Our Ref : ceo\admin\dugdale01 Kezia' Dugdale MSP The Scottish Parl iame nt EDINBURGH EH991SP Your Ref: Date: 24 Au gus t 2011 - - - - , 1 -- .- Dear \\...e~~ ~ - - -- - - - ~ - - - - - - Thank you for your let ter whi ch I r eceived by email on 23 August 2011 regarding the con sul tat ion on th e Commi ssi oning Pla n for Advic e, Sup port and Acc ommod ati on Serv ices to Prevent Homelessness. It may hel p if I exp lai n the cont ext . The draf t commis sio nin g pla n was sub ject to consultati on from 24 May to 6 July 2011. The consul tati on pr ocess was ov er seen by a Ch ec kpoi nt Gr oup of ext erna l st ak eh ol ders. Mo st of the co mments on th e commissionin g plan were submitted electronicall y or were rec eiv ed from focus groups. However , on the day consul tat ion ended, 38 survey responses were hand del ivered to Wav erely Court. Unlike the rest of the survey responses these responses dis agr eed wit h vir tua lly al l of the pro pos als in t he con sul tat ion quest ion nai re. The Che ckp oin t Gro up were of the vie w that these res pon ses nee ded to be exp lor ed fur ther and help the Checkpoint Group und ers tan d the opp osi tio n towards, for exa mple, a foc us on pr eventi ng homele ssn ess. To al low these voi ces to be heard the Chec kpo int Gro up ask ed that the sur vey res pon dants be con tac ted to try t o understand what was behind thei r opposition to the propos als. It was the view of the Che ckp oi nt Gro up tha t two furth er foc us gro ups , one duri ng the day and another in the evening, should be offered to the people who had submitted res ponses on 6 Jul y 2011. These foc us gro ups were held at the off ices of Chec kpo int Gro up member s and independent member s of the Ch eckpoint Group attended the se to ens ure any one att endin g had tha t reassuran ce of ind epe nde nt scr uti ny. No sur vey res pondents attended either focus gro up. You wil l app reciate tha t thes e wer e ver y unu sua l cir cumstances but t he Check point Gro up were kee n to under sta nd the vi ews of this signifi cant number of respondents. ../2 Sue B ruce, Ch ief Exe cutive Wave rley Court , 4 Ea st Marke t Str eet, Edinbu rgh EH8 8 SG Tel 01314 6930 02 Fax 0131 46930 10 [email protected] r"'1, INVESTORS ~~" IN PEOPLE