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Advice Strategy

3. What do these figures begin to tell us?

In some ways, the statistics set out in this document tell us little that could be described as 'new'. However, what these figures do provide, is a picture of the world which would be recognisable to people living and working in Calderdale.

That is not to discount the importance of the gradings that the partnership has produced. This data is vital, although it must be supplemented with more local knowledge to reflect the differences within wards, the travel patterns of certain client groups or to identify small pockets of localised need.

That said, there are a number of key points that do emerge from the data.

• There are clearly a number of wards with very high levels of need across all areas of social welfare law. In particular, there are some wards in and around the centre of Halifax - Town Ward, St Johns, and Elland which suffer greatly from the effects of multiple deprivation.
• There is also high need in all information and advice categories in Todmorden. Moreover, this need may be exacerbated by the relative isolation of the ward within Calderdale.
• There is another area of high need to the north of Halifax - particularly in Ovenden, Mixenden and, to a lesser extent, in Illingworth. This area, although geographically close to the centre of Halifax is, in many senses, also isolated.
• Some wards in Calderdale are essentially 'rural' in nature. This means that the needs indicators may well under-represent the levels of need affecting relatively small numbers of people. For instance, rural areas such as Ryburn and the Calder Valley have pockets of deprivation, which are not always statistically obvious.
• One would also expect there to be issues relating to access to services in these rural areas.
• Some categories of law indicate a consistently high need across Calderdale. This is particularly true of the need for debt advice.

1. Calderdale supply

   After assessing the level of need across the area, the next major task of the Steering Group is to map supply. This process allows us to have a clear idea of where any gaps in current provision are. Clearly, the partnership is aware that mapping supply is fraught with difficulties. There are issues around who to include as a 'supplier' how to differentiate between the different levels at which suppliers are working and how to take into account travel patterns when identifying local services.

   Therefore, this section needs to be seen very much as a 'starting point', rather than as the definitive statement on levels and variety of supply in Calderdale. The other thing that this document certainly is not is a ranking or 'judgement' on the work that agencies within Calderdale are currently undertaking. Many agencies will be doing excellent and invaluable work but may not, by the criteria that we are using, be carrying out LSC defined 'specialist' work, or indeed, may not be regarded as advice agencies at all.

   For a definition of the Quality Mark, the quality standard for the CLS and the different 'levels' of information and advice please see Appendix A.

2. Methodology

   There is no established or infallible way of mapping the quantity and quality of supply in an area. The data that any one agency has on suppliers will invariably be partial, will be too closely allied to funding and may often not take into account suppliers in other areas.

   In the future, we would anticipate that this task will be made much easier as more and more organisations apply for and attain the CLS Quality Mark at all levels. One of the problems that we face at the moment is that, except for ' CLS Specialist' level services, we are largely reliant on organisations 'self-declaring', that is to say, defining what they do themselves. Inevitably, this approach is 'patchy' and leads to inconsistencies. When the Quality Mark system is fully implemented there will be a clear criteria on which to base any future maps of supply.

   That said, as a starting point, there is a good deal of useful information available. Although this information is to some degree fragmentary, when it is all pulled together, it does begin to give us a picture of the variety of provision, which is available in Calderdale.

   This information is based on a number of sources:

   • Information from funders of information and advice services - including organisations funded by the Legal Services Commission and Calderdale MBC;
   • Organisations that have achieved the Community Legal Service Quality Mark at a particular level;
   • Organisations that have expressed an interest in applying for the CLS Quality Mark;
   • Organisations that have expressed an interest in the work of the Calderdale partnership and which have given an initial description of the service that they provide.

   This information has been amalgamated to form a ranking of the level of supply in any given area.

   Inevitably, this document takes as its main focus those agencies that are providing ' CLS Specialist' level advice to users - it being easier to track the amount and level of work being undertaken by a provider with a contract or a Quality Mark at Specialist level.

   The data that has been gathered needs to be read in relation to three main themes - client group (for example, young people and ethnic minorities), geography (for example, ward boundaries) and area of law (for example, housing, debt, welfare benefits, and so on).

   What this section has also tried to do is look at the level of provision in each ward relative to levels in other wards. Again, there are some problems with such an approach - for instance some providers may be located in a town centre but will serve a much wider area. Where these methodological weaknesses are apparent they are highlighted in the narrative.

   Please note however that the following details are correct at time of going to press, but due to the nature of funding and other external factors, provision may be subject to change.

3. What supply is there in Calderdale

   There are a number of CLS Specialist suppliers in Calderdale covering a range of social welfare law categories. The range of organisations that have Quality Marked services at Specialist and General Help with Casework levels can best be shown geographically in the maps (Appendix C). These maps show suppliers in the main categories of social welfare law mapped against the geographical areas defined as high, medium and low need in the needs analysis produced by the CLSP.

   These maps also include those organisations, which expressed an interest in applying for the Quality Mark at Casework level. Not all of these organisations have as yet applied for, or achieved, the Quality Mark and there is a sense in which these maps may actually overestimate the level of supply in Calderdale.

   What these maps graphically show us is where provision is in Calderdale. What is clear is that in all areas of law we find a concentration of suppliers in the centre of Halifax, and a particular lack of provision in the more rural areas of the Borough such as Calder Valley and Ryburn. Such a concentration is understandable in that it reflects the concentration of population within the Borough. However, it is critical to bear in mind that 'low need' cannot be regarded as 'no need'. People in need in isolated areas are in fact doubly disadvantaged if coupled to their need is a lack of accessible support services.

   More worryingly, given the areas that the CLSP has categorised as having 'high need' in all areas of law, there is also very little supply in North Halifax (Mixenden and Ovenden) and, given its isolation, within Todmorden. This is something that the CLSP needs to address in the future.

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