The Mayor of London launched the Advice in Community Settings grant programme in 2022. It is providing financial support to community-based advice and support organisations across London who in turn are providing information, advice and guidance to people experiencing, or at risk of, financial hardship. The programme consists of 11 partners and covers a wide range of advice organisations including specialist in finance benefits, debt advice, to other areas including family support, housing, and immigration and asylum issues.
The intent of this programme is to build local networks for people at risk, and to ensure they are able to access the right advice easily and quickly. From a policy perspective, the programme provides a test-bed to better understand the local and wider impact advice-interventions can have, including the cost benefit of investing in early advice interventions.
Wavehill, along with Mime, have worked closely with the Mayor of London and the 11 project partners to understand the individual and collective impact of the work each funded partnership is having and to develop a deeper understanding of the ongoing wider societal benefits of each project. This work has provided interim recommendations on how best to approach future investment in, and activity involving, community-based advice interventions in future. A final report is due in September 2023.
Read the interim evaluation or for more information contact Andy Parkinson and Simon Tanner.
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