CAB Annual Report 2022-2023

Training and work experience in the bureau gives an excellent opportunity to enter or return to the workplace. Each year many students are enlisted who, in turn, secure gainful employment. For law graduates working with the bureau often leads to traineeships with firms of solicitors. The bureau takes students from the University of Glasgow Law Students’ Placement Scheme to gain practical experience in working with clients face to face and to earn credits towards their course. Many past young volunteers return to express their gratitude for the assistance of helping them into their new employment. OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE A concerted effort has been made to re-build the volunteer staff force since returning after the Covid office closure when quite a number of volunteers were lost. In the last year 12 new volunteers have been trained and are now up and running. Training has been delivered by ZOOM, Face to Face in a classroom-like setting, one to one and self use of CASLearn. Trainees follow the CAS Training Programme under supervision, shadow experienced advisers, interview clients with a mentor and, when all competences are accomplished, reach the stage of ‘going solo’. The programme normally takes about 3 months to complete but is never a race. Basic training covers the CAB practices & policies, administration requirements, interview techniques and essential subjects. On-going training for existing staff continued with specialist subjects like advanced debt management, social security, housing, employment, immigration and any new legislation. Training is also delivered to staff when any new projects are taken on. Several staff attended on-line in-service training courses offered by Citizens’ Advice Scotland and Money Advice Scotland. The bureau remains committed to staff training and personal development. TRAINING During the 2022/23 delivery year the Pensionwise national service experienced a number of significant developments. In June 2022 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched the “Stronger Nudge” directive aimed to ensure that members of the public can seek free and impartial guidance prior to assessing their Defined Contribution (DC) pension savings. As a result the Pensionwise service has observed a substantial increase in appointment bookings with waiting times reaching 6 weeks in early 2023. By August 2022, Pensionwise had resumed its face-to-face delivery of service. Appointments for this can be booked in nearly 40 CABx across Scotland. This service currently appoints 30 Guidance Specialists from 20 CABx. To book an appointment online visit the MoneyHelper website or ‘phone 0800 138 3495 for a face-to-face appointment or 0800 138 3944 for a telephone appointment. PENSIONWISE As presence in the community libraries was suspended during and following the Covid lockdown it is planned to resume these services from April 2023 and increase where appropriate. The libraries served will potentially be Partick, Royston, Ibrox, Riddrie, Dennistoun and Shettleston. The start of 2023/24 will have two new national projects on Gambling Awareness and short termSGN project on energymatters. An Outreach at the Pantry in Govan started in March 2023 and there is discussion to extend this provision. A new outreach will commence as a pilot in the Glasgow City Health & Social Care Partnership Housing Team in Borron Street Glasgow advising on benefits and debt to clients referred by their Caseworker. There are plans are to create a conference area to accommodate digital training and meetings. The bureau is always on the lookout for alternative ways to deliver its service to improve efficiency and to offer choices. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS These are national projects administered by Citizens Advice Scotland. Both projects have salaried staff claims for Universal Credit. Money Talks Plus amalgamated the former Welfare Reform, Specialist Debt and Money Talks projects. This is essentially a face to face service in all aspects of money advice including Blue Badge applications and operates from the main office and some of our outreach services. HELP TO CLAIM & MONEY TALKS The bureau has made some great advances in Social Policy in the last year. With the recent introduction of Adult Disability Payment we have been collaborating with our Association (CAS) to form a cohesive report on the roll out of the ADP. This had involved other CABx namely Renfrewshire, South West Aberdeensire, Dumfries, Dundee, Aberdeen City, Clydesdale, Hamilton and Aviemore. The results have been published on the CAS website and will be used to inform future applications for this payment. The Outreach Team was approached by Social Security Scotland to form a focus group on the new upcoming replacement for Attendance Allowance coming to Scotland. Issues that clients and advisers face with Social Security forms were highlighted in order to create a document easier for people to read and understand. Social Policy hopes to continue working in the next year highlighting areas where government or business policies may have an adverse affect on peoples’ lives. We hope to be able to exercise a responsible influence on the development of policies and services for amelioration any foreseeable difficulties SOCIAL POLICY