Consultancy

Consultancy Services

The Welfare Benefits Unit provides a flexible, specialist consultancy service for organisations requiring expert welfare benefits advice to support their staff, volunteers, and operations. Our national second-tier consultancy services range from file reviews for first-tier advisers, through to one-off pieces of research or technical writing, and specialist recruitment support.

Please Note: Our file review and supervision spaces are currently full, but we hold a waiting list of interested organisations, please get in touch below.

Our consultancy Lead Alison, and File Review and Supervision client Lisa from DASL delivering a session at a conference on getting the most out of file reviews.

How We Can Support Your Organisation

Our highly experienced advisers all come from backgrounds in first-tier advice settings and have extensive casework and tribunal representation experience. We work closely with partners to design bespoke arrangements that meet individual staff needs, quality assurance standards, or organisational frameworks. Our core consultancy services include:

File Review & Checking: Independent casework auditing and quality checks.
Supervision: Professional oversight and casework mentoring for your advice staff.
Targeted Training: Individual training and development sessions tailored for new staff or volunteers.
Specialist Research & Recruitment: Bespoke organisational insight for boards and support in hiring specialised roles.
Technical Writing: Producing accurate, specialist guides, resources, policy updates, or training materials tailored to your organisation’s needs.

“I just wanted to say thank you… I’m really thankful for all the guidance, support, and encouragement you’ve given me. I’ve learned a lot from working with you, and I really appreciate your support throughout.”

Quality Assurance & Governance

We understand the administrative standards required by our partner organisations. WBU ensures full structural compliance through the following provisions:

Trusted Charity Mark: WBU is undergoing re-accreditation with Trusted Charity and is fully equipped to work within any quality assurance framework relevant to your sector.
Advice UK member: We are a proud member of Advice UK, ensuring our practices align with national network standards for independent advice providers.
Data Sharing & SLAs: As a registered data controller, we manage all data securely and confidentially. Formal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can be arranged to govern data-sharing requirements.
Professional Indemnity: For your peace of mind, all WBU consultancy work is fully covered by professional indemnity insurance via VCS Insurance Limited.

Pricing

We offer flexible pricing based on the scale of support required, operating on a standard hourly rate of £70 for research, recruitment support, and consultancy projects.

Discuss Your Needs

If you would like to join our file review and supervision waiting list or discuss how the Welfare Benefits Unit can support your organisation, please get in touch.

Contact: Alison Hodgson, Consultancy Lead
Email: consultancy@welfare-benefits-unit.org.uk

“As an adviser working in a very small organisation and conducting the vast amount of casework by myself, I have found these supervision sessions to be immensely helpful. ”