Independent Living Fund Scotland:
Scottish Recipient Advisory Group Meeting
Zoom Meeting
Jim Elder-Woodward
Joan Turner
Christine Mercer
Kate Walsh
Jacqueline Walsh
Andy Higgins
Hugh John Glancy
Lee House
Linda Scott
Chloe Mckee
Peter Scott
Niqi Rainey
Jim Elder-Woodward welcome everyone to the meeting.
Recipient feedback survey still under review.
None.
The vaccine program is operating relatively well.
There has been no further news from the Scottish government regarding an extension of the sustainability payments beyond 30 June 2021.
The Scottish Government and COSLA are still discussing how to administer the £500.00 ‘Thank You’ payment. Some members expressed their disappointment that they can’t yet make this payment to their PAs and about the time taken to honor the First Minister’s commitment made in December. Members discussed contacting their MSPs with a view to raising a Parliamentary Question about this delay.
Once ILF Scotland has completed the survey analysis, Lee will share the findings with the group.
The letter from the Advisory Group about the ILF Scotland Available Income charge submitted to the sponsor team was successful in helping to achieve the reduction from £83.00 to £43.00 from 1 June 2021. ILF Scotland will continue to push for this to reduce to zero. ILF Scotland received a complaint and some comments from recipients already paying £42.00 per week contribution who will not see the benefit from the policy change.
ILF Scotland has updated Policy 41 to introduce more flexibility for recipients in how they can use their ILF Scotland funding. Will expect feedback on this change once Review Visits start again in the coming months.
ILF Scotland has carried out a full review of the suite of policies across both funds to ensure they are up to date with current legislation and are easier to read and understand.
ILF Scotland has revised the Your Responsibilities guide and Employer Support Information Note and published these on a new page on its website entitled “Advice for Award Managers”. There will be a joint session between the Scotland Recipient Advisory Group and the Northern Ireland Stakeholder Group to discuss the document content. ILF Scotland will then invite Award Managers to a similar session. ILF Scotland will send out its third newsletter in June and will refer to this in that.
There has been no further discussion about this. Linda said she expects there to be a consultation discuss the re-opening of the fund in due course.
The Group discussed the updated Terms of Reference adopted by the Northern Ireland stakeholder Group. Members thought it might be worthwhile adopting some of the content but cautioned about putting people off if it was too formal, given the difficulty in recruitment new members. Linda suggested the Group could look at promoting recruitment on an annual basis.
Action: Linda and Jim to look at the ToR before the next meeting.
It is time to elect a chair and vice chair. Linda asked members to think about who they would like to put forward. Action: Andy up an online process.
Lee asked the group to confirm by email if they were happy for ILF Scotland to include their email address group mail outs for sending out documents.
Monday 23 August 2021
Monday 22 November 2021
Monday 21 February 2022
Monday 23 May 2022
All meetings will be from 1.30 to 3.30 pm
