ILF Scotland welcomed more than 60 attendees to our first Re-Opening Co-Production Event at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh.
The event on Tuesday 12 December was arranged to gather the views of disabled people, their representative organisations and key stakeholders. Attendees included existing ILF Scotland recipients, charitable / not for profit organisations, Local Authorities, Scotland Advisory Group members, and representatives from the Scottish Government.
In September, the First Minister Humza Yousaf MSP announced in his first Programme for Government that “The Scottish Government will provide an initial £9 million in 2024-25 to enable up to 1,000 additional disabled people with the most complex needs to access the support they need and deserve to live independent lives.”
The Scottish Government and ILF Scotland established a co-production working group to help them develop the policies for a re-opened ILF. This group consists of disabled people, representatives from Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), Third Sector organisations, Local Authorities, and other key stakeholders.
This Group will make recommendations on re-opening to the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport. As part of that process, they wanted to hear directly from people who are interested in the re-opening of the fund so that they could take account of their views as part of their recommendations.
To that end, they agreed to host a series of six events, and the Murrayfield Stadium event was the first of these.
The event began with an introduction from Peter Scott, Chief Executive Officer of ILF Scotland, who said: “I want to thank all of the disabled people, and their organisations, who have worked so hard in recent years to secure the re-opening of the Independent Living Fund.
“Thanks in no small part to their work, the recent Programme for Government announcement provides us with an opportunity in the coming years to enable thousands of Scotland’s most disabled people to live more independently, to improve their lives, and to contribute to their communities.
“We understand that disabled people have faced enormous challenges in recent years – through the pandemic, the cost of living crisis, and the crisis in social care.
“Within this context we do not underestimate our responsibility to make a success of the re-opened ILF, and ensure we maximise its impact for the benefit of our disabled citizens who face the greatest barriers to independent living.
“Thank you for helping us with this important task.”
Attendees took part in a series of group discussion sessions during the day, and gave their views on key policy considerations such as:
A graphic facilitator captured an illustration of the outcomes of these discussions and the questions from the floor, and we will publish this on our website shortly.
You can keep up to date on all the news on the re-opening of ILF at our dedicated website page.
The Co-Production Events are a key part of the process to allow disabled people, DPOs and other interested stakeholders an opportunity to have their say on shaping the re-opened fund.
The next events will take place at:
To attend one of these events, you can register via Eventbrite.
You can also call to book your place and speak to us on our general enquiry line 0300 200 2022, or you can email Geraldine Higgins at Geraldine.Higgins@ilf.scot
Those who book to attend an event will receive more details about what will happen on the day, including the policy areas we will discuss and the questions we will ask.
Please let us know if there is any support that we can provide or anything that we can do to ensure our events are fully accessible for you.
Please check our Events page or follow ILF Scotland’s social media channels for up-to-date information about all our forthcoming events.
