Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

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Achievements of the strategy to date
Achievements of the strategy to date
Since this strategy was first published in 2004, stakeholders in social inclusion around the region have
reported significant improvements in inter-agency networking and co-operation, with organisations
initially brought together to develop the strategy now working together on its implementation.
In particular, the following are some of the strategy’s achievements over the last three years.
A successful bid to the Financial Inclusion Fund
As part of the £45 million Financial Inclusion Fund announced in the 2004 Pre-Budget Report, a sum was
allocated to increase the provision of free face-to-face debt advice in England and Wales over the period
2006-2008.
Advice UK and Citizens Advice – East Region jointly submitted a bid, drawing heavily on evidence contained
within the Regional Social Strategy and successfully securing two separate contracts for the East of England.
Citizens Advice was allocated just under £1 million for the recruitment and employment of 10.5 full-time
equivalent (fte) debt advisors and Advice UK was allocated just over £0.5 million for recruitment and
employment of 6 fte debt advisors. This equated to 3 fte advisors for Norfolk, 4 for Suffolk, 2.5 for Essex,
3 for Bedfordshire and 3 for Cambridgeshire.
The funding has been used to recruit individuals with no previous advice experience and to provide them
with comprehensive, fully-funded and nationally-recognised training, thereby leading to a net increase in
trained advisors in the region rather than displacement of advisors from other funding streams.
Demand for debt advice remains high in the region with typical waiting times of three-five weeks. Together,
however, these two advice projects anticipate being able to provide advice to over 4,000 clients over a
two-year period.
Development of a regional centre of excellence for sustainable communities
The Regional Social Strategy was one of the key drivers for the development of Inspire East, the region’s
centre of excellence for sustainable communities. Established in 2005, Inspire East champions the creation
of high quality places to live, work and visit.
It does this by promoting better community and physical development in regeneration areas and areas of
growth; enhancing skills in sustainable development by sharing knowledge, information and experience,
and working closely with training providers; improving the quality of projects through benchmarking and
sharing best practice; and, influencing and guiding policy for sustainable communities.
Over the last 12 months Inspire East’s achievements include successfully delivering over 2,000 learning
opportunities, signing an accord with the Construction Industry Council to deliver cross-disciplinary learning,
supporting a range of professional networks and two regional award schemes and setting up the first regional
enabling service. The enabling service consists of a panel of experts in sustainable communities who provide
independent advice and support to projects around the region.