The meeting happened on 23 February 2023 on Zoom from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
Jim Elder-Woodward
Chloe Mckee
Gordon Mckee
Julia Smith - joined the meeting at 1.45pm
Justina Oguguo
ILF Scotland Staff
Lee House
Catherine Symington
Harvey Tilley
Paul McPartlin
Sandra Robertson
Hugh John Clancy
Joan Turner
Christine Mercer
Nic Reid
Martha Shortreed
Robert White
Linda Scott
Emma O'Neill
1. Harvey and Peter will draft a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Jim to sign, about the re-opening of the 2015 fund.
It should have information about PAs and how much they are paid an hour.
2. Linda and Harvey will draft a proposal for the joint stakeholder event.
Jim will look at it.
Jim Elder-Woodward welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Everyone agreed to Lee recording the meeting.
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.
Lee will give them to the communications team so they can put them on the website.
They do this without giving warning to the organisations or to the managers who have given the contracts.
An invoice is a type of bill.
Backdated increases means the amount they owe has gone up and new invoices are sent for work that has already happened.
This means the words we want to use – for example ‘disabled people’ instead of ‘people with disabilities’.
5. At the next meeting Robert White will give a short presentation about the changed Self-Directed Support guidance.
There were no new things we needed to talk about.
Each person who gets money from ILF Scotland pays some money towards their award.
This is based on a person’s level of income and is called available income.
Income is the money coming into a household from work or benefits.
Jim asked the advisory group what they felt about the letter from Kevin Stewart - the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care.
Joan and Gordon commented that the response is what they expected.
The group then discussed and agreed to send a letter to the Cabinet Secretary about re-opening the 2015 fund.
Harvey said this has been delayed until around October.
The delay has taken place because of:
The management team are making information for the sponsor team that shows what impact the event will have.
Everyone agreed that this would happen at the next meeting when Robert will be there.
Everyone agreed this will happen at the next meeting when Nic will be there.
Harvey talked about the hourly rate for Personal Assistants (PAs) or self-employed assistants.
The hourly rate is how much a person is paid for each hour of work.
When the hourly rate goes up, the amount is backdated and taken from the funding packages of people who get ILF Scotland money.
Agencies have been increasing how much PAs are paid each hour, without telling:
• the recipient – this is the person who employs the PA
• the award manager – the person who agrees the amount of money the person gets
Agencies should be writing to the recipient or award manager in advance to advise of any increases.
Agencies are the organisations that arrange where the PAs work.
Gordon has been advertising for PAs for months and has only had 2 applications.
He said it is getting harder to recruit and keep PAs because £10.10 an hour is not enough to get someone to work for them.
Everyone agreed this will be talked about at the next meeting.
Harvey said:
• stopping available income contributions was not possible
ILF Scotland could not afford to pay the extra money for each person.
• care tax is being discussed
The highest amount of money that ILF Scotland can pay will be decided before the end of March 2024.
There was nothing new to talk about.
There are still the same issues about funding and how the fund will work in the future.
The Scottish Government thinks the most important work just now is to help with the cost of living crisis.
This means people not having enough money to keep warm or to buy food.
Everyone agreed this would be talked about at the next meeting so that Linda and Emma can give us new information.
There was nothing else we needed to talk about.
Lee will send out a Doodle Poll.
The meeting will be held on Zoom.
Copyright images © Photosymbols. Prepared by Disability Equality Scotland
