Thursday 17 August, via Zoom
Jim Elder-Woodward welcomed everyone to the meeting. Everyone agreed to Lee recording the meeting.
Minutes agreed and signed off. Lee to pass to communications team to be uploaded to ILF Scotland website.
Actions from previous meeting
Jim asked everyone to raise hand on Zoom if they would like to make a point or ask a question.
Peter advised the group that there have been a few parliamentary questions asked by the Labour MSP Paul O’Kane. These have now been answered and the stance remains the same around affordability for re-opening of the fund. The Scottish Government have said they will keep it under review for re-opening. The statements mentioned there would be upcoming engagement opportunities. Peter has checked this, and this was mis-worded. This was relating to a meeting with Peter and the Chair of ILF Scotland’s Board and the minister.
Peter advised the Group that one of the answers to the questions confirmed that the Scottish Government had allocated £53.3 me for the ILF 2015 Fund but in the 7 years since 2016, approximately £40m in total was not spent on ILF Scotland. Nic suggested that the group follow up on these points to ask if the Scottish Government can disclose where this allocation was spent.
Julia asked the group if the Scottish Government were allowed to spend money elsewhere when it was originally allocated to the 2015 fund.
The Group agreed to follow up at the meeting with the minister on 25 September. (Post meeting note: this meeting to be rescheduled)
Jack Blaik joined the meeting at 1.30PM
Andy shared a paper with the Group that outlined a number of PA issues including: covered breaks for PAs, PA Travel including asking if ILF Scotland could cover the Taxi fare or mileage at 45 pence per mile for PAs to use their car to support recipient travel, and the issue of PA wages – Andy would like to see a commitment across the board to pay at £12.00 per hour.
Nic said her PA had asked about mileage costs and Julia stated she is having issues recruiting PAs at the moment due to wages offered. She feels they are more tempted to take opportunities with higher paying supermarkets for example.
Christine raised the point that consistency of support by keeping PAs is important and that wages are a key issue for retaining staff at the moment.
Gordon advised that when advertising for PAs, the quality of experience was not available when offering £10.90 per hour.
Christine asked if ILF Scotland could look at an ILF minimum wage aside from the Scottish Government care wage.
Linda and Peter will discuss and provide some clarity on the use of contingency funds at the next meeting.
Jack advised that one of the recommendations that emerged from the review of adult social care (also known as the Feeley review) is that PAs should be more valued and the challenges that disabled people face when they are trying to hire and retain PAs should be recognised. Jack advised that this issueis ongoing within the Programme Board and is in the public domain.
Jack advised the Group that there is clear agreement from the Scottish Government to deliver the £12 per hour for wage for PAs but he is not yet clear about when this can be implemented.
Jack advised there is a challenge across the 32 local authorities due to varied rates and that a National Care Service would help alleviate some of these issues.
Jack advised that there is slight chance of anything changing regarding the regulation and registration of PAs. There is an independent reviewing ongoing, which is due to complete in September 2023 and there may be some reference to this issue in the final report.
The work that Finbarr will complete should be influential in supporting the ILF Scotland 2015 fund re-opening. Linda advised that the Advisory Group, in its role as Sponsor, would need to agree to this work being undertaken and it would be helpful if they could support Finbarr by agreeing to take part in interviews as well as providing feedback on the draft report.
Finbarr shared a presentation outlining the 2019 Northern Ireland report and findings. Finbarr is currently working on updating the information in this report. The Scottish report would be based on a comparative exercise with the Northern Ireland report i.e. largely a desktop exercise as opposed to a full evaluation exercise. Jim asked why we were not commissioning a full report.
Finbarr responded that this is because we believe that a lot of the issues faced in Northern Ireland will be equally relevant in Scotland. Finbarr confirmed that current key issues like the covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis will be included.
Linda asked if Jim and the Group were content to proceed on this basis and this was agreed.
Finbar Fitzpatrick left the meeting at 15.04
Harvey advised the Group that the event has now been moved to 28 March 2023 as there is no space available in Parliament to host the event at the end of October as originally planned.
Martha Shortreed left the meeting at 15.18
Johanne McBean joined the meeting at 15.23
Johanne discussed the PA training workforce, which is related to the PA Programme Board. There is a subgroup for training and health & wellbeing for personal assistants. Johanne explained that the intention is to provide help to PAs, particularly new PAs, but also to support people to be better employers.
Gordon and Chloe mentioned that is important that PA training is tailor made to the recipient.
Linda will send out the draft suspension policy 38 after an upcoming meeting with Jack Blaik and Colin Dunlop for review.
Linda also confirmed there is ongoing discussions with the sponsor team around increasing the maximum award for an ILF recipient. ILF Scotland need to be able to assure the sponsor team that this is affordable this year and sustainable in future years.
Carry forward to the next meeting as Emma is currently absent from work.
Carry forward to the next meeting.
None.
Lee to look at dates for meeting in person and to include a Christmas Lunch.
