ILF Scotland

202111 - Northern Ireland Advisory Group Minutes - November 2021 (Easy Read)

Type of document: Irish Minutes of recipient/stakeholder groups
Front cover of the Northern Ireland Stakeholder Group Minutes for Tuesday 9 November 2021

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Published: November 9, 2021

Independent Living Fund Scotland

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Northern Ireland Stakeholder Group Meeting Minutes

Tuesday 9 November 2021

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Easy Read

The meeting happened on Tuesday 9 November 2021 from 11.00am to 1pm.

Man in a blue jacket with his back to the camera looks at a screen with three people on it with different colour backgrounds

The meeting happened on Zoom.

Grey faces of people with a question mark in the middle. Represents who was in attendance

Who was at this meeting?

Permanent Members

David McDonald
Kieran McCarthy
Collette Jones
Frances McHugh
Niqi Rainey
Amanda Paul
Bryan Myles

Other Members and Guests

Peter Scott
Harvey Tilley
Linda Scott
Lee House
Liam Hargan
Colin Dunlop
Jim McComish
Robert White
Marianne Craig
Corrina Grimes

Grey faces of people with a question mark in the middle. A red line goes through the whole image. Represents who wasn't in attendance

Who could not come?

No one sent their apologies.

2 Actions from this meeting

  1. Lee will send out the Charter for Involvement presentation.
  2. Lee will send out the new dates for 2022 meetings.

1. Welcome and Introductions

David welcomed everyone.

A booklet showing minutes and people having a meeting

2. The Minutes of the last Meeting

Everyone agreed the Minutes were fine.

Alannah will put them on the website.

Action Points from the last meeting

Action 1. Linda will check with the Data Protection Officer to see how long Zoom meeting recordings can be kept for. This has been done.

Action 2. Lee will find out where people have left the meetings in the past, before the meetings had ended.

He will add this information to the Minutes. This has been done.

Action 3. Lee will add Advance Care Planning to the next meeting’s plan. This has been done.

Action 4. Members who are happy to share their email address and phone number with the group, can email:

  • David
  • Linda
  • Lee

This has been done.

Action 5. David will get in touch with:

  • Richard Sale
  • Valerie McCarthy
  • Victor McCarthy

He will thank them for being Stakeholder Group Members and say that they are welcome back anytime.

Action 6. David, Lee and Linda will check the Members list.

They will find out if people still want to be in this Stakeholders Group.

This is still being done.

Action 7. Lee and Linda will see if a room can be booked for the next meeting in November.

This has been done.

3. Any other things we need to talk about

David said that other things could be talked about during the whole meeting.

David asked if everyone was happy to move meeting days to Thursdays.

Everyone agreed.

David said that meeting recordings would only be used to make the Minutes.

After this they will be deleted.

4. Members and Terms of Reference

David talked about:

  • who came to meetings
  • who has said they are happy to share their email address
  • who has left the Stakeholder Group

5. The plan to open the fund again in Northern Ireland

Colin said that funding and budgets make it hard to plan to open this fund just now.

Colin said that there is a new Director now.

Mark Lee has left.

The new Director is called Mark McGoogan.

Colin said that he will meet with Mark McGoogan very soon.

They will talk about the draft submission paper which will be sent to the Minister.

Colin said that they are looking at new ways to find money so that the fund can be opened again.

Booklet showing the word policy and a green tick check mark

6. Policy Updates

Linda said that if the Available Income Policy needed changes made, these could be done while the fund was being opened again.

Linda said the Sponsor Team are happy for COVID-19 flexibility payments to carry on being paid until March 2022.

7. Vaccinations for Personal Assistants and unpaid carers

David told the Group about the questions he had asked the Sponsor Team.

He had asked about:

  • COVID-19 booster vaccinations
  • flu vaccinations

for Personal Assistants and unpaid carers.

There was no clear answer to these questions.

David said that GPs will write letters to people who are in the At Risk group.

The letters will invite them to get their booster vaccination. But not all Personal Assistants and unpaid carers are in the At Risk group.

8. 5 hundred pound thank you payments for Personal Assistants

Colin said that most of the work has been done to pay thank you payments to Personal Assistants.

Bryan said that lots of people have asked for it.

Colin said that his team are working with other organisations, like Scotland Excel and Independent Living Fund Scotland to find a way to pay people.

Man waving in a suit

Colin and Jim left the meeting at 12.10.

9. Update about Review Visits and about the Award Manager Information Session

Liam said that Review Visits by Independent Living Fund Scotland are happening again now in Northern Ireland.

Liam said that the Trusts are not giving a full service yet.

Marianne joined the meeting at 12.15.

Corrina joined the meeting at 12.26.

Charter for Involvement

Marianne made a presentation about the Charter for Involvement Standards.

She told everyone how Independent Living Fund Scotland has been getting on
with them.

Linda said that there will be lots more work to do into the next year.

Man waving in a suit

Marianne and Bryan left the meeting at 12.54.

11. Advance Care Planning

Corrina told everyone about how the Advance Care Planning Policy is going in Northern Ireland.
She talked about:
• the consultation events
• the ideas about introducing it

The members talked about:

  • how to go about making sure that Advance Care Plans are understood by all Health and Social Care teams

the need for health care staff to be sensitive about life-saving treatment and DNR, which means Do Not Resuscitate

Corrina said she was happy to talk with Stakeholder Group members at another time to talk more about this.

Corrina said there is a document called the draft Department of Health Northern Ireland Guidance.

She wants to add people’s thoughts to this draft document.

David thanked Corrina for this update.

Lee will sent the presentation to everyone who was at this meeting.

Kieran McCarthy left the meeting at 13.17.

Frances McHugh left the meeting at 13.25.

12. Newsletter

Lee will email the Stakeholder Group to see if any members want to add anything to the newsletter.

Three people behind a desk with speech bubbles above their heads. The middle bubble reads 'Any Other Business?

13. Any other business

No one had anything to add.

14. Date of the next meetings

The next meetings will be:

  • Thursday 10 February 2022
  • Thursday 12 May 2022
  • Thursday 11 August 2022

All these meetings will be from 11am to 2pm.

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This is the end of the Minutes.

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