How our Advice and Advocacy Service makes a Difference

1. Immediately after calling our advice line:

• 96% felt that they had a better understanding of what they had to do
• 85% felt more confident to have their say with the social worker/children’s services
• 84% felt that they understood the law better
• 90% felt that they understood their rights and responsibilities better
• 75% felt more able to understand the concerns of the social worker
• 83% felt that they had an improved understanding of children’s services procedures.

2. Four to six months after calling our advice line:

• 80% had a better understanding of what they had to do
• 68% felt more confident to have their say with the social worker/children’s services
• 59% felt they had a better understanding of children’s services procedures
• 42% felt better able to work with the social worker/children’s services
• 45% agreed that the support they received from us made a positive difference to the local authority plan and/or services for their child/children.

3. Our cost effectiveness:

New Philanthropy Capital also constructed an economic model to estimate the public savings of the advice line from care costs avoided and local authority costs saved by averting the need for long term or more intensive statutory involvement. The findings suggest that the service saves an average of £15.58 for every £1 invested.

This mean figure estimates that the Advice and Advocacy Service has saved almost £15 million in public spending across the two years, 2020-22.

The model’s local authority and care related costs were estimated in 2015. These costs have risen since 2015 and therefore the model findings underestimate the public money saved by the service.