“Improving Lives Through Advice” Funding Programme

Deadline: 15-Sep-23

Applications are now open for the Improving Lives Through Advice (ILTA), a new five-year funding programme delivered by the Access to Justice Foundation with support from the Community Justice Fund.

It is designed to support the delivery of free legal advice to marginalised people and communities across England. The programme will open in 2023 with two funding rounds and grants launching in 2024.

Improving Lives Through Advice is supported by £30 million from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK, to provide access to specialist social welfare legal advice. Thanks to National Lottery players, the funding will enable approximately 75 expert organisations to support some of the most marginalised communities in England – including people with disabilities, women fleeing abuse and families facing eviction.

What is the aim of the fund?

The aim is to improve access to high quality specialist advice for the people who need it most. They will make multi -year core cost grants to organisations who can help them achieve the following outcomes:

Advice to people from marginalised communities is sustained and improved.
- They recognise that certain areas of England and certain communities have poorer access to specialist legal advice than others. They want to make grants to organisations working to improve access to advice for people, places and communities who experience the greatest need dues to poverty, disadvantage, and discrimination.
More people from marginalised communities are empowered to identify, understand and resolve their legal problems.
- They recognise that specialist advice organisations are powerfully placed across community, statutory services and the wider advice sector to enable connection and collaborative relationship building. They want to make grants so that specialist advice organisations can connect with communities through greater sharing and advice coordination, so that people are empowered in their legal matters and supported through the process.
Organisations have more capacity to engage in influencing, partnerships and fundraising work, which helps them meet the needs of their communities.
- They want to make grants that enable specialist advice organisations to have the capacity and resource to engage with their communities and continue to offer vital advice and support where it’s needed most. They recognise that longer term funding means that organisations can develop partnerships, work to leverage further funding and influence policy and/or practice (but will not use this funding for lobbying, or to influence Government or political parties).
Organisations are better able to demonstrate the difference they make to people’s lives.
- They understand that organisations that sit at the heart of their communities (and communities of interest) and which have been developed for and by those communities are often better placed to demonstrate their impact and the difference they make to people’s lives. They want to make grants to organisations with a track record and commitment to learning, evaluation and using advice as a tool for community wide impact.

Priorities

Can demonstrate a commitment to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion in their ways of working both internally and externally.
- They will prioritise organisations that can demonstrate they recognise and are actively attempting to dismantle the multiple barriers to accessing justice that exist for many in their communities due to race, disability, gender, or any other reason, particularly organisations developing strong connections with local communities, including in staffing and governance, or by working collaboratively.
Challenge themselves to ensure the services they provide meet need, are high quality and represent value for money.
- They are keen to work with organisations that;
  - have systems in place to identify and prioritise those most in need, adapting services accordingly;
  - are reflective about the quality of their services and have adopted a positive learning culture to make changes where needed and
  - ensure that their limited resources are used in the most impactful way.
Have a commitment to learning and evidence and can demonstrate the difference they make and the impact they have.
- This programme will have a strong emphasis on learning together, so it is important they work with organisations who are committed to an open and honest approach to sharing what works and what doesn’t, and who are open to developing ways of evaluating and learning to demonstrate impact.
Have strong connections with people, places and communities and can evidence meaningful community involvement, including in their staffing and governance, and by working collaboratively.
- They want to work with organisations keen to build on existing and/or develop new partnerships with organisations embedded in their local communities. This will involve a more thoughtful and systematic approach to how you engage and work with communities, and an understanding of where your advice organisation sits within the overall ecosystem of the relevant community.
Are well run, making best use of resources and following best practice (e.g. in governance, financial management, safeguarding) and invest in staff well-being and in being supportive, inclusive places to work.
- They will prioritise organisations who can demonstrate how they challenge themselves to deliver impactful services in the most efficient and effective ways, including thoughtful use of technology and and recognising the importance of investing in staff training and well-being.
Use the learning from their work to influence broader change, whether locally or nationally.
- They want to support organisations who share knowledge where possible, for example with colleagues in the sector, or to influence attitudes to an issue or policy. They will prioritise those which use a range of tools to leverage the impact of their individual casework, either through strategic use of law (eg: judicial reviews, appeals) or by influencing policy or practice at a local or national level.

Funding Available

The funding available will depend on the size of your organisation. When applying please indicate how much funding you are applying for based on your annual income as per the information below:
- Annual income above £250k: Can apply for funding up to £100k per annum – maximum of £500,000 over 5 years
- Annual income between £150 – £250k: Can apply for funding up to £75K per annum – maximum of £375,000 over 5 years
- Annual income below £150k: Can apply for funding up to £50k per annum – maximum of £250,000 over 5 years
Grants will run for 5 years from 2024 to 2029.
They will make grants across England but cannot guarantee that the funding will include every region.

What will they fund?

This is a five-year core costs funding programme and the requirement is that all of the funding be spent in England only.
Some examples of what they will fund can be found below;
- direct costs associated with delivering services – this can include project staff, materials, equipment, room hire, volunteer expenses and project evaluations
- organisational development – this can include business planning, testing new ways of working, staff training and development, developing governance and leadership, tech or IT upgrades/purchases, developing and sharing impact and learning, and increasing capacity to support collaboration and partnership working
- core/fixed costs to support the day-to-day running of your organisation – this can include core salaries, rent, utilities, equipment

Who is eligible to apply?

To be eligible for funding, an organisation must be:

registered with the Charity Commission and working in England;
able to demonstrate a track record of delivering legal advice in one or more of the following areas of law: asylum, community care, debt, disability, discrimination, education, employment, housing, immigration, mental health, public and administrative law and welfare benefits;
able to demonstrate a track record in delivering advice at specialist level including carrying out end-to-end casework for clients, carrying out representation in a court or tribunal and/or holding legal aid contracts.