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BOLD

BOLD is a joint project of AdviceUK, Directory of Social Change and new economics foundation, funded by The Baring Foundation’s Strengthening the Voluntary Sector programme. BOLD aims to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of advice organisations through the development of commissioning models that place the needs of service users first. This involves:

  • Working with commissioners and advice organisations to design approaches to commissioning that focus on outcomes, encourage co-operation and collaboration, and contribute to public service improvement;
  • Training for advice organisations to prepare for commissioning and enable them to influence service specifications and develop effective bids with full cost recovery;
  • Developing resources and mechanisms to raise the profile of advice in local strategy and policy including Local Area Agreements; and
  • Facilitating learning and sharing of good practice among policy makers, advice organisations, and commissioners, to increase understanding of the system conditions in which advice services operate and of effective commissioning practice.

BOLD is working in three target cities:

Coventry – we are working with Advice Services Coventry to support their involvement in a review of advice services being conducted by Coventry City Council. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the ways in which advice services contribute to the achievement of wider social and economic goals, as expressed in Coventry’s Sustainable Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement. Initial research is being carried out to inform the advice services review and findings will be published in June 2010.

Manchester – As part of the joint procurement of a Community Legal Advice Service with the LSC, Manchester City Council is developing an outcomes-based approach to commissioning advice services. Whilst we have serious reservations about the compatibility of the two approaches, we welcome the commitment to focus on what matters to local people and to resourcing advice services to make a real difference.  BOLD submitted a two-part response to the draft CLAS specification in January 2010. In March 2010, we commented on the initial Equalities Impact Assessment prepared for the proposed service. You can access these documents by clicking on the link below.

In Nottingham, we are working closely with Advice Nottingham and Nottingham City Council. Since February 2009, AdviceUK has supported partners in Nottingham to undertake a Systems Thinking review of advice services, including both independent providers and the local authority’s own in-house welfare rights service. The interim report of this work demonstrated that 31% of the capacity of advice services was taken up in dealing with externally generated Failure Demand – problems caused by the failure of public services to get things right for clients. 11% of demand was generated by internal failures and advice services are now experimenting with new approaches to delivery, to address this issue. You can download the interim report of the demand analysis in Nottingham below.


During 2010, as the findings of BOLD’s work emerge, we will be engaging in a number of events to disseminate the findings and to involve advice organisations, commissioners and policy makers in a process of challenge, to enable us to develop a robust and workable framework for advice service commissioning, and a toolkit for implementation.

Attached documents