Advice Services Transition Fund briefing

Attached is a briefing detailing the Big Lottery Fund’s Advice Transition Fund, which will see £33.6 million of funds for not-for-profit advice agencies over 2013-14 and 2014-15.

This follows news of the Cabinet Office advice review, published today.

PLEASE - if you want to download the most current version of the briefing, then please see the last version on this thread.

from third sector

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/news/article/1156822/cabinet-office-unveils-65m-fund-charities-provide-advice-services/

Steve Johnson, chief executive of Advice UK, gave a cautious welcome to the funding: “We are pleased that the government acknowledges that advice services are a vital part of our national infrastructure and wishes to support a transformation to services that deliver earlier intervention, prevention and tackle preventable systemic failure.”

But he said the transition funding did not replace the £50m plus that would be lost from cuts to legal aid cuts next year and the local authority funding cuts to many advice services. Applying for funding would “clearly present challenges for local advice services given the emphasis on partnership and collaborative bids”.

A spokeswoman for Citizens Advice, the national body for Citizens Advice bureaux, said: “The Advice Service Transition Fund will help Citizens Advice bureaux up and down the country continue to innovate and adapt to make sure that people get the advice they need when they need it.”

citizens advice press release @

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/press_20121026

Attached is an updated briefing to reflect some additional guidance from BIG about applications to this fund, that covers:

* My organisation works across more than one second tier area. Can we be included in more than one partnership?
* Can voluntary sector organisations that support frontline advice providers join partnerships?
* How is ‘direct delivery of advice services’ defined, which may form no more than 25% of the bid?

Briefing updated to include new hyperlinks to Big Lottery website pages for Advice Transition Fund (no other changes at present).