Welcome to the Cheshire Advice Partnership

A project run by Age Concern, Citizens Advice Bureaux and Shelter

Funded by the BIG lottery  

Formed in April 2009, the project will run until the end of September 2011. Part of the team’s remit is to ensure that the work is sustainable once the project has ended.

Aims of the project:

• Improve access to advice services
• Work in partnership with community services to achieve this

To see how we are working towards achieving these aims please visit our ‘What we do’ page under ‘About us’ on the website

Rational of the project:

The three primary partners joined forces to tackle the problem of access and referral fatigue in Cheshire.

It was recognised that not everyone who needs advice is able to get to an advice provider due to their location, opening times or the client even knowing they exist.

It was also a concern that there were a significant number of people who accessed support but did not complete the process due to referral fatigue. Referral fatigue is a term used for clients who are signposted to a number of agencies, offering different specialisms, and because they feel like they are being pushed from pillar to post drop out of the support system. Whilst organisations are signposting appropriately there is no framework to support clients in the transition and with the onus on the client to call yet another agency and repeat their circumstances there is a trend for that client to drop out of the process all together.

Working in the Community:

The Cheshire Advice Partnership has met with over 100 community organisations across Cheshire. Of those over 90 have signed up as partners.

Benefits to partners and clients:

Benefits to partners include:

• Working in partnership whilst retaining own identity
• Increased confidence
• Easy referral onwards
• Quality training
• Access to specialist services within the partnership

Benefits to clients include:

• One phone number
• Out of hours contact
• Several contact methods
• No need to repeat issues
• Increased accessibility

If you would like to find out more about being a partner simply click onto the ‘contact us’ page of the website in the ‘About us’ section for telephone numbers and email addresses.