Steering Group Meeting -

Thank you to the members of the review Steering Group who were able to attend the meeting at Trochry on Wednesday, 25 January.

We are making good progress but the pressure is building to bring our ideas together into a final form.      However, the way forward to complete the development of the revised Code is becoming clearer, and this is the proposed programme for issuing further versions of the Code for comment:

• A revised draft will be prepared for issue by 31 January 2017.  
• This will incorporate the discussion at the meeting and other minor amendments.
• This version will be sent to all the delegates attending the first three workshops.
• The feedback from these workshops will be considered, and other amendments or additional drafting will be introduced to the Code, at this stage.
• A further revised draft will be issued to all delegates attending the workshop at Battleby on 14 March.
• A final version of the Code, for submission to the Scottish Government, will be prepared after the Battleby meeting.  
• The Steering Group will be asked to provide input to this final version during a meeting that will be organised in late March. 

We start the workshop programme on 7 February at Carfraemill,  and we have a good mix of delegates attending all the workshops.  I reminded the Steering Group that the purpose of these workshops is to gather views of practitioners about the Code, and I am aiming to establish what practitioners want from the Code. We will then compare this with the revised version that we have produced.

There is plenty still to do, but I am encouraged by the enthusiasm for developing the revised Code  from the members of the Steering Group, and as demonstrated by the number of people wishing to attend the workshops.