Good morning, everyone, and thanks very much for having us all along to have this discussion. The voluntary sector engaged with the Smith commission with great enthusiasm. It was a very intense period of work and the voluntary sector had a lot to say on all the subjects that eventually emerged in the commission’s report. For the record—we have been open about it in the public press and elsewhere—we found doing this kind of work in that very intense and quick way quite frustrating. It did not allow us to engage with the people whom we represent and involve them in the thorough way that we would have liked.
Everybody who engaged did so thoroughly and with a lot of enthusiasm, because this is such an important set of issues, but we need to create the space for discussion about what is appropriate governance for Scotland and for Scottish society and people, wherever they are, in whichever communities. We are seeking a new type of politics and, if the general question is about content, it is important that we make that point.
On the conclusions that the commission arrived at and the content of the report, the summary is that we are happy with some elements and not happy with others, where things that the voluntary sector called for have not been addressed or even mentioned in some instances. I am sure that colleagues here will talk more about this as the meeting progresses, but the key thing about welfare is coherence and whether the things that are detailed in the report have the correct dividing line and whether, given the interconnectedness of the range of benefits that people can access, they can be supported and delivered in practice.
There is work yet to be done, which we in the third sector would very much like to be involved in. We do not think that it should be a politician-to-politician or official-to-official type of engagement. We have expertise on how these kinds of issues will affect people in practice, and we would like to be involved in it.
A third bundle of issues is those things on which the Smith commission has suggested that further powers should be devolved. We have a key interest in ensuring that that is expedited, where appropriate. A key example is employability, as part of the package of welfare services. We know that the work programme is not delivering for people in Scotland—nor, in our opinion, is it delivering for people in the rest of the UK. However, we know that the programmes, projects and activities that the third sector delivers and supports in Scotland do work and do help people. The statistics prove it. That is particularly the case for people who might be considered as being the furthest away from the labour market—those who have been called the hardest to help. We do help, and we do get people into productive employment. We would like work to be done as soon as possible to ensure that resources can be transferred to the kinds of activities that we undertake so as to make that sort of work happen as quickly as possible.
Those are the three main areas that I wished to highlight.