In late 2005 the Scottish Executive gave funding of 5.3 million pounds a year to disadvantaged areas across Scotland. This was initially due to last for 2 years. It's aim was to try and reduce the vulnerability of low income families to financial exclusion and multiple debt and so try to lift people out of poverty. Dundee was given £450,000 a year for 2006/7 and 2007/8 under this funding to realise the Scottish Executive’s goals.

The Scottish Executive’s Financial Inclusion Action Plan (View PDF)  gave a framework within which local partnerships could develop their approach to financial inclusion.

In Dundee, the Dundee Partnership is a joint venture that pools together the strengths of key City agencies including Dundee City Council, Scottish Enterprise Tayside, Communities Scotland, Tayside Police and NHS Tayside, providing a vehicle for coordinated inter agency working. Starting life as the Dundee Project in 1981 it has led a range of successful projects making a major contribution to Dundee's physical and economic transformation.

Dundee Partnership commissioned research into how best the Scottish Executive’s funding ought to be used. Within the final report one of the major needs identified was that the key advice and information services in Dundee could be working together more effectively. It was proposed that advice agencies should have common and consistent referral procedures with a directory service available to show what services were on offer within the city. It was suggested that access to new and existing services would also be improved with more effective co-ordination.

To these ends the Co-Ordinated Advice and Tracking system (CATS) has been rolled out to 12 of the main advice agencies based within Dundee. This system has two main functions. The first is to allow agencies to make referrals to each other in a standardised form with all the relevant information being passed on to the receiving agency. The second is to tell each agency about the other services available to clients in Dundee. Often services change their methods of delivery or begin to deal with new areas of work. Unfortunately it is often the case that everyone cannot keep up to date with these changes. The CATS system allows each agency to update their details on a regular basis and their agency information can be seen by all the other agencies as soon as it is changed.

The CATS system is also linked directly to the dundeeadvice.org website and so when an agency changes its details the website is automatically updated. This allows other agencies and members of the public to keep bang up to date with what services are available in their area.

CATS also allows agencies to upload details of special events, changes to opening hours or contact details as they occur, ensuring that members of the public can see at a glance the most up to date information about the agency they wish to contact.