This is an Easy Read set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

It is a set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

In this document the Independent Living Fund Scotland is ILF Scotland for short.

This meeting happened at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.

It happened from 11am to 3pm on 11 December.

Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee will record the minutes.

Everyone introduced themselves and said what their job was in the group or in ILF Scotland.

The minutes were checked and agreed.

There were no other issues in the last minutes.

An action from the last meeting for Lee to share Policy 41 Flexible Funding with the Advisory Group has been done.

There was nothing new to add to the agenda.

Jill and Joan talked about research into Personal Assistant (PA for short) work being done by Glasgow University.

Lisa is a student leading the project.

Lisa introduced her work to the PA Programme Board.

The Group agreed that the research will be useful as it will support ways to make this part of social care better.

The Group agreed to invite Lisa to speak at the next meeting in March 2026 to share what her research has found out so far.

Lee will send out the flyer Lisa has made with information about the course she is involved in.

Group members should contact Lisa if they would like to take part.

ILF Scotland staff will put the flyer on social media.

Linda said Tom Arthur MSP - Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing - could not come to today’s meeting in person.

The Group decided to have a meeting with the Minister on 20 January on Zoom.

Lee will send out information to all members about the meeting and how to join it.

Jim said the Group must keep introductions short at the meeting so there is more time to talk about things.

The meeting will last for 30 minutes.

Linda will send members an agenda and briefing.

At a review visit an Assessor visits a person who gets ILF funding to check:

• if they are getting their money okay
• if the money is helping them to live independently

Linda said all review visits are up to date but there are still problems with:

• recruitment of PAs – this means how employers advertise jobs and choose people to do them

• complicated ways of doing reviews
• high costs from organisations that provide PAs

Peter asked if people had any budget cuts from their council:

• Stuart’s funding was stopped for 2 years after a visit from an Occupational Therapist

• Justina did not have much contact with her council when her son left hospital
• Joan’s council tried to take 5 thousand pounds from her Direct Payments account, which she fought against and won

Joan would like ILF Scotland to be responsible for Direct Payments Option 1 instead of councils.

New people who are getting ILF money have given positive feedback and said it is making a big difference to their lives.

Feedback means to say what they think about things.

We hope that 1 thousand 4 hundred people will have applied to the fund by the end of the year.

Peter said that ILF Scotland is waiting to hear what money it will get in 2026.

1. Co-Production Working Group policy

• there is now an unpaid care part in the re-opened fund

• fund limits are still:
  • 8 hundred pounds
  • 4 hundred and 85 pounds if there is a lot of unpaid care from a live in carer

• money from the Scottish Government’s Disability Equality Plan will pay for a project to test applications from Disabled Person’s Organisations (DPOs) to ILF Scotland to see if they work well.

The pilot project will start in April 2026 for a year.

ILF Scotland have 5 applications from DPOs and we will decide about them in January.

The Policy Team are looking at how policies link between the re-opened fund and the 2015 fund about:

• age range
• disability benefits like DLA

• the capital threshold – this means the amount of money a person can own in assets – the things they own that have value like money or a house.

Linda will say how well this is going at the next Advisory Group meeting.

2. Karen talked about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) work:

• on 11 key areas in the plan
• with young people aged 15 to 18 on the Transition Fund

• with the Scottish Youth Parliament
• child-friendly communications and training, including a short online course about child rights

Karen will share progress at the next Advisory Group meeting.

In April 2026 ILF Scotland will report on progress on meeting the UNCRC rules for 2025 to 2026.

Linda said the Board and the Scottish Government have approved ILF Scotland’s Strategic Plan 2025 to 2028 and it is on the ILF Scotland website.

The Board also approved the Feedback Strategy and Service Charter.
Emma is looking at ways for people including the Advisory Group to give feedback.

We will hear about 2 new Board appointments soon: 1 from Northern Ireland and 1 from Scotland.

Another person is being considered to work on the Transition Fund.

We talked about the agenda for the next Joint Advisory Group meeting.

How people employ and keep PAs is still very important.

Linda suggested that the meeting could include:

• ways for people to give feedback
• discussion about Award Management

The Group agreed.

Jim said it was important that DPOs had funding so they can help people apply for the re-opened fund.

Linda said that Anne-Marie Monaghan will come to the next Scotland Advisory Group meeting in March 2026.

The Group would like to have a meeting with the full ILF Scotland Board.

Linda said the earliest this could happen would be April.

The next meeting will be in March 2026.

Lee will send out all meeting dates and times before January.

In 2026 the Group will have 2 in-person meetings, 1 online meeting in the summer and 1 online meeting at Christmas.

1. Lee will send out information about the PA Research Project.
2. ILF staff will put the flyer on social media.
3. Lee will send out information about the meeting with the Minister when we know what the time and date will be.
4. Linda will send out an agenda and briefing for members.
5. Lee will send out all meeting dates for 2026.

This is the end of these Minutes.

This is an Easy Read set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

In this document the Independent Living Fund Scotland is ILF Scotland for short.

The meeting was on 28 August from 11am to 1pm.

Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee will record the minutes.

The minutes were checked and agreed.

All the actions have been done including updates from the meeting with the then Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, Marie Todd.

There were no other issues in the last minutes.

An agenda is a list of things we will talk about at the meeting.

There was nothing new to add it.

The new Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing is Tom Arthur MSP.

Peter and Anne-Marie had a good meeting with him but there will not be much change to policies before the election.

Policies are the rules and agreements of an organisation.

Important issues are:

• having people who have been in care on the National Care Service Advisory Board
• stopping ILF available income charging of 43 pounds a week

An available income charge is an amount of money that a recipient pays towards their ILF amount.

ILF Scotland will write to the new Minister to tell him about the group and invite him to a future meeting.

This has now happened and the Minister has been invited to come to the December meeting.

At a review visit an assessor visits a person who gets ILF funding to check:

• if they are getting their money okay
• if the money is helping them to live independently

An assessor checks if something is working well.

ILF assessors are having longer more complicated visits because people who get ILF money are finding things difficult.

The re-opened Fund can give money to 1 thousand 400 people.

More than 1 thousand applications have been received and 6 hundred people are getting payments.

The most important issues are:

• employing and keeping Personal Assistants (PAs)
• assessors giving support when there is not enough council support

• social work services not having enough money and having to reassess people
• organisations giving back social care packages they think they are too small

• high costs from organisations that provide social care services

UNCRC (The United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child)

This will be discussed at the next meeting because of staff illness.

Flexible Funding (Policy 41)

People who get ILF money can now apply for one-off payments for things that support them to live independently.

The money must be for things that they agreed as part of their ILF Scotland award.

Group members think this is a good change and asked to get the policy link.

ILF Scotland Board Update

There are spaces for people on the Board and the Scottish Government is working on getting people for this.

Peter said the Board must have a mix of different kinds of people from different backgrounds.

The most important work for the Board is:

• getting more money for the Transition Fund

This is a grant of up to 4 thousand pounds for young, disabled people in Scotland to help them try something new and help them get active in their community.

It has stayed at 5 million pounds for 10 years even though more people are applying for money from the Fund.

• making sure the re-opened Fund can keep going and grow to have more than 1 thousand 4 hundred recipients

Charter for Involvement

The most important work is:

• PA recruitment and retention
• telling more people in colleges and job centres about the ILF

Kath will go to all meetings to make sure assessor work links with the work in the charter.

Feedback strategy and customer charter – this is our plan for listening to people who get ILF money to:

• understand their experiences
• use this information to make what we do better

The Group have checked a new version and ILF Scotland’s Senior Management Team and Board will approve them before they are put online.

A final version will be sent to members for feedback.

We talked about the difficulty of advertising for PAs across Scotland.

Indeed and MyJobScotland have different results across regions.

There has been some success getting PAs using local Facebook groups, Job Centres, Nextdoor.co.uk, and colleges and universities for recruiting students.

ILF staff will look at working with Skills Development Scotland, Job Centres, colleges and universities.

We know recruitment is difficult because of low pay, not enough training and agencies working in different ways.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 11 December including the Christmas meal.

Members would like to meet in central Glasgow near transport links.
ILF Scotland will email ideas about this.

There could be a joint November meeting with the Northern Ireland Advisory Group.

1. Lee will send out Policy 41 Flexible Funding to the Advisory Group

This is the end of these Minutes.

This is an Easy Read set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

In this document the Independent Living Fund Scotland is ILF Scotland for short.

The meeting was on 2 April from 11 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon.

Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee will record the minutes.

The minutes were checked and agreed.

The Communications Team will put them on the ILF website.

1. Lee will send out the terms of reference so group members can vote on who they want as Chair and Vice chair.

Terms of Reference explain the work of an organisation and how it will be done.

2. ILF Scotland will draft a letter for Jim to send to ministers to ask about timescales for removing Available Income charges.

Available Income charge is an amount of money that a recipient pays towards their ILF amount.

A Recipient is a person who gets ILF money.

Jim asked everyone to introduce themselves to Maree before starting the meeting.

Each group member described:

• how ILF Scotland money had made a difference to their life
• what they enjoyed doing in their life because of having the money

Jim will email Maree with anything that could not be covered in the time they had at the meeting.

Jim asked Maree if available income would be stopped.

Maree said thank you to everyone for their hard work to get the ILF Scotland fund re-opened.

The Scottish Government is still deciding about having non-residential care charges.

These are charges for anything other than personal care which is free.

Maree understands why the group are frustrated that this is taking a long time.

ILF Scotland funding will not be stopped while she is Minister for Health and Social Care.

It has been difficult to do the recommendations of the Feeley report – this was the review of adult social care in Scotland.

Recommendations are what a group thinks should happen.

We are working with COSLA and setting up an Advisory Board to help with this.

Maree would like more money to be put into Social Care across Scotland.

The Scottish Government cannot make social care better if local councils are not involved.

If nothing changes there will have to be a change in the way it is dealt with.

Jim asked if a Group Member would be on the Advisory Board.

Maree said the Board will be led by someone who has:

• lived experience – this means what they know based on the things they have experienced or gone through
• the right skills to deal with a group of people with different opinions

Maree said the Scottish Government wants social care workers to have higher pay.

Peter talked about the re-opened ILF Scotland fund.

It is the second year of the re-opened fund and there have been more than 7 hundred applications.

ILF Scotland will need to spend the money well and not spend more than is in the budget.

At a review visit an assessor visits a person who gets ILF funding to check:

• if they are getting their money okay
• if the money is helping them to live independently

An assessor checks if something is working well.

Robert said the assessor team did 1 thousand and 60 reviews in the last year.

The time for reviews to be done has come down to 1 hundred and 21 days.

It takes a long time for local councils to tell people what package of care they will get.

The re-opened fund now has 7 hundred and 93 applications which each take around 90 days to complete.

This is still too long.

PVG is short for Protecting Vulnerable Groups.

The PVG scheme checks if people have a criminal record and should not be working with children or adults at risk of harm.

Karen talked about the new PVG laws that started on 1 April 2025.

Personal Assistants (PAs) must join the PVG scheme and get a PVG before they have done their job for 3 months.

There is information on the ILF Scotland website about this.

Karen has asked members for any information about PAs joining the scheme.

All the feedback from the events is in a draft report for the Group to say what they think about it.

Linda said there will be a 10th Celebration event happening in June and the team are working on getting a place to have the event.

The next meeting is 29 May 2025.

There could be a joint November meeting with the Northern Ireland Advisory Group.

This is the end of these Minutes.

This is an Easy Read set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

In this document the Independent Living Fund Scotland is ILF Scotland for short.

This meeting was at the West Beer Brewery from 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon on 5 December.

Catherine Symington
Chloe McKee
Gordon Mckee
Linda Scott
Nic Reid
Stuart McCabe
Andy Higgins

Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee will record the minutes.

The minutes were checked and agreed.

The Communications Team will put them on the ILF website.

Harvey said ILF Scotland had 4 online events to make the 2025 to 2028 strategy in partnership with disabled people

There will be 1 in-person event in early 2025.

Harvey said about half of the planned attendees were there but they gave very good feedback.

The main things talked about were:

• unpaid care
• the threshold sum of the re-opened fund, which people think is a bit high.

A threshold sum is the amount of money a person must get from their Council to be able to get ILF.

• flexibility of funding – this means it can change to meet people’s changing needs
• how ILF Scotland can be more flexible

• recruitment of PAs - personal assistants
• difficulties faced by people living in rural areas – far from cities and towns

• the cost of living crisis – this means the cost of everyday things we need like food, clothes and heating is going up a lot

Terms of reference explain the work of our organisation and how it will be done.

Harvey talked about the terms of reference and how they give information about what is needed for a meeting and how to employ someone.

Lee will send the Terms of Reference to group members so they can vote for a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson.

Harvey said that there are 3 hundred and 67 applications to the re-opened fund.

Some councils have not put in any applications but Edinburgh and East Renfrewshire have the most applications.

Harvey said ILF Scotland assessors have spent a lot of time supporting councils with training and telling more people about the re-opened fund.

It has been difficult for councils to have staff available to:

• find people who should put in an application to the ILF
• support them to put in an application

The co-production working group would like voluntary organisations to support people with applications.

Harvey said having an unpaid care part in the threshold sum is being considered.

This would reduce the amount of Self Directed Support money that people need to have to get ILF money.

The average award is 2 hundred and 90 pounds a week.

The threshold sum review paper will be talked about at the next co-production meeting in early 2025.

The group asked if Citizen Advice Bureau or ILF Scotland staff could give support with applications.

Harvey said review visits are up to date.

Difficult things have been:

• availability of social workers for review meetings
• getting the right people at the meetings
• how people are paid and how awards are managed

Peter said there had been a reply to the letter sent to the Government about available income removal.

Available income is money that a recipient pays towards their ILF amount.

The letter said the Government want to remove available income charges but there is no agreed time for this to be done.

We will talk about this at the next meeting.

There was nothing else we needed to talk about.

The next meeting will be on 12 March 2025.

1. Lee will to send out the terms of reference so group members can vote to decide on Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson.
2. ILF Scotland will draft a letter for Jim to send to ministers about when Available Income charges will be stopped.

This is the end of these Minutes.

This is an Easy Read set of Minutes to say what happened at a meeting.

In this document the Independent Living Fund Scotland is ILF Scotland for short.

This meeting was on Zoom from 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon on 30 August.

Catherine Symington
Chloe McKee

Jim welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee will record the minutes.

The minutes were checked and agreed.

The Communications Team will put them on the ILF website.

Lee will send the presentation from Finbarr Fitzpatrick to the Group – this has been done

Linda and Peter will find out when contingency funds can be used

A contingency fund is money that is put aside to cover unexpected costs.

Jim and Peter will do this action as part of the PA Programme Group

Jim and Peter said there have been no more PA Programme Board meetings.

If members have any questions they should get in touch with Linda or Peter.

Linda said that Jim was elected in 2020 so we will need a new election.

This will be decided at the next meeting.

Peter said there have been 1 hundred and 53 applications.

The target in the first year is 1 thousand applications and we hoped to have around 3 hundred and 50 by now.

Peter said that Transition Fund applications took time to build up.

Peter said that only council Social Work staff can make applications.

There are not enough Social Work staff and this affects the number of applications.

The assessor teams have given local councils advice about how to apply.

ILF Scotland sent a letter to council leaders to remind them of the Fund and to tell them how many applications their area had made so far.

ILF assessors think there will be more applications in the second half of the year.

Peter said:

• people want to make their own applications rather than social workers doing it

• a lot of unpaid care is being provided which means that people do not meet the threshold sum to be able to apply

A threshold sum is the amount of money a person must get from their Council to be able to get ILF.

The sub-groups will keep meeting to look at these things.

Peter answered questions from Joan and Jim and said:

• if ILF money is not spent then it could be lost in the future
• at the moment ILF will not use the full 9 million pounds it has available

• the 8 hundred pounds a week threshold sum should not be lowered
• changing the threshold sum would not change the fact that councils do not have enough staff to do applications

• most people who put in successful ILF applications get around 2 thousand 2 hundred pounds a week of support from their council.

These applicants are already getting a lot of support.

Robert said most people do not know enough about:

• ILF Scotland and the re-opening of the fund
• the threshold sum and how it works

He hopes that contacting councils will make more applications happen.

Robert said review visits are going well.

They are happening:

• almost twice as quickly as this time last year
• nearly every 2 years

Councils are cutting money for respite and day centres.

This will affect people who get ILF but will also make it harder for councils to meet the threshold sum.

Lisa said:

• she joined ILF Scotland in January from a council
• not enough people know about ILF

• some council staff think the threshold is too high
• social work could not come to reviews and do paperwork on many cases she was involved in

Joan knows people who should apply to ILF but they do not want to contact Social Work.

Christine knows people who get less support or it has been completely stopped.

An assessor told Jim and his friend that they cannot use their payroll accountant.

ILF Scotland has a list of payroll providers that recipients can choose from.

Linda will talk to Robert about this.

Linda said the maximum ILF Scotland weekly award has gone up for Group 2 to 6 hundred pounds a week and Group 1 thousand pounds a week.

This makes it easier to deal with wages going up.

ILF Scotland can go over the maximum award and information about this is in Policy 20 Payments.

Karen will be at a staff session about Award Management and will talk about it at the next meeting in December.

Linda said the Government had said there will be no ILF Scotland charges by 2026.

Peter will try to get more information before the next Group meeting.

Clare Henry who has recently joined ILF Scotland will be working on case studies.

Any work with the PR agency will be completed including:

• the video of Joan’s PA
• a blog by Chloe and her PA

Linda said the campaign will be done using ILF staff skills so it will keep the cost down.

Lee will send the group information about a recruitment programme and social media PA campaign in South Lanarkshire.

Peter said that controls on spending by public bodies mean we cannot book the meeting and Christmas lunch in the hotel we had chosen.

Lee will look at other options.

Linda said there are some action points from the last meeting on 28 June 2024.

Lee will re-send the minutes from the last meeting and arrange a meeting for October.

Jim is worried that because PAs must get a Disclosure Scotland check and be members of the PVG Scheme it will limit choice and control.

Both these things check that someone working with children or vulnerable adults does not have a criminal record.

Gordon agrees with the scheme because it will make recruitment safer.

Linda said ILF Scotland will tell more people about the scheme soon.

The next meeting will be on 5 December 2024.

1. Peter will get a reply from the ScottishGovernment about ILF Scotland charges.
2. Lee will look at places for theChristmas lunch and meeting.
3. Lee will send out the minutes from the Joint Stakeholder Group and arrange the next meeting in October.

This is the end of these Minutes.

Who could not come to the meeting?

Joan Turner
Catherine Symington

Jim Elder-Woodward welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Everyone agreed to Lee recording the meeting.

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

Lee will give them to the communications team so they can put them on the website.

1. Linda and Peter will discuss and provide some clarity on the circumstances when contingency funds can be used.

2. Lee to share the presentation from Finbarr Fitzpatrick to the group.

Anne-Marie Monaghan introduced herself to the Advisory group and talked about her new role as chair of the board.

A meeting has been set up in early 2024 with the ILF Scotland assessors to discuss guidance about contingency funds.

Jim asked Peter if there is any UK Government money that has been allocated for ILF Scotland that has not been spent.

Peter said that ILF Scotland takes the money that it needs to spend from the Scottish Government.

It might not always take the full amount that is available for each year.

Peter said that the Scottish Government have promised to stop care charges.

Gordon felt it would be worth writing to the Scottish Government about this.

Peter has asked we invite Maree Todd to the next meeting in 2024 to answer these questions.

Peter said the Advisory Group’s letters and meetings with Government ministers were very important in the decision to reopen the ILF.

The fund will reopen in April 2024 with 9 million pounds.

Work has started on

• bringing new staff into the ILF team
• systems - how we work
• policies – the rules and agreements of the organisation

Consultation events have started.

Some Advisory Group members went to the first co-production event at Murrayfield in Edinburgh.

All the minutes from the event are on the website with information about January and February events.

A social return on investment (SROI) looks at the benefits of a project that are not just about money.

For example it could support people’s wellbeing, or help to reduce inequality.

Finbarr Fitzpatrick gave a presentation on the 2015 Fund evaluation.

The most important points were that ILF Scotland supports people
with independent living outcomes including:

• spending time with other people

• hobbies

• education

• healthy relationships

For every £1 spent on ILF £13 was made in social value – important outcomes that are not about money.

Harvey said the Scottish Parliament has been booked for the 28 March from 5.30pm to 7.30pm for the re-opening celebration event.

We have booked rooms at the Village Hotel in Edinburgh:

• for people staying over before the event

• for the Joint Stakeholder group meeting with dinner afterwards

Harvey said we should discuss the agenda with Jim and get a final version.

Justina asked if anyone had a Personal Assistant (PA) that was a member of the union.

No-one did.

Peter advised that the Scottish Government is interested in the PA network.
The network is hoping to get bigger.

Anne-Marie said a lot of work has been done on the Scottish PA network.

They are trying to start a place where PAs can get together.

They hope a discount card system will be set up to support PAs.

Lee will send out the dates for 2024.

Who could not come to the meeting?

Joan Turner

1. Welcome and Introductions

Jim Elder-Woodward welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Everyone agreed to Lee recording the meeting.

2. Minutes from previous meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

Lee will give them to the communications team so they can put them on the website.

Actions from previous meeting

1. Lee will talk with Alan Clarkson about starting the waiting room feature for our Advisory Group meetings on Zoom.

2. Linda will organise a separate meeting to discuss having a social return on investment exercise for the 2015 fund in Scotland.

A social return on investment looks at the benefits of a project that are not just about money.
For example it could support people’s wellbeing, or help to reduce inequality.

3. Advisory Group members to email what they think about the Strategic Outcomes document to Linda.

All these actions have been done.

3. Matters arising – what do we need to talk about?

Jim asked everyone to raise a hand on Zoom if they would like to make a point or ask a question.

4. Re-opening 2015 update - Jim Elder-Woodward

Peter said the Labour MSP Paul O’Kane has asked some questions in the Scottish Parliament about this.

These questions have been answered.

The Scottish Government have said that it is still checking that the fund has enough money to do its work before it can re-open.

The statements about engagement opportunities were from a meeting with Peter and the Chair of ILF Scotland’s Board and the Minister.

Peter said the Scottish Government has given just over 53 million pounds to the ILF 2015 Fund.

From 2016 to 2023 around 40 million pounds was not spent on ILF Scotland.

Nic suggested we ask the Scottish Government to say where this money was spent.

Julia asked if the Scottish Government was allowed to spend the 2025 fund on other things.

The Group agreed to ask the Minister this at the meeting on 25 September.

This meeting date has now been changed.

5. Personal Assistant (PA) conditions - Andy Higgins

Andy shared a paper with the Group about PA issues including:

• if PAs can be paid during their breaks

• PA travel

This asked if ILF Scotland could cover the taxi fare or mileage at 45 pence per mile for PAs to use their car when supporting a recipient to travel.

A recipient is a person who gets ILF money.

Mileage costs are how much money is paid for each mile of travel.

Nic said her PA had asked about mileage costs.

• PA wages

Andy would like all PAs to be paid 12 pounds an hour.

Julia said it is difficult for her to hire a PA because of the low wage.

People are more likely to work for supermarkets that pay more.

Christine said it is important to keep PAs so that recipients get support that stays the same.

Wages are the main things that makes it hard for people to keep PAs.

Gordon said he could not get PAs with experience when offering 10 pounds 90 pence an hour.

Christine asked if ILF Scotland could look at an ILF minimum wage that is separate from the Scottish Government care wage.

A minimum wage is the lowest amount of money you should be paid.

Linda and Peter will talk about this, and will explain at the next meeting how contingency funds can be used.

6. PA Programme Board Update - Jack Blaik

Jack said one of the recommendations from the review of adult social care (also called the Feeley review) is that:

• PAs should be more valued

Valued means that people think that they are important and recognise that they do a good job.

• the challenges that disabled people face when they are trying to hire and retain PAs should be recognised

Jack said the Programme Board are still talking about this.

Jack said the Scottish Government have agreed to deliver the 12 pounds an hour wage for PAs.

We do not know when this will happen.

Jack said it is difficult because there are different rates of pay across the 32 Scottish local councils.

A National Care Service would help to make this better.

Jack said there is a slight chance that the rules and registration of PAs could change.

Information about this could be in the independent review that ends in September 2023.

7. 2015 fund evaluation and social return on investment - Finbarr Fitzpatrick

Finbarr’s work will be very important in supporting the ILF Scotland 2015 fund re-opening.

Linda said the Advisory Group must agree to this work happening.

The Advisory Group could support Finbarr by:

• taking part in interviews

• saying what they think of the draft report

Finbarr shared a presentation about the 2019 Northern Ireland report.

He is updating the information in this report.

The Scottish report compares Scottish information with information from Northern Ireland report.

We have not asked for a full report because a lot of the issues will be the same in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Important things like the covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis will be in the Scottish report.

Linda asked if Jim and the Group were happy with this and they said yes.

8. Joint stakeholder and advisory group event update - Harvey Tilley

Harvey said the event has been moved to 28 March 2024.

There was no space in Parliament to have the event in October as planned.

Gordon and Chloe said it is important that PA training is right for each recipient.

10. Policy Update - Linda Scott

Linda will send out the draft suspension policy 38 after her meeting with Jack and Colin.

Suspension is when a recipient’s money is stopped for a while.

The sponsor team are still talking about increasing the maximum award for an ILF recipient.

This must be affordable now and in future years.

11. Charter for Involvement - Emma O’Neill

This will move to the next meeting as Emma is off work.

12. Using the words ‘disabled people’ or ‘people with disabilities’ - Nic Reid

This will move to the next meeting.

13. Any other business – what else do we need to talk about?

There was nothing else we needed to talk about.

14. Date of the next meeting - Linda Scott

Lee to look at dates for meeting in person and to include a Christmas lunch.