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 9 December from 11.30am to 3pm.
David McDonald (Chairperson)
Niqi Rainey
Charles Rainey
Collette Jones
Robert Dallas
Caroline Wheeler
Amanda Paul
Tina Price – Department for Health
ILF Scotland Staff
Peter Scott
Linda Scott
Emma O’Neill
Lee House
Sandra Sweeney
Jill Fotheringham
Jackie Aitken on Zoom
Karen Burnett on Zoom
Anne Marie Monaghan on Zoom
David welcomed everyone and asked people to introduce themselves before he started the meeting.
The minutes were checked and agreed.
ILF Scotland's Communications Team will put them on the website.
Sandra gave the Group an update on talks with:
These talks are to see if these organisations could be award managers for people in Northern Ireland who get ILF funding.
An award manager is the person or organisation that checks the money is spent in the right way.
The Group also discussed if award managers should be paid.
Caroline said it is difficult to manage a Direct Payment, ILF Award and Guardianship.
Peter said ILF Scotland cannot pay award managers and that it is a voluntary role.
We will arrange a meeting to talk about award management as it is very complicated.
The group talked about paying arrears in advance.
This means paying for something after it has been delivered or after the work has happened.
David talked about a recent event at parliament where Charles, David and Amanda spoke about independent living.
The Minister was not at the meeting when they were talking.
The event was on radio television and social media.
The Minister would like to meet in late January or early February at Stormont to talk about reopening the fund in Northern Ireland.
Charles, David, Amanda and Caroline will meet before the Minister’s meeting.
2 new Board members have been chosen and 1 is from Northern Ireland.
They will start their roles in 2026.
The Board is looking to have another person who can link in with the Transition Fund and has experience and knowledge in this area.
The Transition Fund is a grant of up to 4 thousand pounds for young, disabled people in Scotland to help them try something new and help them get active in their community.
The hourly rate for Personal Assistants (PAs) will go up from 12 pounds 21 pence to 12 pounds 71 pence in April 2026.
At the next meeting Linda will say if this change is going well at ILF Scotland.
Tina said the Department of Health are checking the policy about overnight rates.
At the next meeting she will talk about research with the Trusts in Northern Ireland.
When we send information out
A pre-meeting is a meeting before the main meeting.
There should be a pre-meeting for the Chairperson and the Depute Chairperson to talk about the agenda.
All minutes should be done soon after each meeting so they can be checked.
Direct Payments User Group Northern Ireland Facebook page
Admins like Niqi and Caroline will send posts or questions to ILF Scotland’s communications team.
The ILF Scotland Facebook account will be used to reply.
ILF’s introduction post should show very clearly on the group page and encourage users to comment with questions.
This would allow ILF to answer them directly.
The Group talked about how important it is to have clear, accessible communication.
There is often confusion between ILF and direct payments that are looked after by a Trust.
Terms of Reference (ToR)
Terms of Reference explain the work of an organisation and how it will be done.
Linda said the ToR has been updated to show that pre-meetings will happen.
Group members will check the ToR and let Linda know if it needs any more changes.
The Group decided that a Wednesday or Thursday would be best for the meeting with the Minister from 12 midday to 3 pm.
The suggested dates were 12, 21 or 28 January.
The Group will talk about Award Manager policy at the next Joint Advisory Group meeting.
Linda said that Policy 26 will be checked and changed in March 2026.
Policy 26 is about being an Award Manager for yourself or for someone else.
The Group want to thank Colin Dunlop for all his work in supporting them and ILF Scotland as he moves on to his new role.
Lee will check different food options for lunch at future meetings.
Lee will check with The Mount to see if is available on 2 or 10 March for the next meeting.
If those dates are not available other dates could be 11, 25 or 31 March.
This Action has been done.
This is the end of these Minutes.
