Advice & Guidance

Through consistent and sustained work over the past four years A4e has established itself at the forefront of reform for Advice and Guidance services.

In this time we have worked with government departments such as the Legal Services Commission (LSC) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to create flexible, accessible and holistic services to support the needs of those most vulnerable.

A4e support over 60,000 people each year through Advice and Guidance services:

• Providing cost effective, outcome focused social welfare legal advice through the Community Legal Advice Telephone service and Community Legal Advice Centres in Leicester and Hull on behalf of the LSC and the respective Councils.

• Tackling the root causes of financial exclusion through money and debt advice services, ensuring customers have access to fair, affordable products that meet their needs and supporting them during times of crisis.

• Supporting the governments’ financial capability agenda by offering free, impartial information and guidance on money matters across a range of key financial topics through the Money Guidance Pathfinder Pilot on behalf of the FSA.

Our Advice and Guidance Services

Legal Advice Services

As part of A4e’s mission to improve people’s lives we formed an innovative partnership with Howells Solicitors, a major provider of legal aid services, to increase access and improve the quality of legal advice provision, especially for those most in need. Our services include:

• Community Legal Advice (CLA) – A national service delivering high quality telephone based legal advice to some of the most socially excluded and vulnerable groups on behalf of the LSC. Through this service we are helping people to deal with problems in the following categories of law – debt, housing, employment, welfare benefits and family.
• Community Legal Advice Centres (CLACs) – A4e are delivering CLACs in Leicester and Hull, on behalf of the LSC and the respective councils. The Centres provide face to face accessible, quality assured and integrated generalist and specialist legal advice and representation services.

Financial Advice Services

A4e has been delivering financial capability and financial inclusion services since 2006. In this time we have worked with government departments to design and deliver flexible, integrated and personalised services. These services include:

• Money Guidance – Delivered on behalf of the FSA, providing impartial guidance on the money matters that shape everyday lives giving people the confidence and capability to make the most of their money. A4e is the largest ‘face-to-face’ provider on the FSA’s Money Guidance pathfinder programme in the North West region.
• Advice4DebtNI – Advice4DebtNI is a specialist Debt advice telephone service delivered by A4e and funded by DETI. The service provides specialist high quality debt advice across Northern Ireland.
• Young People and Money – A4e is delivering YP&M in London, South West, South East, Midlands, Wales and Scotland on behalf of the FSA. We provide a free training course to equip intermediaries working with young people, aged 16 – 25 who are NEET, with a greater understanding to engage their young people in becoming more financially capable.

Making an impact

• Through our Legal Advice services we support over 50,000 people with legal matters each year
• Over 90% of people accessing our Community Legal Advice Centres rate the service as either excellent or very good
• Through our Advice4Stoke and Advice4Debt NI services, we have re-scheduled over £13m of personal debt and maximised income through benefit entitlement take-up by over £4m
• Our Money Guidance pathfinder service in the North West has helped support over 10,000 people in its first year
• A4e has trained over 4,000 youth workers, through Young People and Money, which has had an impact on the lives of over 150,000 NEET young people.