Thursday, 10 December 2015

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






Monday, 26 October 2015

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



Thursday, 1 October 2015

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


Friday, 14 August 2015

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.





Monday, 3 August 2015

New services, New people

Financial Advice

From September Citizens Advice Torfaen will be able to offer financial advice under a new program called MoneyPlan. Under MoneyPlan a qualified financial adviser will offer services as a volunteer. Clients can be referred to this service on a fortnightly basis initially.


Pensions changes to criteria

Please note that Pensionwise is now available to clients aged 50 or over and not 55 as previously


Energy Efficient Homes

Citizens Advice Torfaen have secured funding to offer clients advice on grants to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Natalie Hopkins will lead on this project which will advice 120 clients between now and the end of March. The project is also funded for home visits. This project is in addition to the Energy Best Deal project which advises on supplier switching.


Introduction to benefits for volunteer advisers

Our next Team Meeting (Wed 16 September) will feature a full session on an introduction to welfare benefits. This will be ideal training for advice volunteers and other staff wanting to know more. The session will be led by our Lead Benefits caseworker, Lesley Cave.


Operations Manager

Samantha Greenland has accepted our new post of Operations Manager. Sam comes to us with a background in trading standards where she has been a Trading Standards Officer in Blaenau Gwent, a Regional Officer for the Welsh Local Government Association and most recently a Project Support Officer for the All Wales Academy Project.

Sam will be key to the next phase of development for the Bureau, supporting both the operational delivery of our client service and the development of new funding streams. Sam's first day in the Bureau will be Thu 10th September. The position is pert time.


New starters

This week we welcome Martha Smith-Higgins and Francesca Breet

New on the Advice Rota : Justine George, Jade Ngai and Cynthia King

There are a number of adviser courses coming up as follows, please see David Roberts if you are interested.

15th and 16th September - Bristol
22nd and 23rd September - Birmingham

7th and 8th October – Cardiff

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





Monday, 13 July 2015

Is there anything else we can help you with ?


The Budget - implications for our communities and how we can help.


It will be some time before independent research can shed light on the implications of the July budget for Wales, South East Wales or even Torfaen.

We can help households across Torfaen manage by giving the right advice.

Citizens Advice Chief Economist Hugh Strickland says.. 

"...more concerning is the significant reduction in support through the tax credit system. £3.5 billion of support is taken away next year, rising further as limits to two children are imposed in 2017. This will have a serious impact on working families who are low paid but paid above the National Living Wage, for example families earning between £14,000 (for one full-time worker) to £25,000 (for one full-time and one part-time earner). [for example] A couple, one working full-time, the other part-time, with two children could well lose over £2,000 per year." full article can be found here

It is likely to certain that a large number of families in our local communities will fall into the category that Hugh refers to. 

'Is there anything else we can help you with ?'

In the coming days we will be asking all our advisers to offer an MOT style support package (provided by our casework team) of advice and support with budgeting, debts, benefits, fuel savings and access to other forms of support or help such as food banks, families first and others.

We owe it to our clients to make sure they have the information to manage the changes.

Scams Awareness Month

July is scams awareness month. We are collecting examples of scams to publicise on our Facebook pages so please send any examples you have come across recently to mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk

You can play the Scams Awareness Game here

New Advisers

The week we welcome onto our advice rota Jade Ngai and Cynthia King. well done both of you, we hope you enjoy the role.




Dates


Next Bureau Team meeting - correction: Wed 17th September 1pm - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Bank Holiday closures: Mon 31 Aug.


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

Friday, 26 June 2015

Great start for Webchat

Great start for webchat

We had our general advice webchat launch on 4th June and since then, a little over 3 weeks, we have managed a whopping 123 chats, double the expectation. the General advice webchat is a service we are providing as part of a consortium bid alongside Caerphilly, Merthyr and Cardiff & Vale CABx and its got off to a great start.

Our team of webchatters are: Jill Martin, Naomi White, Sue Roberts, David Taylor-Williams and Tony Pursell. Advisers who would like to become webchatters should speak to Dave Roberts.


New Energy Efficiency Project begins 1st July.

A nine month project, Energy Efficiency Wales, designed to help clients with fuel poverty issues relating to fuel efficiency, including grants for insulation, new boilers, draft proofing etc starts soon. Citizens Advice Torfaen was one of 5 bureau across Wales to successfully bid for this project. The others are Caerphilly, Merthyr, Powys & Denbighshire.

Natalie Hopkins will be seconded to the project until March 2016.


Refurbishent nears completion at Pontypool

The refurbishment of Pontypool Bureau is now substantially complete. We have created a new advice room, a new kitchen and loo. The new telephone system was installed a few weeks ago and some modifications to the internet connection should have speeded that up a bit. The new carpets are in and we are just waiting for the decorators, some works to the electrics and of course an updated sign.


Nathan joins the advice team

Nathan Adams has joined the advice team today having completed his supervised interviews. Well done Nathan.


Fantastic result Lisa

Lisa's client had completed a benefit renewal form which led to the all the child's disability benefits being stopped. Lisa helped the client with her appeal against the decision which led to an award for Child DLA; middle rate care and low rate mobility. We also advised to client to make a carers allowance claim which we helped her with . Both claims were successful, leading to a backdating payment of £9,000 and an ongoing annual increase in family income of £9,000 a year. Quite a days work, well done Lisa.


Volunteer forum

Tony Pursell and David Taylor Williams from Citizens Advice Torfaen joined 10 volunteers from Bureau in South Wales at the first Volunteer Forum last week.The forum focused on good and bad things about being a volunteer in your bureau and also included briefings on Research & Campaigning and Discrimination.


Bring in your Mugshots

With an ever growing and changing team of staff and volunteers we have to put some effort into getting to know one an other. We want to create a staff and volunteers board with photographs, names and responsibilities where relevant. 


Dates

Next Bureau Team meeting - correction: Wed 17th September 1pm - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Bank Holiday closures: Mon 31 Aug.


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




Monday, 1 June 2015

The Bureau - What's in a name ?


What's in a name ?


As part of Citizens Advice re-branding not only do we have a new logo, new colours, visuals and a new 'tone of voice' we are also changing the name that we use everyday.

The introduction of a new tone of voice brings a refreshing and long awaited simplicity and friendliness to what we say. You can read more about this in the brand guidance

Citizens Advice Torfaen will be reflected in our signage, advertising and correspondence.

The re-brand says goodbye to the word 'Bureau' which for many in this modern era is not even a piece of furniture.

You can read more in the brand guidance which is available here


Email is Going Google

Monday will see the launch of Citizens Advice roll out of a new email system based on Gmail and Google Apps. Ultimately this will make it much easier for us to allocate email addresses to volunteers, share documents securely, access documents from anywhere and store documents more securely. It will also cost less to maintain the Bureau computers.

A final call for the Volunteer Forum being help in Cardiff.

If you would like to go to this expenses paid event on the 17th June in central Cardiff please see David Roberts


939 clients helped in May

Citizens Advice Torfaen helped near on 1,000 people last month. A lot of these were by webchat, some by telephone but the majority were face to face through our 6 bureau and outreach locations across Torfaen.

The problems people came to see us about: Debt 41%, Benefits 31%, Housing 8%, Employment 6%, Relationships and Family 3%, All other issues accounted for 11%. Slightly more than half were female and a third of clients had a disability or long term health condition. Around half of our clients are from Torfaen, the remainder spread across England and Wales.

A quarter of our clients required a full casework service.


Bring in your Mugshots

With an ever growing and changing team of staff and volunteers we have to put some effort into getting to know one an other. We want to create a staff and volunteers board with photographs, names and responsibilities where relevant. 

One Person Responds.....

PLEASE can you bring in or email to mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk a photograph of yourself for the board. We promise we will not use it for any other purpose. My gratitude goes out to the single person who has so far responded, you know who you are.

Dates

Next Bureau Team meeting - correction: Thu 18th June at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Bank Holiday closures: Mon 31 Aug.


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






Thursday, 14 May 2015

What would YOU do with £1,000 ?


What would YOU do with £1,000 ?


Last summer the Community Projects Centre, Cwmbran donated £1,000 to the Bureau on the condition the money was spent on volunteers. We have yet to allocate this money to a purpose which volunteers at the Bureau would value or benefit from. We would be grateful for your suggestions. Please send them to mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk

What new services would you like to see the Bureau offer ?


With the construction of three new advice rooms at our Cwmbran Bureau we have the opportunity to provide new services to our clients. We already have a number of external organisations who supplement our core advice offer: Shelter, Pensionwise, Family Law Clinic, and Tax Help for Older People. what else could we provide ?

If you have an idea for a useful service please email me on mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk

New Starters

This week we welcome Michelle Leeder who is a graphic designer joining us on an internship. Michelle we be mainly working from home but as part of her work improving our reception areas, our shop windows, our publicity and integrating the new Citizens Advice branding she will be in and around our offices from time to time.

Thank you for the team work

Both Karen and Rachel have been poorly recently which has left our Admin Team depleted of staff. Doreen and Lisa like to thank the Admin Volunteers and others for helping out and going beyond the call of duty to keep reception and the admin function running these last two weeks. A great example of team work, thanks to all.

Generalist webchat

Our new webchat service which will mirror on line what we are able to provide through Adviceline Cymru will start with the training of the first four volunteers, Jill Martin, David Taylor-Williams, Tony Pursell, Sue Roberts and Naomi White will take place on Tue 19th May.  If you are interested in trying out this exciting new advice channell please drop Dave a line david.roberts@torfaencab.org.uk 

Leaks and broken windows

Cwmbran shopping have finally engaged builders who will replace the broken skylights in the Cwmbran Bureau. The work will be done overnight so will not disrupt our normal services.


New Branding

Torfaen CAB has been accepted as an early adopter of the new Citizens Advice branding we hope to have new publicity materials arriving from next week which will feature the new logo, new colour scheme and new stories to describe our work. Expect posters and pop-up banners as a minimum.



Bring in your Mugshots


With an ever growing and changing team of staff and volunteers we have to put some effort into getting to know one an other. We want to create a staff and volunteers board with photographs, names and responsibilities where relevant. 

PLEASE can you bring in or email to mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk a photograph of yourself for the board. We promise we will not use it for any other purpose.




Dates


Next Bureau Team meeting: Wed 17th June at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.


Bank Holiday closures: Mon & Tue 25/26 May; Mon 31 Aug.


Christmas Closure: 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 Torfaen Citizens Advice Bureau






Tuesday, 5 May 2015

2014-15, our busiest ever year



2014-15. Our busiest ever year.

Last year was the busiest for the Bureau. We helped 7,033 unique individuals who came to us for help with 13,034 problems. A little over half of those people were from Torfaen, the remainder from the surrounding areas and those across Wales and England who we helped via Adviceline and Webchat.

In 2014-15 we helped 5% of the adult population in Torfaen and across the last two years we have helped 10%, over 6,800 individual people from the Borough.

For those 7,033 people who contacted us last year we were able to help them to the tune of £18m in benefit, debts managed and other financial gains.

39% of people came to us with debt problems, 34% about benefits, 6% with housing problems, 5% with employment issues and 4% with relationship or family law matters.

A third of our clients have a disability or life limiting long term illness.

Fareshare in Blaenavon

Torfaen CAB are exploring bringing a Fareshare food hamper scheme for low income families to our Blaenavon Outreach. With help and support from Torfaen Communities First we hope to be able to offer the service to 40 families locally each week. You can find out more about Fareshare at www.fareshare.org.uk 


New Branding
The new Citizens Advice branding starts to go live acorss the country this month. You will have already noticed the new branding across all Citizens Advice websites and we hope to follow suit as soon as the image library is released to us. We have requested to become an early adopter bureau so we are hopeful of a fresh new image soon.


Bring in your Mugshots

With an ever growing and changing team of staff and volunteers we have to put some effort into getting to know one an other. We want to create a staff and volunteers board with photographs, names and responsibilities where relevant. 

PLEASE can you bring in or email to mal.edgson@torfaencab.org.uk a photograph of yourself for the board. We promise we will not use it for any other purpose.




Dates


Next Bureau Team meeting: Wed 17th June at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.


Bank Holiday closures: Mon & Tue 25/26 May; Mon 31 Aug.


Christmas Closure: 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 Torfaen Citizens Advice Bureau

Monday, 27 April 2015

Volunteer Forums in Wales

Volunteer Forums in Wales


Citizens Advice Cymru are holding regional events for Volunteers.  The agenda for the day is based on feedback from Volunteers and will be circulated shortly.

Our nearest forum will be held on Wednesday 17 June at Citizens Advice Cymru, 5 Fitzalan Place, Cardiff. Lunch will be provided and all travel costs covered. If you are interersted in going please see David Roberts. david.roberts@torfaencab.org.uk


Feedback

Look Out for the new feedback system in Cwmbran: We have recognised that we ask our clients to fill in far to many forms for their liking so we have developeda fun way to get some feedback. Many thanks to John Sharratt for the inspiration

The Bureau has also begun signing up clients for an in-depth client feedback survey which will be routinely undertaken on a monthly basis and form part of our quality dashboard in the future. We are currently part of the pilot stage and began signing up clients at our Cwmbran reception last week.


New Interview Rooms at Cwmbran

We are delighted that our new interview rooms at Cwmbran are finally open. They have transformed the room and will allow us to inprove the range of advice as well as keep on top of the demand.


Welcome Back Aneta

Is has been great to see Aneta return this month from her maternity leave, she will be rejoining the debt team and working on the MASDAP Project, the Debt Webchat and at outreach in Blaenavon.

We have saved this opportunity to share with you some great feedback from one of her clients who said...

"...in summary, a higly professional and experienced service (from Aneta) for which I will always be grateful"


Welcome back Tony

We are also delighted this week to welcome back on of our long standing volunteers. Always a stalwart of Adviceline, Tony Williams is re-joining us to keep the phones manned on Mondays.


Dates


Next Bureau Team meeting: Wed 17th June at 1 - 4pm All staff and volunteers are welcome.

Bank Holiday closures: Mon 4th May; Mon & Tue 25/26 May; Mon 31 Aug.

Christmas Closure: 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 or come and see me.


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

Monday, 23 March 2015

Its Pensions Week

Pension Wise starts Tuesday  24th March


Pension Wise pensions guidance starts this week with the referral process opening on Tuesday and the first appointments available from Monday 30th.

Our local delivery partner is Caerphilly CAB who have booked an advice room in our Cwmbran Bureau every Friday from next week (w/c 30th March). Clients from Cwmbran and surrounding areas will be able to receive the guidance here on Fridays from Caerphilly CAB advisers.

Caerphilly CAB have promised to send us details today of their pensions work queue and telephone referral line AND a very simple to use (simpler than the Citizens Advice elearning) tool to triage the referrals.

Having said that every adviser will need to have completed the elearning.
https://beta.citizensadvice.org.uk/cablink/training/Training-to-work-with-clients/initial-check/booking-a-pension-wise-appointment/

New Starters

This week we welcome Sharmin Chowdhury to our advice trainee team. Welcome aboard Sharmin.


Building Work


Builders will be in our Cwmbran meeting room most of this week creating three advice rooms. The roms will be usable as the week progresses bu twill not be fully functional with desks, chairs, phones and comp[uters until the week after.

Bureau closure

The Bureau will next be closed for Easter on Good Friday 3rd April, Easter Monday 6th April and Tuesday 7th April.

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 or come and see me.


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

Friday, 13 March 2015

Spring time project changes

Changes in projects from 1st April

As we roll into a new financial year there will be some small changes to our funded projects. In exchange for dropping our commitment to run 'Managing Your Money' sessions we will be instead increasing our presence in outreach locations within Communities First areas. From 1st April we will be running an additional advice session on a Wednesday at TRAC2 in Trevethin and a day at the new Communities First offices at the Power Station in Green Meadow.

Please be prepared for some changes to the rotas which may also draw on the expertise of some of our more experienced volunteer advisers. We will make sure everyone affected is consulted.

Team Meeting

Special reminder today about the Team Meeting this Wednesday at 1pm in the Cwmbran Bureau

It will feature a session led by Alun Evans the Campaigns and Education Officer for Citizens Advice Cymru who will be talking to us, hopefully in an entertaining fashion, about the reasearch and campaigning areas for Citizens Advice and what we can do locally to support them.

There will also be a short training session about the Gateway procedure for the Pension Wise service and some exciting news about Cwmbran and Pontypool Bureau.

We will aim to finish before 4pm.


There will be some form of cake.


Pontypool & Cwmbran refurbishments

Work will start on 23rd March to build three advice rooms inside the meeting room area at Cwmbran, this will greatly relieve the pressure on rooms we experience some days and also allow us to bring in more additional services such as legal help, tax help for older people, etc. The work should be completed within a week.

We have also managed to upgrade the heating boilers at Cwmbran and increase their contol-ability, so we hope to save money as well as make sure the Bureau is warm on your arrival in the mornings.We are very grateful for the generous help given by Melin Homes with this.

We are also very pleased to announce a refurbishment of our Pontypool Bureau. Long the poor relation, this bureau is pretty dilapidated but serves a local community with high advice needs. We will be creating a reception area, converting the kitchen into a 4th advice room, improving the loos, replacing the floor and painting throughout. Melin Homes are very generously helping with this. We will also be installing a proper telephone system to replace the current DIY arrangements.We don't know timescales yet but it should all be in place by summer.

This strengthens our long term commitment to providing services to Pontypool and its communities.


Common Initial Assessment (CIA)

A reminder to all Gateway people and debt staff that the Common Initial Assessment must be implemented and used by 1/4/15, so any who have not had a practice please ensure you are comfortable to implement this by seeking help from Natalie if necessary.

New starters

This week we welcome Sophie Hall on to our advice team as a trainee


Bureau closure

The Bureau will next be closed for Easter on Good Friday 3rd April, Easter Monday 6th April and Tuesday 7th April.

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 or come and see me.


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

Monday, 9 March 2015

Fair Play for Pre Pay

Fair Play for Pre Pay

The Citizens Advice campaign around fair treatment of those households using pre payment meters for electricity and gas moves into a new stage with this excellent short video. Click below to have a look. Please circulate to your friends and other networks and raise Bureau Evidence Forms as appropriate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e__W0WRAYA

This week we welcome some more new volunteers.

Roger Peets joins us on the advice team and Vivienne Phillips, Kirsty Harris and Sammie Pike join the admin team. Fiona Cross joins us as a Board trustee. Welcome one and all, without our volunteers we would barely function as a Bureau and I cannot emphasise enough how grateful we are for your generous help.

Petra disruption expected Tuesday & Wednesday

Microsoft release their next security patch on Tue March 10th. Citizens Advice have implemented a series of measures to minimise the distruption to our network but it would still be reasonable to expect some interference as computers across the network attempt to download the patch simultaneously.


Team meeting - rescheduled

The next team meeting will take place on Wed 18th March 1pm – 4pm and will focus on Citizens Advice research and campaign work with guest speaker Alun Evans from the Cymru campaigns team. All Bureau services will be closed that afternoon so that everyone can attend although the Shelter session will continue as normal. There will also be a session on the new Pensions Advice Gateway Assessment Tool.

Bureau closure

The Bureau will next be closed for Easter on Good Friday 3rd April, Easter Monday 6th April and Tuesday 7th April.

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 or come and see me.


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