Redress Scotland last week held its 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) which brought together Redress Scotland staff, panel members, the leadership team, non-executive directors and representatives from Scottish Government to discuss the organisation’s third year in operation.
Attendees were welcomed by Redress Scotland Chair Kirsty Darwent before a video message from Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, Kate Forbes was played. Ms Forbes shared her commitment to ensuring that the scheme continues to empower survivors by adopting a trauma-informed approach and acknowledged that we all need to do more to ensure that the process of receiving redress is as swift as possible for survivors.
Redress Scotland’s annual report and accounts for 2023/24 were then reviewed before Rachael Boyle, Engagement Lead, and Kristen Goodman, Panel Support Coordinator, presented a session on survivor engagement. This session looked back at the different online and in-person events over the past 12 months, as well as general feedback from survivors contacting Redress Scotland.
Wellbeing activities were then followed by group work on cyber security scenarios, before closing comments from deputy chair Bill Matthews.
Redress Scotland Chair, Kirsty Darwent, shares her thoughts on the meeting:
“It was really pleasing to see so many people at our AGM where survivors were at the heart of our focus. This was emphasised in our survivor engagement session which gave great insight into the work Redress Scotland is doing with survivors and featured positive feedback from those who have gone through the application process.
“Additionally, it was great to hear the Deputy First Minister reaffirm her commitment to the scheme and share her praise for Redress Scotland staff and panel members for their work. We are now looking forward to continuing this with a key focus on bringing down determination waiting times in 2025.”
