NAVCA welcomes the Advice Services Transition Fund

26/10/2012

NAVCA has welcomed the £65 million support package announced today by the Big Lottery Fund for advice services. The Advice Services Transition Fund hopes to fund around 300 projects across England. The Cabinet Office and BIG are providing half of the funding for the project.

Joe Irvin, Chief Executive of NAVCA said

"We are pleased to see the valuable role advice services play in local communities recognised by the announcement of this funding. There has been plenty of recent research, including our own, showing the recession has created a dramatic increase in demand for advice services. At the same time there are severe pressures on local advice services funding. Not least the £50 million being lost due to legal aid cuts next year and cuts made to advice services by local authorities.”

“We welcome the opportunity this funding will provide to allow local advice services to rethink their services to enable the most vulnerable to continue to get the support and advice they need. It should never be forgotten that, according to Advice UK, around 30-40% of all advice work is caused by preventable failures by statutory services.”

 Read more information about the fund on the Big Lottery website