Greater Essex is also preparing for a new mayoral combined authority and reformed local government landscape at the same time as Sussex and Brighton.
One Harlow charity has used this as an opportunity to step up with a set of bold ideas about what public health could look like under devolution.
Citizens Advice Harlow has published a manifesto focused on inclusion and fairness that it wants to see under a strategic mayor, offering a roadmap for embedding advice services into the DNA of public service delivery — with GP surgeries, family hubs and social care teams all playing a part.
As a branch of the national advisory network, Citizens Advice Harlow provides free, independent, and confidential advice to help people resolve problems with debt, housing, benefits, employment and more.
>> 🔗 Citizens Advice Harlow Manifesto (PDF)
Advice as infrastructure
The headline idea is an Essex Advice Guarantee. A system where “no one falls through the cracks”, and where people get help before crisis hits.
The proposal includes county-wide:
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Advice on prescription – building on Harlow’s existing GP-based model where advice workers sit alongside clinicians
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Local Advice Partnerships – bringing together councils, NHS, DWP and community groups at district level
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Digital investment and multi-year funding – ending short-termism and siloed delivery
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Client voice in strategy – using real data and lived experience to shape policy and reform
The approach is designed to cut long-term costs (with an estimated £14 return on every £1 spent), but more importantly to lift advice from the margins of the system to its centre.
Why?
With Essex set to elect a mayor and streamline its local government, this is a pivotal moment. The CAH manifesto challenges regional leaders to stop treating advice as “just another service” and instead see it as essential civic infrastructure, much like transport or housing.
It directly calls on candidates to:
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Appoint a Mayoral Lead for Advice and Inclusion
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Secure sustainable funding within prevention strategies
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Embed lived experience in devolution and local government reform
Should we be thinking like this in Sussex?
With Sussex on its own journey toward a combined authority and mayor in 2026, the Harlow model offers food for thought:
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Could we see Citizens Advice in every Sussex GP surgery or family hub?
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What would a Sussex-wide Advice Guarantee look like - and how might it help tackle inequality at root?
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Should the Sussex mayor appoint a lead for advice, inclusion and lived experience?
As Sussex debates housing, skills and transport strategies under a future mayor, the Harlow example reminds us that it is incredibly hard to build regional resilience without social infrastructure. And that includes free, trusted, local advice - wherever people need it most.
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