East Midlands

AdviceUK supports members in the East Midlands through regional meetings. Since the end of Working Together for Advice funding, we have not had specific resources for development work in the Midlands, but please contact Simon Johnson for more information about how we can help.

What's new

EAST Midlands Regional Meeting

Nottingham, 15 December 2011

Members met at Chase Neighbourhood Centre on 15 December 2011. The meeting notes are attached at the foot of this page.

FREE – Advice Alliance East Midlands conference
Navigating the Commissioning Maze
Thursday 1 March 2012, 10.30 – 15.30
Leicester

Advice services face a double whammy. At the same time as demand hits record levels, funding is reducing and competition for scarce resources is increasing. More and more services are subject to commissioning and procurement, which demands new approaches, new skills and new sets of relationships.

Advice Alliance East Midlands’ second free conference will bring together advice organisations, commissioners and prime contractors to explore how to work together to make these changes work on the ground.

The day will be very interactive, with practical sessions and speakers with a wealth of operational and strategic experience, to inform and stimulate debate.

In the current climate can you afford not to be there? Put the date in your diary now and we’ll send you further information shortly.

See below for the draft conference agenda and the report of our 2011 conference - AdviceServices Making a Difference.

Advice Alliance East Midlands publishes Advice proofing framework

The framework is designed to encourage public bodies to take the advice needs of their communities into account when they are developing new plans, policies and procedures. Using the advice proofing process will help partners understand how their plans will impact on local people - especially on their advice and information needs. The framework also encourages partners to consider:

How advice and information services could contribute to the design or implementation of the policy or procedure;
Whether there are any failures in the system or design that are creating problems and how these can be resolved; and
Whether the policy or procedure is likely to lead to an increased demand for advice or information services.

It can be used on its own or as part of an equalities impact assessment and is designed for:

Local authorities
Local and regional partnerships
Health providers and partnerships
Third sector umbrella organisations, infrastructure consortia and networks
Advice providers developing their own strategies or initiatives, or to assess local partners’ plans and agreements.

Advice Alliance East Midlands has sent the advice proofing framework electronically to contacts in unitary and county councils in the East Midlands, to demonstrate the potential of advice services to support their work. You can download a copy below.

Contacts

Your regional representative for the East Midlands is Simon Johnson. Email: simon.johnson@adviceuk.org.uk

If you're a member of the public looking for advice visit http://www.adviceuk.org.uk/want-help to find sources of help and support. Development Consultants work with advice centres but can't advise members of the public.