Hackney Voluntary &
Community Sector Grants
Programme
2016/17-17/18
Social Welfare Advice
Grants Prospectus
Updated October 2015
This prospectus gives information about the funding streams and the
models of advice provision funded through the Social Welfare
Advice grants.
Please ensure you read this prospectus before applying for a grant.
There are additional guidance notes on completing the application
forms.
Contents
Social Welfare Advice grants ................................................................................................ 3
Strand 1: Community Advice and Support Grant .................................................................. 5
Strand 2: Specialist Legal Advice Grant ............................................................................... 9
Strand 3: Online Advice Directory ........................................................................................11
Strand 4: Piloting Approaches to Advice in Community Settings .........................................12
What happens after you apply .............................................................................................13
Appendix 1 – Examples of the data successful applicants will need to report on as part of
their grant requirements.......................................................................................................14
Appendix 2 – Outcomes for application stage .....................................................................15
2
Social Welfare Advice grants
The Social Welfare Advice grants contribute towards the Voluntary and Community Sector
(VCS) Grants Programme’s strategic priority to promote social inclusion, encourage
independence and develop resilience.
The Social Welfare Advice grants introduce a new approach to advice provision in
Hackney. Through these grants the Council wants to fund advice services which provide
high quality, independent advice on all areas of social welfare law and provides a safety net
to avert a crisis or escalation of issues for residents. We want advice services which
supports residents until their issues are fully resolved, builds their capabilities, addresses
unmet advice needs and tackles the issues which drive demand for advice services.
We want to work more closely with advice providers and other stakeholders to deal more
proactively with the drivers of demand for advice whether that means dealing with system
failure issues, building capacity and resilience in communities or taking a different approach
to supporting those with complex need and meeting unmet need.
Given the rapidly changing welfare landscape we want an advice service which is
responsive to the external environment and can the meet the advice needs of residents
following the introduction of Universal Credit and other welfare reforms.
The Social Welfare Advice grants are divided into four funding strands and the total value of
the budget is in the region of £700k per year depending on the quality of the applications.
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Community Advice and Support
Specialist Legal Advice
Online Advice Directory
Piloting Approaches to Advice in Community Settings
Successful applicants will form an Advice Partnership which will:
 Identify trends in clients’ needs and in demand
 To identify issues with systems that place demands on advice services and support
each other to design remedial action
 Share information and issues arising from internal and external drivers and
influences such as employment practice, the local economy, the housing market
 Identify opportunities for joint work on shared initiatives, awareness raising and
improved coordination
More information on the background of the Social Welfare Advice grants can be found in
the report to Cabinet, September 2015.
3
Application dates and support with your application
Grant Type
Applications
Open
Application
close
5th October
2015
27th
November
2015
19th October
2015
27th
November
2015
Application
period
Initial
Recommendations
Final
Decisions
Contracts
Start
Contract
Length
16th
1st May
2016
23
Months
1st May
2016
11
Months
Community
Advice and
Support
Specialist
Legal Advice
Online
Advice
Directory
Piloting
Advice in
Community
Settings
8 weeks
December
2015
3rd
February
2016
6 weeks
16th December
2015
3rd
February
2016
Hackney Council will be holding a Social Welfare Advice grant event at the beginning of
November to help you with your application. The event will give you an opportunity to ask
questions about completing the application form and network with other agencies to help
strengthen the partnership aspect of your application.
The date of the event will be advertised on the Hackney Council website.
www.hackney.gov.uk/community-grants
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Strand 1: Community Advice and Support Grant
The Community Advice and Support grants will provide support to residents, particularly
those most in need, enabling them to understand their rights and responsibilities, access
what they are entitled to, manage and resolve their problems and build their capabilities.
The Community Advice and Support grants represent one of the shifts in focus in Social
Welfare Advice grants. This funding stream places greater emphasis on the outcomes of
cases, on working with residents to fully resolve their advice needs, including providing
handholding for residents who need additional support to fully resolve their issues, and
providing advice on all areas of social welfare law that residents’ circumstances may
require.
This shift in focus means that applicants will need to be realistic about number of cases
which can be dealt with as part of the grant. They will also need to demonstrate how their
service will contribute to the longer term aims of the Social Welfare Advice grants to reduce
demand on advice services by building the capabilities of residents to resolve issues
themselves as well as identifying and addressing issues with processes which generates
demand for advice. Applicants will also need to ensure that case resolution can be
demonstrated through their recording and monitoring systems.
Community Advice and Support grants will be a minimum of £100k and we anticipate there
will be 2-3 successful applications.
Instead of applying for a specific grant amount, applicants will need to demonstrate the
outcomes they expected against a range of grant values and successful applicants will be
notified of the value of the grant they have been awarded.
We expect to fund advice services which:

Takes a ‘whole systems’ approach which:
o Is focused on the whole person, uses a diagnostic model to identify all the
clients’ advice needs and provides the appropriate level of advice and support
to ensure the problem(s) are fully resolved.
o Recognises the complexity of advice which frequently involves multiple areas
of advice and takes a joined up, holistic approach to resolving issues.
o Uses a diagnostic model to fast track advice for clients where there is an
immediate risk (e.g. serious harm to self or others, homelessness).
o Focuses on resolving the problems and managing cases from beginning to
end.
o Builds the capabilities of the individual to resolve or prevent problems from reoccurring in the future and actives seeking to make clients more self-reliant
and capable of solving problems for themselves in the future.
o Ensures clear exit plans are put in place to refer clients to services that
promote the capabilities of residents to resolve issues themselves in future,
such as digital literacy projects, peer mentoring and floating support services.
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o Where information and general help is provided, systems are in place to
ensure residents were able to fully resolve their problem(s) and more detailed
casework is provided if needed. This should include systems for liaising with
referring agencies to ensure the issues have been resolved.
o Occasional representation, for example benefit appeals.
o Diagnose where legal advice/representation is necessary and make the
appropriate referral(s).
o Addresses failures and errors in the system and identify how these can be
improved.
o Responds proactively to other trends, insights and threats such as poor
employment practices.
Proactively addresses need:
o Addresses access barriers such as linguistic and cultural communication and
physical and sensory barriers for disabled residents.
o Systems are in place to gather and respond to intelligence on unmet need.
o Responds and adapts to the external environment to meet the advice needs
of residents following the introduction of Universal Credit and other welfare
reforms.
o Advice and support delivered in known advice settings and in community
settings to address unmet need.
Level and areas of advice
Community Advice and Support grants will include the following levels of advice:
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Information
General help
General help and case work.
The level of advice will depend on the needs of those seeking advice however it is
anticipated that the majority of cases will involve general help and case work.
Advice will need to be provided in the following areas and applicants will need to
demonstrate a proven track record of delivering high quality advice in these areas.
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Housing and homelessness
Debt
Welfare Benefits
Money management – including advice on prioritising bills and payments, reducing
expenditure and budgeting
Immigration
Employment
Family
Consumer
Other areas of social welfare law
Partnerships
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Applicants must apply as a consortium or partnership of organisations. The partnerships
should be largely made up not-for-profit organisations that provide free advice and support
to residents. There will have to be a strong justification for the inclusion of organisations
within the partnership that are not from the not-for-profit sector such as solicitors providing
pro bono work.
A lead organisation must submit the application on behalf of the partnership and this
organisation will need to take overall responsibility for the delivery of the advice service. A
partnership agreement must be submitted which has been signed by all partners delivering
the service as part of the grant.
Applicants will need to demonstrate how the partnership/ consortium will be effectively
managed. This should include quality assurance, peer reviews and how they will exercise
the appropriate level of oversight and scrutiny of the governance and the operational
management of organisations within the partnership.
Some of the problems which require advice and support relate to residents’ underlying
health issues. To help address this, providers will need to develop proactive partnership
approaches to promoting healthy lifestyles (thus tackling underlying health related
problems) and initiatives to empower and build the capabilities of individuals to resolve or
prevent problems from re-occurring in future. This should include links to wider peer support
services and complementing floating support and new plans for that service.
We would also like applicants to think about partnership arrangements which best address
barriers and needs such as language and cultural communication needs. This could be
achieved through the organisations chosen to form part of the formal partnership or it could
be achieved by the way your partnership works with wider organisation Examples include:
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A partnership between organisations with quality assured advisors to address need,
e.g. a partnership between culturally specific and other targeted VCS organisation.
A partnership of advice providers could be strengthened by developing
arrangements with other VCS organisation (such as culturally specific organisations)
to provide additionally linguistic and cultural translation support for clients accessing
advice to ensure their needs are meet.
Delivery mechanisms and hours of service
We expect the Community Advice and Support service to be provided in diverse settings,
formats and through different channels based on evidence about needs and barriers to
advice.
The delivery mechanisms should take account of linguistic and cultural communication
needs as well as physical and sensory barriers. It should also draw on intelligence about
sections of the population who are not currently being reached by advice services and an
understanding of residents’ preferences for receiving advice (e.g. face to face, telephone,
email and other forms of online advice).
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The service should be available at times which suit the needs of residents.
Applicants must demonstrate how their service has been designed so that it meets the
advice needs of Hackney’s residents including the hours of service, delivery mechanisms
and how it meet unmet need.
Quality assurance
The Council is committed to ensuring that residents have access to high quality advice
services that delivers the best possible outcomes for local people.
Applicants will need to demonstrate the processes that will be used to ensure high quality
advice is delivered across the advice service and partnership. As a minimum the lead
partner should have an advice quality mark, such as Advice Quality Standard (AQS),
General Help Quality Mark (GQM) or Specialist Quality Mark (SQM). All advice providers
should have the appropriate qualifications, registration and quality mark for the level of
advice provided, such as NVQ Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Office of the Immigration
Service Commissioner (OISC), advice quality marks and advice and guidance NVQ Level 3
or equivalent.
Outcomes
The performance of the successful applicants’ advice services will be measured on the
extent to which needs are met overall and the extent to which individuals’ issues are
resolved. This will be achieved by measuring outcomes, outcome indicators and service
outputs.
The monitoring arrangements for these grants will require successful applicants to record
and report on detailed data which will be used to develop a better shared understanding of
where resources need to be focused and where improvements are needed to the
processes and systems. An example of the type of detailed data successfully applicants will
need to record and report on is provided in Appendix 1; this data will be collected as either
quarterly monitoring reports or as part of snap shot data collection exercises.
During the application stage applicants will need to consider the list of detailed data in
Appendix 1 and explain the systems they will put in place to record and report on this
information and demonstrate a strong track record in delivering successful outcomes for
residents in these area.
At application stage applicants will also need to state the overarching outcomes they expect
to achieve against a pre-defined list (Appendix 2).
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Strand 2: Specialist Legal Advice Grant
The Specialist Legal Advice grant will provide an accessible legal advice service to
Hackney residents. Applications can be made as a sole provider or partnership and must
show how they will deliver the specialist legal advice service set out below.
The Specialist Legal Advice grants will have an approximate value range of £50k-£200k
and we anticipate there will be 1-2 successful applications.
Instead of applying for a specific grant amount, applicants will need to demonstrate the
outcomes they expected against a range of grant values and successful applicants will be
notified of the value of the grant they have been awarded.
The Specialist Legal Advice service will need to provide advice in the following areas and
applicants will need to demonstrate a proven track record of delivering high quality advice in
these areas.
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Housing and homelessness
Debt
Welfare Benefits
Immigration
Employment
Family Law
Consumer
Other areas of social welfare law
The Specialist Legal Advice service will:
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diagnose the legal issue/s
advice on the law and how it applies to the situation
legal advice and helping the client to decide between options
help to prevent, negotiate, settle or resolve legal disputes
help with other legal proceedings
advocacy, assistance and representation at tribunals and county court/high court
Have clear protocols in place for fast tracking referrals from the Community Advice
and Support Services funded by the Council and for handing clients back to the
referring agency for follow up support
Proactively address need:
o Addresses access barriers such as linguistic and cultural communication and
physical and sensory barriers for disabled residents.
o Systems are in place to gather and respond to intelligence on unmet need.
o Responds and adapts to the external environment to meet the advice needs
of residents following the introduction of Universal Credit and other welfare
reforms.
o Advice delivered in known advice settings and in community settings to
address unmet need.
Provide second-tier advice and support to generalist agencies, including those
awarded the Community Advice and Support Grant, to assist frontline advisers when
9
managing complex cases and queries. Legal updates, briefings and training on
relevant areas of law and policy will also be delivered to frontline advisers
Delivery mechanisms and hours of service
We expect the Specialist Legal Advice service to be delivered through a range of
mechanisms to best meet the advice needs of residents and be available at times which
suit the needs of residents.
The delivery mechanisms should take account of linguistic and cultural communication
needs as well as physical and sensory barriers. It should also draw on intelligence about
sections of the population who are not currently being reached by advice services and an
understanding of residents’ preferences for receiving advice (e.g. face to face, telephone,
email and other forms of online advice).
The service should be available at times which suit the needs of residents.
Applicants must demonstrate how their service has been designed so that it meets the
advice needs of Hackney’s residents including the hours of service, delivery mechanisms
and how it meet unmet need.
Quality assurance
Please see the Quality Assurance section for the Community Advice and Support grant.
Outcomes
Please see the Outcomes section for the Community Advice and Support grant.
10
Strand 3: Online Advice Directory
The Online Advice Directory grant is only available to applicants of the Community Advice
and Support or Specialist Legal Advice grants and will be included in that application form.
The Sustainable Advice in Hackney project developed a website which provides a directory
of advice services in the borough and acts as a portal for information on social welfare
advice issues. We are seeking applications to maintain and develop this website so that
information and resources continue to be available to residents, advice providers and other
professionals.
A grant of up to £3k is available for a voluntary and community sector organisation which
can demonstrate how they will successfully maintain and develop this website so that it:
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Provides an up-to-date directory of social welfare advice providers in the borough
Enables residents to access information and guidance on social welfare issues
Acts as a tool to strengthen the advice sector in Hackney.
Given the size of the grant available there is an expectation that this grant will be
supplemented with match funding.
The Sustainable Advice in Hackney website can be view via the following link:
http://www.hackneyadvice.org.uk/
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Strand 4: Piloting Approaches to Advice in Community Settings
This strand of funding is available for voluntary and community sector organisations to pilot
approaches to providing advice in different formats, different community based settings and
trial new ways of engaging residents who currently do not access advice services.
The overall budget for this funding stream is £25k and we anticipate to award 2-3 grants for
projects delivered over 2016/17.
Evidence from a number of different reviews carried out by the Council shows that there are
residents with advice needs who do not access advice in traditional settings or formats, for
example young black men and people living with learning difficulties and autism. The
Community Advice and Support grants include a requirement to improve our understanding
of unmet need and proactively respond to it. However we recognise the need to further
enhance our understanding of unmet need and explore alternative ways of providing advice
to residents.
Through this grant we want to trial new approaches to increase our understanding of the
communities which currently do not access advice and how advice can be provided in
different formats and settings to meet that need.
As this funding stream is specifically for piloting new approaches to advice provision, we
expect successful applicants to complete a detailed evaluation of their project so that we
fully understand the effectiveness of the approaches which have been piloted. We
anticipate that the evaluations will be used by both statutory and voluntary sector
organisations to help inform future advice provision.
Organisations with extensive reach into the communities that are currently not accessing
traditional advice services may not be advice providers. As such we welcome applications
from organisations who do not normally provide advice services. However partnership
arrangements will need to be put in place to ensure that the advice element of the project is
delivered by an advice provider with the relevant advice quality mark and appropriate
registration for the level of advice they will provide. Please see the Quality Assurance
section for the Community Advice and Support grant for further information on the
necessary quality marks and registration.
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What happens after you apply
The assessment will be undertaken by Hackney Council staff, colleagues from partner
organisations in the borough such as Hackney Homes and AdviceUK.
Community Advice and Support and Specialist Legal Advice
Applications will be scored according to the score shown on the application form. The
scores include a minimum and maximum score; applications which do not meet the
minimum score for any of the questions may not be considered for funding.
The scores will be used to shortlist and shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview on
8th or 9th December 2015.
You will be notified of the provisional funding recommendations in mid-December 2015.
You will then have to submit your organisation’s policy documents before your application
can be approved for funding.
The funding recommendations are subject to Cabinet approval and you will be notified of
Cabinet’s decision at the beginning February.
Contracts will start 1st May 2016.
Piloting Advice in Community Settings
Funding decisions will be based solely on the application form; there will be no interviews of
this funding stream.
Applications will be scored according to the score shown on the application form. The
scores include a minimum and maximum score; applications which do not meet the
minimum score for any of the questions may not be considered for funding.
You will be notified of the provisional funding recommendations in mid-December 2015. The
funding recommendations are subject to Cabinet approval and you will be notified of
Cabinet’s decision at the beginning February.
Contracts will start 1st May 2016.
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Appendix 1 – Examples of the data successful applicants will need to
report on as part of their grant requirements
The table below provides an example of the type detailed data that successful applicants
will be expected to record and report. At application stage applicants will need explain the
systems that their proposed advice service will use to collect the type of data included in
this table.
Overall advice
service
Total number of people accessing the advice
service
Number of cases dealt with by advice service
(including repeat visits for different cases )
No of successful homeless person’s cases, e.g.
homelessness reviews & appeals
Housing and
homelessness
No of repossession cases stopped
No of successful disrepair cases
No of cases where accommodation is secured e.g.
hostel places secured
Debt Written Off (no. / £)
No. of rent arrears cases negotiated
No of high interest payments negotiated / debts
Financial
stability
No of benefits backdated
No of Bailiff actions prevented
No of successful benefit appeals (DWP)
No of successful benefit appeals (benefits
administered by the Council)
Income generated through successful advice work
No clients report improved confidence in budgeting
& money management skills
Employment
Residents'
increased
capabilities to
resolve or
prevent
problems from
reoccurring
Residents'
enhanced wellbeing
No of successful employment tribunals
No of clients reporting improved knowledge of their
rights and responsibilities
No of clients reporting increased confidence
Additional support secured for x clients
No of clients reporting reduced levels of stress
No of clients accessing initiatives promoting healthy
lifestyles
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Appendix 2 – Outcomes for application stage
The table below shows the outcomes included in the application form. Applicants will need
to show the annual targets for each outcome based on their experience of delivering
advice.
Outcomes and Outputs
Number of people accessing your advice
service
Overall advice
service
Housing and
Homelessness
% cases where residents have received
appropriate level of advice and support to fully
resolve their issues.
Housing circumstances of residents are
improved in % cases
Financial stability of residents is improved by
increased income in % of cases
Financial
inclusion
Financial stability of residents is improved by
improved money management skills in % of
cases
(Community Advice and Support grant only)
Employment
Changes in
residents
Employment circumstances of residents are
improved in % of cases
Increased capabilities of residents to resolve or
prevent problems from reoccurring in % of
cases
Enhanced well-being of residents in % of cases
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