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Annual Report 2016/2017
Chairman's Report
The last year has been another challenging one, both in
terms of change and in terms of servicing an increased
demand with reduced funding.
Our excellent staff and fifty plus dedicated volunteers
advised over 5,000 individual clients dealing with a total
of 13,786 new advice issues, of which debt enquiries
remained the largest percentage.
The government funded Face to Face Debt Advice
project and the Community Debt and Homeless
Prevention project, funded jointly by Newark &
Sherwood District Council Housing Options and Newark
& Sherwood Homes, have been important and
successful initiatives both of which continue until the 31st
March 2018. The Energy Best Deal Extra project which
has delivered considerable savings on energy bills for
several clients is also due to continue at least until
March 2018.
We must thank all our funders for their continued
support in these times of austerity, without them none of
our vital work would be possible.
The year also saw preparations for the relocation of our
Newark office into Newark &Sherwood District Council’s
new building Castle House, which actually took place in
September 2017.
From our involvement with the Citizens Advice
Nottinghamshire Consortium, we began to explore with
other North Nottinghamshire services the advantages of
closer cooperation or even merger ... the possibility of a
merger with Citizens Advice Bassetlaw in 2018 is
currently under serious consideration.
I would like to take this opportunity to put on record my
personal thanks for all their hard work and support to our
staff, our volunteers, our Chief Officer and her
management team and last but not least my fellow
trustees for their support throughout the year.
Geoff Gadie - Chairman
Trustees: The trustees shown below have held
office during the whole of the period
from 1st April 2016 to the date of this
report.
G Gadie (Chairman)
B Wells (Vice Chairman)
E de Gilbert
S Dickman
M A Pringle
W D Walker
Other changes in trustees holding
office are as follows:
P E Kirker - resigned 30/11/ 2016
D Smith - appointed 31/1/2017
I Jakes - resigned 8/2/2017
Lord O Coombs - resigned 20/3/ 2017
R L Casey was appointed as a trustee
after 31st March 2017 but prior to the
date of this report.
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2 Annual Report 2016/17
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Annual Report 2016/17
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5,389
3,619
1,658
1,260
506 492 467 395
We helped 5,007 clients with 13,786 problems during 2016-17
Debt
Welfare Benefits
Other categories: Legal, Tax, Travel,Discrimination, Immigration,Education, Health
Financial Products & Services
Employment
Consumer
Housing
Relationships & Family
Annual Report 2016/17 7
Unknown or Not Recorded
Asian and other
White
Who we helped
Annual Report 2016/17
Disability / Long term health
(LTH)
36%
64%
Disabled or LTHProblems
Not Disabled/No healthproblems
Female 57%
Male 43%
Gender of Clients
7%
27%
29%
20%
11%
5% 1%
Age range of clients
15-24
25-39
40-54
55-64
65-74
75-84
85-+
10 Annual Report 2016/17
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10 Annual Report 2016/17
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11
Thank you to all our
valued Volunteers
Annual Report 2016/17 12
Face to Face Debt Advice Project This Debt Advice Project is a government initiative to
tackle financial exclusion. It has been designed to target
three priority areas: access to free face to face money
advice; access to banking services; and access to
affordable credit. Funding is from the Money Advice
Service through the Community Advice & Law Service
which administers the East Midlands Money Advice
Initiative (EMMA).
Debt and Homeless Prevention Project Newark & Sherwood District Council Housing Options
and Newark & Sherwood Homes have jointly funded a
project to provide a district wide money advice, income
maximisation and help at court service for residents at
risk of losing their homes. Direct referrals are received
from the funders and other agencies.
Energy Best Deal Extra Project The project is aimed at helping consumers be more
energy savvy. The funding received is to deliver EBDX
one to one sessions with a qualified generalist adviser
and focus on delivering tailored energy advice to clients.
The sessions deal with matters relating to relief from
fuel poverty, energy and thermal efficiency measures.
Advisers will support clients, as appropriate, with the full
range of our support services such as identifying and
claiming benefits, and dealing with debt.
Welfare Benefits Project This project targeted vulnerable people, to provide legal
assistance to people living in financial hardship or who
are disadvantaged and to take our service into the
community.
The project provided Specialist Welfare Benefits Advice,
including advice on challenging decisions, provide
flexible appointments using multiple delivery partners
through the local partner networks and home visits.
Annual Report 2016/17 13
Advice for everyone
Citizens Advice Sherwood & Newark is here for everyone across the Newark & Sherwood
District. In 2016/17 we worked to make sure people have a choice in how they access our
advice and support. We helped people in 2016/17 through a range of funded projects and in a number of different ways – whether it’s face to face, on the telephone or online.
122 people
remained in
their homes
595 people
received
specialist money
advice
Saved
people
£25,973
by
switching
supplier
Helped
people
claim
£2.3million in
Welfare Benefits
What we have planned
Casebook - A new client management system called
Casebook will be rolling out to local Citizens Advice in
4 phases in 2017. Sherwood & Newark will go live in
December 2017.
Webchat - using digital technology to help more
people get digital advice. Citizens Advice Sherwood &
Newark is actively developing and testing new
delivery channels and models of service provision in
order to increase our capacity to help more people
and increase our ability to influence change in society.
A key step towards these goals is to make much
better use of phone and digital channels.
Improved Data protection – to be ready for May
2018 we will working towards compliance with the
new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This means we'll have to follow different data
protection rules by law.
Moving premises – in September 2017 the Newark
service will be co-locating to Castle House, a shared
new build with Newark & Sherwood District Council
(NSDC). We will be working alongside many partners
including NSDC Housing Options, Newark &
Sherwood Homes, Department of Works & Pensions
and the Council for Voluntary Services.
Increase specialist casework – we will be actively
fundraising to continue to deliver a specialist welfare
benefits service.
Universal credit – we will support clients in their
transition to the new benefit platform alongside
influencing government to improve this system though
our research & campaigning work.
Partnership working - to build strong relationships
with the Witness Service; Pension wise and
Nottinghamshire Citizens Advice Chair’s Consortium.
Merger - Citizens Advice Sherwood & Newark is
exploring merger opportunities with Citizens Advice
Bassetlaw to ensure sustainability long term for a
North Nottinghamshire Citizens Advice service.
Annual Report 2016/17 14
Sherwood & Newark Volunteers Deliver our quality assured core service and telephone
advice line
Nottinghamshire County Council
Deliver our core, volunteer led service available to all
Nottinghamshire residents, face to face and by phone
Newark & Sherwood District Council Deliver our core, volunteer led service available to all
Newark & Sherwood residents, face to face and by
phone
Newark Town Council Deliver our core, volunteer led service available to all
Newark residents, face to face and by phone
Ollerton & Boughton Town Council Deliver our core, volunteer led service available to all
Sherwood residents, face to face and by phone
Boots To deliver a welfare benefits specialist service
East Midlands Money Advice
Partnership / Community Advice and
Law Service
To target three priority areas: access to free face to
face money advice; access to banking services; and
access to affordable credit.
Newark & Sherwood District Council
& Newark & Sherwood Homes
Community Debt and Homeless Prevention Project is a
jointly funded project to provide a district wide money
advice, income maximisation and help at court service
for residents at risk of losing their homes
Citizens Advice Citizens Advice has secured funding from EDF;
Scottish Power & UK Power Networks to deliver the
EBDX programme. The project is aimed at helping
consumers be more energy savvy.
Re brand our service
We would like to thank: Who enabled us to:
Annual Report 2016/17 15
Ways to contact us
Telephone: 01623 861769
Email:
Advice Line: 0344 411 1444
Our main funders
twitter.com/CitizensAdvice @ShwdNwkCAB
