Download a copy of our IPR Annual Review 2018 (PDF)
Chair’s Report, 2018
Welcome to our 2018 Annual Review. It’s been quite a year! We’ve expanded our services, moving into financial literacy work that supports our clients in dealing with money issues longer-term; we’ve helped more vulnerable people find solutions to their problems and have been instrumental in driving forward the debate about the impact of Universal Credit on Islington residents. Although we’re open to everyone, we mainly work on the margins of society with people who are hard to reach and whose problems, if left unchecked, can have a dramatic effect on their lives. To do this most effectively within our resources we have concentrated on governance this year.
Good governance is at the heart of any successful long-term operation and we simply cannot cut corners. We have refreshed the Trustee Board, ensured new measures for control and oversight are in place and instigated an improved business and work planning cycle. This demonstrates to our stakeholders that we are an organisation that knows its business, knows its direction and knows how to turn words into action.
Our plans over the coming years are fivefold:
- To ensure we know exactly who we are helping by gathering better data;
- To reach and help more people;
- To support our brilliant staff team and develop our own talent;
- To diversify our income further to build resilience;
- To be a positive agent for change in Islington and beyond.
We have made great strides with this plan already yet there is much work still to be done. Universal Credit is now in place in Islington and already we are seeing some
of the devastating effects this chronically under-resourced system is having on our clients. We are pleased that its effects have gained so much national attention and
we will continue to raise endemic issues with our MPs (Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry) and in the wider advice community and fight for our clients for positive
change.
Once again, my thanks go to my fellow trustees for their hard work, dedication, insight and scrutiny; to Islington Council for their continued support and their desire
to understand the problems we are dealing with; to our many funders who make the work we do possible and, of course, to our volunteers and staff team who make it all
a reality by delivering the help to the people of Islington.
Matt Brown
Tuesday 13 November 6.30pm at Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA
IPR will be taking part in the London Legal Walk once again on Monday 21st May 2017. This year we have an IPR team of 11, made up of staff, trustees, and supporters. The sponsored 10km walk in central London is organised by The London Legal Support Trust, who work to support access to justice in London and the South East.