Advice Workforce Development Fund programme learning report is a paper summarises the learning from the first year of operation of initiatives designed to address workforce challenges for London’s social welfare advice sector. Advice Services Alliance was appointed Learning Partner for the collaborative Programme and has worked with the eight funded partnerships, the Programme steering group, task and finish groups and programme participants to gather and understand the learning.

Our project, in collaboration with partner organisation Money A and E and funded by Propel the ‘Grow Your Own Advice’ Incubator is a pioneering workforce development programme, supporting diverse, London-based community organisations to ‘grow their own’ advice workers. Our programme is aimed at addressing the gap in the provision of community-based debt and welfare advice, particularly for Londoners from diverse ethnic communities. The need for the work is derived from both external evidence and our partnership’s own experience of delivering debt and welfare advice.
As the trainees’ progress, the focus is on equipping them with skills for the workplace and creating pathways for employment in the advice sector. Our aims is to establish a consortium with grassroots organisations across London for long-term sustainability. By leveraging existing connections, the goal is to create a network of community organisations interested in debt and welfare advice to support the project’s legacy.
Read the full report