Advice can help disputes more effectively

A report released today by the Department for Constitutional Affairs has said that giving vulnerable people better delivered advice on subjects such as debt and employment can help resolve disputes earlier and more effectively.

The report, ‘Getting Earlier, Better Advice To Vulnerable People’, sets out a programme for co-ordinating and enhancing the role of independent advice across central and local government, and for using feedback from the process to help improve public services. It aims to develop a strategy for helping people, especially the vulnerable and socially excluded, to obtain such advice more easily.

The report suggests that such a strategy would address areas such as the quicker resolution of problems, more efficient use of available resources in the advice sector and how to stop problems escalating into other, more serious issues.

Welcoming the report, Constitutional Affairs Minister Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC said: “This important report underlines the crucial role that independent, locally-based advice can have in improving the quality of life for individuals, and the quality of service in the public sector.

“It is a significant contribution to our wider examination of legal aid and advice services. It will be given full weight in developing effective policies to deliver these valuable services.”