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  • Birmingham Advice Cuts and Commissioning

Birmingham Advice Cuts and Commissioning

Birmingham City Council announced earlier this year that it would end funding for independent advice services in March 2011 and commission a greatly reduced service to commence later in the year. AdviceUK believes that their decision makes little economic or social sense. It will cause hardship and has serious equalities impacts that call into question BCC’s ability to fulfil and Equalities Act duties . It has been made with insufficient consultation. The High Court has agreed with us, as have many of Birmingham's MPs - see below. 80,000-100,000 people every year seek advice from the 13 agencies affected by BCC’s decision – that’s 1 in 10 Birmingham citizens or about 1 in 4 families. We believe their new procurement plan is seriously flawed - see below for more on this.

Download briefings from AdviceUK on the cuts and procurement proposals below.

High Court rules funding cuts are unlawful

On 31 March 2011, the High Court overturned the City Council's decision following a Judicial Review. AdviceUK welcomed the ruling that the decision to axe advice funding is unlawful but is concerned that it only applies to three advice organisations. The High Court ruled that the Council had failed to consult and consider the impact of the cuts properly. The three voluntary organisations whose clients brought the Judicial Review
(AdviceUK members, Birmingham Tribunal Unit, the Chinese Community Centre and St James’s Advice Centre), will now continue to receive funding. They were due to be cut from 1 April – leaving a gap of several months before newly procured advice services would be up and running. What happens to the other organisations that were cut depends on BCC's reaction to the decision.

Phil Jew, Head of Policy & Campaigns at AdviceUK said:

‘We welcome the decision to send Birmingham City Council back to the drawing board. We hope they will reconsider their decision for all agencies that have been cut, not just the three whose courageous clients brought the case to Court. Their plans to cut community advice would have hit poor and disadvantaged Birmingham people hard. Their consultation was flawed and their plans for replacement services are unworkable. We hope they will now halt their plans work with community organisations to ensure that effective independent advice services are provided. The ruling should also serve as a warning to other Councils not to implement cuts without properly considering the implications ’

Click here to read local press coverage.

Birmingham citizens will be poorly served by ‘unworkable’ advice plans

AdviceUK has slammed Birmingham City Council’s proposals for advice services for Birmingham’s most vulnerable citizens. The community advice network claims the plans will lead to less effective services that tie charities up in red tape and has branded the proposed arrangements ‘unworkable’.

The Council, which was been criticised by MPs for cutting advice services in a Commons debate in February, has issued a ‘market consultation’ setting out new procurement plans. AdviceUK believes that if the Council goes ahead, Birmingham citizens will see a drastic reduction in the quantity and quality of advice. Many people will be left to deal with welfare benefit, debt and immigration problems alone.

Phil Jew, Head of Policy & Campaigns at AdviceUK said:

‘The proposed new advice contracts are unrealistic and unworkable and will fail the people of Birmingham. The funding doesn’t cover the costs of delivering the targets and they will add endless bureaucracy for hard-pressed charities, discouraging them from supporting the most vulnerable people. The top-down approach of the council breaches the voluntary sector Compact and misses an opportunity to make improvements. Instead of preventative advice that tackles poverty and bad decisions, and improves lives, we will see ‘dumbed-down’ provision. We urge the Council to think again.’

Attached documents