Issue 14: Autumn/Winter 2024
Unlocking the potential: what can the AST do for you?
The MCF’s Advice and Support Team (AST) offers more than you might think. This article explains the full range of services available.
The Advice and Support Team (AST) is comprised of a group of Advisers who work regionally across England and Wales, offering face-to-face or telephone advice on a wide range of subjects. The Enquiries team, based in Freemasons’ Hall in London, will respond to your enquiry, and then may make a referral to the AST. A local Adviser will then make contact with you to discuss your situation and offer advice on support or services available.
The Enquiries team cannot immediately make grant decisions, but we understand that some situations are urgent. That’s why the AST is committed to providing interim support between the application and grant giving stage, ensuring you’re not left in the dark. Even if you are not eligible for a grant, our Advisers can offer valuable assistance in various ways.
The AST can assist you by discussing the best approach to meet care needs, exploring how home adaptations and mobility aids can help people maintain independence, offer practical advice on the education and well-being of children, and guiding people to state benefits and services available from local authorities and other charitable organisations.
In many cases, Advisers can make you aware of benefits you could be claiming, and signposting you to sources of expert guidance. The service the AST provides is confidential, and has proven to be life changing.
We can visit you in your home and look at the bigger picture around the initial problem, and see that they might benefit from having home adaptations, mobility aids, and more. So we go in on one issue, but it’s the tip of the iceberg; we look below the iceberg to identify what else we can help people with.
To access support, call us on 0800 035 60 90
In times of crisis call the Samaritans on 116 123
