Agenda item

Presentation provided by Justine Williams and Julia Hannaford – Citizens Advice East Lancashire.

Justine Williams (CEO) and Nick Pilling (Vice-Chair of Citizens Advice East Lancashire) were in attendance at the meeting to give a presentation on the services they provided in Hyndburn and East Lancashire. 

Justine Williams delivered an update on the services of Citizens Advice, including in the Hyndburn area:

• Organisation overview:
  • Citizens Advice is a network of 280 local charities operating across 1,600 locations in England and Wales.
  • Each local office is responsible for securing its own funding.
• Service delivery channels:
  • Phone, email, webchat and face?to?face appointments.
• Citizens Advice East Lancashire:
  • A merged organisation covering Rossendale, Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Burnley and Pendle.
  • Staff team includes 45 paid staff and 40 volunteers, including Trustee Board members.
• Hyndburn services:
  • Drop?in sessions, including at the New Era Centre.
  • Adviceline telephone service and digital advice options.
  • Team includes 6 volunteers and 8 paid staff.
  • Monthly community drop?ins at Rhyddings Family Hub.
• Project delivery in Hyndburn includes:
  • British Gas Energy drop?ins
  • Macmillan advice service for cancer patients
  • Specialist debt advice (by appointment)
  • HMRC service support (drop?in and by appointment)
• Accessibility:
  • Hyndburn residents can use any Citizens Advice East Lancashire office or community drop?in location.
• Partnership work:
  • Collaboration with Hyndburn Borough Council to deliver the Household Support Fund.
• Volunteer training:
  • The organisation is part of a national pilot introducing a new streamlined learning pathway to improve volunteer capacity.

Impact in Hyndburn (April–September 2025)

• 573 clients supported face to face
• 850 clients supported via phone or WhatsApp
• 250 clients and partners used the online contact form
• £620,000 generated in benefit gains, grants and budgeting?related savings
• £360,000 of debt written off
• A Hyndburn case study was presented (details noted).
• For every £1 of the £25,000 core contribution from Hyndburn Council, residents received £39 in value.

Members submitted the following comments and queries:

·        Concern that working people were also finding the cost of living difficult and were, increasingly, facing mounting debt.  The Committee noted that these people would benefit from being able to receive professional advice from Citizens Advice but would only be able to attend services in the evening or at weekends.

·        Request for further details about how Whatsapp worked.

·        Where Citizens Advice received their funding from.

·        There was increasing debt mounting problems and financial pressure on households.

Responses to the above issues were as follows:

·        Citizens Advice East Lancashire already had plans to extend services to rural areas.  Additional provision of out of hour services would depend on funding in relation to the cost and provision of staff.

·        The Committee would be provided with more information on the use of Whatsapp within service provision. 

·        Citizens Advice thanked the Council for their annual contributions and referred to the importance of this in keeping services available to residents in Hyndburn.  She reported that most of the organisation’s funding came from project funding and from local contributions from local authorities.

Resolved               -  That the Communities and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee recommend that Cabinet agree to provide a minimum grant in line with previous years (£25,000) to Citizens Advice East Lancashire, in its 2026/27 Budget Proposals and that it further considers an increase on this amount to £30,000, due to the rise in costs and the Committee proposing the provision of out of hour services.