Citizens Advice Trafford Annual Report

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1 Citizens Advice Trafford Annual Report

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3 Citizens Advice Trafford Our aims Our aims are... to provide the advice people need for the problems they face, and to improve the policies and practices that affect people s lives. Our principles Citizens Advice Trafford provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. We value diversity, promote equality and challenge discrimination. What we do The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing information and advice and by influencing policymakers. Citizens Advice Bureaux use evidence of their clients problems to campaign for improvements in laws and services that affect everyone. Every Citizens Advice Bureau is an independent registered charity. Without funding and volunteers Citizens Advice Trafford could not continue to provide its services in Trafford. 3

4 Some words from our supporters Kate Green MP - Stretford and Urmston I am delighted to provide this foreword to Citizens Advice Trafford s annual report which is a real demonstration of the value of quality assured advice to our local communities. The economic downturn means more people than ever will need help with debt, housing and employment problems, and I congratulate the CAB on the way in which it is rising to the challenge. It is thanks to the hard work and commitment of staff and volunteers at Trafford CAB that the reach of the service has expanded to new communities, ensuring that more people are aware of their rights, and are getting the advice and support they need. Thank you very much for the important work you do. Graham Brady MP - Altrincham & Sale West It is always a pleasure and an honour to be asked to write a foreword, particularly when asked to do so for a well respected, local charity which has had a presence in Trafford for over 70 years. Citizens Advice Trafford is the only source of information and assistance for those seeking advice in the borough that is accessible to all communities and is delivered by people who are members of the same communities. I would like to congratulate the staff and volunteers of Citizens Advice Trafford who have risen to the challenge of a rise in demand and increase in the complexity of enquiries made by the people of Trafford during the past year. I would also like to wish Citizens Advice Trafford well with its future plans; Trafford would be a poorer place without you. Paul Goggins MP - Wythenshawe & Sale East Citizens Advice plays a vital role in Trafford. They provide practical answers to a range of pressing problems, including debt, and have boosted the incomes of hundreds of local families. As a Member of Parliament, I particularly appreciate the policy advice they give based as it is on the experience of local people. 4

5 Some words from our Chair Maggie Barker Chair of Trustee board This year has been one in which we have largely focused on consolidating our successes of the previous year by developing our the Trafford Advice Partnership: Access for All and other projects, and maintaining our specialist and general advice services for Trafford residents. I am delighted that we have been able to introduce advice services in new areas of Trafford, including advice sessions in Broomwood and Old Trafford, while continuing to provide services in Stretford, Sale, Altrincham, Urmston and Partington. I am also pleased that we have continued to develop our partnerships with Trafford Housing Trust and Irwell Valley Housing Trust, and with our partners in the Trafford Advice Partnership project Age Concern, Trafford Law Centre, Carers Centre, Keoghs and Dobsons solicitors. CAT is committed to working as good partners with organisations in the voluntary and other sectors and we hope that we can strengthen this in the future. Internally, there has been major change at senior management level this year. Sue Martin, our District Manager, left in November. I d like to thank her for the contribution that she undoubtedly made to our organisation and wish her well in her future career. I d also like to thank Jenny Heaven, our Operations Manager, for acting as District Manager while we recruited a new District Manager. Those of you who have not had the opportunity will be able to meet our new Chief Officer (we decided that the title of District Manager has become outdated) at our AGM. His name is Dale Maskell and we are delighted to welcome him to his role with CAT. Our thanks go to our staff and volunteers who have worked so hard this year to deliver the debt, welfare benefits and other information and advice needed by Trafford people to help them through this very difficult period of recession. You will be able to read the details of what they have achieved in this Annual Report. I hope that you find it interesting and that we will have the opportunity to welcome you to our Annual General Meeting in September when we will celebrate their work and talk about our plans for the future. 5

6 Some words from our Chief Officer Dale Maskell Chief Officer The volunteers of Citizens Advice Trafford contributed over 300,000 in unpaid labour during This annual report is an opportunity to share the success and achievements of Citizens Advice Trafford, the charity for the communities of Trafford and it also gives me the opportunity to introduce myself as the new Chief Officer. Reading this report will give you a better understanding of the work of CAT, what we do, how we do it and the results we achieve was a very successful year for CAT, it saw the successful launch of the Trafford Advice Partnership: Access for All, an increase in the number of clients we helped, saw our specialist services deal with over 7 million in debt and achieve thousands of pounds in extra benefits. The year also saw the successful piloting of the Gateway model of service delivery and the successful delivery of the Additional Hours of Advice and HMRC projects. You can read more of our achievements in this report which gives you a flavour of the real and very positive contribution we make to the lives of people in Trafford. I believe the contribution we make to economic development, social cohesion, changing policy and as a source of information on what is happening on the ground in Trafford places us firmly at the centre of the Big Society agenda and we will continue to look for opportunities and innovations that will improve the services we provide. The year ahead poses a number of challenges to us as budgets are cut and efficiency savings sought. The majority of our funding comes from local government and central government and the cuts will have an impact on the services that Citizens Advice Trafford can continue to provide. A key goal for next year is to promote our funders understanding of our true value to the community by showing the financial and social gains we achieve as a result of good advice. The positive change we make to people s lives should not be underestimated and it is a testament to the hard work of our volunteers, staff and funders over the last 70 years that the service is able to continue to give help to the people of Trafford. I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has and continues to contribute to the continued success of Citizens Advice Trafford and I look forward to working with you in the future. 6

7 What we achieved in Trafford Advice Partnership: Access for All The year saw the launch of the Trafford Advice Partnership:Access for All, funded by a Big Lottery Fund Grant with Citizens Advice Trafford as the lead agency. The partnership is made up of an innovative mix of private sector and community sector information and advice providers, increasing our capacity to address the huge unmet demand for information and advice and across the borough. In its first year the project has exceeded the targets set for the number of clients seen at outreach locations and assisted through telephone advice. We are keen to keep up the momentum of the partnership and continue the hard work of all the agencies involved, looking at how we can reach even more people who need our help. Our bureau service In our bureau service, funded by Trafford Metropolitan Council, saw 5270 clients, made a total of 15,429 client contacts and dealt with 7574 new enquiries. We have risen to the challenge of a 15% year-on-year increase in the number of clients that we have seen and we have also seen an increase of 27% in the client contacts that we make and a 27% increase in the new enquiries we addressed. This increase in clients, contacts and enquiries suggests that our services are more accessible. It also suggests that our clients problems are becoming more complex and require more work to resolve. In our staff and volunteers rose to this challenge and we continually look for new ways of increasing access to our services. Our specialist services Our specialist advisers assist Trafford citizens with dealing with more complicated legal problems with debts and welfare benefits. The work of the specialists is funded by the Legal Service Commission and we receive additional funding until March 2011 from the Financial Inclusion Fund to increase our capacity to deliver debt advice. In our specialist advisers supported 472 households, dealing with over 7.68 million in debt and with gaining thousands of pounds in benefits. The contract for the Legal Services Commission work that we currently hold went up for competitive tendering in and we spent a large amount of time and effort preparing our bid. Our success means that we will become the only publicly funded, free, impartial, independently audited provider of debt and welfare benefits advice in Trafford 7 from October 2010.

8 More of what we achieved in HMRC Project HMRC funds a project which aims to provide training sessions on financial capability and benefits and to organisations and it also delivers advice sessions to individuals where we check their benefit entitlement and raise their awareness of HMRC benefits and they can raise any other issues they have. The key to the success of this project, which has successfully re-structured during the year, has been the effective partnerships it has developed. We have delivered sessions to a number of organisations including Trafford Housing Trust, Irwell Valley Housing Association and Genie Networks. The project has also enabled us to increase the accessibility of our service with us successfully delivering advice sessions in community venues across the borough. Additional hours of advice The Additional Hours of Advice project, led nationally by Citizens Advice, allowed Citizens Advice Trafford to extend our opening hours in light of the increase in demand during the recession. This funding will en d in November During we were successful in establishing the extra service, resulting in more people accessing the advice they need and want. The challenge ahead is now to source funding which will enable us to continue to deliver the increased hours we currently work beyond the end of the current funding. Gateway service delivery The year also saw us successfully pilot the Gateway delivery model of advice in our Altrincham bureau. Gateway enables our bureau to make a quick assessment of the needs of a client before directing them to the appropriate source of advice. For some people this will mean they are referred on to one of our specialists, or on to partner organisations. For other people we will make them an appointment for a more in-depth interview with our volunteer advisers and for others we can assist them with accessing information leaflets and services. The benefits of Gateway include the fact that it will enable us to see more citizens, more quickly and they will access the help they need more efficiently. We will be implementing this model across the borough in the coming year, improving the access to advice for the people 8 of Trafford.

9 The difference we made in Citizens Advice Trafford helps people on all levels. We help individuals deal with their problems face-to-face, over the telephone and through our national Adviceguide website. We also campaign locally and nationally for improvements to services and the law. We use the evidence we collect from helping our clients to make a difference for people who may never come to a CAB by communicating our evidence for change to policymakers in government and the wider public and private sector. A visit to Citizens Advice Trafford could lead to a change in policy or law that will positively affect the lives of many more. Our contribution to economic development Our work in Trafford contributes to economic development in the borough by offering opportunities to Trafford citizens to volunteer, learn new skills, gain experience and improve their employability. Our training is of a high quality and we have a number of different volunteer roles available. We contribute to reducing poverty by maximising the income of our clients, ensuring that they claim all the income for which they qualify. We also help people with employment problems and with managing their money more effectively. This income is then spent locally, benefiting the local economy. Citizens Advice Trafford also contributes as an employer. We attract a considerable amount of funding into the borough, providing job opportunities and our services complement the delivery of local and central government services. We are confident that our activities make a positive impact on the local economy and we will seek to evidence our work in this area more effectively in the coming year. Our contribution to social cohesion and development As a voluntary sector organisation, our volunteers are central to all that we do. We strive to ensure that our volunteer workforce reflects the communities of Trafford and that local volunteers deliver advice back into the communities to which they belong. We are keen to develop our role as a point of contact for discrimination advice and to promote our role as third party hate crime reporting centres in the coming year. 9

10 More of the difference we made in Our contribution to changing policy Improving the policies and practices that affect people s lives is one of the twin aims of the Citizens Advice service. This year we have piloted a process for more easily reporting the social policy issues we identify. Use of the new process resulted in a rise in the number of issues flagged up, thus increasing our contribution to both local and national campaigns. The success of the pilot means that we will be rolling out the process across the district, We have submitted a significant amount of evidence regarding the debt issues that the citizens of Trafford have reported to us. We have gathered evidence regarding unfair collection practices and we followed up our report on bailiff conduct with Trafford Council. We continue to contribute to national campaigns on benefits maladministration and delays in processing and the Fair Welfare campaign co-ordinated by Citizens Advice. Improving the campaigning we do on behalf of the citizens of Trafford and contributing to national work will be a focus of the coming year. Our role as a local weather gauge Our services take place in the communities of Trafford and are delivered in the main by people who are part of those communities. We gather a huge amount of data, enabling us to quickly identify local trends and patterns. This puts us in the unique position of being a weather gauge for measuring the difficulties and issues that the people of Trafford are really experiencing. We are keen to use this data more effectively, contributing to information collated by the Trafford Partnership, in planning new services and improving community participation. 10

11 70 years of CAB in Trafford Celebrating the service The Citizens Advice service celebrated its 70th birthday during 2009/10 and we held a celebration event to mark the occasion. Our first bureau in Trafford opened in Urmston in The event was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Trafford and a number of our volunteers, staff and partner organisations. Staff and volunteers worked tirelessly to raise funds, organise the event and tidy-up afterwards! We received donations from Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, M I Banks Solicitors, Neil Myersons Solicitors, William H Lill Solicitors, Sainsbury s Sale, the Trafford Centre and four anonymous donors. A great deal of fun was had by all and we would like to extend our gratitude to everybody who contributed to making the event such a success. The Mayor & Mayoress 1940 s Jive dancing Quiz time 11

12 The most important people... Our clients Citizens Advice Trafford exists to help the people of Trafford, it is a local charity, staffed in the main by local people, local volunteers and governed by a local trustee board. The typical client for Citizens Advice Trafford is white, between 35-49, lives in the Bucklow St Martins ward and needs assistance with debt problems. But this does not fully represent the far reach and broad scope of the work we do. 13% of our clients define as BAME, 73% of our clients are between 25 and 64 years old, no single ward in the borough represents more than 9% of the make-up of our clients and we had enquiries in over 14 different, diverse areas of advice. The advice that we give is monitored and quality assured internally and our service is independently audited. In this way, we ensure that the people of Trafford receive a high quality of service and can be confident in the advice that we give. To ensure that the services we offer reach all parts of the community we collect a lot of demographic data which assists us with identifying communities that we need to reach more effectively. In the coming year we hope to improve the quality of this data and ensure that we collect health and social care outcomes more consistently to improve our future services. I was met and spoken to with respect and kindness which in difficult circumstances makes it easier to cope with Excellent service Filling in legal documents could not be done without help from an adviser You deal fairly with no hidden agenda Carry on doing your good hard work it is much appreciated by all concerned I would recommend you to anyone because of what you did for me. Keep up the good work 12

13 The most important people... Our volunteers Volunteers form the core of Citizens Advice Trafford, our volunteers contributed over 20,000 hours during in their time and skills to improving the lives of people in their community. We have seen an increase in the number of clients that we have seen this year and our gratitude is extended to all those volunteers who went above and beyond the call of duty to achieve this. Our volunteers are our most important asset and are invaluable as bridges to the communities we seek to help. Our volunteer opportunities We anticipate that in the current economic climate we will see an increase in the demand for our services and we want to ensure that we can meet this increase. We have a number of different volunteering opportunities at Citizens Advice Trafford and we are keen to recruit new volunteers. The volunteer opportunities include: Advisers - Gateway assessment roles - Administrators - Receptionists - Trustees Campaigners - IT support co-ordinators - PR and marketing - Fundraising Volunteer recruitment In the coming year we will be improving the training of our volunteers and looking at ways of improving the accessibility of our volunteer opportunities. How to volunteer for us If you are interested in volunteering with us, please do get in touch! We can be contacted by volunteer@traffordcab.org.uk and more details of the different opportunities we have can be found on our website page: volunteer.html We look forward to hearing from you! 13

14 Our funders Our income During a number of different funders supported our work: Trafford Council continues to fund our core bureau service which provides accommodation, support and guidance for our volunteers across the borough. Our specialist legal advice is funded by a contract with the Legal Service Commission and enables us to provide detailed casework help to our clients who need it and are eligible for assistance. We can deliver additional debt advice services due to funding from the Department for Innovation and Skills, targeted at those who are financially excluded. The Big Lottery Fund Grant has funded the Trafford Advice Partnership: Access for All project which has increased access to advice across the borough using an innovative model of delivery. The HMRC project promotes awareness of HMRC products and provides advice and financial capability sessions across Trafford. Our partnership with Irwell Valley Housing Association enables us to provide dedicated, specialist debt advice sessions to tenants. The Additional Hours of Advice, co-ordinated by Citizens Advice, enabled us to increase the number of hours we were available to assist citizens in Trafford. The Office of Fair Trading provided funding for us to promote money matters at Christmas time. Funding from Project Towpath allowed us to support members of the community in building their confidence and skills in preparation for entering the world of work. The Evan Cornish Foundation provided funding to support a training position to support our volunteers and staff. 14

15 Facts and figures about the Citizens Advice service Citizens Advice Trafford is an independent, local charity. We are a member of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, which is known as Citizens Advice. There are 416 Citizens Advice Bureaux across England and Wales, and a further 22 bureaux in Northern Ireland, all of which are independent registered charities. They are all members of Citizens Advice, the membership organisation - also an independent registered charity - that provides training and support to member bureaux, and coordinates national policy work. Together we make up the Citizens Advice service. percentage of MPs who rate Citizens Advice as very effective or somewhat effective 80% 10.5 million 86% the number of visits Adviceguide, our advice-giving website, received in satisfaction level of those who had used a Citizens Advice Bureau number of volunteers nationally 21,000 84% percentage of stakeholders who describe themselves as advocates of Citizens Advice 7.1 million the number of problems dealt with nationally 15

16 Facts and figures about our work in Trafford We carefully monitor our work in the borough to ensure that we are giving out the correct advice to our clients. We hold a confidential database called CASE on which we record the details of the client and the advice that we have provided. This provides us with a comprehensive record of a clients case and enables us to carefully supervise our work. In addition to this careful monitoring, we are independently audited against nationally agreed standards of advice and service. CASE is used regardless of whether you access us at our bureau, at community venues or over the telephone. We hold a wealth of information on our clients and we can use this to influence local and national policymakers when we detect trends. In the coming year we hope to prepare for our next quality of advice audit and improve the monitoring of health and social care outcomes. 300,000 the financial value of the time our volunteers contribute to the communities of Trafford the increase in the number of clients we saw compared with % the amount of debt our specialist caseworkers dealt with in million 27% the increase in the number of client enquiries when compared with the amount of time our volunteers contributed to helping Trafford residents in ,000 hours the number of locations across the borough where we now provide advice 17 30% the proportion of all enquiries in that related to debt 16 issues

17 Our Trustee Board Our Trustee Board is made up of volunteer members of the community who donate their time and skills to governing Citizens Advice Trafford. The trustees who served during were: Margaret Barker - Chair Joan Ball - Vice Chair Michael Braid - Treasurer Nora Griffin - Trustee Terry Crewe - Trustee Jonathan Roberts - Trustee Jonathan Betts - Trustee Kathryn Aspray - Trustee Patrick Walsh - Trustee Michael Hyman - Trustee (resigned ) Jenny Egarr - Trustee (resigned ) Councillor Pam Dixon - Trafford Council Representative Dave Nunns - VCAT Observer Our thanks Our staff, volunteers, trustees and funders We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all our staff, volunteers and trustees who each play their part in making Citizens Advice Trafford what its is. Without your dedication, hard work and patience we would not make the huge difference that we do in Trafford. We would also like to extend our thanks to all our funders who share the same goals as us and play a key part in us reaching as many people as we do. 17

18 Our contact details The easiest way to find out up-to-date and current details of our services is by looking at our website which can be found here: Our bureaux can be found at the following addresses: Altrincham CAB - The Library, 20 Stamford New Rd, Altrincham, WA14 1EJ Partington CAB - The Community Centre, Central Rd, Partington, M31 4FE Sale CAB - 73 Chapel Rd, Sale, M33 7EG Stretford CAB - Stretford Library, Kingsway, M32 8SG Urmston CAB - 9d Crofts Bank Rd, Urmston, M41 0LL Citizens Advice Trafford Telephone Advice Line: Website: The legal information Citizens Advice Trafford is a registered company limited by guarantee and is a registered charity. Registered Company Number: Charity number: Company's registered address: 73 Chapel Road, Sale, M33 7EG 18

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