Social Policy

The National Picture

Improving relations with local government

In April last year Citizens Advice agreed a new strategy for improving relations with local government in March.
Called 'partnership and persuasion' it drew on a major survey of key decision makers in local government.
Citizens Advice would like Bureaux to work more closely and visibly in partnership with local authorities because they believe the Bureaux are increasingly becoming ever more essential to many local government policy objectives and their work in partnership with local authorities would further improve the quality of life for local communities.
The CAB commissioned MORI (Market and Opinion Research International), the respected research organisation to carry out some research into the views of councillors and officers and how they rated aspects of the Bureau's services.
The aspects that were rated highly included helpfulness of staff, quality of advice and location.

Key findings

" Councillors and officers were overwhelmingly positive about the relationship between their council and their local bureau with 80% believing the relationship to be good and only 4% believing it to be poor.
" However, with regard to information sharing, two in five councillors and officers believed their council received information and research findings from their local bureau which helped them develop services and policy, but only 45% were satisfied with the information they received from the bureau about the activities funded by the council.
" The vast majority (89%) of respondents thought the bureaux should try to help shape the council's policies and practices that affected their clients. However less than a third thought that the bureaux were effective in this. Those that received information from the bureaux were more likely to think it effective in shaping policy.

Mental Health

In a far reaching report into mentally ill people called ' Out of the Picture', Citizens Advice highlighted discrimination in the work place, in the benefits system and in the consumer and financial services area. The report concluded that the needs and rights of mentally ill people were ignored.

Equality and Diversity

Citizens Advice recently launched a consultation on a new equality and diversity strategy for the service. Called 'Sound values, Sound business, Sound future: what equality and diversity mean for the CAB service', the strategy set out how the external world - communities and clients and the internal world - staff and volunteers, would all benefit from an emphasis on equality and diversity.

Tax credit - overpayments

Nationally, overpayments of tax credit and their recovery are one of the most frequent tax problems reported on evidence forms, coming a close second to general poor administration and errors. The concerns are that people are receiving notifications of overpayments that they did not expect, fully believing that the Inland Revenue had details of their up-to-date circumstances. Clients are then finding it very difficult to cope with the huge reduction in their income as the overpayment is recovered from any ongoing entitlement.

Workplace Disputes

New rules for settling workplace disputes came into effect in October last year. For the first time employees have a right to expect their employer to have legal minimum procedures for dealing with grievances, dismissal and disciplinary action. In turn this means employees have to follow new procedures if they have a grievance at work. In a booklet produced together with the Department of Trade and Industry and the TUC (Trade Union Congress), Citizens Advice outline the key elements of the new Regulations.

The Local Picture

The Work of Chelmsford CAB

Chelmsford CAB work:

" Locally - liaising with departments and agencies on behalf of clients and working with elected representatives
" Regionally - as part of the Essex Social Policy Group
" Nationally - in response to Citizens Advice campaigns by submitting social policy evidence forms to Citizens Advice in order to
bring clients' difficulties to the notice of those in power and to bring about changes

Client Evidence

Chelmsford CAB sent 41 Social Policy Evidence Forms to Citizens Advice during 2004/5

Homelessness

Citizens Advice was gathering evidence for submission to the Government's Select Committee Inquiry on Homelessness. Chelmsford CAB contributed evidence from several clients' severe and enduring problems with homelessness where the underlying cause of the problems was due to mental health or addiction difficulties.

Schooling costs

Nationally, Citizens Advice has been collecting evidence of the hardship caused to families by the costs of 'state education' uniform, school meals and educational visits. The DfES (Department for education and skills) has now published its research supplied by Citizens Advice and other organisations. The Cost of Schooling found that the average annual cost of sending a child to secondary school was £948.11 while for primary school it was £563.15. The hardships suffered are not only financial, but also ones of social exclusion. Citizens Advice is asking for local action by raising the issue with MP's or the media. Locally, the Essex Social Policy Group is working together with Local Authorities on this problem.

The Future

Citizens Advice works increasingly as a proactive as well as a reactive organisation in regard to its social policy work. For example, it called for evidence in April 2005 on the Government's proposals on community care and incapacity benefit reform. Chelmsford CAB will continue to respond to these nationally set calls for evidence and action, as well as submitting its own local concerns.
In line with the MORI report findings, the Chelmsford CAB had already decided to try to work more closely with elected representatives. Two local MP's accepted an invitation to visit the Bureau pending the general election.

Annual Review 2004-5