Legal Help (LSC)
The East Sussex Advice Partnership won a major contract from the Legal Services Commission to provide legal advice to clients on housing, welfare benefit and debt in East Sussex in October 2010.

Four advice agencies in Eastbourne and Hastings are working together in a consortium to ensure that clients can access all three types of advice, whichever agency they go to. 

Eastbourne Citizens Advice will provide debt advice and BHT Eastbourne Advice will provide housing and welfare benefit advice in Eastbourne.

In Hastings, HARC will provide welfare benefit advice, Citizens Advice 1066 will provide debt advice and BHT Hastings Advice will provide housing advice.

Legal Help News & the consultation on the future of Legal Aid provision
Not long after the contracts were awarded proposals to cut the Legal Help provision were announced. ESAP, concerned about the impact this will have on advice provision and vulnerable people in the community who would lose access to legal help, have worked closely with Advice Partners and a number of East Sussex MP’s to highlight these impacts.

Members of the East Sussex Advice Partnership have joined the Justice for All campaign and will be taking part in the National Day of Action on Friday 3rd June 2011. Events are being organised for Hastings and Eastbourne details of which can be downloaded here.

The Emergency Budget; changes to Benefits and Tax Credits
The attached paper is based on an article written by Brighton and Hove City  Council’s Welfare Rights Team.
Download the Emergency Budget Nov 2010 here.

Financial Inclusion

ESAP and its partners were successful in a funding application to the Modernisation Fund and as a result employed an independent consultant to undertake an exercise to:

• Map out current levels of Financial Exclusion in East Sussex
• Map out current work that is contributing to tackling Financial Exclusion
• Undertake a gaps analysis exercise
• Identify opportunities to fill gaps and access further resourcing
• Identifying existing partnership work
• Identifying examples of good practice

A follow-up meeting, being hosted by East Sussex Advice Plus and East Sussex County Council, is taking place on 8th September 2010. The recomendations in 'Financial Inclusion in East Sussex' will be discussed to identify priority areas for future work.

Financial Inclusion in East Sussex - Download here. Financial Inclusion in East Sussex Exec Summary - Download here. Financial Inclusion Action Plan - Download here.

Service Directory - Download here.

Advice Needs in East Sussex
ESAP employed consultants, to map the current levels of advice provided in East Sussex and identify gaps in this provision.

A copy is now available to download. Exec summary download here.

Elements of this report will inform the East Sussex Advice Strategy, which will be developed and produced in working partnership with Advice Providers and published in 2011.

Advice Forum and East Sussex Advice Strategy
The East Sussex Advice Forum took place in Eastbourne on Tuesday 27th April 2010 and Tuesday 5th April 2011.
The Forum was attended by representatives from a range of Specialist and General Advice providers from across East Sussex, who met to discuss the development of an Advice Strategy for the county.
The following points were identified by attendees as being the greatest priorities for an East Sussex Advice Strategy. 

• Approach joint funding opportunities and opportunities to share resources
• No Wrong Door/effective referral systems
• Making the case for, and measuring the impact of, advice services e.g. through social impact assessments, County-level & local representation
• Quality; improving quality and having consistent quality standards/quality assurance
• Targeting services to those most in need and the chronically excluded.
• Service User Involvement; in service design and delivery

The draft Advice Strategy is available - download here.  Please email any comments to trudy@esap.org.uk by Friday 27th May 2011.

Nellbooker
ESAP was the first Advice network in the UK to run Nellbooker; an online referral and appointment system, which enables advice providers to make referrals on behalf of clients and to offer and book appointments.

ESAP began using Nellbooker in December 2009 and has since developed a range of training and support packages for other advice providers and networks who are considering purchasing the system.  For further information please go to our Nellbooker page.