Commissioners helping with training of Civil Servants

THE Poverty Truth Commission has been invited to lead sessions about our work for Civil Servants from the Scottish Government as part of their 'Policy Environment in Scotland' Training. Over the past year, a number of our commissioners have participated in this training, sharing their experiences of being involved in the Commission and encouraging officials to involve people affected by the policies being made in policy making processes.

Commissioner Maureen McGinn commented "We had been invited to participate because civil servants are interested in knowing about our way of working. Although this was the last slot in a long day, there was a warm welcome and lively participation in the opening exercise, designed to break down barriers and formal roles.  Carol and I spoke about our experiences as members of the PTC, answered questions and discussed ways to go beyond normal outreach and consultation processes so that people living in poverty are involved fully in developing policy solutions and their voices are heard. The invitation to be part of this training demonstrates the Scottish Government's support for the PTC. If invited to do this again, the main change Carol and I would make would be to show a short extract of the PTC opening event, so that even more commissioners can be heard."

We are very excited to have this opportunity to share our model with those from the Scottish Government and will continue to offer our story to their training programme.