Building Connections: co-locating advice services in GPs and job centres

The Building Connections programme developed and tested approaches to delivering advice services in two general practices and two job centres in north east Glasgow. 

The services included: financial and debt advice; mental health and addictions support; social security advice; and modern apprenticeship schemes for ethnic minority communities, with the main focus of the programme to improve social and economic outcomes for people living in deprived communities. 

By developing and testing collaborative service delivery models involving partners from the public and third sectors, the programme sought to investigate the impact and complexities of collaborative working, particularly approaches which adopted co-located models. 

This report explores the Building Connections programme and the projects it supported, and presents an assessment of their impact. It also introduces a series of learning themes on the practicalities of collaborative working, with a specific focus on how this type of working is dependent upon the people involved, their relationships with one another and the structures, norms and working cultures of partner organisations. A series of recommendations for future work are also provided. This is a joint publication with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Download the executive summary (PDF).