Thursday 7 March 2024, via Zoom
Jim Elder-Woodward welcomed everyone to the meeting. Everyone agreed that Lee would record the meeting.
Minutes agreed and signed off. Lee to pass to communications team to upload to ILF Scotland website.
Actions from previous meeting
Linda introduced the Minister, Ms Maree Todd to the Advisory Group and asked each member to introduce themselves.
The Minister re-iterated her delight of the 2015 fund re-opening. There was a Group discussion on the National Care Service. Maree Todd advised the Group how closely she understands and hears the voices of lived experience. The Minister wanted to re-assure the Advisory Group that the National Care Service will be co-designed with people with lived experience. The Minister is confident this will help the Scottish Government get things right. The Minister also advised that she is committed to evolving the development of the NCS in this way to make sure that voices of people with disabilities stays at the heart of everything.
Linda added that the engagement events are now complete and that the Co-Production Working Group took account of the feedback from these events, in their recommendations to the Minister for her consideration. The fund will re-open in April 2024.
Linda advised the Group that most of the policies from the 2015 fund will remain and will adequately reflect the requirements of the re-opened fund. It has only been necessary for ILF Scotland to submit eight revised policy recommendations to the SG Sponsor Team that required amendment in for the re-opening. The fund re-opening will have joint involvement with the Local Authority.
Robert White advised the Group that the re-opening intends to allow up to 1,000 applications to the Fund. This will be shared proportionately, across the 32 Local Authorities. Robert advised that the re-opened fund will hopefully help and improve the delivery of SDS across Scotland with the many conversations ILF Scotland will be having with individuals. The re-opening will focus on being person led.
Martha Shortreed raised a concern that Local Authorities may struggle with workloads and demands for supporting applications for the re-opening. Linda confirmed that the Working Group will consider direct referrals for the second year.
Stuart McCabe asked if ILF Scotland would capture videos and details of the ongoing process with the re-opening to share on the website. It would also be great to keep paperwork down with the new fund by ILF Scotland signposting as much as possible. Linda advised we will be sharing links on the website to support recipient and applicants.
Linda advised that the average ILF Scotland weekly award for someone receiving social work support was £1,000 or more. The Co-Production Working Group considered this as part of its deliberation around the threshold sums for applications to the re-opened Fund.
Linda provided a reminder of the Available Income Contribution Policy. When ILF Scotland inherited the fund from ILF UK, the contribution was much higher than it currently is. It was £103.00 and then reduced to £83.00 and then to the current maximum of £43.00 per week. The Advisory Group has campaigned hard to ensure this will eventually reach a zero contribution. The concern from the Advisory Group is that the re-opened fund will open without charge, and this will result in inequity for recipients on the 2015 fund.
Andy Higgins advised that the cost-of-living crisis is affecting many and they simply cannot afford to pay a contribution. He asked would it be possible for ILF Scotland to waive this charge until the economy has improved?
The Minister advised she would love to remove this charge but firstly the Scottish Government would need to understand the cost involved and finding the money within the national budget to accommodate this. The Minister advised that central government are struggling to find money to make these changes currently. The Minister is aware of the difference this would make to recipients of the fund.
Gordon McKee wanted to raise some points on behalf of Chloe Mckee. Gordon advised he would love the Minister to keep this ongoing issue with contributions at the forefront of the Scottish Governments work. Gordon advised the Minister of the cost of activities and daily life for Chloe.
The Minister advised she appreciates the Advisory Group detailing the extra costs they incur in day-to-day life and advised there is a commitment in this term of Parliament to remove nonresidential care charges. There is currently lots of work going on between the Scottish Government and COSLA to agree that approach. The Minister committed to progress on this and advised that ILF Scotland charges would be included.
Stuart McCabe asked the Minister if they can approach the UK Government in Westminster to ask for additional funds to plug the gap until an agreement can be reached on the available income contribution.
The Minister advised the relationship with Westminster is not particularly healthy, but they still try to work closely to make a real difference in Scotland. The Minister hopes that if there is a change of government in Westminster that there may be a chance to make life better for people with disabilities in Scotland.
Linda advised the Minister that both Groups will be joining each other in Scotland as they did in Stormont in 2019, which was really successful, with the Department of Health committing to looking at the prospect of re-opening the fund in Northern Ireland. The aim of the event in Scotland is to showcase the difference ILF Scotland can make to recipients.
Stuart McCabe advised the Minister just how vital ILF Scotland is to his life and ensuring he continues to be independent. The Minister wanted to re-assure again that the development of the National Care Service will take account of the voices of people with lived experience, from people with care to people who work within care.
The Minister advised the Group that she is really looking forward to attending the event at Holyrood.
Linda advised the Group that ILF Scotland appreciates how expensive it can be to be active and socialise in the community with all the additional expenses like travel, PA expenses and day to day living expenses.
Robert and Sandra discussed with the Group what contingency funds can be used for. Sandra advised the Group that ILF Scotland Assessors will always ensure all bills and wages are paid and up to date before looking at excess money, which would either be returned to ILF Scotland as unspent monies. Currently up to one week of ILF Scotland funding can be used as a contingency. Sandra Sweeney advised the Group that there is a degree of flexibility for these funds. Flexible funding requests are still available for anything that can support recipients to achieve their independent living outcomes e.g. technology or an experience.
Linda advised the Group that this was commissioned in Northern Ireland in 2019 to 2020, sponsored by the Northern Ireland Stakeholder Group. Interviews were conducted by Emma O’Neill and Finbarr Fitzpatrick used financial proxies to identify and quantify the difference that ILF Scotland funding made to people’s lives including recipients, carers, and wider beneficiaries. The SROI report was then produced to calculate a monetary value. For every £1.00 spent on awards in NI it returned a social investment of almost £11.00.
Much of the work was replicated this time around and the social return on investment figure has now risen to £13.00 for every £1.00 spent on awards in Northern Ireland.
For Scotland, the same desktop exercise was introduced, and the figure sits between £12 to 13.00 for everyone £1.00 spent on award funding.
These figures will be presented at the Joint Stakeholder Event at Holyrood.
Once the work is complete Linda advised that the reports will be sent to the Advisory Group.
None
Thursday 23 May 1 to 3 pm, on Zoom
