Advice in Community Settings Grant Programme

The Advice in Community Settings programme has two stages:

• Stage 1: Support partnerships between community settings and providers of advice. Between £5,000 and £7,500 is available for each partnership.
• Stage 2: Fund these partnerships to deliver targeted interventions to help families or individuals on low or no incomes to access advice and support.

This programme is a part of the Robust Safety Net mission of the London Recovery Programme. Find out more about London’s recovery from COVID-19.

Following a competitive application process, the Advice in Community Settings programme is funding eleven advice partnerships across London. The lead partners we have awarded are:

• Citizens Advice Barking and Dagenham, leading a partnership between the local authority, borough VCS network and social sector network, and food bank network to address fragmentation in the advice sector locally.
• Community Links, leading a partnership between five advice providers (some general, some specialist) with support from Newham Council, delivering in food banks, community centres and schools. The partnership focuses on residents in low-paid and insecure work, and the refugee and migrant population.
• Ealing Mencap, leading a partnership of advice service seeking to connect digitally-excluded residents, residents with learning disabilities or English as a second or other language with training to access online social welfare platforms, entitlements and support services.
• Fair Money Advice, leading a pan-London partnership with Money A&E which will embed welfare and debt advice and financial education in different locations supporting Londoners from a range of BAME backgrounds.
• H 4 All, an existing partnership of health and wellbeing charities, will manage a new partnership between local Citizens Advice, local charities and DDPOs to deliver advice in food banks and SEN schools.
• Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Association (IRMO), an existing partnership between three community anchor institutions in south London will expand to deliver advice in new locations. The partnership focuses on lone parents, BAME communities particularly Latin American communities, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities and over-50s.
• Little Village, a pan-London baby bank service, will lead a partnership with the Money and Pensions Service and other advice providers to deliver triage, signposting and advice to low-income families with children under five.
• Peabody Community Foundation, leading a hyperlocal partnership linking existing social prescribing infrastructure with up to eight schools in the Moorings in Thamesmead, Greenwich.
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, leading a partnership between local authority and all major in-borough advice services, several primary schools, food welfare settings and child play settings.
• Salusbury World Refugee Centre, leading an existing Brent-based partnership to expand to include three 0-18 family and children's centres. Focus on Londoners who are refugees, migrants or seeking asylum.
• Citizens Advice Waltham Forest, leading a partnership with fuel poverty, youth and food charities and children and family settings to offer training to frontline staff in community settings.