Lead body – St Ann’s Advice Group and People First Alliance

St Ann’s Advice Group is an established local advice and support organisation working in one of Nottingham’s most disadvantaged communities, and a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). We are a leading partner in the Advice Nottingham (AN) consortium, a company limited by guarantee.

Advice Nottingham is made up of 6 leading advice groups:

  • St Ann’s Advice Group (formed 1991, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation)
  • Bestwood Advice Centre (formed 1986, a registered charity and company ltd. by guarantee)
  • Clifton Advice Centre (formed 1993, a registered charity and company ltd. by guarantee)
  • Meadows Advice Group (formed 1979, a company limited by guarantee)
  • Nottingham Law Centre (formed 1982, a registered charity and a company ltd. by guarantee)
  • Citizens Advice Nottingham and District (formed 1993, a registered charity and a company ltd. by guarantee).

Based in Nottingham these six organisations have been working together under the AN umbrella since 2005 to deliver contracts and improve advice services across the City for the benefit of residents, particularly those most vulnerable. All AN groups are audited by the Advice Services Alliance and adhere to the Advice Quality Standard.

Advice Nottingham is a not-for-profit company hence a legal entity but with no infrastructure i.e. employees. All members of Advice Nottingham are not-for-profit voluntary groups (each with its own Board of Trustees) delivering welfare rights advice in benefits and debt including casework and representation at tribunals. Services are also delivered in employment rights and housing law and training, in various issues relating to social welfare law, is given to other groups and residents.

The partners remain independent from Advice Nottingham and deliver services from their own bases across the city by ‘drop in’, appointments both through in and outreach and via social media including email.

People First Alliance

The People First Alliance is an alliance between the three Building Better Opportunities projects in D2N2. The three projects are:

  • Money Sorted in D2N2 (Financial Inclusion – led by St Ann’s Advice for Advice Nottingham)
  • Towards Work (led by Groundwork Greater Nottingham)
  • Opportunity & Change (Multiple and Complex Needs -led by Framework)

 

These three lead organisations formed an alliance at the bidding stage in order to be able to act as a strategic and overarching partnership in the delivery of the Building Better Opportunities Programme in the D2N2 area – with five key principles: Personalisation, Added Value, Coordination, Portable Personal Budgets, Effective Data Sharing and Integrated Performance Monitoring.  Coordinated and integrated delivery through the Alliance offers a key step towards the BBO principle – ‘lead to better coordinated services’ within D2N2.

Each of the three projects stand alone, but the People First Alliance enables learning and best practice to be shared and assists stakeholders by providing coordination between the three strands of the Building Better Opportunities Programme.

St Anns Advice Centre
Advice Nottingham