Briefing Sheet   

• Citizens Advice is a national problem solving organization. There are 20,000 volunteers in the UK.  Around 40% of the public has used the CAB at some stage in their life.

• Citizens Advice is one of the best known organizations in the UK – a recent Mori poll indicates that 95% of the population has heard of us.

• We are an independent charity, dependent upon grants and donations.

• Our 230+ advisers, working from eight individual bureaux, and at least 18 outreach locations strategically located across East Sussex, deal with a wide range of social and community issues including:

-         social welfare benefits;

-         relationship breakdown and domestic violence;

-         housing problems including tenant/landlord disputes;

-         consumer issues including fraud;

-         employment;

-         personal debt.

 Each bureau holds at least the Legal Services Commission Quality Standard  for General Advice services, and is subject to a stringent organisational and quality of advice audit every three years. Some bureaux are also contracted by the LSC to provide Specialist Debt or Employment advice.

• Typically it takes about 9 - 12 months to become a Generalist adviser.  Training is intensive to NVQ3 level.  Crowborough, Uckfield, Hailsham, Lewes, Seaford and Eastbourne bureaux successfully bid for £174,000 from the Big Lottery Fund to recruit and train advisers over a three year period. This is a significant investment, and national recognition of the value of the Citizens Advice service within the local community

• Many of our bureaux also provide a home visiting service to provide advice and support to people who are elderly or who have severe mobility problems.
  
• During the 2004/05 financial year we saw over 57,000 clients who presented a total of over 64,000 different problems and we expect this number to rise as we pursue enhanced service access initiatives. 
  
• National research indicates that a trained adviser is worth £13.00 plus per hour – advisers working one day a week are equivalent to a notional salary bill of over £1,000,000 per annum, and this should be viewed as a substantial commitment by those volunteers to the well being of our county.
  
• Citizens Advice is the largest provider of money advice in the UK.
  
• Working with people who have serious debt problems is becoming an increasing part of our services and in one year we helped clients across East Sussex manage nearly 20 million pounds worth of unsecured debt.
  
• Advice to clients to help them resolve their problems is not a ‘sticking plaster’ approach – it is tailored to their individual circumstances: we do not just hand out a fact sheet but try to give clients virtually unlimited adviser time.
  

Outcomes and Outputs

-         Two thirds of people receiving advice say that it helped to resolve their problem.

-         As part of an East Sussex County Council/Citizens Advice/Age Concern benefits initiative, East Sussex Citizens Advice alone expects to achieve about £1,500,000 in benefits for people over 60 who receive disability benefits. This additional life changing income for those in greatest need is likely to be used to purchase goods and services from local businesses, thereby helping to maintain town and rural regeneration.

East Sussex Citizens Advice – The Next Three Years

§     Improved  information and access to our services 

 -   The creation of a new East Sussex Citizens Advice web site linking to individual bureau sites and also to the national Citizens Advice advice website.

-         A single county wide telephone number telephone to improve the speed of response and access to generic advice.

-         Improved access for the elderly in rural areas including more outreach work, home visits and advice within some sheltered accommodation settings.

-         Improved client access via partner organizations

▪ money advice via housing associations

▪ benefits initiative with ESCC and Age Concern

▪ PCT benefits/health initiative

▪ Sure Start to help young families

-         Improved services and access to black and minority ethnic clients – trying to find ways to ensure that BME communities receive advice which is easily understandable and targeted to their needs.

-         Improved services and access for 16-30 age range

Engaging with schools and youth organisations to support young people with advice especially relating to financial literacy and money management.

As you can see East Sussex Citizens Advice plays a central part in the delivery of services to the people in need across the county and we look forward with confidence to further improving services in 2006.