Projects & Partnerships 8 July 2022

Strategic Partnership with GLA

This new partnership has been built on months of discussions about how the GLA can best support the Citizens Advice service in London, and Londoners who need advice especially when facing cost of living issues. The GLA are generously providing £1.2 million of funding for our cost of living crisis prevention project, alongside additional funding for the London Legal Support Trust to support Centres of Excellence.  This project will deploy the resources of London Advice agencies, increasing the availability of advisers, recruiting new posts, and working in partnership with the community sector to support Londoners who are facing hardship and crisis, and to build capacity through development of “Advice First Aid” and community partnerships.

This is a unique Pan-London partnership in which different local advice providers will work together, to provide tailored support to Londoners facing hardship or crisis arising from cost-of-living issues, and link-up with community groups so that support can reach further. It is a one-year project, but is intended to pilot a new approach and facilitate new partnerships supporting the networks of London Citizens Advice and LLST Centres of Excellence as ‘community anchors’ where advice and support in dealing with the cost of living can be accessed.  As a “strategic partnership” it is based on the principles of co-production, shaped by the advice networks (as equal partners with the funder) with the flexibility to be innovative in our community outreach, engagement and delivery systems. 

The project has been developed as a timely intervention to address the cost-of-living crisis and enable faster mobilisation of the sector’s resources. New crisis prevention advisers will work closely with Faith and Community groups, including with outreach delivery of face-to-face information advice and support, identifying needs and referring to a specialist advice response where needed. The crisis prevention advisers will be employed by LCAs across London, and by working with Faith and Community groups will share learning to influence the development of good practice models, and contribute to policy and campaigns work. 

The crisis prevention advice workers (equivalent of 16 full-time posts across London LCAs) will be supported by a team of welfare benefits specialist advisers (5 full time posts). These advisers will be based in LCAs with experience of case work and will be available for phone and email consultation with advice workers, review cases and provide monthly supervision. The welfare benefit caseworkers will use the National Citizens Advice Casebook to provide appointment slots that can be booked in for clients by Crisis Prevention Advisers. 

A key element of this partnership is providing Citizens Advice training to frontline workers in other local partner organisations, faith and community groups to become Advice First Aiders. This free training will equip those individuals and groups with the skills they need to triage for advice, deliver initial guidance and refer into Citizens Advice when needed. An Advice First Aid lead/Trainer (supported by Citizens Advice Wandsworth and drawing on the Wandsworth model) will develop and implement an Advice First Aid Training Programme, scaling and cascading this approach across LCA delivery partners. 

RCJ Advice will act as project host, managing the relationship with GLA and supported by a dedicated project manager. 

The model is explained in the briefing below.