By Zahra Wynne, Consultant at Resolve Poverty
On Tuesday 8 September, more than 50 people joined our London Local Systems Learning Session, bringing together stakeholders from across London to hear about More Than Advice, explore some of the early learning emerging from the programme, and share perspectives on what this could mean for wider systems.
Attendees included representatives from local authorities, regional bodies, the NHS and health sector, advice and voluntary and community organisations, funders and other partners working across financial inclusion and poverty. At this relatively early stage of the programme, the session provided an important opportunity to begin sharing our learning more widely and hear directly from those working across local systems.
For Resolve Poverty, this forms an important part of our work with localities to strengthen strategic responses to poverty – understanding how community-based debt advice can contribute to effective local action, and how it can be better connected with local services and partnerships as part of wider anti-poverty strategies.
About More than Advice
More than Advice seeks to challenge entrenched inequalities in problem debt and access to debt advice. Evidence shows people from Black and racially minoritised communities, as well as those from low-income households, families with children, younger adults and disabled people, are more likely to experience financial insecurity and problem debt, reflecting wider structural inequalities in housing, employment, income and access to financial safety nets. Yet those most likely to experience problem debt can also face significant barriers to accessing advice through traditional routes, highlighting the importance of support that reaches people in ways and places that work for them.
This inequality should not be inevitable – which is where More Than Advice comes in, going beyond standard debt advice and delivering wraparound support for issues that co-occur with problem debt – poor mental health, housing insecurity, benefits entitlement – alongside support to reduce debt itself.
The programme, funded by Impact on Urban Health, seeks to empower communities to build financial resilience and improve wellbeing. Delivered by Rooted Finance, Citizens Advice Southwark and Brixton Advice Centre, with learning and evaluation supported by Resolve Poverty and the Financial Inclusion Centre, it strengthens capacity to address the wider drivers of debt, giving frontline workers more time to work intensively with clients. Through the two-and-a-half-year partnership, we aim to build the evidence for more equitable and effective approaches to debt advice, helping to inform and influence how support is commissioned and delivered in the future for people experiencing marginalisation, with a particular focus on Black and racially minoritised communities.
Involving local system partners in London
With all three delivery partners based in London, engaging organisations working across the capital is an important part of the programme’s learning and influencing work.
The session brought together attendees including debt advisers, social prescribers, commissioners and others working across local services and systems. We were joined by stakeholders from a range of London boroughs, including Southwark, Hackney, Hounslow, Wandsworth and Waltham Forest.
As the programme is still developing, the session provided a formal introduction to the programme, the problem it seeks to address, and the aims to share learnings across its lifetime. The session was an opportunity to share some of our early learning, hear reflections from across the partnership and explore the questions and priorities of those working across local systems. Two themes dominated discussion through questions from attendees: methods of client outreach and engagement, and how we apply learnings to facilitate wider systems change.
Client outreach and engagement
Attendees were interested in how delivery partners reach people experiencing problem debt and how clients are engaged with the programme and its evaluation.
At Brixton Advice Centre, 84% of clients engaged through the programme are from Black and racially minoritised backgrounds, compared with 65% of its overall client base; at Citizens Advice Southwark, the figures are 92% versus 68%. For Rooted Finance – one of the only Black-led organisations in the country authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority – representation and cultural competency are central: clients come to them because staff reflect their own backgrounds, with interventions provided in a way that is targeted but applicable to everybody, ensuring cultural nuance is applied to service delivery. Partners also described offering multiple referral routes to avoid digital exclusion, and diversifying outreach into GP surgeries, asylum-seeker day centres, food banks, and libraries.
Evaluation is central to mainstreaming the approach with funders and commissioners, and attendees were keen to understand how to keep clients engaged throughout the evaluation. The Financial Inclusion Centre highlighted the role of an operations group of frontline staff from each delivery partner in supporting engagement with the evaluation, including refining consent processes and the language used, alongside financial incentives to support participation. The effectiveness of these approaches in supporting sustained engagement will continue to be explored as the evaluation progresses.
Applying learnings to wider systems change
With services across London facing growing demand and pressure on resources, attendees were keen to explore how learning from More Than Advice could have wider relevance across housing, welfare, health and other parts of the local system.
Brixton Advice Centre reflected on how elements of the programme’s staged and process-driven approach could potentially be applied in other settings, while highlighting the importance of organisational culture, time and resources in shaping the quality of advice and support people receive.
The more resource-intensive delivery model was seen as key to supporting clients with multiple, intersecting needs – something that could be replicated in other services. Citizens Advice Southwark valued the extra time afforded for clients needing longer interactions due to mental health or language needs, deeper income-maximising support, and closer work with other organisations supporting the same individuals.
An important part of More Than Advice is also being open about the challenges of delivering this approach in practice, alongside understanding its benefits. Rooted Finance reflected on the difficulties that can arise when trying to embed more holistic ways of working within wider systems and services – including council tax and housing – that may not be designed around this type of support, as well as the challenge of helping clients navigate points where systems do not work as intended.
Discussion therefore also explored what could help address some of these barriers, including opportunities for earlier intervention, the role of technology, and stronger coordination and referral pathways between debt advice and services such as social prescribing, the NHS and council tax teams. Building a better understanding of the client journey across these services, and where opportunities for earlier or more joined-up support exist, will be an important part of the programme’s ongoing learning.
Looking forward
The session provided valuable insight into the questions and areas of learning that matter most to stakeholders as More Than Advice develops. In particular, there was interest in understanding how the community-based models work in practice, what distinguishes them from standard debt advice, and the difference that additional time, flexibility and more holistic support can make for clients.
There was also a clear interest in understanding the wider value of these approaches, including both financial and non-financial outcomes for clients and their impact on other services. These are important factors that will continue to shape the programme’s learning and influencing work, as we build the evidence around what it takes to deliver debt advice that is equitable and sustainable.
Further events and opportunities to engage are planned throughout the programme, providing opportunities for stakeholders to contribute expertise, reflect on emerging learning and help shape the questions we explore as the programme develops.
To discuss these themes, contribute expertise, or find out more, contact our Senior Policy Advisor, Penny Rimmer, at penny@resolvepoverty.org.
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