202402 - Northern Ireland Advisory Group Minutes - February 2024 (Easy Read)

The meeting happened on 29 February from 11am to 3pm.

The meeting happened in 2 ways:

• on Zoom
• at the Mount Conference Centre in Belfast

Who could not come to the meeting?

Kieran McCarthy, Vice Chairperson

• Lee to send out Policy 28 to all group members

• David to check on and forward the link to the UK Government / UN Committee Session to Robert and other Members

• David to send out his letter to Minister Swann and the Minister's Response

All these actions have been done.

David welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Lee said where the fire exits are.

Everyone agreed the Minutes from the last meeting were fine.

The minutes will be put on the ILF website.

Actions from the last meeting:

There were no actions from the last meeting.

David said that Disabled People’s Organisations were going to Geneva, Switzerland for the UK Government session with the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 18 March 2024.

The Northern Ireland representatives are:

• Michael Lorimer who met with us at our last meeting
• Tony O’Reilly, who was a speaker at our joint Gathering in Stormont in 2019
• 2 other disabled people who are wheelchair users

Robert asked whether it would be available to watch online or on TV.

David will check and let Robert and the group know.

David asked that Items 7, 11, 13 and 14 be carried forward to our next meeting to allow enough time to discuss them.

All Members agreed to this.

This will happen at the next meeting.

Harvey talked about the work being done to make sure the Fund reopens in April 2024.

6 co-production events have taken place in person and online.

Information from these events will be in a report for the Minister.

There is now a Government in Northern Ireland.

When the budget is complete, a submission will go to the Minister from the Sponsor Team to re-open the Fund in Northern Ireland, hopefully in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

If approved, we would then have co-production events across Northern Ireland in the same way as Scotland.

David has sent a letter to the Minister inviting him to speak at the Joint Stakeholder Event in Edinburgh at the end of March.

David will tell the group when he gets a reply.

Some people are worried that the budget would only be enough for one year of reopening.

Harvey said that Colin Dunlop discussed this with him and does not think this will affect the reopening of the Fund.

Budgets would be reviewed every year.

Harvey said a lot of work has happened:

• the agenda has been agreed
• accommodation has been arranged for guests
• arrangements have been made about travel and food requirements
• presentations are complete
• we are waiting for some final notes from both Ministers

Harvey said the event is not a reopening launch but it is about celebrating a life with purpose.

Harvey talked about the agenda and discussed the event at Holyrood.

Harvey said the review visits have been slightly delayed across Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Assessor team are working to deal with this.

At review visits, people say that recruiting personal assistants, and the cost of living are still making things difficult.

Harvey said ILF Scotland have taken on new staff.

Harvey said Policy 38 has been signed off by the Scottish and the NI Government and is on the ILF Scotland website.

Harvey talked about payment for managing awards.
ILF Scotland cannot do this on their own.

The Government have said this would cost too much.

Caroline asked if we can be paid for attending meetings.

Harvey said that ILF can cover all reasonable costs including travel, food and additional caring costs but cannot pay for attendance at a meeting.

The Government would not support this.

ILF Scotland will keep looking at how to do this and will report back when any progress is made.

This will happen at the next meeting.

No one had anything to add.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 28 May 2024.