Specialist Financial Advice Service

Essex County Council (ECC) are committed to investing in a quality financial Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) offer for our residents that enables the provision of accredited, regulated and specialist as well as maximising the role of communities to deliver preventative support.
Our vision is to deliver high-quality Financial IAG support to Essex residents to improve their financial wellbeing, increase their resilience to withstand future financial shocks, and address the root causes of financial hardship.
The primary scope for the Specialist Financial Advice is predicated on investing in a partner who can provide a strategic, lead provider relationship with ECC:-
• To maximise the funding and resources aligned to the 'Resilience' and 'Community Connections' strands of the ECC Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) programme. Key to this is being able to monitor and track progress across multiple offers and services and provide impartial advice on future steps.
• Development of a financial education programme to create more 'financial confidence' in Essex. Education is central to prevention. It builds confidence and capability to make informed decisions, recognise problems early, and seek help before crisis. By equipping individuals with financial literacy skills to help with things like budgeting and saving, we can reduce demand for high-cost, specialist interventions.
• System Development - Community partners play a key role in prevention, early intervention, and post-advice support. They have trusted relationships with residents and can spot early signs of financial stress, can act as first-contact navigators and referrers, and provide ongoing wraparound support. Building this capacity can allow Accredited, Regulated & Specialist providers to focus their resources on more complex needs.
The partner is required to:-
• Act as a source of 'warm referrals' from the CRF crisis payment scheme, tracking cases over providers to ensure household get the advice they...