Advice in Accessible Settings 2026-2029

Following successful delivery of the fund from 2023 to 2026 by AdviceUK to its members, the Scottish Government has agreed to further expand the fund this year to continue to provide advice in health, education and community settings, with an additional focus on increasing accessibility for disabled people to access advice.

From data already held up to and including the 31st March 2026 the programme has delivered the following;

• Financial Gains recorded by the projects – £45,417,741.86
• Debt managed by the projects – £11,193,402.83
• Total number of clients assisted in the programme – 16,296

Going into year 4 we now have 153 Community Settings involved in this funding programme, currently covering 30 out of the 32 local authority areas in Scotland.

The funding is aimed at increasing the availability and accessibility of welfare, debt and income maximisation advice as well as to support partnership working between advice providers and a range of other community, health and education services. All grants for 2026-27 have now been issued to allow for the  continuation of the majority of existing projects funded in 2023-2026 with the addition of some new projects/partners to increase the expansion of current disability focused and school projects.

The criteria for the project delivery continues to be as detailed below:

• Deliver holistic (income maximisation, debt and welfare) advice in either an education, health or other community/accessible setting(s);
• Demonstrate a viable partnership and collaborative working;
• Demonstrate improved outcomes for people accessing the service, including positive financial and other benefits of advice to other services and partners (such as education and health services);
• Evidence of a plan for sustainability of the partnership beyond the funding period for this Programme; this includes a demonstration of how system and delivery changes will be affected by the approach, in order to embed advice provision into existing services;
• At least one partner has AdviceUK membership and access to AdviceUK support, including having the AdvicePro case recording system to ensure consistency of reporting;
• Delivery of the services must take place within Scotland;
• All projects must include some aspect of face to face/ in-person delivery;
• Each project or partnership must include at least one member of staff or one organisation that is accredited by the Financial Conduct Authority and is able to deliver regulated debt advice;
• All projects will agree to a reporting and monitoring cycle as agreed between the Scottish Government and AdviceUK including reports on progress against objectives, the number of clients seen and a demonstration of measurable outcomes;
• Focused on those “hardest to reach” or hardest to help, including those who might never have sought debt advice before;
• Completed by 31 March 2029;
• Projects must also have a focus on increasing accessibility to advice for disabled people in Scotland.
• Share learning to inform future approaches.