With great sadness we need to inform you that, following Coventry City Council’s decision to completely axe our funding, Coventry Independent Advice Service (CIAS) will be unable to take on any new advice cases after 30th September 2024.

We understand that this may create problems for your service users, contacts and the wider community, but without any funding we are unable to commit to future work. We will continue to work with our existing clients and with clients we take on between now and 30th September, but we cannot take new clients after that date unless additional funding can be secured.

You may be aware that Coventry City Council opened a competitive tendering process for a new grant to provide advice services in the city. This process was announced in August with a very short turnaround of approximately 3 weeks. The grant has now been awarded to Citizens Advice (for generalist advice, including welfare benefits and debt) and to Central England Law Centre (for specialist level social welfare work) as part of a new ‘Coventry Advice Service’ strategy.

The new contract is effective from 1st October 2024 with no period of transition or agreements in place for the transfer of work. From that date, you will need to signpost or refer anyone needing advice or support to Citizens Advice or Central England Law Centre, as appropriate.

This outcome may force CIAS to close, ending over 30 years of essential support and guidance from our charity to thousands of Coventry residents alongside the economic benefit of our work to the city.

If you would like to talk to us about how this decision might impact on your organisation, your service users, or how we might work together to secure future funding, please do get in touch.

On behalf of CIAS staff, volunteers and trustees, I would like to thank you for your support and the confidence you have shown in our charity.

Alan Markey
Chief Executive Officer