Agenda item

The Head of Revenues and Customer Support, Finance submits the annual report of the Leicestershire Citizens Advice providing details of the City Advice Services Contract Performance 2014-15.

Members were asked to consider a report from the Leicestershire Citizens Advice on their City Advice Services Contract Performance 2014-2015. Richard Mason, Chief Executive was present along with Dawn Evans whose role focussed on the operation of the service in the city.

Members heard that during the year they had dealt with 28,000 enquiries; this related to a substantial increase in the number of people accessing their services. An increasing area of work was related to foodbanks. The service adopted a holistic approach and tried to offer a ‘one stop shop’ on a range of services including employment issues and advice on benefits and issues relating to debt.

Councillor Waddington, Assistant City Mayor, Jobs and Skills, stated that this fell within her portfolio and she felt that the report was lacking in information. She would have liked to have seen a more in depth analysis of the work carried out, including outcomes, the views of service users and a highlighting of the people who had sought help. Members agreed and also requested that the report should include some anonymised case studies.  Mr Mason responded that he would be happy to develop the report in that fashion.

A Member recalled that targets had been set in relation to the number of service users who were seen in their own localities (as opposed to the city centre). She questioned whether those targets had been met and whether the locations used were the most appropriate. The Head of Benefits and Customer Support responded that they had initially struggled to meet the targets, but had been successful during 2014/15. They did have the postcodes of the service users, so they were able to map to check on usage in the different localities.   A suggestion was made that the Citizens Advice Service should give consideration into providing a service in some of the multi-function centres that had been set up as part of the Transforming Neighbourhood Services Project.

Members heard that the service provided opportunities for volunteers and queried their role and responsibilities. Ms Evans explained that when a member of the public phoned the centre, a volunteer would answer the call and make an assessment. The training for volunteers was robust; in depth knowledge was required and not all volunteers would be given telephone duties as some had skills more suitable to other roles. In addition all telephone calls were monitored.

Members queried whether an audit of advice provision in the city was being carried out and whether anything had been done since Leicestershire Citizens Advice Service had been awarded the contract. The Head of Benefits and Customer Support explained that the service only came under her remit earlier this year. She assumed that the original review would have captured what advice was available in the City at that time; a city wide review would take place at pre-tendering of the contract. However in the meantime, she was able to undertake some analysis on the outreach and localities outcomes, and a report could be brought back to a future meeting, possibly in the new year, but it would not be an in depth study.

It was noted that the annual report had not been seen by the Assistant City Mayor for Jobs and Skills, prior to its submission to the Scrutiny Commission. It was agreed that in future, the reports should be sent to the relevant Assistant City Mayor first before its submission to Scrutiny.

RESOLVED:

                        that the Commission:

1)    request that future City Advice Services Contract Performance Annual Reports should include an in depth analysis and case studies;

2)    agree that future reports should be submitted to the relevant Assistant City Mayor, prior to its submission to the Scrutiny Commission; and

3)    request a report from the Head of Benefits and Customer Support on the outreach and localities outcomes for the contracted advice provision in the city.