By Fran Targett, Citizen's Advice Cymru, and Bob Chapman, Low Commission, at WCVA's Annual Conference 2013.

1. Advice Services
- meeting the challenges ahead
Fran Targett
November 2013

2. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Welfare reform
•£18bn package of welfare cuts planned 2011-2014 and
more cuts to come …
•Universal Credit
•Housing Benefits
•Working Age Disability benefits
•Employment Support Allowance
•Pensions
•Child Benefit
•Localised benefits
– Social Fund/Welfare assistance
– Council Tax reduction

3. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
How welfare is delivered
•Change from RPI to CPI
•Benefit up-rating
•Single household payment
•Digital by default
•Frequency of payments
•Rental payment arrangements
– Definition of ‘vulnerable’ tenants
•Complexity who is impacted when …
•Demonstration projects

4. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Debt and Money Advice
•Growth of Payday lenders
•Growth of debt for essential services
•Increasing fuel prices and fuel debt
•Limited responses by the financial markets to
most vulnerable borrowers

5. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Housing
•Impact of ‘bedroom tax’
•Impact of other welfare reform issues
•Increase in homelessness
•Housing legislation increasing rights

6. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Employment and discrimination
•Increased enquiries about changing and poor
terms and conditions especially zero hours
contracts
•Increased enquiries about redundancy
•Discrimination problems underpinned by
hardening public attitudes

7. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Relationships
•Vulnerable families because of worsening
economic situation
•Increases in enquiries about hate crimes

8. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Responses to the Challenge
Low Commission consultation
•Legal aid should be viewed as part of a continuum from information through to
preventative work
•Ensuring the quality of all levels of service provision must be a high priority
•Ensuring open and collaborative advice sector.
•The UK and Welsh Governments develop National Strategy for Advice and
Legal Support for 2015-20 (estimate approx. £500m required, half from UK
government, half from other funders and distributed by BIG)
•90% of the Fund should be used to fund local provision, with 10% for national
initiatives
•Local authorities should co-produce or commission
local advice and legal support plans in conjunction
with local not-for-profit and commercial advice agencies
Final report due January 2014

9. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Responses to the Challenge
Welsh Government Advice Services Review
Independent Advice Providers Forum response
We need to:
•resolve clients’ problems as quickly as possible
•enable clients to access our services in the way they want
•deliver high quality services
•use our knowledge and insight to improve things for our
clients and others at a policy level
•ensure consistency across advice services

10. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
Responses to the Challenge
Independent Advice Providers Forum response
To deliver this we need:
•local and/or regional advice provision networks
•the development of Welsh Government /IAPF national
network to ensure the strategic development of advice
provision
•further development of advice channels including the IAPF’s
approach to new technology
•move towards outcomes based commissioning and medium
term funding for advice provision
•a more consistent approach to quality

11. Advice Services
– meeting the challenges ahead
• Need?
• Co-production and client preference?
• Quality assurance?
• Networking and collaboration
• Preventative and policy work?

12. 1
Who are our clients and how do we target our help?
2
What is the breadth and
depth of our advice offer?
3
What is the right shape of
advice delivery channels?
4
What is
the breadth and
depth of our preventative,
policy and campaigns
offer?
One Service delivery model?

13. 1
Who are our clients and how do we target our help?
we are here for
everyone
Are our services attractive to all?
we target our help by issue,
wherever detriment is greatest
we don’t start with any bias towards any
particular group(s)
that means our help reaches those who need it most

14. 2
Welfare
What is the breadth of our
advice offer?
Money
Consumer
Employment Discrimination
Housing
We focus the breadth of our advice by issue, wherever detriment
to individuals or society is greatest
Assisted digital
provision makes our
help seamless
and consistent across
delivery channels and
geography – so
we can reach clients
more easily

15. 2
3
What is the depth of our
advice offer?
Ensure our operating models
resolve as many clients’ problems
at first point of contact as possible –
a staged approach
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Then we move to
in-depth advice
if needed
Problem solved
Referral
between
partners
Problem
solved
Stage 4
Casework
when
needed
Problem
solved

16. 3
Stage 1
What is the right shape of our advice
delivery channels?
In depth face to face
Face-to-face
Digital
In-depth phone
SHIFT BETWEEN CHANNELS
Phone
Solved
Casework
Solved
Solved
Solved
In-depth digital
Solved
Solved
Preventative, policy and
campaigns
First
contact

17. 4
What is the
breadth and
depth of our policy and
campaigns offer?
Influencing
effectively and
earlier