Agenda item

Report of Councillor Loraine Cox, Chair of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, attached.

Members considered a report ofCouncillor Loraine Cox, Chair of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, about the vital support provided to residents by Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn and seeking Cabinet support to continue to provide financial and other support to the service.  Councillor Carole Haythornthwaite, a Member of the above Committee, was in attendance to present the report in the absence of Councillor Loraine Cox.

Councillor Haythornthwaite outlined the key elements of the report, including the valuable work of the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

At its meeting on 14^th December 2022, the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee had carried out a short review of the service provided by Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn, who had submitted an annual report to the Committee.

In their report and presentation to the Committee, Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn had provided the following information.

·           People’s health, education, work and social lives had been affected in ways that could never have been imagined before COVID-19 and the current cost of living crisis.  The Citizens Advice service was a charity and had delivered independent and impartial advice for over 80 years.  They were at the forefront of advice delivery.  The Citizens Advice service across Hyndburn had highly-trained, professional and experienced advisers assisted by trained volunteers, available to help with any issue, whoever contacted them and whatever their problem. They also had many specialist caseworkers who could provide information, signposting and complex casework in Welfare Benefits, Energy, Money & Debt, and Housing.

·           They remained located in the New Era centre on Paradise Street and received a grant from Hyndburn Borough Council of £25,000 per year.  This enabled them to leverage further funding from:

-     The National Lottery for dealing with clients in a crisis;

-     Energy companies for energy related advice to reduce usage and energy debt;

-     Henry Smith Foundation funding for homeless prevention advice; and

-     Money and Pensions Service for debt and money advice.

·           Advice had been provided to 1,577 Hyndburn residents in the past 12 months and over 1,800 Hyndburn residents had been unable to make contact via telephone this year due to unprecedented demand for the service and lack of paid advisors due to a lack of funding.  Volunteers had also worked on the advice line but the cost of recruiting, training and supervising a volunteer was over £1,000 each.  They had a volunteer team of 20 volunteers and 12 full time paid advice staff across Rossendale and Hyndburn. Energy related queries followed by debt and personal independence payments had been the top 3 enquiry issues since October 2022.  They had attracted the highest ever number of people contacting them for charitable support and food bank assistance with a 50% increase since 2021.

In addition to the grant from Hyndburn Council, Rossendale Council provided a grant of £35,000 per year, paid for an additional part time specialist debt advisor for Rossendale residents and provided offices in Bacup for a peppercorn rent of £1 a year.

The following achievements were highlighted:

·           1,477 Hyndburn Residents Advised (1,800 Rossendale)

·           Benefit gains - over £200,000 of additional income brought into Hyndburn via new benefit claims, winning appeals, successfully challenging decisions

·           Debts written off via insolvency options - £209,952

·           Debt Repayments rescheduled - £88,765

·           Social Value - For every £1 invested in Citizens Advice, this delivered over £14 in public value, through economic and social benefits.  The CAB considered that they saved government and public services money by helping to stop problems occurring or escalating, and reduced pressure on public services like health, housing or out-of-work benefits.

·           Launched a dedicated food and fuel voucher line on the 3^rd of October 2022 and had received over 1,000 calls so far across Hyndburn & Rossendale in just 2 months.

Due to the current economic climate and cost of living crisis, demand for the services of Citizens Advice and other similar local services was at never before seen levels, and the Scrutiny Committee had been very much in favour of the Council providing support to the service where possible.

The Council had provided a grant of £25,000 in 2022/23 to support the services provided by Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn.  The Scrutiny Committee had recommended that, as a minimum, the same grant be awarded for 2023/24, and had also requested that the Leader of the Council met with the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn to explore other areas were the Council might be able to offer support.

Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection

Cabinet might accept or reject any recommendation from Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  Should Cabinet reject the recommendation, it was likely that Citizens Advice Hyndburn and Rossendale would need to significantly scale back the support offered to Hyndburn residents in 2023/24.

Resolved                                 (1)   That Cabinet agrees to include a minimum grant in line with the previous year for Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn in its 2023/24 Budget Proposals  (Note that actual approval of the grant will be subject to Council approval of the 2023/24 Revenue Budget); and;

(2)   That Cabinet agrees to work with the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn to explore further options of support which could be provided by the Council to help enable the service to meet current levels of demand.