Minutes for SIG meeting (Scotland) - 1 September 2020

Time: 14:00 – 16:00

Location: Microsoft Teams

Chair: Phil Mackie (PM), (Scottish Public Health Network – ScotPHN)

Attendees:

• Mike Callaghan (MC) (COSLA)
• Ann Conacher (AC) (ScotPHN)
• Cath Cooney (CC) (ABSG)
• Morris Fraser (MF) (Scottish Government)
• Anna van der Gaag Gaag (AVDG) (Advisory Board for Safer Gambling - ABSG)
• Michelle Gillies (MG) (ScotPHN)
• William Griffiths (WG) (ALLIANCE)
• Ryan Hughes (RH) (ScotPHN)
• Raymond Lynch (RL) (SOLAR)
• Mark McAllister (MMcA) (COSLA)
• Inspector Kenny Ramsay (KR) (Police Scotland)
• Helen Rhodes (HR) (Gambling Commission)
• Fiona Stewart (FS) (SOLAR)

Gambling Commission staff names other than for Leadership Team members have been redacted.

1. Introductions

Introductions were made. New members explained their role.

2. Minutes from the last meeting

The Group went through the minutes from the last meeting noting the following:

• due to COVID-19, some actions from the last meeting were outstanding and would be carried forward
• action 4.1 (i) was highlighted specifically as the Group recognised the need to understand what is relevant to Scotland, to generate activity.

The Group agreed that the themes previously agreed for discussion at this meeting would be carried forward to a future meeting.

The Group agreed to publish the minutes of the previous meeting and requested that a Register of Members’ Interests also be collated and published.

Actions: Gambling Commission to publish minutes on the National Strategy microsite and create a register of member’s interests for the Group. All outstanding actions from the previous meeting to be brought forward. (See Annex A).

3. Updates on progress and developments since the last meeting

As there had been a significant gap since the last meeting in February, the Group received a paper on key developments since then.

The Group reflected on individual organisations’ experience throughout the response to COVID-19. In Scotland there is a commitment to improve rather than revert to the pre-COVID-19 state.

AVDG highlighted specific areas from the ABSG Progress Report to the Group including the need to accelerate progress on Lived Experience involvement. Scotland could act as role model, informing and influencing development across the rest of GB.

The Group agreed that these are common challenges with complex public health problems. It was noted that a key role is to identify national and local metrics to measure gambling harms, aligned to Scotland’s Public Health Priorities.

Public Health Scotland’s Strategy is set around the six Public Health Priorities. A whole system approach was being adopted to take forward implementation actions for these priorities, and it was important to highlight and affirm how gambling harm aligns to and should be embedded within each priority, with metrics and data to support measurement of progress. It was noted that there is no direct Scotland equivalent of the Public Health Outcomes Framework (for England).

The Group discussed the City of Glasgow Project and how targeted action to reduce gambling harms adopts this whole system approach with a wide range of stakeholders, public health oversight, Board community and client partnership.

4. Discussion on the themes and recommendations of recent reports into gambling regulation and gambling harms

The Group agreed that in taking forward priority actions to reduce gambling harm they could not lose sight of these issues around regulatory reform. It was noted that local government and public health teams have an interest as well as national.

Arising from these reports, the discussion moved onto the Gambling Act review, and how the Group could input into this review, through the Scottish Government, to address issues with some of the current legislation which hinders compliance with the Act.

Actions: ScotPHN to lead conversations to support the changes required in Scotland to feed into the review of legislation, working with the Scottish Government to consider how stakeholders can come together. MF/PM to investigate the links with the Health and Justice Collaboration Programme Board.

5. Embedding Lived Experience engagement

WG gave an update on the ALLIANCE’s work to establish a Lived Experience forum to support Strategy implementation in Scotland. Deliverables include:

• planning and delivering regional events to inform the forum
• ‘digital voices’ to contribute to evidence base and raise awareness of harms ‘humans of Scotland’ stories.

Discussion turned to several key themes that were emerging from the local and national lived experience engagement. The group reflected on the need for a more active role to be taken by Scottish Government. There was an identified need to develop research capacity to engage people with lived experience on policy, practice, and the research agenda.

Discussions led back to the Three Horizons work. The group considered how to translate the Action Map into actions for Scotland and explored the role of local government and those who are essential to delivery (for example colleagues in licensing and regulation).

Action: Police Scotland to think about how to involve a Children’s and Young Person’s lead, to support lived experience engagement and links to the Violence Reduction Unit on their public health approach.

6. Agree next steps and plans for future meetings

The key actions identified were:

• all outstanding actions from the previous meeting to be brought forward (see Annex A)
• Gambling Commission to edit the minutes from the previous meeting and publish these on the National Strategy microsite
• Gambling Commission to create a Register of Members’ Interests ScotPHN to lead conversations to support changes required in Scotland to feed into the review of legislation, working with the Scottish Government to consider how stakeholders can come together
• MF/PM to investigate links with the Health and Justice Collaboration Programme Board
• Police Scotland to think about how to involve a Children’s and Young Person’s lead, to support lived experience engagement and links to the Violence Reduction Unit on their public health approach
• ScotPHN and GC to circulate the draft minutes for comment
• ScotPHN to continue to chair and host for the short-medium term and facilitate handover to Public Health Scotland.

The themes agreed for discussion at the next meeting were:

• suicide evidence and prevention
• academic engagement in Scotland
• engagement with Prevention and Education bodies in Scotland.

Annex A – Outstanding Actions from the February Meeting

The key actions identified were:

• group to provide further commentary on the implementation actions map to note gaps, opportunities for collaboration, and priorities.

The themes agreed for discussion at the next meeting were:

• lived experience engagement - from both the gambling perspective as well as learning from successful models such as Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit - suicide prevention – considering existing research and knowledge base, applicability of that research to Scotland, translation of evidence into policy, recording of suicide in Scotland, existing prevention activities, and priorities for collaboration and action
• engagement structures for academics in Scotland.