With regard to its announcement on 13 June 2002 on funding for central support services for money advice, what steps it has taken, or plans…

The Scottish Executive brought together an ad hoc steering group to advise on the deployment of our £500,000 funding for central support for the provision of money advice in Scotland.The group consisted of networks and organisations which have considerable knowledge of the sector and which are significant providers of money advice in Scotland: Money Advice Scotland (MAS); Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS); The Federation of Information and Advice Centres; Consumer Credit Counselling Service (Scotland), and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.The group met on one occasion to discuss and comment upon the findings of work carried out by external contractors regarding the scope and delivery methods of central support for money advice in Scotland. This meeting was minuted and members of the group received copies. There were subsequent discussions with individual members of the group.The group agreed that central support should focus on six priority areas:1. Training2. Secondary advice3. Specialist information4. Developing a common statistical framework5. Developing common standards6. Developing and implementing a common quality assurance frameworkOn the advice of the group and from the findings of the scoping study the Executive decided that this work should be taken forward jointly by MAS and CAS, building upon the work of the Scottish Money Advice Training and Development Forum. MAS and CAS are now implementing the first stages (1, 2, 3 and 4 above) of this work under the banner MATRICS
- Money Advice Training, Resources, Information and Consultancy Services. MAS and CAS may work with other organisations where specialist knowledge is required. The Executive is considering how to make progress on stages 5 and 6. We have not yet decided which organisations will be involved.An advisory group will be established and chaired by the Executive to oversee the work of MATRICS. The group will include representatives of both the money advice sector and the wider advice sector.