The future of advice services: the perfect storm

London Funders recently held a meeting looking at the issue of advice provision, which had been identified by funders as an area of concern, for multiple reasons – key funders, notably Legal Services Commission, creating considerable change; higher unemployment and other factors resulting from the recession pushing up demand for debt and other crisis advice; the shrinkage of local government services creating patterns of change in provision and where people look for help; and the radical change in welfare benefits that had already started. All of these would rapidly increase the scale of need, especially in London.

There was a presentation from Alison Garnham, CPAG CEO, on welfare reforms, followed by a discussion between Graham Fisher, CEO of Toynbee Hall, and Matthew Smerdon, Deputy Director of the Baring Foundation, on some of the issues around advice provision. Finally, there were some case study presentations from Camden Council and Trust for London.

What are funders’ priorities?

Priorities in who gets advice:

* children lapsing below poverty line;
* people affected by changes to welfare benefits, especially Universal Credit;
* those needing support with appeals, especially disability related changes

Priorities in which organisations need support:
* smaller advice agencies, especially those working with BME communities, who are often best placed to give advice but not necessarily well placed to receive funding. But also encourage them to work together more
* mainstream services, in the face of rising demand, and whether funders should shift to support more mainstream advice

Funders need to see:
* demonstration of need and demand, such as robust forecasts of impact of benefits changes forcing families to leave more expensive housing areas
* what added value the provider is bringing in
* how providers plan to manage increased demand on the same or reduced funding Focus on outcomes and meaningful data to identify emerging needs and where funding might be required.

The perfect storm: London’s advice services (pdf file)