Not-for-profit advice sector faces a £17.5m funding deficit
Research published by the Access to Justice Foundation has shown that the not-for-profit specialist advice sector is facing a £17.5m funding deficit over the next year, resulting in “over 36,800 vulnerable people losing access to specialist advice”. The report warned that many will fall into crisis as a consequence.
The research was based on data from applications by over 170 advice agencies and law centres for funding from the Community Justice Fund, set up in May 2020 to support advice providers through the pandemic.
It found that, even if the deficit was closed, the sector would “remain significantly under-resourced and unable to meet the demands for its services” and warned that specialist advice providers are “already having to turn away thousands of people each week who are in desperate need of their services, creating a massive cost burden for society and significant harm for those individuals”.
The research said that, despite funding shortfalls, the sector had not shrunk significantly, with providers keeping afloat through “prudent financial management”, increased emergency funding from trusts and foundations, the Ministry of Justice and the National Lottery Community Fund, and the use of “scarce reserves to maintain services”.
Use of these reserves had, according to the research, put the sector in an “extremely precarious position”, where any loss or even delay in funding could have a dramatic impact.
Advice services faced increased demand “in a world where many of them are already having to turn potential clients away because they do not have funding”, with one respondent reporting having to turn away 60-70 potential clients every month.
Among the financial pressures facing advice agencies in the next financial year were local authority funding cuts, with some seeing grants reduced mid-year.
“Those agencies doing legal aid work, already struggling because of the payment rates and bureaucracy associated with the legal aid scheme, are seeing reduced case completion numbers due to court delays and backlogs.”