What happens when you put a debt advice service inside a prison?
Recently I spoke at the LACEF Conference, the national forum for local authority enforcement and collections professionals. It’s a space where front-line experience meets big-picture thinking, and I always come away energised by the people in the room.
This was my third time attending, and once again, the welcome was warm and the conversations thoughtful.
I shared how we’ve been piloting secure video kiosks to deliver debt advice inside prisons, starting with HMP Brixton. So far, more than 100 people have used the kiosk - many of them accessing advice for the first time.
It’s not easy to bring services into that environment. No laptops. No internet. Plenty of practical barriers. But we’ve seen that if you make support simple, respectful and stigma-free, people engage - and they do it early.
We’re now looking at how we can take this further across London and the South East. I’m pleased to say we’re in discussion with the Ministry of Justice and the Money and Pensions Service about how we develop the pilot from here.
Over the next year we’ll be testing new ways of working, combining kiosks with financial inclusion workshops and different ways of linking up with our advice teams.
We’re not quite ready to share all the details, but there’s more to come later this year.
Thanks again to Tracey for the kind invite, and to everyone who came over to connect, ask questions, or talk about what’s possible.
If you’re working in local government, the justice system or financial inclusion, I’d love to hear from you.