Social Welfare Advice Research with the North Wales Regional Advice Network

Whilst our case-study location in Wales is the Isle of Anglesey, our research team have also been involved in other North Wales wide research in association with the North Wales Regional Advice Network (RAN). This post provides a summary of a North Wales RAN event that took place in autumn 2022, aimed at exploring our understanding of advice sector concepts like information, advice and case-work, as they are today. 

North Wales Regional Advice Network: Communities of People and Need

In 2020, Welsh Government established six Regional Advice Networks (RANs) across Wales, each has an independent Chair and Steering Group, plus a membership of local and regional stakeholders in the provision of social welfare advice services. The RANs aim to map advice need and provision and identify gaps, build referral networks, combine experience to identify root causes of common problems and share best practice, and support each other to deliver quality-assured advice.

Introduction to the event

A key aim of the RAN event was to discuss understandings of advice and information definitions, and the extent to which existing definitions fit with current practice. The definitions presented as examples for discussion were those from Welsh Government’s Information and Advice Quality Framework (IAQF), and those underpinning the Advice Services Alliance (ASA) Advice Quality Standard (AQS). The discussions during the session also extended to a range of pressing issues for organisations providing information and advice: including challenges to the delivery of services, channels used to provide information and advice, networks and connections, the “cost of living crisis” and engaging with communities and people with particular characteristics. 

Key Findings and Themes

1. Defining terms

• The IAQF and AQS definitions are generally beneficial and reflect most existing practices at an organisational level, but engaging with definitions is not part of regular practice for most staff and volunteers. 
• Staff and volunteers would benefit from further training on definitions in the context of their own roles, particularly so that the desire to provide as much help as possible doesn’t lead to overstepping which could cause a bigger problem. 
• Definitions would benefit from some revisiting in the context of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and other challenges facing the sector. Providers have become more agile and adaptable post Covid-19, and the existing framework may not be sufficiently flexible to reflect that, and overly rigid classifications of services are especially concerning as demand increases further.
• AQS definitions are generally seen as more accurate and flexible than IAQF definitions.
• Frameworks could be simplified by having two overarching categories of “information” (to include guidance, signposting and referral) and a second category of “advice” (to include sub-divisions of generalist advice, and generalist and specialist case-work). This is clearer to the public in terms of helping them understand different services. 
• There is little awareness of the category of “guidance” (used in the IAQF but not in the AQS); its status in the overall set of definitions is generally not well understood and the term was not used by most organisations. 
• Definitions and categories are understood to be used for regulatory and “liability differentiator” purposes, the addition of “guidance” as a defined category was seen as potentially blurring boundaries between unregulated information services, and regulated advice services.
• Organisations are most concerned about the divide between “advice” and “legal advice”, this divide was seen as crucial to organisations yet neither IAQF nor AQS seeks to provide any guidance on this boundary. Organisational perceptions do not always match the reality of the frameworks covering regulated and un-regulated legal activities.
• Some smaller organisations do not see providing advice on policies, rights and practices as part of their roles – yet these are core elements of both framework definitions of “advice”. 
• Funders have their own categories and definitions that can cut across both IAQF and AQS.
• Subject areas are also important. Growth of financial inclusion and financial well-being advice was noted, but there is a lack of clarity as to where this fits with “social welfare law” advice in general (usually defined by subject matters of benefits, debt, housing, employment, community care, immigration and asylum etc).
• Triage and signposting might both benefit from definition and more explicit inclusion in defining frameworks.
• Advocacy is not well-understood, more could be done to raise awareness of the concept, and more advocacy provision is needed beyond statutory requirements. 
• Many new services/projects have grown up, in part catalysed by the Covid-19 pandemic and now the “cost of living crisis”, some provide low level mental health support, some social prescribing, and various forms of help through particular forms of hardship. “Help” and “support” are increasingly common terms, but connections between these concepts and services on the one hand, and more traditional concepts of “information”, “advice” and indeed “advocacy” on the other, are not always clear.

2. Roles of organisations, services, referrals, and community connections 

• Larger organisations are more multi-faceted with different levels of advice provision across various subject areas, but still refer out where other organisations hold a relevant specialist contract (inc. legal aid contract) or provide a very specialist service.
• Larger organisations are more likely to have an operational triage practice, smaller organisations do not have triage.
• Smaller locality-based and identity-based organisations mainly provide information, and they connect to advice usually through partnerships/referrals to Citizens Advice. Smaller organisations providing advice tend to do so in relation to a specific subject (e.g., money advice) and/or for a particular community of identity/characteristics (e.g., faith, refugee status), they may have some specialist advice provision “in-house” and/or come under the umbrella of national subject-area specific organisations for onwards more complex referrals. 
• Smaller organisations perceive themselves as less likely to have hierarchical structures, are staffed mainly or wholly by volunteers, reinforcing the need for partnership and information sharing both internally and with external organisations. 
• There is variable awareness of the roles and concepts of “community connector” or “community navigator” and how such roles could connect people to social welfare law information and advice alongside more general wellbeing advice. 

3. Restraints/Challenges in delivering advice 

Funding

• Funding is a significant issue for all organisations, from the very large to the very small.
• Most organisations receive funding through grants from a range of different sources, and the criteria for accessing funding are variable and often complex.
• Some funding sources place significant restrictions on eligibility for the project/service funded and can have extensive reporting criteria with respect to outcomes.
• The piecemeal nature of funding sources cuts against the aims of larger organisations to provide a holistic service. For smaller organisations responding to different calls and criteria is challenging, especially when this also includes restrictions on who can be helped. There can also be complex restrictions on who can be referred onwards, and how, creating additional work. 
• Some funding sources require unnecessarily extensive evidence in advance as to who will be helped by the service (when the need is, in fact, both urgent and self-evident).
• Funders have not always encouraged genuine partnership working, tender processes can be competitive, cutting against partnership working and negatively impacting long-term sustainability and connectivity.
• The short-term nature of funding is de-stabilising. The availability of new funding, and extensions to existing funding, are often advertised at short notice, making it challenging for organisations to make the most efficient and effective use of their resources. Organisations cannot pivot quickly enough to provide the best offering under new funding. This impacts on who can be helped and how, limiting the options available to organisations and clients, and damaging relationships with partners.
• Larger organisations tend to have targets based on the number of people helped and/or time spent with clients, whereas funding for smaller organisations doesn’t tend to be subject to such requirements.
• Novel piecemeal funding is often based on identifying previously unmet or unrecognised need, once the new service starts it appears almost as if it is the service itself that has created new demand, the service subsequently relieves pressure on other organisations (e.g., NHS, courts service) but as the short-term project finishes, whilst the need is more clearly recognised (evident in increased demand) the need is no longer met, having knock-on effects for other organisations. 
• There is insufficient funding for core services.
• The lack of core funding and need to focus on piecemeal, short-term, novel projects, limits capacity to engage in outreach, and is most damaging to rural outreach.

Staff and Volunteers

• Most organisations reported a fall in volunteer numbers, and that recruitment and retention of volunteers is challenging.
• Larger organisations noted that the expectations and requirements of volunteers had increased, especially in terms of flexibility sought, whilst volunteering hours and general commitment levels had reduced.
• Smaller organisations established for very specific purposes and/or to help particular client groups (such as refugees or people in a particular ward) who largely provide information rather than advice, tended to have less challenges recruiting volunteers.
• There are notable difficulties recruiting Welsh speaking volunteers and staff.
• Difficulties recruiting staff are linked to rates of pay, but also to the short-term nature of contracts on offer, the lack of job security makes these roles unattractive.
• For volunteers (and to some extent staff) training is seen as too long and too much online. Volunteers and staff should be engaging with clients as soon as possible.
• Lack of resources and increased demand leads to clients being referred out of the local area, impacting on capacity to deliver a seamless service/client journey. 

Cost of Living Crisis and General Demand  

• Smaller organisations are concerned about heating their premises.
• The economic climate and war in Ukraine have led to increased demand and further increases are predicted.
• Staff and volunteers are suffering with increased anxiety, due to high caseloads, but also to increasingly complex or multifaceted cases and an inability to help. 
• There has been an increase in situations where a client has received advice, is claiming all benefits they are entitled to, but still not able to cover their essential outgoings. Staff and volunteers report having fewer solutions available and that this negatively impacts their own wellbeing. 
• There is an increase in contacts from people who have not sought advice before, and from people on low incomes not claiming (and not entitled to) benefits.
• Fast-paced changes in relation to energy costs and sources of financial support are challenging for organisations and compounded by a lack of volunteers and comparatively high staff turnover.
• There has been increased demand in relation to family issues, particularly around children and divorce where legal advice is needed.
• There is insufficient provision of immigration and asylum advice across North Wales.

4. Channels of Advice Delivery 

• Bigger organisations tend to provide multi-channel services (websites, online forms, telephone helplines, appointments online and over the telephone as well as in-person).
• Smaller organisations will often have a website or Facebook page to advertise, but not as a channel for delivering advice.
• Smaller organisations championed giving information and advice in-person within communities, there are not currently enough boots on the ground.
• Larger organisations that had offered drop-in advice sessions or in-person appointments as part of community outreach prior to the Covid-19 pandemic had not returned to doing so due to lack of capacity and increased demand for online and telephone services etc.
• Developing and maintaining technology is more difficult for smaller organisations, especially those largely run by volunteers.
• Some organisations suggested there had been excessive reliance on social media and more use could be made of paper leaflets and newsletters through local channels of distribution. 

5. Communities of need, place or circumstances 

• How clients access services is impacted by their digital capabilities and access to technology.
• Older people can feel significant stigma and shame around claiming their entitlements, a high-profile, widespread publicity campaign targeted at older people is still needed in North Wales.
• Resources tend to be allocated to areas where it easiest to evidence both need and to an extent, demand, for services, but this does not mean needs don’t exist in other areas, and specifically, pockets of poverty and deprivation exist in and around more affluent areas yet tend to be neglected. 
• Some organisations reported variability across North Wales, including in relation to schemes designed to provide financial support and criteria for accessing these, suggesting this has led to difficult conversations with clients about the level of financial support available locally.

6. Networks and Regional Variation

• Smaller organisations can feel excluded from larger networks or feel that they have difficulty meeting the criteria to be recognised within particular networks and frameworks. 
• There are challenges with effective and efficient connections between national services, such as national helplines (both Wales and UK level), and local services.  
• There can be a range of organisations delivering the same types of information and advice at both national, regional and local level; it is hard for the public to know where to turn, and services are duplicated (sometimes due to funder practices).
• There may already be too many different directories, networks, information sharing hubs and referral mechanisms in use in North Wales, each with a different origin, emphasis and focus, but with overlapping criteria, some of which are seen as sub-standard in performing their intended functions and become outdated.
• Whilst the value of a single referral portal and/or directory was raised, it was equally acknowledged that there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” and building on existing platforms would be better.
• Welsh Government ought to further develop existing platforms and networks into a single portal as Welsh Government has the most extensive overview of the information and advice landscape, and the capacity to draw on existing best practice whilst avoiding duplication.