Preparing for Universal Credit

Universal Credit

Over the next few weeks we will be preparing for the Universal Credit roll out in Torfaen which starts on 12th July.

Mal & Lesley delivered three sessions on an introduction to UC to a variety of front line workers in Torfaen this week and will be delivering more in the future. Our aim is to make sure that front line workers in health, social services, youth services feel you can't wiat for the 1 hour video! and other professions are aware of the support that clients will need in applying for the benefit, managing the waiting period and supporting those who will lose out. We hope this will make sure that front line workers will know when and how to refer to specialist services like ourselves.

The programme of awareness raising sessions is supported and organised by TCBC. There is a plan to webcast one of the future sessions so that people unable to attend in person can access the information.Any staff or volunteers can have a look at the presentation which is now on the staff handbook drive of our server.

We are not anticipating large numbers of clients moving on to the new benefit initially, but over time we will be supporting greater numbers who will  have difficulty making and managing a claim, managing without any money for the first 6 weeks of a claim and with those worse off under the new benefit.

We  are encouraging all the agencies in Torfaen to use Citizens Advice Torfaen as a central hub to record problems experienced with Universal Credit so that there is a single point where issues are collated and raised with the authorities. We have set up ucproblems@citizensadvicetorfaen.org.uk to collect these and will be looking for a volunteer to take on the task of centrally processing the information.

We also recognise that some people will need help accessing IT and managing the online claims process. We will be using our small laptops and the open space on our 1st floor to provide self help and assisted self help computers for the public, supported by volunteer advisers and our Advice Session Supervisors.

Part of the application process will involve clients using UK Verify to prove their identity on the Gov.uk website. We will need to have experience of using this in order to support our clients better. It can be a difficult and frustrating process. It would be useful if staff and volunteers we able to experiment with UK Verify in a personal context as I am sure this will help.

Congratulations Bob & Lynne

Big well done's to Bob and Lynne who passed the Giving Good Debt Advice course to enable them to qualify as Debt Caseworkers under the new Money Advice Service rules.

Top marks so far..

Go to our Consumer Team who have met all their quality targets in the first 2 months of operation, great work.

Well done to Councillors Hopkins & Tarr

Congratulations go out to Nathan and to Natalie who were returned as Community Councillors at the Local Government elections on the 5th May this year. Natalie for Greenmeadow in Cwmbran and Nathan for Graig Community Council in Newport.

Christmas working 2017

A reminder for staff that the Bureau office will be open during Christmas on the 28th, 29th & 30th Dec because the call centre must remain operational on these days. This will enable anyone who would prefer to work those days and use their annual leave for other purposes. If you want to do this please contact Cynthia otherwise she will retain 3 days of your annual leave to cover the Christmas week. There are no plans to open Drop In services on these days but booked appointments can be made if advisers and caseworkers wish to.

Better Bureau - Happy People: Our new Plan. Your feedback appreciated

Better Bureau - Happy People: Our new Plan. Your feedback appreciated

We have drawn a storyboard of our new Bureau Plan and we would like your feedback.

What have we got right ?
What have we missed ?
What needs more work ?
Have we got anything wrong ?

The Storyboard is displayed in our meeting room at Cwmbran or you can expand the picture above and you should be able to read the print.

We will use our next Team Meeting (now rescheduled to 1pm on Wed 2nd March) to gather more feedback. Please either give us your feedback on the flip chart next to the Storyboard or in the comments section below this Blog. Also at this Team Meeting will be an Introduction to Welfare Benefits presented by Lesley Cave and her team.

Webchat now more than 20% of our client delivery

People helped

The information we can retrieve from Petra about the work we do is now very detailed. This Dashboard shows that we are seeing more people in almost every advice category. It confirms what each of you experience every day; that more people need our help, and more of those people are having problems with welfare benefits and tax credits. Other dashboards also show us that much of this growth in clients helped is through our webchat services which now account for over 20% of our clients.

The profile of a webchat client is belived to be quite different. they are predominently from England, more likely to be 'in work' and often chatting from work. they prefer to remain annonymous, are from more diverse backgrounds than our drop in clients and present witha more diverse range of issues.

New starters

This month we welcome some new volunteers to the Bureau; Fred Wyer, Jessica Steer, Caroline Treacy, Sarah Clifford and Emily O'Mara. Also a big well done to Sue House who has qualified as an Adviser.

Training 

There is a very high level of training going on in the Bureau these days. The number of volunteers qualifying in advice roles reported in previous blogs is testament to this. Also in recent weeks staff have attended training sessions on Suicide Awareness, Abuse, Illegal Money Lending, Mental Health First Aid. Currently the Admin Team are training with our Benefits Team so that they will have a better understanding of how they can support caseworkers and a fuller understanding of the client journey.

Blaenavon

Since early January we have moved our Blaenavon outreach into the new Health Centre. This is a busy location as it is also home to the doctors surgery, an opticians, pharmacy, podiatry services, dentist, careers, health visitor services and much else. We operate a drop in service Mon, Tue, Thu & Fri with Welfare Benefits appointment on Wednesdays.

Redecoration at Cwmbran

Thanks to an offer from Melin Homes we hope we will very shortly be able to redecorate the reception and first floor areas of our Cwmbran Bureau

Team Meeting

The next team meeting will be held on Wed 24th Febfrom 1- 4pm. The main element will be an Introduction to Welfare Benefits delivered by Lesley and her team of Welfare Advisers.

Next closed period

The Bureau will next be closed for Easter and will not be open 25th, 28th and 29th March 2016

A very happy Christmas & a prosperous New Year

Happy Christmas

A very happy Christmas and a prosperours New Year to all at Citizens Advice Torfaen. It is a privilege to work with so many committed staff and volunteers who work hard to deliver such a high standard to advice to our communities and who so often go the extra mile for our clients. 

All change at Blaenavon

From Monday 4th Jan our Blaenavon outreach will move to the health Centre. Formerly called the Blaenavon Resource Centre it is the centre for all the doctors in Blaenavon as well as podiatary, dentistry, opticians, a pharmacy, careers, communities first, police, and a range of other services. It is also opposite the only primary school in Blaeavon so we are very excited to be moving to what we hope will be a more accessible location. Our outreach in Church View will close on the 19th Dec.

New Staff

This time we welcome Aleshia Warren and Jade Ngai on to our staff team in the role of casework support. They will both work within Lisa's Admin team to support our caseworkers manage the client caseload. Welcome aboard both.

New volunteers

We also welcome Kirtsy Vaughan & Denise Colcombe who join the Admin team and Janette Tovey, Charles Dabbs and Sue House as trainee advisers. Welcome aboard all. 

Training

Ruth Felvus and Graeme Russell both graduate as Advisers whilst Lisa Oates has passed her NVQ Level 2 qualification in Team Leading/Management and Andrea Thomas & Allison Whitehouse passed their NVQ level 3 in Management.
 

Please complete our staff and volunteers survey

The survey will support us to continuously improve our people management performance and provide Citizens Advice with an assurance of the quality of our people management.

Please take the time to complete this survey. It is important that the views of everyone working here are represented.

You can complete the survey by clicking on this link: http://goo.gl/forms/53B7hmoTp1 

If you would prefer to complete the survey in an alternative format, or have any other difficulties accessing the survey, or just have a question please let Mal Edgson know.

Your response to this survey will be anonymous and confidential. Citizens Advice will only share summary results from the survey with us. We will share these summary results with you.

The deadline for completing the survey is 14 January 2016.

Changes to Benefits & Tax Credits
The Chancellors Autumn Statement introduced a new wave of reforms to the system of social security. This is a very complex area and apart from this article very little has yet been published on the impact on different household types. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/23/budget-deficit-could-hit-40bn-pounds-autumn-statement-george-osborne

Diary Dates

Next Bureau Team Meeting - correction: Thu 21st January 2015 at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Christmas Closure 2015: The Bureau will be closed from 12.30pm on Thu 24th Dec and will reopen on Mon 4th Jan 2016. Bureau staff will need to take annual leave on the following days. 24th (half day), 30th, 31st Dec. Note: we will be closed to the public on the morning of 24th Dec but this is still a working time and staff will need to take leave if they do not intend to report for work.

All outreach (Blaenavon, Trevethin, Greenmeadow & Garnsychan Partnership) will be closed from Mon 21st Dec until Fri 1st Jan inclusive.

Feedback

I always welcome feedback from staff and volunteers, you can ring me on 01633 876128 send an email at mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk, write a letter, comment on this blog, place your comment or suggestion in the comments box in the Cwmbran meeting room, feed it through your line manager or Advice Session Supervisor or come and see me.

This Blog is prepared for the staff and volunteers of Citizens Advice Torfaen

The Advisers are coming

Helping Most People in a single visit

We are working towards helping as many people as possible with their problems in a single visit.

in the last two years we have been stretching the old concept of  The Gateway Interview to include quick advice, simple form filling and so on.

Part of creating a service capable of solving more problems on the first visit is about providing the training to support our volunteers to go further with the help they can provide for people.

3 months ago we took the decision to train all new volunteer advisers to Adviser level. The initial results are very encouraging.

10 volunteer advisers have qualified in recent months and join the experienced advisers Hazel Waters, John Sharratt and Tony Pursell.

A big hand for our new generation of Advisers: Lynda Evans, Jill Martin, Francesca Breet, Jade Ngai, Justine George, Lesley Turner, Sophie Hall, Sue Roberts, Cynthia King and Martha Smith-Higgins.

This complements our team of Gateway Assessors: Alyson Vorres, David Taylor-Williams, Emma Taylor, James Johnson, John Hodgetts, Madeline Newhook, Martin Mills, Pauline Prichard and Sandra Harris.

There will always be a place for the short triage interview but we are delighted to have some many fantastic volunteers who can go further with the help they can give the people of Torfaen.

Bureau Christmas Dinner

All staff and volunteers are invited to our Christmas dinner. Following a vote we will be trying to secure the Little Crown in Wainfelin. the Little Crown came a narrow second in our poll but unfortunately the winner (Greenhouse, Lantarnum) cannot do the numbers.

If you want to come to our Christmas Dinner (its free) please sign up here by Monday 2nd Nov if possible
http://doodle.com/poll/khwwdsi7huywrdws 

Other Dates

Next Bureau Team Meeting - correction: Thu 21st January 2015 at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Christmas Closure 2015: The Bureau will be closed from 12.30pm on Thu 24th Dec and will reopen on Mon 4th Jan 2016. There will be no outreach sessions on Thu 24th. Bureau staff will need to take annual leave on the following days. 24th (half day), 30th, 31st Dec.

Feedback

I always welcome feedback from staff and volunteers, you can ring me on 01633 876128 send an email at mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk, write a letter, comment on this blog, place your comment or suggestion in the comments box in the Cwmbran meeting room, feed it through your line manager or Advice Session Supervisor or come and see me.

This Blog is prepared for the staff and volunteers of Citizens Advice Torfaen

Citizens Advice Torfaen - Great Value for Society

Citizens Advice Torfaen - Great Value for Society

Citizens Advice have published data on the value of each local Citizens Advice to its local community. Using the Treasury's own social value model we can confidently say that every £1 invested in Citizens Advice Torfaen yields at least £2.42 in savings to Government, £12.66 in public value and wider social benefits and an impressive £24.68 in benefits to individuals.

That is a staggering

• £1.4m reduction in health service demand, local authority homelessness services and out of work benefits for clients and volunteers.
• £7.3m in wider economic and social benefits, improvements in participation and productivity fore clients and volunteers.
• £14.4m in benefits to individuals and volunteers of income gained through benefits, debts written off and consumer problems solved.
• On top of this there is a further £5.5m of debts rescheduled which otherwise might not have been repaid.
• and £235,000 in the direct value of volunteering.

That totals out at nearly £29m annually of savings and benefits into our local communities, helping individuals cope and public services manage.

Welcome Aboard Sam

Samantha Greenland started last week as our new Operations Manager. Sam comes to us with a background in Trading Standards and recent experience working for the Welsh Local Government Association on their Academy project. Sam will gradually be taking over many of the aspects of the operational running of the Bureau and is part of an initiative to strengthen the Bureau and help us grow in the future. Sam will normally work Wed, Thu and Fridays in Cwmbran. Please make her feel welcome.

Volunteering their way into work

A number of our volunteers have found their way into work recently. Sue and Sophie as our own paid advisers, and in the last year.

Emma -  Cardiff University, immigration adviser.

Kirsty - McMillan Cancer Care

Wveronika - Air hostess training

Catherine - Poundland

Mathew - Bristol University

Courtney - ITEC

Samantha - Brantano 

Sammie – Mind as a Volunteer

David - Gwalia

Tony, Matthew and Sarah - Citizens Advice Consumer Centre in Cwmbran

Nathan - Pupillage in London Barristers Chambers

Its great to see them doing so well.

Energy Contracts

We are delighted to announce that Citizens Advice Torfaen have successfully secured a 4th round of energy advice contracts under the Energy Best Deal programme. Having just successfully completed the last contract we are now funded to run 8 group sessions and 100 individual sessions between 1st October and 31 March. These are in addition to the Energy Efficiency (advice on grants) programme that Natalie will be delivering between now and 31 March 2016.

Over the next few days we will be making arrangements to recruit part time support to cover the additional clients required for these projects.

Dates

Next Bureau Team meeting - correction: Thu 21st January 2015 at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Christmas Closure 2015: The Bureau will be closed from 12.30pm on Thu 24th Dec and will reopen on Mon 4th Jan 2016. There will be no outreach sessions on Thu 24th. Bureau staff will need to take annual leave on the following days. 24th (half day), 30th, 31st Dec.

Feedback

I always welcome feedback from staff and volunteers, you can ring me on 01633 876128 send an email at mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk, write a letter, comment on this blog, place your comment or suggestion in the comments box in the Cwmbran meeting room, feed it through your line manager or Advice Session Supervisor or come and see me.

This Blog is prepared for the staff and volunteers of Citizens Advice Torfaen

Webchat is the new Black

Citizens Advice Torfaen welcomes some new advice staff

We are pleased to announce that following a competitive recruitment process the  internally advertised position of Generalist Adviser has  been offered to Sophie Hall and Sue Roberts as a job share.

   

The position will be mainly working from outreach on our Communities First  project. Both start week commencing Mon 17th Aug, Sophie on the Monday and Sue on the Wednesday.

   

Both position are fixed term for 9 months whilst Natalie is seconded to the Energy  Best Deal xtra Energy Efficiency Wales (EBDxEEW)  project.

I would like to welcome them both aboard the paid staff team and I am sure you will  all make them feel very welcome. 

Great work on the webchat

It seems that Torfaen has really taken to advice by webchat. In July our generalist advice webchat team had 271 advice 'chats' while the Debt webchat team exceeded their target by 20% with 113 chats, the highest in the delivery group and also achieved the second highest satisfaction rating from clients at 91%. well done to everyone involved.

Anyone wanting to learn how to do advice by webchat should speak to Dave Roberts. It is popular because advisers can pick up some webchats if the bureau is quiet for any reason.

TCAB Twitter Czar required

If you are good with twitter and would like to develop our twitter presence please come and talk to Mal or email mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk  or tweet @torfaencab

Next Team Meeting

Wednesday 16th September featuring 'An introduction to Welfare Benefits' and an introduction to our new Independent Financial Adviser and what he is able to offer clients.