Advice Centres for Avon (ACFA)

From an historic network to part of a winning Advice plus 2 bid

How did it come about?

Advice Centres for Avon (ACFA) was set up in the early 1980s. One of its main aims was to lobby Avon County Council on behalf of independent advice centres and to assist the Council in setting up a Welfare Rights Take-Up Campaign. ACFA representatives worked in partnership with the local authority to determine on how best to develop a county-wide network of advice centres.

What is the structure of the network now?

The network used to get some Council funding to cover their administrative costs but this source has stopped this year because the Council is not funding 2nd tier organisations anymore. The network is in the process of applying for alternative funding. The network is also part-financed through membership fees (£25 a year per member).

The network has a constitution and is an unincorporated association, which means they are a legal entity but not a company. ACFA will be considering over the next 3 years whether they want to develop into a company and seek charitable status.

The network has 48 members. There are three levels of membership. Full members have full voting rights, and must, amongst others, provide advice as their core function, have an equal opportunities policy and belong to the voluntary sector.

The network covers Bristol City, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Bath, and North East Somerset.

There are general monthly meetings and sub groups formed on an ad hoc basis.

What is the network doing?

ACFA is…

providing its members with affordable training courses with the South West Advice Training, on for example on benefits and young people or employment and support allowance;
bidding jointly for money. For example, the network has bid for funding through the DTI financial inclusion fund to coordinate money advice across Bristol and the South West. The bid was successful and 15 money advice workers were trained and recruited by members’ of the network;
looking for joint funding between AFCA, South Gloucestershire, Baines, Bath, and North East Somerset;
facilitating referrals and signposting between its members;
doing social policy work. For example, one member was concerned over community care grants and how they were reviewed. He took it up at national level and transpired that the guidelines were not applied properly;
has just set up a public website with a log-in members’ section.

How well is the network doing?

ACFA is one member of the winning South West Advice plus 2 bid. Avon and Bristol law centre is the lead body but the project will be steered by a broad range of members and will work with all the membership.

The network is keen to reach out to BME groups to have a more balanced outlook. The Advice Plus project will work closely with the BRIGHT Project to achieve this aim. The Bright project works with Black and other Minority Ethnic (BME) voluntary sector organisations in the Bristol area, to help to improve access to legal and benefits advice for their communities.

What happens next for ACFA?

ACFA wants to translate its website into local community languages, and will look for funding for this.
ACFA has a paper-based referral system that doesn’t work as well as they would like and want to move on to an on-line version”

As part of the Advice Plus 2 project, AFCA wants to:

implement an efficient referral system, including giving participating agencies the tools to carry out triage.
address advice deserts identified in Advice services reviews.
investigate the possibility of establishing a single phone line/access point for the network.
establish on-line booking for all participating agencies.
share marketing and publicity.