6. Health and Social Care Partnership: Wellbeing Survey 17 7. Planning 18 8. Panel Structure 20 9. Communication 20 10. STAR Project Facilitation 21 11. Council Responsiveness 21 12. Training 23 13. Comparison with similar work elsewhere 23 14. Priorities for the Year Ahead 26
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 2 of 34 The Council created the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel with the support of the STAR Project and the Poverty Alliance to provide thematic representation: i.e. lived experience of disadvantage. Our experience includes being: • Adults in poverty, • Children in poverty, • Community Council members, • Consulted without it making a difference, • Dependent on benefits, • Disabled (seen and unseen disabilities), • Discriminated against, • Employees, • In the care system, • In work and in poverty, • Looking after children living in poverty, • Managers, • New Scots, • New to Renfrewshire, and • Voluntary workers. We do not provide representation for geographic areas. We provide experience of disadvantage. Renfrewshire’s Community Planning Partnership’s latest available Annual Report 2022/3 includes as an ‘area for development’: “Develop and support the Fairer Renfrewshire Lived Experience Panel to deliberate on and guide policy and practice”. We have been working with Renfrewshire Council over the last two years to support the ambition of making Renfrewshire a fairer place and ensuring that the voices of lived experience are included in decision making.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 3 of 34 This report is collectively authored by the whole panel, based on structured meetings, circulated drafts and comments by WhatsApp and email. It’s a report by all of us, rather than the perspective of any one of us, so we use the convention ‘we’ for the panel. After two years of meeting, we felt that we should evaluate progress and impact and determine priorities for its continuing operation. We asked ourselves about progress to date in terms of the original priorities for work to make Renfrewshire Fairer, about progress to date with work brought to us by the Council and about arrangements to support and organise our work. We then asked ourselves what we feel should be our main priorities and next actions in contributing to work towards making Renfrewshire Fairer. This report summaries the discussions and findings of the self-evaluation exercise and is intended to inform the development of future work with the Fairer Renfrewshire Team and inform the Fairer Renfrewshire sub-committee of the Council’s Leadership Board as well as other groups engaged in work like ours. Within the last two years we have been engaged by Renfrewshire Council and its partners to inform the development of plans, and the experience has been positive, with the Panel working with several Council services and partners such as the Health and Social Care Partnership. Plans we’ve contributed to include events, holiday services for families and young people, the development of school meals and nursery services, council tax collection, digital inclusion services, and Invest in Renfrewshire’s employment support services. We have also been consulted about issues relating to disadvantage in the development of the local transport strategy and have a further meeting arranged in May to scrutinise an early draft of it.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 4 of 34 We have contributed to the HSCP’s interpretation of the results of its Health and Wellbeing Survey and consequential consideration of priorities, and in commissioned work, developing an animation and have reported to the Community Planning Partnership Executive Group on our findings. We have had commitments to the development of work to make Renfrewshire fairer made openly at an event involving Council staff, elected representatives and us. Our desire to see the development of an overall Fairer Renfrewshire plan has been noted by the sub-committee and agreed to in principle by the Fairer Renfrewshire team and while we have no timescale for its development, are confident we will be involved in the process. We have supported Renfrewshire Council over the last two years in their priorities, however, feel we have achieved less in four of our five main priorities: housing, services supporting young people, services addressing poor mental health, services supporting New Scots. We will look to focus on those priorities in the coming year. We have identified our own needs for development, and we have agreed this self-evaluation report as encapsulating out contribution to date and commitments to further work. Early on, we determined four main priorities: • Services supporting young people • Services supporting New Scots • Services supporting people with poor mental health • Housing
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 5 of 34 In subsequent discussion, we saw Transport as a fifth major priority. For each of these priorities we asked ourselves: • What progress have we seen? and, if any, • What difference have we made? We have made the following progress: Despite panel members belonging to older age groups, we regard services for young people - all young people, but particularly in the age of transition to adulthood 12-18 - as a major priority in work to make Renfrewshire fairer. We recognise both the greater impact of earlier support in people’s lives and the reduction in Scotland of youth services and community venues in which to support them. While we haven’t fully achieved this priority, we have had the opportunity to influence some services which provide support for young people, and this has been accepted by the Fairer Renfrewshire team as a priority for the coming year. Invest in Renfrewshire has reviewed and changed aspects of its services because of our input, which was partly based on a ‘mystery shopper’ visit from one of us. The changes made have improved privacy (creating one-to-one spaces for client support) and made the physical space for service delivery more welcoming in appearance and layout. On the Panel’s suggestion, Invest also posted staff profiles on social media to help those considering contacting to make an initial connection with staff. A case study of our work with Invest is section 5.6.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 6 of 34 We have met with Council services about school meals and school meal debt and were invited to a session in St James Primary School, where we tried school meals and heard about how menus are devised, and nutritional standards Councils must adhere to. With our input, more vegetarian options have been made available for primary school learners. However, although we also discussed school meal debt, and contributed to the development of the current collection process, we would still like to have more input around Parent Pay and how its accounts are managed for certain groups, e.g. care experienced children and if the debt on the child's account moves with them when they move carers, and further discuss menu improvements at a later date. We were asked by Renfrewshire HSCP to help to shape nursery staff training in ‘Cost of the Nursery Day’ workshops with a view to having a ‘champion’ placed in each nursery to ensure nurseries are mindful of how their policies and practices affect low-income households, e.g. charging for fun days, and can offer support and advice for people in poverty. The design of the ‘Summer of Fun’ programme for 2023 and subsequent years was based partly on the advice we gave about barriers to participation. For example, suggestions around geography and ensuring activities were available to older young people. We were consulted about wider accessibility to events in general and the Halloween celebrations in particular and our experience was incorporated into the service and related accessibility arrangements.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 7 of 34 Changes included: • moving the fairground away from the middle area so parents could avoid it; • enlarging the route for the parade to reduce crowding, making it more accessible for parents of young children, older people and people lacking confidence in crowds; and • creating more accessible areas. We identified services supporting New Scots as a key priority for work to make Renfrewshire fairer, recognising that: • lack of familiarity with Scottish and West of Scotland Culture and services is a significant barrier to integration of people arriving from elsewhere, and • language barriers multiply the challenges people face in arriving from elsewhere and becoming part of Renfrewshire’s culture and economy. We noted variances between the level of support provided for some groups, in particular people arriving from Ukraine. We requested the opportunity to speak to the people responsible at local authority level for supporting New Scots to inform and help shape work based on experience within the group of both general disadvantage and specific experience of coming to Renfrewshire from outside Scotland. While at many meetings with Council services, we have questioned those attending about information provision and services for New Scots and challenges faced by New Scots and especially those with ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’, we have not been able to achieve our aim of influencing the services provided for New Scots in a more systematic way. However, we are advised that a new post has been recruited within the Council which will coordinate supports for New Scots, and we will look to engage with the postholder at the earliest opportunity on this panel priority.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 8 of 34 We have had the opportunity to contribute to the priorities to be set by the HSCP because of the Health and Wellbeing Survey, much of which was concerned with mental health (see below). This was a recent exercise and while further engagement with the HSCP has been scheduled it is too early to know what impact this may have had. We intend to use the contacts made with the HSCP to further our priority to contribute to mental health service planning. This will form part of our work plan in the coming months. We recognise that without decent housing, health inequalities are made worse, training and employment opportunities are adversely affected, and life expectancy reduced. If there is not a basic level of housing for all in Renfrewshire, there is no fairness. We have recognised that the is no overall housing strategy for Renfrewshire which includes all the twelve or so social housing providers and we’ve requested that the Council (not its housing department) lead the development of such a strategy involving people with experience of barriers to decent housing in which each of the social housing providers is able to identify its own and the others’ contribution to Renfrewshire becoming fairer. While we recognise that the Council has no remit legally to coordinate such a strategy, we consider that having the Council’s support in working with Registered Social landlords in Renfrewshire towards an area-wide strategy would be a significant contribution towards a fairer Renfrewshire, and we will continue to prioritise advocating this is the coming year. In section 13 we discuss learning from Panels who have been in existence longer than us, and this could be an area where we can use their experience in housing to get better engagement, and a mechanism by which we can engage with RSLs more systematically (and , hopefully, with Council support) with the longer term aim of developing a Renfrewshire strategy.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 9 of 34 We met with both Council staff involved in the Local Transport Strategy, and consultants at an early stage of the development of the transport strategy for Renfrewshire. We discussed 6 areas: • Active Travel (walking, wheeling and cycling); • Parking; • Public Transport, including Community Transport; • Road Network; • Road safety; and • Communication – of both the strategy and channels available to the public to engage the Council about aspects of transport We were promised as part of this consultation the opportunity to comment on early drafts of the strategy and a meeting has been arranged for 21 May to allow us this opportunity. We have been involved in consultation with different areas of Council work with some examples below. Over the last 2 years we have worked closely with the Fairer Renfrewshire Manager, who has facilitated our contact with Council, and wider, services. In most cases this has been at the request of the service teams we have met with, and we understand from this that the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel is both widely recognised and well received within Renfrewshire Council. We are advised that our input has been used to inform senior management meetings within the Council, and we have seen our feedback used in papers that have gone to the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Committee and are aware that an update on our work goes to elected members at each Sub- Committee meeting. We have met with the Convenor and Depute of the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub- Committee, speaking to them in general about the impacts of low income and the cost-of-living crisis and about our work.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 10 of 34 We have also met the Fairer Renfrewshire Officers Group at an event in 2024, and details of that event are below at section 7.2. We have built good working relationships with several Council services and have had return visits from many of them, which we believe shows that they value our input. We are advised that services regularly contact the Fairer Renfrewshire Manager to request a ‘visit to the Panel’ and that is reflected in our meeting calendar. Last year we also received our first commissioned piece of work from Renfrewshire HSCP, and that is described at Part 6. We believe that this too reflects the value of the Panel, and we will welcome and seek more in-depth, longer-term pieces of work in future. At the Council’s Leadership- Board meeting of 23 April, the depute council leader Jacqueline Cameron, who is also chair of the Fairer Renfrewshire sub- committee, said at the meeting: “I just wanted to highlight again the work of the lived experience panel. "They really do go from strength to strength and you can see their footprint and their influence in various departments across the council and HSCP. "They've even been visiting national forums to talk about lived experience and how people with lived experience can shape services in a really meaningful way. I'm always really proud of the work that they do and think it's important to highlight that1." The examples of our work below do not reflect all we have done but give a flavour of our work. 1 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/in-your-area/renfrewshire/extra-585000-dedicated- renfrewshire-council-35106549?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6Q82N9vr422-inQ0- gcTa0R_Foor6nzU7AHILFjsIT9TT53PG4qGuJNCtoYA_aem_LWkriiw5AziSIsD2zYeHIw#2vlz5iwn8kw udevy9bs7lh8u90gcnwjq9
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 11 of 34 We met with both Council Officers and Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau and were consulted about Council Tax collection with a view to the Council team being better able to understand barriers to payment, how best to work in collaboration to support opportunities to develop financial capability and income maximisation to support Council Tax debt repayments. This was part of a Citizens Advice Scotland, Scottish Government funded pilot into providing council tax advice and improving council tax debt collection practices, through engagement and collaborative working with the Local Authorities. Renfrewshire was one of 3 Pilot areas. The Council team also explored with us how best to communicate with residents about issues relating to Council Tax payments and the availability of free advice and support from the Council and its partners. We’ll see any changes in the financial year 2025/6 and the Council Tax team is expected to report back changes arising from our contribution. The Council’s Digital Inclusion team has consulted us about the creation of and support for its digital inclusion services, including the availability of ‘DigiZones’ and the volunteer Digital Champion programme based in libraries. What is described as a ‘high level strategy ’for digital services is at the time of writing on the agenda for adoption by the Council. We have further met with the Digital Strategy Delivery Manager on two occasions and have been promised the opportunity to be involved in the development of the plan to build and deploy digital inclusion support services and other aspects of the strategy. “The Fairer Renfrewshire Panel is a group of inspiring individuals who have helped shape digital inclusion in Renfrewshire. Their voices, insights, and resilience have driven meaningful change, ensuring that digital access is a right, not a privilege. Their leadership is a testament to the power of lived experience in creating a more connected,
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 12 of 34 inclusive, and empowered community.” James McKee, Digital Inclusion Lead, Renfrewshire Council After the FROG Event (see below) we worked as a focus group with Renfrewshire Council’s Commissioning & Creative Events Lead to support the development of their Events strategy to be inclusive of people facing barriers to participation. This process was part of a wider consultation process delivered by a third party. This work was recognised in the Events Strategy where we can see that the Panel’s contribution has been recognised: From the Wider Context section of the Events Strategy: “Wider policy frameworks for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), the work of Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership, and Creative Health Quality Framework Principles, support the development of an events strategy that meets the needs of as many people as possible, with an ambition to eliminate barriers to participation and attendance. The establishment of Fairer Renfrewshire and the Lived Experience Panel has provided a forum for continual improvement of approaches to equality and inclusion within events. Accessibility and inclusion must be at the heart of our events delivery, to better meet the needs of local people.” From the Aims and Objectives and Priority Actions: • “Remove barriers to event attendance and increase participation across all our communities • Use the events programme to grow the capacity of our cultural and creative sectors through co-design and co-production • Support our cultural sector to deliver their own diverse events programmes • Continue to work with local groups at the outset of planning to ensure genuine co-design and participation opportunities are maximised
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 13 of 34 • Work with local communities to support them to design and deliver their own events through the events toolkit and sign posting to funding • Continue to develop and maintain relationships with key cultural and community groups to develop their year-round calendar of events and festivals • Continue to monitor and evaluate all events and learn from feedback, always refining our offer”. We have supported user testing of the new council website and as part of a general consultation provided individual contributions to an exercise providing feedback about structure. However, we feel that across all Fairer Renfrewshire work and priorities a single reliable source of information about services from the council and links to support from partners should be available as part of the Council’s website. We feel that this would be of value to all residents but would also be an invaluable tool for New Scots trying to negotiate pathways to support and opportunities to contribute. While we have yet to see what content is published on the new website, we will use the contacts made with the Corporate Communications Team to support the most useful information to be displayed within the most useful structure. The Renfrewshire Affordable Credit Alliance presented information to us about its work to reduce poverty and was advised on both its communication strategy (advertise support in community location and venues and its support strategy (support community-based organisations to deliver signposting support). Our advice for most services has a common theme of working with agencies who already have not only local reach, but the local trust relationships
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 14 of 34 needed to effectively engage people who may reasonably regard large agencies and people not known to them with some suspicion. The Panel input was well received. “The insights provided by the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel around debt, borrowing and affordable credit were invaluable for deciding the future direction for Renfrewshire Affordable Credit Alliance. It’s so beneficial to speak to a group with lived experience of poverty to ensure your planned work reflects actual need within local communities.” Yvonne Hughes, RACA As mentioned in part 4, we engaged with Invest in Renfrewshire around their service and the supports they offer. The initial meeting took place in August 2023 at the Russell Institute. The focus of this meeting was to provide feedback to support Invest to improve Reach and Communication with the residents of Renfrewshire. Suggestions made by the Fairer Renfrewshire Panel included • Using different Social Media platforms including Facebook, X and Instagram, • Adding photographs and bios of team members when advertising the support to help the people make connections with staff, • Improve awareness of services with partner agencies, • Community engagement activities, and • Train staff to be trauma informed Invest took forward the Panel suggestions at this initial meeting and have taken actions in the areas suggested. To improve reach:
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 15 of 34 • Invest have introduced various outreach services in local areas across Renfrewshire, including Bargarran centre in Erskine and Station Seven in Johnstone (see leaflet below) • Invest teams attend partnership meetings to share information on services • Partner organisations are invited to attend Invest team meetings to share information • They developed a partner’s toolkit To improve connections, leaflets for outreach have staff name and photos included, while post have been made on social media with staff bios and photographs. (see leaflet below) Regarding Trauma training, Invest staff and Local Employability Partnership members have access to • Small Change – Big Impact Trauma Informed Practice • Scottish Mental Health First Aid • Understanding Neurodiversity: An Introduction Following the initial meeting a panel member attended Invest as a Mystery Shopper and provided feedback on accessing the services some of the areas for improvement included: • Privacy • Staff members eating lunch in the area where clients are meeting Advisors Changes were then made to The Russell Institute taking this feedback into account • All staff moved to be working from the one floor, with a staff dining area • Privacy booths added to open space for client meetings • 2 x offices converted to training rooms • 1 x office now used for private meeting space In addition, at a further meeting between the Panel and the Invest Manager, the Panel highlighted what they felt was the main issue of people not being able to work until their basic needs were met, and the area where support
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 16 of 34 was needed being early in any employability journey. This was taken on board, with this feedback informing funding decisions. One of us is now the Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s Joint Integration Board Service User Representative, adding links to the Fairer Renfrewshire work as well as the service user perspective the position was designed for. One of us presented to a March 2025 ‘Learning from Experience’ local authorities’ event the lessons required for successful work with lived experience panels. This event was organised by the Improvement Service, and was to an audience of Child Poverty Leads across Scottish Councils. We have shared experience of lived experience panels in various contexts as part of the Poverty Alliance’s network support. This includes a visit from a Northern Irish Panel, who were very interested in our work, and how we were set up.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 17 of 34 By far the single biggest formally requested aspect of our work has been to contribute to the Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) analysis of the results from the Health and Wellbeing Survey for 2024. Our contribution was based on the following themes: • Tackling Stigma, • Need to normalise behaviours, • Person-centred, Holistic Services, • Collaborative working, • Prevention not Crisis, • Keeping Solutions Local rather than parachuting in external services which are not, by their nature, based on the local trust relationships required for effective work, • Changing the Language, • Men’s Health, and • Volunteering. The HSCP had asked for support in determining priorities based on the experience of people at disadvantage and with experience of barriers to services. We informed the HSCP Board of its priorities based on the results of the survey and in accordance with its categories. We told the HSCP that while the survey methodology tried to ensure representation from the local population that without working with focus groups comprised of people with experience of both barriers to support and existing delivery the results would not lead to the depth of understanding of service required to target the most vulnerable people, who suffer the most adverse health and wellbeing consequences of the environment and social structure. “The feedback clarified the collective views, concerns, and suggestions of the Panel members and this will be taken forward to inform the Community Planning Partnership Executive” (from 5 January 2024 Fairer Renfrewshire sub-committee subcommittee meeting).
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 18 of 34 We have also recommended that the HSCP come back to the panel before they produce their next survey and allow us to develop the questions. While currently there is not one overarching Fairer Renfrewshire Strategy, we have contributed to some strategies which have been developed, or are in the process of development from the viewpoint of ensuring the voice of those with lived experience of poverty were taken into account. We were consulted as part of the development of Renfrewshire’s Events Strategy2 and have been consulted prior to the development of its Local Transport Strategy as well as the Digital Strategy. We look forward to contributing our experience as other strategies are developed, especially around the overall Fairer Renfrewshire agenda. As mentioned earlier, the FROG, as the Officer Group is known, organised an event with us in October 2024. The event was unusual in that its table participants included Panel members, FROG members and cross-party elected representatives (Council Officers and elected representatives to not ordinarily get the opportunity for informal discussion). The event was designed to support work towards overall strategic and operational planning for the work of the Council and its partners in making Renfrewshire Fairer. The event began with presentations from the Fairer Renfrewshire team and us, followed by discussion at tables. 2 https://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/media/17063/Renfrewshire-Events-Strategy-for-2025-to- 2028/pdf/004247_Events_Strategy_2025_FINAL_WEB.pdf?m=1740587070327
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 19 of 34 Participants discussed their visions of what a Fairer Renfrewshire would look like. Importantly, the table participants were asked to consider what next steps they could undertake towards the objective of making Renfrewshire fairer. Because of the number of services involved in the event, the key contributions identified by attendees were varied. Overall, most services stated a desire to start to work or continue working with us to inform their work. Apart from more generally arranging to consult with us, services mentioned involving us in planning campaigns and looking at things like communications as well as helping establish barriers to access and engagement in services as specific actions. Several services made commitments to involve us in developing and implementing plans and strategies, such as developing Renfrewshire’s Food Plan and delivery of the Plan for Net Zero. Commitments made as part of the event could be part of an overall plan to make Renfrewshire fairer. The final ask for table discussions was to determine who else needs to be involved in working to make Renfrewshire Fairer. Apart from Senior managers within the Council and Council Services, the following were identified: • Housing Organisations/Housing Associations (very important) • Community Planning Partners, HSCP, Police, Fire, DWP • Third Sector • Local Partnerships • Other Local Authority Lived Experience Panels • Mental Health Services • Citizens Advice Bureau • Transport Providers We will continue to work with this group of officers, with elected members and seek involvement at an early stage in the development of an overall plan to make Renfrewshire fairer.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 20 of 34 We are an unconstituted group and we operate without formal structure – there are no officer positions. Chairing of our own meetings with Council services is conducted by panel members who volunteer or facilitated by Fairer Renfrewshire officers or STAR project staff as felt suitable to the moment. There is no assignment of secretarial roles to anyone. We recognise that this informal approach can have disadvantages, including sometime requiring a reminder to provide a response to external people, including the Fairer Renfrewshire team. We also recognise that there are benefits in its informal, unstructured approach which include a culture of absolute equality between members, a multiplicity of Panel members taking the lead on issues and actions depending on availability and particular interests. Over its two-year life Panel members have expressed our appreciation of the group as ‘family’, which arises partly from the egalitarian, informal approach we have to conducting the work. For now, we regard the benefits of informal arrangements as outweighing the drawbacks. We have discussed this approach a couple of times and have as part of this self-evaluation programme committed to discussing potential assignation of roles to individual members and the adoption of formally constituted or other structures as part of its training programme. While we have agreed to retain our informal approach to our work, we feel that some aspects of communication could be improved, and that an option to be considered is the rotation of the role of secretary to support more effective communication with external agencies. We consider that currently, • communication is clear within our meetings, supplemented by WhatsApp and email: everyone can say what they feel,
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 21 of 34 • the use of a combination of email and WhatsApp is effective and supports different preferences to enable full contribution by members, • a group secretary role would be useful and would be seen as a service role, not a hierarchical one, • calendar management could be better, and we will explore the use of an online group calendar more to make sure everyone is aware of upcoming meetings and events, • training for the use of information technology to help communication is needed, and this can be supported within the group, • data protection and confidentiality training would help reassure the agencies we engage with and help openness, and • that this should be part of a code of conduct which we should develop in partnership with the Fairer Renfrewshire team and each of us commit to. We discussed arrangements with the STAR project, which provides us with facilitation and support at group and individual level. We consider the STAR Project’s support to be effective and a key aspect of its successes to date. The STAR project provides a meeting space for us, we trust it as a neutral third party to support engagement with the Council. The STAR Project is a key to empowering us as individuals and as a whole to be able to express opinions and communicate them to external agencies, in particular the Council. We feel that the STAR Project is not complacent in its support and is open to change and improvement as needed and has agreed steps which will help improve communication. We considered how responsive it feels the Council has been to its contribution and concluded that it is very department dependent.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 22 of 34 The Fairer Renfrewshire team has been responsive to us, and we work closely with the Fairer Renfrewshire Manager and Connected Communities Manager, both to contribute to their work, and to have various departments engage with us. The team developing the Transport strategy have engaged us early in the formation of the strategy and have promised further engagement, which will take place in May. As seen from the case study at section 5.6 The Invest in Renfrewshire team have responded to our input with changes to its services to improve accessibility. The Events team have responded to our input with changes to its services to improve accessibility and communication. The staff leading the wider Renfrewshire Affordable Credit Alliance have responded positively to our suggestions about how better to reach people in need (through community-based agencies). Changes to school meals have been made in response to our input by the schools’ meals service, including provision of more vegetarian options. Changes have been made in response to our input by the Events team in the way in which events have been promoted and alterations have been made to enhance accessibility. The Fairer Renfrewshire team have brought in some services to talk to us about its priories for making Renfrewshire fairer, but we are looking to further our reach over the next few months, engaging, for example, Youth Services and Housing as part of our priorities. The Fairer Renfrewshire team’s promotion of us as a useful input led to significant engagement with the Health and Social Care Partnership based on the results of the Health and Wellbeing Survey, and further engagement is planned. The Housing team appear not to be able to lead on wider strategy which includes all the social housing providers, however we hope to work with the
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 23 of 34 Fairer Renfrewshire team to gain traction with RSLs in Renfrewshire and ultimately improve local social housing. Actions have been agreed by representatives of Environmental Housing and Infrastructure, digital inclusion services, social work, Engage Renfrewshire, the Partnerships and Inequalities team and One Ren have made commitments because of the officer/elected representative event with us and FROG members. The HSCP has determined to pursue ‘Housing as a Health Issue’ as an existing priority in response to the need for a Renfrewshire strategy to contribute to Renfrewshire being fairer. The Council has engaged well with us, and we feel our input is regarded as valuable by the Council. We feel we are being listened to, however are keen to extend our influence and are keen to contribute to strategic planning around making Renfrewshire Fairer, supporting the identification of objectives for this work and the development of a strategic plan which brings together all the work to make Renfrewshire Fairer. We feel that we should be invited provide representatives to talk to the Fairer Renfrewshire sub-committee, if not actually be members of it. We have considered its knowledge and skill base and has determined that it will seek training in: • information and communication technology • communication skills • consideration of different options for structure; and • committee skills. We have considered the benefits of finding out about other similar work elsewhere and are there lessons we can learn from it.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 24 of 34 Dundee has a Fairness Action Plan the objectives for which community planning partners collaborate and for which a report is available for 2023/43. The Fairness Action Plan focusses on the main priorities of: • Work and Wages Reduce • Benefits and Advice • Attainment and Child Poverty • Social Inclusion and Stigma • Health and Inequalities • Housing and Communities From the Dundee Partnership: “The Fairness Leadership Panel is now firmly established as a driving force in the Dundee’s efforts to reduce poverty for children, families, and communities. The Panel is a full and effective collaboration between people with lived experience of the impact of low incomes and representatives of influential bodies and groups in the city. The perspective of 'experts by experience' on the Fairness Leadership Panel is provided by members of Dundee Fighting for Fairness (DFFF). This is a charitable group made up of community members who participated in the Dundee Fairness Commissions. They are supported by Faith in Community Dundee which has detailed expertise in this area and an ongoing relationship with the former community commissioners. The funding required to support and develop DFFF continues to be provided jointly by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Dundee City Council.”4 Dundee’s work is like ours but has more structure and is based around priorities and work set in partnership with the lived experience group Dundee Fighting for Fairness. 3 https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/24_june_lcpar_24_report.pdf 4 https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/dundee-partnership/fairness
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 25 of 34 We and the Fairer Renfrewshire team could learn from an exchange of approaches and experience with our counterparts in Dundee. End Poverty Edinburgh is a lived experience group that grew from a Poverty Commission. It “is a group of independent citizens aiming to raise awareness of poverty in Edinburgh, influence decision-making, and hold the city to account. Formed in 2020 during the latter stages of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission - and supported by the Poverty Alliance - End Poverty Edinburgh has three core aims: • Working with the Council, the Edinburgh Partnership and others, from the outset to share their wealth of experience. • Holding those who have the power to account by influencing decision- making and providing advice and guidance. • Working with other groups and organisations working to tackle poverty in the city to lend our support and share their experiences.”5 Edinburgh has an End Poverty in Edinburgh Plan which focusses on the main priorities: • Increasing incomes from work and opportunities to progress • Maximising support from social safety nets • Reducing the Cost of Living • Making it easier to find help We and the Fairer Renfrewshire team could learn from an exchange of approaches and experience with our counterparts in Edinburgh. Renfrewshire Council does not involve its lived experience panel in overall planning and evaluation to make Renfrewshire Fairer but has committed to doing so. 5 https://www.povertyalliance.me/epe/
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 26 of 34 Renfrewshire’s Community Plan includes a commitment to fairness and a focus within that on • Ensuring our children get the best possible start in life • Addressing the poverty related attainment gap, and young people can achieve success after school • Identifying people’s needs early, by sharing information and working together • Tackling health inequalities and narrowing the gaps in healthy life expectancy • Reducing drug and alcohol misuse in our communities • Ensure that people currently facing disadvantage get access to opportunities to improve their health, skills, and income. Edinburgh’s plan firmly focusses on poverty. Dundee’s plan is about ‘fairness,’ as is Renfrewshire’s. Like Renfrewshire, the focus is on poverty, but health and housing are also prominent. Edinburgh, Dundee, and Renfrewshire all engage with lived experience panels to inform priorities. Dundee and Edinburgh include lived experience panels in the planning and evaluation processes. Renfrewshire’s Community Plan states some aspirations towards fairness but does not set out the major work and milestones needed towards attaining it, and it was not developed with a lived experience panel, unlike the plans of Edinburgh and Dundee in addressing poverty and unfairness. Self-evaluation is not just an empty exercise but one in which we’re able to consider progress and impact to inform future work. To this end, we have discussed and agreed what we consider priority areas for work to make Renfrewshire fairer, what we know at this stage of council priorities for our
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 27 of 34 engagement with the Fairer Renfrewshire work, and what we feel should be our own development priorities. These are listed below: Our priorities for work to make Renfrewshire fairer are: While we have not been able to make progress in its aim of lived experience contributing to an all-Renfrewshire strategy for social housing, involving all the social landlords who hold and could potentially build stock in the area, it remains one of our priorities. Without everyone having somewhere to live in reasonable conditions, there is no fairness. We have among our members current experience of living in social and private rented accommodation, of being homeless and of living in substandard accommodation, for example in damp homes. We intend to work with Renfrewshire Council to support better housing across RSLs in Renfrewshire. Despite lack of legal obligation to do so, we would still like to see the Council take a lead on developing with all the RSLs an all- Renfrewshire strategy and plan to develop more and improved social housing. Fairness requires long term investment and the longest-term investment the Council can make is in young people. We have as members parents of young people who have seen, over the years, a deterioration in the extent of services supporting young people. A priority for the coming year is to meet with the Council officers responsible for youth services and youth work strategy and move this work forward as it has been a Panel priority for us for two years
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 28 of 34 While we are aware that young people are involved in consultation about some aspects of provision for teenagers, we would like to contribute to the development of the Community Learning and Development Plan to support the development of youth services. Many of us have direct experience of mental health challenges, themselves frequently a consequence of poverty, and of the lack of support available to meet needs. The impact of significant mental health challenges is long term and adversely affects the ability to take advantage of potential for economic and social development, which is a fairness issue. While we have been able to comment on the findings of the Health and Social Care Partnership’s Health and Wellbeing Survey, we would like the opportunity to discuss and inform the development of Renfrewshire’s approach to providing support for those with mental health challenges. Our members include people with experience of becoming New Scots and of living and working with New Scots. We recognise the immense barriers to participation in social and economic life in Renfrewshire faced by people from other cultures, often with language barriers which multiply difficulties. We think it a vital aspect of work to make Renfrewshire fairer for all, and we would like to understand and contribute to work which supports people from elsewhere to integrate into Renfrewshire life. We are advised that a new post has been recruited within Renfrewshire council which will have the remit of supporting New Scots and contributing to work to support New Scots to settle in, live in and contribute to Renfrewshire remains one of our highest priorities.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 29 of 34 Lack of access to private transport and inadequate public services significantly disadvantages people in poverty and on low incomes, particularly in rural areas, in participation in social and economic life. We have been successful in contributing to the early development of Renfrewshire’s transport strategy, and will soon be able to see an early draft. This remains a high priority for us. As charges for waste collection begin to be imposed and collections reduced, the impact on people on low incomes and without access to private transport is disproportionately high. We would like to the opportunity to understand current strategies and plans and to inform service heads of the impact of changes to services. We recognise that it is the areas most affected by poverty which are mostly likely to be affected by issues such as anti-social behaviour and dog fouling. We would like to understand the Council’s approach to its community safety and neighbourhoods6 work in the context of work to make Renfrewshire fairer. One of the consistent themes of our discussions is the need to effectively communicate the availability of support to people who need it and the Council’s communication strategy is an are which the Council has prioritised for discussion with us. We think that the Council website should signpost to all commonly sought support services. However, whenever a Council or partner service is talking to us about ‘reaching’ people in need to provide support, we have the same message – 6 https://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/article/2121/Community-safety-and-your-neighbourhood
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 30 of 34 the question is about information about support reaching people and people being able to reach the support. Our perspective is based on one of our common experiences – if services are to be reachable for people in need who very often have reasonable suspicion of authority based on personal experiences of disadvantage, then information about the support and signposting to it is dependent on working with community-based, rather than area-wide or national organisations. People can best get support through people they already trust, so organisations and services rooted in geographic communities, with local staff and local trust relationships are the best placed to deliver information and signpost support. This requires support for agencies’ capacity to develop services in a manner that develops the local trust relationship which enable people to request support where available. While lack of funding may hinder small voluntary organisations in their development, part time community development training and support should be provided. We would like to understand and contribute to strategies and plans to develop local capacity to enable local reach to support services. We are committed to a fairer Renfrewshire, and we welcome the Council’s commitment in principle to making Renfrewshire fairer. We exist as a group because Renfrewshire Council wants to understand the experience of people who know poverty and other forms of disadvantage when developing services, so that unfairness in the distribution of life chances is not made worse, and in places improved on.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 31 of 34 In November 2024, the Fairer Renfrewshire sub-committee considered and noted a report from the Fairer Renfrewshire Officers’ Group which reported that: “The Panel would like to contribute to the development of a draft plan to make Renfrewshire Fairer which: • States the ambition of Renfrewshire Council for a Fairer Renfrewshire; • Outlines the contributions (what, when, who, review date) of Renfrewshire Council’s services towards making Renfrewshire Fairer; • Outlines the major contributions (what, when, who, review date) of Renfrewshire Council’s key partners; • Outlines the contribution (what, when, who, review date) of community-led services towards Renfrewshire being fairer, and the support for the development of community-led services towards this aim; and • Sets out the oversight and accountability arrangements for delivery of the plan. We see this as the sub-committee’s tacit approval of our aspirations to contribute to the development of a strategic plan to make Renfrewshire fairer. Our fairness priorities include services for young people, services for New Scots and capacity building. The Council’s priorities for work with us for a fairer Renfrewshire include digital inclusion. Supporting the development of an area-wide housing strategy to contribute to fairness for Renfrewshire is community capacity building. Developing local agencies’ ability to provide bridges between support and people in need is community capacity building. Including lived experience in the development of a Transport or Events Strategy is community capacity building. Supporting New Scots to settle and be part of Renfrewshire is capacity building. All of the work we’ve been engaged in has involved learning – for us and the people we’ve talked to. The logical place for Fairer Renfrewshire strategy and planning, and the place in which the links between contributions to a fairer Renfrewshire can be
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 32 of 34 most easily made is as a part of the Community Plan, but we would like to see detail which ‘outlines the contributions (what, when, who, review date’) of the council, partner services and community-led services towards making Renfrewshire Fairer’. It remains a high priority that we push for involvement in an overall plan for the work of the Council and its partners to make Renfrewshire fairer. This evaluation report will help in discussions with the Fairer Renfrewshire team about both our and their priorities. We are currently anticipating further involvement in the transport strategy development, in the development of a communications strategy, further engagement with the Events strategy team and with the digital inclusion team, developing Renfrewshire’s Food Plan and delivery of the Plan for Net Zero. This report is only our contribution towards what we’d like to see as a workplan development with the Fairer Renfrewshire team. We recognise that as a panel, in addition to ordinary involvement with the Fairer Renfrewshire team and their internal partners we have major tasks to complete as well as development needs which include: We will considerably develop our understanding of where we are and where next to focus work with the council through discussion of this report with the Fairer Renfrewshire team and the chair and vice chair of the sub-committee. We will seek to develop a workplan with the Fairer Renfrewshire team to support planning.
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 33 of 34 We will complete the workplan development by end May 2025. With the Fairer Renfrewshire team, we will develop a Code of Conduct by end May 2025. We will evaluate our progress in developing as a panel in due course and reassess needs. We will conduct another self-evaluation exercise in February 2026. We can and will get better at recording progress against priorities to support self-evaluation in the future. We will develop a format for progress recording and make it available to panel members, the STAR Project and the Fairer Renfrewshire team We will agree and subsequently use a format for progress recording and development by end May 2025. We have confirmed both that we feel the advantages of informal organisation outweigh those of structured hierarchy but will consider alternatives. We will reconsider alternative structures by end August 2025. We are committed to doing our own research as much as is practicable. We have identified needs for skills and knowledge. We will organise training:
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Fairer Renfrewshire Panel Self-Evaluation April 2025 Page 34 of 34 • To develop skills in Information and Communication Technology by end May 2025. • To understand Data Protection and Confidentiality issues by beginning May 2025, to inform the development of a Code of Conduct by end May 2025 • We will organise Committee Skills training by end September 2025 • We exchange experiences with other lived experience panels in Scotland during 2025, to inform the next self-evaluation in February 2026. We will seek more engagement in Council buildings rather than always hosting meetings, not least to put Council and partner staff at ease. We will explore with the Fairer Renfrewshire team support for greater visibility in the Council by end May 2025. Fairer Renfrewshire Lived Experience Panel April 2025