Type of document: Northern Irish Minutes of recipient/stakeholder groups
This is an Easy Read document.
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.
The meeting was at The Mount Conference Centre and on Zoom.
It was on 3 September from 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon.
David McDonald (Chairperson) on Zoom
Caroline Wheeler
Niqi Rainey
Robert Dallas
ILF Scotland Staff
Peter Scott
Harvey Tilley
Linda Scott
Lee House
Robert White on Zoom
Karen Burnett on Zoom
Frances McHugh
Collette Jones
David welcomed everyone to the meeting.
The minutes were checked and agreed.
ILF Scotland's Communications Team will put them on the website.
IMNI is the Independent Mechanism in Northern Ireland (IMNI).
IMNI is the Independent Mechanism in Northern Ireland (IMNI).
Caroline is worried about:
Caroline asked for more information about Universal Credit.
Linda and Colin will ask an expert on Universal Credit to come to a meeting.
Niqi asked if the Stakeholder Group could become a DPO.
Harvey said they have discussed this but have not got legal advice yet.
Linda said the Terms of Reference would need to be changed if this happened.
Terms of Reference explain the work of an organisation and how it will be done.
Peter said the Group would need different rules to be a DPO and ILF Scotland would have to make changes first before this could happen.
Members agreed the Group will stay as it is for now.
Linda said our rules say the Group can send a representative to the Disability Forum of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for Northern Ireland (IMMNI).
Members agreed to do this and David will look at how to make this happen.
Linda said information has been sent to the Government in Northern Ireland about how the hourly rate for PAs should go up to follow National Minimum Wage increases.
Colin said a decision should be made later this month.
David said the increase should be done in April because doing it later in the year and backdating payments causes problems for PAs who get Universal Credit.
Peter will tell Colin about this.
Linda said:
Colin and his team will send information this month to the new Minister, Mike Nesbitt, MLA about re-opening the Fund.
Deena sent 2 letters to the Minister about this and Colin will check for a reply.
Members are worried that this group is small and there may not be enough people to make decisions.
Linda said the Group’s Terms of Reference need 5 Permanent Members to be present for a quorum.
A quorum is the smallest number of people who must be at a meeting for it to take place.
Peter said the ILF Board Quorum is 3.
Members agreed to change the number for a quorum to 3.
Linda will send out changed Terms of Reference so that members can agree to the changes by email.
Linda said in Scotland the Recipient Advisory Group changed its name to the ILF Scotland Advisory Group.
This made it clear they were not giving advice to people who got ILF money.
David suggested NI Advisory Group.
NI is short for Northern Ireland.
Niqi was worried that someone joining the Group would feel they had to give advice and that the Group name could put people off being members.
David said:
The Members agreed to change the name to ILF NI Advisory Group.
Linda will send out this change with the Terms of Reference changes.
Members agreed this had been talked about earlier.
Deena Nimick is Campaigns and Policy Manager for the Centre for Independent Living Northern Ireland (CILNI).
The Chief Executive Officer of CILNI is Bryan Myles.
The Members thanked Bryan and Deena for their work with this Group.
Deena and Bryan cannot now be members of this Group.
David said we should find other ways to use Deena’s and Bryan’s experience, expertise and enthusiasm.
Members agreed with Peter’s idea that when emails are sent to the Group we include information about the roles and responsibilities of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson.
Lee will email Christmas lunch details soon.
David asked if Members want to attend the Disabled People’s Parliament.
Members are interested in attending as individuals or as members of the Group.
David will tell the Group what happens next and when the next meetings are.
David is worried that it is taking a long time to get the Department of Health to reopen the Fund in NI.
Scotland reopened its Fund nearly 9 months ago.
David said we should:
David has invited an MLA to sponsor the event at Stormont in December.
David said we should invite Jim Elder-Woodward and the Scotland Advisory Group to the event
Niqi said that someone who gets ILF Scotland money should make a video or come to the event to talk about the difference the money has made to them.
Linda said that restarting the Working Group should be discussed with Colin.
Members will do all these things.
Caroline said PAs are Personal Care Assistants and we must recognise the difference between a carer and PA.
David said the most important work is the value of the work of PAs paid with ILF.
Emma will look at this.
Linda said that in the ILF Scotland Advisory Group:
Caroline will meet online with people in NI to talk about this.
Members agreed this should be talked about at the next Joint Stakeholder Meeting in October.
Anything else we need to talk about?
Members will keep the re-opening of the Fund in NI on the agenda with more information about how many people have applied for money.
Linda will ask Peter and Harvey to do this.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 10 December with Xmas Lunch.
This is the end of the Minutes.
