History & Development

ACFA was set up in the early 1980s. One of its main aims was to lobby Avon County Council on behalf of independent advice centres and to assist the Council in setting up a Welfare Rights Take-Up Campaign. ACFA representatives worked in partnership with the local authority to determine on how best to develop a county-wide network of advice centres. ACFA was instrumental in securing better resources for advice centres and were influential in developing an Avon-wide advice service.

ACFA’s membership has grown to over 40 agencies and as a long-established umbrella organisation it has become an influential body in trying to improve the provision and quality of advice services across the four unitary authorities of Bristol, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire.