The Future of Petra
Much has been said about the roll out of Petra in 2013. Whilst arguably it does its job it is criticised for being over complicated and unwieldy. Elements of its functionality cannot be used without crashing the system and there are problems with its data reporting.
Petra is scheduled to be superseded within two years when the software platforms on which is depends IE9 will no longer be supported. As part of Citizens Advice One Service Strategy we are promised intuitive technology that 'just works'. The One Service Strategy is a major strategic overhaul of the service and will cover important areas such as changes to the advice model and audit arrangements. You can get involved in the consultation by looking through the documents on the above link.
Team Meeting
This Wednesday was our quarterly team meeting. around 20 staff and volunteers gathered to receive briefings on Gateway Credit Union, achievements and progress of the Bureau, clients stories and successes, the One Service Strategy and New Advice Model as well as a live demonstration of how to raise a bureau evidence form on Petra.
The slides from the meeting can be viewed here
Client story of the week.
We helped an extremely distressed gentleman this week who faced losing his home and belongings because of delays in his application for Employment Support Allowance and knock on effects to his Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. Following our intervention the possession action and bailiff action were both suspended. The client was extremely relieved and appreciative.
Internet problems at Pontypool Bureau
For much of Thursday and Friday morning this week the internet connection into Pontypool Bureau went down. We were able to continue our normal service although advisers were forced to delay posting casenotes onto Petra. The fault was caused by a loose connection in the BT street box.
Training places available
TCAB has two vacancies for adviser training places in our debt and our benefits teams. Please contact myself, David or Andrea for further information and a copy of the 'opportunity profile'.
Valleys report
The Center for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University has released its report 'The impact of Welfare Reform in the Valley's. This is the first report to look down to a local authority ward level and it makes pretty grim reading demonstrating that in some districts the average loss of income per working age adult will be as high as £1000. Worst hit in Torfaen will be Trevethin with a loss of £850 per head per year. Overall £34 million will be removed from the Torfaen ecomony and across the valleys as a whole 3000 jobs will be lost as a result of the impact on disposable income.
You can read the full report here
Future dates
Annual General Meeting due to be held on Friday 10th October has had to be rescheduled. new dates will be available shortly.
Staff and volunteer satisfaction survey opens: Monday 3rd November
Friday, 26 September 2014
Friday, 19 September 2014
Taking the Pledge
This year is the 75th Birthday of Citizens Advice, to celebrate we have launched a campaign called Advice for the Future. The campaign asks the public to sign our pledge.
Money Advice
Caerphilly CAB are able to offer staff and volunteers of TCAB advice about mortgages, savings options, retirement plans and insurance protection. Anyone wanting to take advantage of this please put your name down by emailing Lisa Oates
Adviceline just got cheaper
This month Adviceline Cymru changed from an 084 to an 034 number which makes it local rate from landlines and included in most bundles, calls from mobiles are charged the same as calls to a landline. Anyone wanting to know more about call costs generally can click here
Adviceline Cymru 03444 77 20 20
Training places
Next weeks Team Meeting will see the launch of our new adviser training process. Vacancies for trainees in our Debt, Benefits and Employment advice teams will be advertised as and when they are available and volunteers who can meet minimum requirements in terms of experience and committment are encouraged to apply. This is the latest in a series of improvements we are making to the structure and quality of our post gateway adviser training.
Opportunities for current training vacancies in our benefits and debt teams will be announced on Wednesday
Management Training
We are delighted to announce that a number of staff are now studying for supervisory and management NVQ's. We are committed to the development of our staff and volunteers and this is a very positive step towards becoming a more effective organisation. David Roberts, Lisa Oates, Andrea Thomas, Lynne Roynon and Allison Whitehouse are signed on to various programmes at NVQ levels 3, 4 and 5.
WiFi
Cwmbran Bureau now has WiFi and for your convenience we are happy to make this available to staff and volunteers on request for use in smart phones etc. The network is TCAB_JobClub and passwords are available from Lisa Oates. This network does not allow access into the Citizens Advice private network or Bureau servers.
Future dates
Team meeting: Wed 24 September 1 - 4pm in the Cwmbran meeting room
Employee/Volunteer engagement survey launch 3rd November 2014
Feedback
I always welcome feedback from staff and volunteers, you can ring me up on 01633 876128 send me an email at mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk, write me a letter, comment on this blog, place your comment or suggestion in the comments box in the Cwmbran meeting room or come and see me.
Thank you all for your hard work and generous support
Mal
The public will be able to sign the pledge in our Cwmbran reception area and online here
Lynne Neagle, Welsh Assembly Member for Torfaen, came in to 'take' the pledge on Friday. Thanks Lynne, as a good friend of the Bureau your support is always appreciated.
Our Pontypool Bureau is also 50 years old this year.
Caerphilly CAB are able to offer staff and volunteers of TCAB advice about mortgages, savings options, retirement plans and insurance protection. Anyone wanting to take advantage of this please put your name down by emailing Lisa Oates
Adviceline just got cheaper
This month Adviceline Cymru changed from an 084 to an 034 number which makes it local rate from landlines and included in most bundles, calls from mobiles are charged the same as calls to a landline. Anyone wanting to know more about call costs generally can click here
Adviceline Cymru 03444 77 20 20
Training places
Next weeks Team Meeting will see the launch of our new adviser training process. Vacancies for trainees in our Debt, Benefits and Employment advice teams will be advertised as and when they are available and volunteers who can meet minimum requirements in terms of experience and committment are encouraged to apply. This is the latest in a series of improvements we are making to the structure and quality of our post gateway adviser training.
Opportunities for current training vacancies in our benefits and debt teams will be announced on Wednesday
Management Training
We are delighted to announce that a number of staff are now studying for supervisory and management NVQ's. We are committed to the development of our staff and volunteers and this is a very positive step towards becoming a more effective organisation. David Roberts, Lisa Oates, Andrea Thomas, Lynne Roynon and Allison Whitehouse are signed on to various programmes at NVQ levels 3, 4 and 5.
WiFi
Cwmbran Bureau now has WiFi and for your convenience we are happy to make this available to staff and volunteers on request for use in smart phones etc. The network is TCAB_JobClub and passwords are available from Lisa Oates. This network does not allow access into the Citizens Advice private network or Bureau servers.
Future dates
Team meeting: Wed 24 September 1 - 4pm in the Cwmbran meeting room
Employee/Volunteer engagement survey launch 3rd November 2014
Feedback
I always welcome feedback from staff and volunteers, you can ring me up on 01633 876128 send me an email at mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk, write me a letter, comment on this blog, place your comment or suggestion in the comments box in the Cwmbran meeting room or come and see me.
Thank you all for your hard work and generous support
Mal
Friday, 12 September 2014
Cycling proficiency
Fri 12th Sep 2014
Having spent so much of my time working in Higher Education, September has always seemed to be a good time for new resolutions and I will always associate this time of year with the cycle of the new academic year, the gathering of friends returning from the summer recess, excitement and anticipation.
Torfaen CAB is now an eighty strong organisation and time spent developing our community of staff and volunteers has got to be time well spent. This blog is one such new start.
The Bureau has stayed busy even through the summer, this week alone 230 people found their way though our doors for help.
September sees the end of the Digital Advice Pilot. Andrea and Lynne, with a little help from Natalie and Allison have been giving debt advice by webchat to clients visiting the debt pages of Adviceguide. It has proved to be a very efficient way of providing extra help to people on the website and is engaging with different groups. It is definitely not a replacement for face to face but it certainly has its place. We are optimistic that following the success of the pilot we will be well placed to win one of the digital advice contracts we expect to become available in April 2015.
This week also marks the submission of bids to run the next round of advice projects and over the next few weeks we hope for the good news that our Communities First project, our Better Advice Better Lives our Housing Advice project, our Disability Benefits project and our bid to provide extra benefits advice across Torfaen, Newport and Monmouthshire will all be successful with funding guaranteed until at least 2016 and in some cases until 2018
We have had our disappointments too. The Money Advice Service discontinued the funding for our Debt project in Monmouthshire and Peter Day who worked on that project left us last week for a new position in Bristol. Peter was 10 years with the Bureau and we will miss him but we are delighted he has found a new start as well.
We have welcomed some new people too, the freshest of whom, Clive, joins us from Caerphilly CAB where has had performed a number of advice roles. On the eve of joining us Clive bagged the coveted Adviser of the Year award at CAB Conference. We are delighted you got some well deserved recognition and we are equally delighted to welcome you to TCAB. Welcome aboard Clive we hope you enjoy working here with us well into the future.
So in the spirit of some more new beginnings, the bids are in and the fingers firmly crossed as seven of our projects enter their next funding cycle. If all goes well we can expect a well deserved period of stability for an organisation that has taken some pretty big changes in its stride over the last year. Whatever the outcome we know we are a resilient organisation and powered by whiling and able people we will make the very best of what the new cycle of events offers.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the Team Meeting on 24 September 1pm in the Cwmbran meeting room.
Mal
Having spent so much of my time working in Higher Education, September has always seemed to be a good time for new resolutions and I will always associate this time of year with the cycle of the new academic year, the gathering of friends returning from the summer recess, excitement and anticipation.
Torfaen CAB is now an eighty strong organisation and time spent developing our community of staff and volunteers has got to be time well spent. This blog is one such new start.
The Bureau has stayed busy even through the summer, this week alone 230 people found their way though our doors for help.
September sees the end of the Digital Advice Pilot. Andrea and Lynne, with a little help from Natalie and Allison have been giving debt advice by webchat to clients visiting the debt pages of Adviceguide. It has proved to be a very efficient way of providing extra help to people on the website and is engaging with different groups. It is definitely not a replacement for face to face but it certainly has its place. We are optimistic that following the success of the pilot we will be well placed to win one of the digital advice contracts we expect to become available in April 2015.
This week also marks the submission of bids to run the next round of advice projects and over the next few weeks we hope for the good news that our Communities First project, our Better Advice Better Lives our Housing Advice project, our Disability Benefits project and our bid to provide extra benefits advice across Torfaen, Newport and Monmouthshire will all be successful with funding guaranteed until at least 2016 and in some cases until 2018
We have had our disappointments too. The Money Advice Service discontinued the funding for our Debt project in Monmouthshire and Peter Day who worked on that project left us last week for a new position in Bristol. Peter was 10 years with the Bureau and we will miss him but we are delighted he has found a new start as well.
We have welcomed some new people too, the freshest of whom, Clive, joins us from Caerphilly CAB where has had performed a number of advice roles. On the eve of joining us Clive bagged the coveted Adviser of the Year award at CAB Conference. We are delighted you got some well deserved recognition and we are equally delighted to welcome you to TCAB. Welcome aboard Clive we hope you enjoy working here with us well into the future.
So in the spirit of some more new beginnings, the bids are in and the fingers firmly crossed as seven of our projects enter their next funding cycle. If all goes well we can expect a well deserved period of stability for an organisation that has taken some pretty big changes in its stride over the last year. Whatever the outcome we know we are a resilient organisation and powered by whiling and able people we will make the very best of what the new cycle of events offers.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the Team Meeting on 24 September 1pm in the Cwmbran meeting room.
Mal
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