202408 - Scotland Advisory Group Minutes - August 2024 (Easy Read)

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.