On 31 January, the Advice Services Alliance (ASA) launched a revised version of the Advice Quality Standard (AQS). Yvonne Fovargue MP, a veteran of managing local advice services, chaired the parliamentary event, which was attended by delegates from across the advice and legal sectors.

The AQS is held by some 700 separate local advice services across England and Wales. Originally known as the General Help Quality Mark and owned and administered by the Legal Services Commission, it was passed to the ASA in 2012. The number of organisations adopting the standard continues to grow. Current holders include 300 local Citizens Advice, 47 Age UKs, and over 300 local independent advice agencies. The AQS operates within a licensing system that assesses prospective members and oversees full members through supportive but exacting scrutiny. As a beacon for best practice, it commands support from across the advice and social welfare law sectors, and beyond.

At the launch, Lord Low, who chaired the Low Commission on the Future of Advice and Legal Support, stressed the importance of quality when funding for much of the sector is reducing. Professor Avrom Sherr, chair of the AQS project management committee, said: ‘A quality mark provides certainty that there will not be a race to the bottom in standards.’ Speakers from Norfolk Community Law Service, Age UK, St Pauls Advice Centre in Bristol and Refugee Action Kingston echoed these themes, giving examples of how the framework has supported quality in client services. Lindsey Poole, director of ASA, concluded it was ‘humbling to hear what these and many other services were achieving though their high-quality services to clients, despite the challenging times’.