Annual Report 2015 -16

Chair’s Report 2

Acknowledgements 3

CEO’s Report 4

Advice Service 5

Project updates 6-7

Statistics 8

Contact details 9

Inside this report

2

2015/6 has been a very challenging year not least with a marked decrease in funding available

to run the Bureau.

This has led to a number of difficult decisions having to be taken by the

Board, all of whom are themselves

volunteers.

Due to storm damage we had to give up our office at Ripon and seek alternative rental accommodation whilst we endeavour sourcing further funding to be able to continue our service to our clients.

In Craven we have had to scale back our plans to relocate the office and have launched a fund so that we can refurbish the current office.

In addition difficult decisions had to be made on the number of staff we can fund leading to three valued and highly skilled members of staff being served with redundancy notices.

We are still actively seeking extra funding into the Bureau to mitigate this situation so that the number of clients the service helps will

not be materially reduced.

The Trustees have worked tirelessly to ensure strong governance throughout the year; for which I thank them. It is with regret we say goodbye to our Trustee - Treasurer Sandra Jowett who has given seven valuable years of service. Although Sandra is stepping down as a Trustee we are pleased she is remaining as a volunteer fundraiser. Sadly Andrew Phair and Chris Tomes will also be leaving and I would like to thank them both for their loyal service and support.

All three will be missed.

I must sincerely thank Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Ripon City Council, local charities, service organisations and our local solicitors for the on-going supportive and proactive relationship we enjoy. Without them our service would not continue.

It is a sad fact that CAB’s up and down the country are having to close due to lack of funding which is hard to believe in times of increasing austerity and change for many. With all your help we are continuing to deliver this invaluable service in Craven, Harrogate, Ripon and District.

In paying a huge tribute to the hard work and dedication of all the staff and volunteers of the Bureau, (without whom we could not continue our invaluable service to the community), all I can say is once again well

done and a very big thank you.

Finally this is my 11th and final year as a

Trustee having served the last 6 years as Chair. I am immensely proud of Craven & Harrogate Districts Bureau and the high standard of advice it gives to the clients within our area - as witnessed by the independent Citizens Advice audit report and the external audit of our accounts.

I should like to thank Erica Cadbury CEO and Carol Barber the previous Bureau Manager, for their efforts in professionally taking the service forward. I know Simon Grenfell, our current Vice Chair, will succeed as he takes over from

Client Satisfaction Survey

98% would use our service again

98% would recommend us

95% were satisfied with our service

“Can’t thank you enough for

everything”

“It is an invaluable service that you

provide”

“Just a line to express my thanks and

gratitude for your efforts in gaining my son

access to his benefits”

Chair’s Report

3

The Citizens Advice service provides free,

independent, confidential and impartial advice to

everyone on their rights and responsibilities.

We value diversity, promote equality and challenge

discrimination.

Our aims are:

To provide the advice people need for the

problems they face.

To improve the policies and practices that

affect people’s lives.

The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing information and advice and by influencing policymakers.

Citizens Advice 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, Craven and Harrogate Districts Citizens Advice could not continue to provide its services locally.

North Yorkshire County Council Craven District Council Harrogate Borough Council Big Lottery Funding

Allhallowgate Methodist Church Athritis Care, Harrogate Charles and Elsie Sykes Trust Craven and Keighley Quakers HBINFO Ltd Holy Trinity Church Hutchinson & Buchanan Solicitors Knox Valley Residents Association Ripon Rowels Rotary Club Skipton Building Society Soroptimists International Fund Temperance Hall Two Ridings Community Fund Waitrose

The Parish Councils of:

Azerley Baldersby Bishop Monkton Dishforth Draughton Grantley and Sawley Hewick and Hutton Horton-in-Ribblesdale North Stainley with Slenningford Rainton with Newby Sharow Stainforth Thornton-in-Lonsdale

Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to our local authorities for

their continued funding and to parish councils,

organisations and individuals whose generosity

during 2015-16 enabled the service to help those most

in need in our community.

4

The last year has been exceptionally busy with highs and lows of sadness and happiness. The heart of our work is to give good quality advice to people who contact us whether it is by phone, email or in person. Last financial year we advised just

over 5000 people.

It is disempowering to be without money, to have lost your job or to be at risk of losing your home or your children or your liberty. Our role is to try and alleviate these problems by advising people what to do and where to go. Our advice is based on the rights and responsibilities enshrined in the unwritten British constitution.

We do this by being flexible in our approach to the needs of people in the community. We want them to be able to access advice easily and quickly in a friendly environment and then receive the level of advice they need whether it is by a trained volunteer or a specialist caseworker.

We live in an increasingly complex society in which the need is a greater than ever for high quality information, advice and representation. For some of our clients all they will need is the information which enables them to take action on their own behalf and for a few of our clients the need will be to accompany them to a court or tribunal and represent them.

However Citizens Advice has the dual aim of challenging inequality through our research and campaigning activity. Craven and Harrogate is proud of its record in carrying out cutting edge research and campaigning, Our report Waiting For Credit on the problems of single working claimants was launched in November 2015 and we are now addressing the needs of families and

many more people making claims for Universal Credit.

Our core service remains largely dependent on our statutory funders – North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and Craven District Council. It is their funding which enables us to provide our frontline services. We must therefore work within the limits of their funding and ensure through sound financial management, we deliver a service in the long term.

Harrogate Borough Council’s bidding process for grants was truly competitive for the first time in 2015 for the triennium 2016 – 19. Until this point we had received 67% of Harrogate’s voluntary sector fund or £114,000. In January 2016 the outcome was announced and our funding had reduced by 34% to £70,000 and our share reduced to 33% of their total grant.

This has resulted in a radical review of the cost base and with cautious use of reserves for the first six months of 2016 and a balanced budget from October 2016 and a contraction of the service unless we receive additional grant funding. Our service remains dependent on its volunteer base. We have ambitious targets to recruit 20 volunteers per year to bring our numbers up to 100 over the next 3 years. This will require a planned approach as all our volunteers are highly skilled and take time to train and develop.

A major achievement has been to upgrade our Adviceline service so that we now have the capacity to answer 4 lines at a time and we have trained several new volunteers. We have also participated in the Warm and Well Initiative and play host to Pensionwise advisers. We have worked hard to improve our email service and are now seeing a steady increase in contacts by email.

A major challenge has been to get the Ripon service up and running in its temporary

accommodation at Community House and Allhallowgate Methodist Church. We are extremely grateful to the Ripon staff and volunteers for their dedication in delivering a service in difficult circumstances and to the support from Allhallowgate Church and Community House.

We carried out our post merger staff restructure in October 2015 and said farewell to Sharon Taylor, the home visiting officer in Ripon. In the course of the year Linda Marsden and Carol Barber, the former managers of Ripon and Harrogate also scaled back their involvement. Linda remains a volunteer supervisor and Carol is on hand to assist with funding bids. I would like to express my sincere thanks for their support.

Sadly, Claire Hobbs, our training supervisor, died on 28th February of cancer. Claire had made a marvellous contribution to Ripon Bureau and carried on leading our training work in the merged service. She was a person of exceptional integrity, bravery and charm and her sudden diagnosis was a terrible blow as it came shortly after the news that we had to leave the Ripon office in Sharow View. Kasia Atchinson, her support worker and former Ripon adviser, had to leave as well so it was a double sadness.

Looking forward, we will say goodbye to our Chair Pat Shore and our Treasurer Sandra Jowett at our AGM. I cannot thank them enough for their unstinting support. Their “knowledge” of the Harrogate

CEO’s Report

5

Our work would be nothing without our volunteers. We

are proud that our front line advice is carried out almost

entirely by volunteers from the receptionists, gateway

and telephone advisers, generalist advisers to a small

number of specialists. We welcome new trainees all the

time and have an active training programme.

Each office is slightly different in the way that it works and has faced

different challenges over the year. In alphabetical order:

Craven operates from St Andrews Church Hall. There are three

drop-in sessions per week and appointments take place before and

after these appointments. In 2015 – 16 we also ran outreaches at

Settle (weekly) and Bentham and Ingleton (fortnightly). In January

2016 we closed the Bentham outreach due to low numbers. Ingleton’s

numbers had increased possibly due to the fact that the community

post office and library are also open on Wednesdays in the community

centre.

Harrogate has now settled in to Audrey Burton House but in the

course of the year we were able to install an Adviceline call facility in

the workers room. This allows us to have four people taking calls at

one time and we recognise the support and camaraderie this

engenders. Harrogate operates a drop-in service on 4 mornings a

week and uses “quick-checks” to enable us to advise as many clients

as possible in the course of a morning. This reduces the need for

appointments. At the end of the financial year we reconfigured some

of the rooms so that the paid staff from Ripon could all have a desk.

Ripon office suffered a series of weather related mishaps in the

Spring of 2015. A tree fell down very close to the office and then a

storm damaged the roof of Sharow View which rendered the entire

building unsafe. This lead us receiving notice. Unfortunately our

plans refurbish part of Community House were derailed by the loss of

funding from Harrogate Borough Council and the service moved into

temporary accommodation in Community House and Allhallowgate

Methodist Church at the end of March. Through all the inconvenience

of being without IT after the storm and packing up the office the

volunteers carried on advising regardless and the service has

continued in its new form.

Our charity receives help and support in the form of voluntary

assistance in advising the public and administering the charity.

75 volunteers contributed approximately 40,000 hours of work t o the bureau during the year.

Generalist Advice Service

Financial Statement End of Year 2015/16

Incoming resources in the year were £444,539 (2014/2015 £ 501,804).

Expenditure was £494,813. Of this £213,562. (2014/2015 £285,685) related to project restricted activities.

A deficit of £50,274 was made in the current year (2014 /2015 Surplus £107,621.).

At 31 March 2016 total reserves were £441,452 of which £232,175 represented unrestricted funds (2014- 15 £216,472)

Copies of full independently examined accounts available on request from:

ceo@cravenandharrogatecab.cabnet.org.uk

6

Project Reports

Mental Health Welfare Benefits Project

This project supports clients with mental ill health and works closely with Community Mental Health Teams in Harrogate and Ripon Districts. Our remit is to assist mutual clients in claiming their benefit entitlement and appealing decisions where appropriate.

PIP is now the main disability benefit for people of working age. The transfer of those on Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment continues to be a difficult one, particularly for those with mental health issues as the criteria for PIP is so different to that of DLA. Clients have also found the assessment process to be very stressful and have needed extra help with the process.

Harrogate is one of the pilot areas for Universal Credit and we are involved in a steep learning curve. The process so far has not been an easy one for all concerned. The Citizens Advice are following the process closely regarding any social policy issues.

Despite our contract being for 77 referrals within 12 month period, we have taken 116 referrals. This is evidence of the additional support clients and care co-ordinators require as a result of the changes in the benefit system mentioned above. Of the applications for benefit made, we have a

success rate of over 80 per cent.

Anne Adams

Disability Information Service North Yorkshire (DISNY) Provides support, consultancy and casework for North Yorkshire Citizens Advice on Disability Rights, Health, Community & Residential Care. DISNY was successfully audited in April and maintains its Advice Quality Standard certification for casework in categories of both Disability and Health & Community Care. Examples of areas of advice consulted on/referred to DISNY in the last year: Overpayment of care costs, challenging care needs assessments and/or increases in care cost contributions, advising on Direct Payments, challenging billing of deceased family members, advising on Deferred Payment arrangements, raising complaints against NYCC with the Local Government Ombudsman.

DISNY has offered training for NY Citizens Advice volunteers and staff on ‘Disability Discrimination’ and ‘Deferred Payment Arrangements’.

DISNY maintains links with both voluntary and public sector organisations by attending meetings such as; CVS partnership meetings, North Yorkshire Winter Health Strategy Conference, Wider Partnership Consultations; and by forging referral protocols with bodies such as the Living Well Team.

Jeanette Bovo

Research and Campaigns

Our twin aim is to improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives. We have an active Research and Campaigns group which meets bi-monthly. As well as giving advice, Citizens Advice has always aimed to harness the evidence gained from clients’ experiences and statistical data to exercise a responsible influence on social policy legislation and administration. This is especially important during the current period of significant change. Identifying relevant issues is central to the advice service. We collate evidence, undertake research and have a programme of key campaigns. We work closely with statutory and other relevant organisations. We are keen to support clients who are interested in campaign work on issues that have affected them. Our research and campaigns work is communicated to a wide

7

Research and Campaigns Universal Credit In 2015 CHD initiated and coordinated a research project aiming to gather some early insights into the delivery of Universal Credit.

The sixteen local Citizens Advice offices that took part in the project together interviewed approximately one tenth of all Citizens Advice clients in England and Wales who had been given advice on UC in the previous year.

The report summarising the project findings was featured in two Guardian articles and was launched in parliament in November 2015 by Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson. The launch was attended by about ten MPs and Lords, as well as representatives from each of the participating local offices and Citizens Advice.

This led to a very positive meeting in March 2016 with the responsible Minister, Lord Freud, who promised to examine some of our key recommendations in detail. One of these recommendations- a direct line for advisers - has now been implemented.

Sue Royston

Money Advice Service Debt Advice Project

The Money Advice Service Debt Advice Project (MASDAP) offers clients help in managing their debts and has undergone some changes this year.

We have moved into assessing clients using the Common Initial Assessment tool which identifies the best route of advice for our clients.

Clients may be advised how to deal with their creditors themselves, they may be signposted to a telephone or online provider for further help, referred to an appropriate agency for example for Debt Management Plans, or a bureau appointment may be offered to receive further help or discuss insolvency options.

We have recently started making regular referrals to the new National MASDAP Telephone Contact Centres and have found this additional service to be very beneficial and efficient for some of our debt clients.

Alison Wilson continues to supervise the project with administrative support from Yvette Farrand and Richard Russell as a volunteer adviser.

Alison Wilson

Welfare Benefits Supervisor

Sue Wright , benefits supervisor (30 hours),

Kate Smith-Lawrence, caseworker (7 hours).

supported by our volunteers provide advice,

assistance, representation and where

necessary, casework to welfare benefit clients.

During 2015-16 we saw continuing changes to welfare benefits. Universal Credit, introduced in Harrogate district for certain claimants during 2014, was expanded to include people with health problems and families with children. As UC claimant numbers grew, we saw an increase in clients presenting without money for food, fuel or rent because of the six week wait for first payment. UC claimants typically build up rent arrears and debts at the start of their claim because of this delay. Sadly, the first payment does not resolve their debts, as UC assumes claimants will have been monthly paid and will have a month’s salary to cover them during the six week wait. Most of our clients are paid weekly and have no money for five out of the six weeks wait.

We continue to see many clients who have

been found incorrectly fit for work at ESA re-

assessment or who have lost their DLA, at

DLA to PIP renewal. The vast majority of

appeals we assist with or represent at, involve

sickness or disability benefits. The need for

benefits help is rising steadily under continuing

Project Reports

8

STATISTICS 2015 - 16

9

Craven office

St Andrews Church Hall

Newmarket Street

Skipton BD23 2JE

Monday 10.30am-1.30pm

Tuesday Appointments only

Wednesday 10.30am-1.30pm

Thursday 10.30am-1.30pm

Friday Appointments only

Office line 01756 798941

Message line 01756 701371

Fax 01756 796631

Drop in - outreach

Settle Health Centre

Monday 10am-1pm

01729 822205

Ingleton, Ingleborough Community Centre

Wednesday 10am-12 noon

2nd & 4th of month

01524 241701`

Email

ad-

vice@cravenandharrogatecab.cabnet.org.uk

Website

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/cravenandharrogatecab

Registered office

Audrey Burton House

Queensway

Harrogate HG1 5LX

Charity Registration No. 1130946

Our contact details, opening hours & service information

Harrogate office

Audrey Burton House

Queensway

Harrogate HG1 5LX

Monday 9am-12 noon

Tuesday 9am-12 noon

Wednesday 9am-12 noon

Thursday Appointments only

Friday 9am-12 noon

Office line 01423 503591

Message line 01423 560840

Fax 01423 565192

Ripon sessions

Community House, Sharow View

75 Allhallowgate

Ripon HG4 1LE

Tuesday Appointments only

Thursday 2pm-3.30pm

Allhallowgate Methodist Church

Allhallowgate

Ripon HG4 1LG

Friday 9.30am-12 noon

Adviceline 03444 111 444