TORRIDGE, NORTH, MID AND WEST DEVON

Hello and welcome to the first newsletter of the new Financial

year and the first one with me as CEO!

I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead this organisation going forward and would like to thank Steve Davis for his support over the past 18 months. This is an exciting time for Bureau– or should I say ‘office’ as we move into our

new branding which includes our new logo (as seen above) and the omission of the word ‘Bureau’. This is one of many national led changes that we can expect over the coming months. Another big change for Citizens Advice is the introduction of the Pension Wise service, which is the starting point in helping people to take control of their finances for retirement. This will be delivered locally

from our Barnstaple and Okehampton offices.

I hope you enjoy reading this newslet-ter and I look forward to working with you all in the future.

Vicki Rowe

CEO TNM&WD CAB

Latest News

2

Steve tribute 3

Adviceline

launch!

5

Quarterly

Stats

6

FIND US

ONLINE!

@tnmwdcab

/Torridge,

North, Mid &

West Devon

CAB

2015

April

Welcome! Citizens Advice

Did you know…

Citizens Advice is an independent Charity. We provide free, impartial, confidential and independent advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. We aim to provide the advice people need for their problems and improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives. Citizens Advice deliver advice from over 3,300 community locations in England and Wales, run by 338 individual charities. We value diversity, promote equality and

Friends of

Citizens Advice

Please email for a form and help

support your local CAB!

£24 a year or £200 lifetime membership!

A big thank you to everyone who has so far become a ‘friend’ of Citizens Advice! We have raised a total of £425 towards the our core service which helps with training, running costs and enables us to continue giving free advice to those who need it most. But we don’t want to stop there! If you are not a friend yet, but would like to be– please email info@ruraldevoncab.org.uk or call 01271 377967 for more information!

Email info@ruraldevoncab.org.uk to become a friend!

Adviceline

03444

111 444

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 1

LATEST NEWS!

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 2

Our Adviceline telephone service is now LIVE in both our

Barnstaple and Okehampton offices! The line runs Monday to

Friday 9:30am-4:00pm and covers the Devon area. Call now on

03444 111 444 to speak to a trained adviser– More on page 5

03444

111 444

NEW EMAILS

With our move over to Office 365, every paid member of staff here at TNMWD Citizens Advice will soon have a new email address. By the end of May we will all have email addresses ending in @ruraldevoncab.org.uk to make for more consistent communication and easier contact. Some people have already moved over to the new domain. Our new website is next on the list and is looking good…. Watch this space for its official launch!!

ADVICELINE HUB

GEORGIA IS RUNNING THE MARATHON!

On the 31st May 2015 I will be running the Edinburgh Marathon in aid of Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice! If you would like to sponsor me, I would be incredibly grateful for any amount to help support our wonderful core service. Please call me on 07791671066, email georgia.ainsworth@btinternet.com or come up and see me in the Widening Horizons office in Barnstaple. Thank you!

NEW CEO

As mentioned on the ‘Welcome’ Page, Vicki Rowe is now our new CEO and we look forward to what Vicki has in store for the organisation.

PENSION WISE

From 16th April, TNMWD Citizens Advice will be delivering Pension Guidance. Pension Wise guidance is the starting point in helping people to take control of their finances for retirement. It applies to defined contributions pensions, where you build up a pot of money to use when you retire. Face to face guidance will enable people to understand their pension options and how they relate to their own situation, so they can make informed choices.

It is guidance, not regulated financial advice – we will not be recommending specific products or providers. Pension Wise guidance will be delivered three ways: online at www.pensionwise.gov.uk;

on the telephone, provided by The Pensions Advisory service (TPAS); and face to face, provided by Citizens Advice. Please call in to your local office to find out more information.

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 3

A s many readers will know by now, Steve Davis, our well respected and long serving Chief Executive Officer (CEO), retired from our CAB

on 31 March 2015. Having sold his successful building business, Steve relo-cated his family from Birmingham to North Devon in the early 1990s. It was then that Steve started first as a volunteer in the Bideford office of the then Bideford and District CAB. He soon became an Advisor and progressed in various paid posts until he was appointed Bureau Manager in 2002. Under his management the Bideford Bureau became very successful and started to gain a good reputation with local authorities and other CABx. This led on to Steve, by then the Bureau's CEO, guiding the Bureau's Trustee Board to the Bureau's first merger in 2007 -with Bude and Holsworthy CAB. Over the next

seven years Steve successfully managed mergers with Mid Devon, North Devon and West Devon CABx. So over that period the Bureau grew from one Bureau office in one District Council area to elev-en offices in four District Council areas, to now with over 30 paid staff and 120+ volunteers! There is little doubt in the minds of the Trustee Board that the success of this Bureau was largely because of Steve's management skills and total commitment to the Citizens Advice movement. He is also very approachable and was always looking to develop the career potential of every member of staff. Of his many significant achievements during his time with the Bureau it is perhaps worth men-tioning two. The first would be the securing and successfully managing a long term contract back in 2008 with the then Legal Service Commission (LSC) to deliver Legally Aided advice on Benefits and Housing to people on Benefits. The Fees paid by the LSC to the Bureau generated a regular and sub-stantial income which underpinned the Core work of the Bureau up until 2014, when the Government drastically reduced the Legal Aid budget. Steve's second significant achievement was his finding and securing the purchase of 13 Bridgeland Street, Bideford, and managing its refurbishment, to become, as well as the new Bideford office, the headquarters in 2012 of the expanding Bureau. While the Bu-reau headquarters is now in Barnstaple, 13 Bridgeland Street is a substantial asset and much of its office space is let, as well as a top floor flat, to provide a significant rental income, which offsets the reductions in Grant income. As previously stated, this Bureau would not be where it is today, a substantial Charity providing free advice and guidance to thousands of people over half of Devon (last year we saw nearly 15,000 people with over 33,000 issues) without the significant efforts and strategic vision of Steve Davis. Dur-ing his time as CEO he was faced with many challenges which he always met with strength and skill, as well as with a great deal of common sense. We shall miss him and he leaves with our good wishes and good luck for the future.

Andy Beer Trustee and previous Board Chairman

Tribute to Steve Davis

A big thank you to our wonderful volunteers who have spent many hours shaking tins and standing in the cold to raise money for our Charity under our new Supermarket funding stream! We have so far managed to raise nearly £1000! Coming up later in the year get ready to see us in Morrisons, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco!

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 4

Face to Face Debt Advice Project

Update for the opening 6 months of the new contract (Oct 14-Apr 15)

Numbers so far:

Clients: 180

No shows: 44

Ongoing Open Casework

Clients: 92

Successful Benevolent

Fund Applications:

£8460

Debt Written Off:

£197,068.54

Updates/Changes to project going forward:

Casewoker Heather Sparkes achieved IMA Accredi-tation in money advice. Well done Heather!

Volunteer support Tony Hayre is also working on this project seeing clients and will be supervised by Heather.

We are now making referrals to Central Debt Relief Order Unit (DRO) for all DRO eligible clients, unless they require face to face appointments.

We are beginning to roll out Money Advice Trust (MAT) Self-Help material, to replace our own which can be used to empower clients to act on their own behalf.

Caseworker: Heather Sparkes Admin: Cindy Court

Volunteer Support: Tony Hayre

Face to Face (F2F) Case Study-successful story:

In October 2013 a client of F2F was forced to cease trading due to a chronic heart disease. He was living in rented accommodation and was receiving disability related benefits. As a

result of his inability to work, he was left with more than £40,000 of debt and had no realistic way of repaying it. Unsurprisingly, this was not good for his moral nor his already serious

health condition.

After coming to the Face to Face Debt project at Citizens Advice, our project team were able to fully advise him on his options and have since assisted him through the entire pro-cess of bankruptcy, including all form filling. The team have successfully applied for fees from a charitable fund and have also secured a ‘bonus’ payment of £30 a week from the

charity to top up his income until he reaches state pension age in July 2018.

The client was incredibly grateful for the help received by our Face to Face team and the extra payment will make an enormous difference for him in terms of meeting essential liv-

ing costs. After what was a difficult period in his life, our F2F client feels there is now ‘hope for the future’.

A big thank you to the project team for the work they do and the help and support they give.

Healthwatch is the consumer champion for health and social care, making sure people’s views and experiences are heard by those who run, plan and regulate the services. Healthwatch gives local people a voice about health and social care which can influence the delivery of the services they receive. Many Citizens Advice offices have a Healthwatch Champion who will happily discuss your views or experiences. Champions can assist you in a complaint, sign-post you around the complicated world of health and social care and feedback compliments or complaints about services you have used. To make an appointment or get in contact with your local Healthwatch Champion either visit your local Citizens Advice or telephone.

03444 111 444

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 5

www.healthwatchdevon.co.uk

H ere at Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice, we aim to pro-

vide free, impartial, confidential advice to every-one on their rights and responsibilities from our 11 offices across Devon. But what if someone can’t make it to their local Bureau?

TNMWD Citizens Advice does not believe these people should be at a disadvantage and have become part of the Devon wide telephone ser-vice, Adviceline. This new service is part of Citizens Advice’s commitment to reach more people by use of technology. Calls will be taken

Monday-Friday 9:30-4:00pm across Devon. Okehampton’s contribution to this will be run three mornings a week- with a sister hub in Barnstaple covering two mornings.

Call our Adviceline today on 03444 111 444 for information or to access advice on many subjects including Benefits, Debt, Housing, Employment and Consumer issues.

Okehampton team (below left) Chris Ford, Chelsia Tongue, Jane Jachnik, Charlotte Bond, Carolyn Voisey.

Supervised by Dan Burton.

Barnstaple team (top right)

Keith Pugsley, Sharon Evans Omer Aydinli, David Holt Daniel Wearne, Sam Hood Malcolm Harris Supervised by Simon Newman

users, and to identify what issues they had experi-enced in doing this. Around 20 organisations participated and their input has been an-alysed to identify how the AWD project can help sup-port local agencies in the future. The events were also an opportunity to introduce the project website www.advicewestdevon.org.uk.

All those present expressed interest in becoming a mem-ber of AWD to benefit from its online inter-agency refer-ral mechanism and other resources and training. Member access is now being put in place. Any organisa-tion wishing to find out more can contact us on info@advicewestdevon.org.uk or call 01837 54840.

AWD is also supporting the Friday Hub at the Ockment Centre. This weekly drop-in event enables people to see representatives of various advice and support agencies in an informal setting. It is proving valuable in generat-ing referrals to agencies such as Citizens Advice, so that people can get the help they need more quickly.

Other developments include production of some self-help guides on managing chal-

PROJECT NEWS– Advice West Devon

The Advice West Devon partnership, led by seven lo-cal organisations, is continu-ing to research, define and support information and ad-vice provision across West Devon.

In February 7 new volunteers were recruited to train as CAB Adviceline Operators based at Okehampton. The new re-cruits have just completed an intensive 6-week training pro-gramme, and have now com-menced on rota in the new Adviceline hub Okehampton. Set-up costs of the new hub have been jointly funded by Advice West Devon, TNMWD Citizens Advice and Oke-hampton United Charities.

In March we held two events open to all local statutory and voluntary agencies in West Devon. The objective was to find out the extent of infor-mation and advice being of-fered by advice, care and support organisations to their

service

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 6

lenging life events, such as job loss, bereavement or relation-ship breakdown. Five guides are now available to download from the ‘Advice Links’ page of advicewestdevon.org.uk. The website is also building a ‘resources’ page to provide a ‘one-stop’ location to find relia-ble online directories and web-sites relating to services in West Devon and the County as a whole.

As part of its objective to identi-fy new income streams that could help information or ad-vice providers to achieve a more sustainable funding mix AWD has commissioned a pilot initiative offering flexible, afford-able HR consultancy to SMEs in West Devon. This service is delivered through Advice Bu-reau Plus with a share of profits going to partners of Advice West Devon. For more information, please see the ‘News’ page of www.advicewestdevon.org.uk or visit

www.advicebureauplus.co.uk.

The project partnership is now seeking support or sponsorship from local companies in order to continue to build on its work. If you can help, please call 01837 54840.

AWD in partnership with:

A big thank you to one of our Debt Advisers, Tony, who has helped a client receive £4,500 of backdated benefit after working with them for over a year. The client very kindly gave a generous donation of £100 to our Charty as an expression of gratitude for the free information

and advice they received.

Shirley

Hooton

Project Services

Manager

Page 7 Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice

Organisation Restructure

(Advice Bureau Plus)

Our focus now moves towards management training and we have a Communication and Engagement Strategy Day for all staff, volunteers and Trustees at the end of April. The management team will receive training through our partner AB+ on their roles and responsibilities within the organisation.

Information Technology

(COSMIC)

We have now made the move to Office 365 which is a cloud based system. Members of staff are being rolled out gradually to our new email domain which will see everyone will a consistent address. We are

also working with COSMIC to design and install our new web-site, to include staff and volun-teer portals. Training for this website is taking place in the next two weeks, with the launch hopefully coming soon after.

Rural Outreach (Age UK

Devon)

Our first pilot outreach in Braunton last month took place with our partners Age UK Devon. The feedback received was that we should ‘piggy back’ onto other events in the area that already have a following. Further dates have been booked for Hatherleigh on 19th May as part of the West Devon Connect event and Lynton and Lynmouth in June.

Young Advisors (PETROC)

We have found a potential volunteer to give advice from the Petroc campus and are in the process of finding them some experienced support. The

room is ready and waiting at the college and we look forward to starting our advice sessions soon.

Financial Awareness (AB+)

Debt training materials have now been written by AB+ and are currently being reviewed with the view to them being used in house to train our volunteers on more specific areas of financial awareness.

Commercial Opportunity

(W/H)

Our fundraising group continues to grow and we have been in talks with Eaton Aerospace in South Molton with regards to corporate sponsorship for the charity.

A number of local bids and

supermarket days continue to

provide a financial stream into

the organisation.

Vicki Rowe

info@ruraldevoncab.org.uk

Vicki Rowe

Project Manager

Widening Horizons– In partnership with the following

Citizens Advice is now operating from the Foodbank next to Tescos at

Whiddon Valley in Barnstaple. Our volunteer Martin Singh, who also

volunteers for the Northern Devon Foodbank, broached the idea of an

outreach at their new site many months ago. The outreach has been

supplied with a laptop, printer and a RAS key to enable Martin to deliver a

full service to clients without the need to for them to come into the

Barnstaple office. Martin specialises in debt but will also deal with any other

queries that arise. We look forward to a strong relationship between Citizens

Advice and the Foodbank which will allow us to assist many more clients in need.

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon CAB Stats

01 January 2015– 31 March 2015

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice Page 8

FACT SUMMARY

1st January– 31 March 2015

In the last quarter, Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon we saw more than 3,100 people on

over 6,000 issues.

Over 60% of client issues were

in relation to benefits and debt

Over 40% of those seen had a

disability

We have helped local people to receive nearly £1, 000,000 worth of income gain that they did not know they were entitled

to

We have helped to write off more than £300,000 worth of

debt

North Devon is currently our busiest district in terms of

clients seeking help and advice

Nearly 60% of our clients prefer to come in and talk to us

face to face

Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice: Offices in Barnstaple, Bideford, Crediton, Holsworthy, Ilfracombe, Okehampton,

Tavistock, Tiverton. Outreaches in Cullompton, Torrington, South Molton. Suggestions for future publications to be sent to georgia@ruraldevoncab.org.uk

What methods our clients prefer to use when getting their

advice