Advice Skills Gap & Workforce Development

Addressing the Skills Gap within Advice Services

Following a presentation at the London Funders Advice Network of findings from Advice Services Alliance research (‘Advising Londoners‘, July 2020) commissioned by Greater London Authority, a task group made up of key London advice funders including Trust for London, The City Bridge Trust, London Legal Support Trust, The National Lottery Community Foundation, Legal Education Foundation, and Paul Hamlyn Foundation came together to discuss the recommendations made in this report. The group was then joined by sector representatives including Advice UK, Refugee Action, Law Centres Network and University House Legal Advice Centre to widen our discussions in order to seek solutions together.

This group met between April and July 2021 looking in particular at good practice, new opportunities, and ideas. The group decided to commission practical research to look into these ideas and opportunities to develop an action plan.

The final report was published in May 2022, and is available to download below.

The work of this report has been aligned with the long term funding programme, Propel. Advice funders under Propel are funding initiatives responding to workforce issues; you can read more about this work here.

There is guidance and support for advice agencies who are interested in utilising the Apprenticeship Levy scheme to train and upskill staff under the SQE route. Please see the below resources provided by Eddie Coppinger (University House Legal Advice Centre) for more information.