People
We have completed a process in each Local Office that is transferring staff to appoint employee representatives. The next phase of the TUPE process for staff involves the employee representatives receiving and disseminating information for staff about the Transfer of Their Employment as part of the TUPE consultation process. This will include staff receiving a Measures Letter and a Citizens Advice Somerset Staff Handbook.
We are aware that there isn’t a formal equivalent for volunteers although our volunteers are a vital part of the merger. For this reason I have drafted a Volunteer Agreement that I hope achieves a similar objective – to seek agreement from each volunteer to transfer into Citizens Advice Somerset. There are some administrative elements to the volunteers’ transfers as we have to renew your consent to hold your personal data. We also have to renew volunteers’ declarations on confidentiality, GDPR and Acceptable Use of IT/Casebook – apologies in advance for the bureaucracy involved.
I hope to invite volunteers to join discussion meetings through September and will follow these up with written communications and information updates for the portal setting out the processes and feedback from volunteers.
Governance
The Shadow Board met on the 16th August. The Board approved several policies and a Staff Handbook for Citizens Advice Somerset. Most of the policy work that went to the Board related to the transfer of employees and volunteers and our operational practices from 1/10/23. There is a huge amount of policy review to complete and so we have agreed to prioritize giving immediate consideration to our duties under the Advice Quality Standard, National Citizens Advice Membership and relevant legislation.
The next Board meeting is set for 3rd October at 5.30pm with an option for a 20th September meeting (to be decided).
Autumn Away Day – 4th December 2023 at Canalside Bridgwater
More details will follow along with invitations to get involved with the development of the day’s programme.
Operations
The Operations Managers met on the 22nd August. Among the matters discussed were:
Rota system for Citizens Advice Somerset – we are hoping to present a very simple option for everyone to use in the medium term. The objective is to bring many of our willing staff and volunteers into a simple rota if they work or volunteer on one of the main services (for example Adviceline, email advice or call-backs). By identifying who is available on the rota it is much easier for supervisors to spot gaps in our capacity and take the steps needed to arrange cover. More information will follow.
Communications for Clients – we have a number of tasks in relation to our clients’ communications. These include informing clients of the merger as well as a bigger objective to refresh some of our marketing that has been promoting Adviceline. The “Great Advice is a Phone Call Away” has been a very successful campaign. What we hope to do is to introduce a wider range of choice to our clients by promoting the email advice service and the Community Access Points.
We invited interest from staff and volunteers to join a communications working group that will help to develop the revised marketing campaign.
The first meeting of the working group is 30th August at 2.00pm. If you would like to be kept informed or to get more involved please let me know; [email protected]
IT and Systems
The IT migration is proceeding to plan. Both South Somerset and Sedgemoor have been moved into the new SharePoint system. There have been hiccups (as to be expected) but, as has been my experience in the past, Mark One Consulting came through with remarkable professionalism and so far things are working fairly well. Suzy continues to champion the development of the advice portal and this will launch late September.
The next migration dates are for Taunton and Mendip.
It hasn’t been quite as simple to agree on our position with regard to telephones. The major difficulty has been the term of existing contracts (which are typically for 5 years) and the unpalatable option to buy out of contracts. One element of the telephony review is to re-consider the use of mobile phones as the practices differ across each office. We will update in due course.
Stakeholders and Funders
We continue discussions with Somerset Council on our funding agreements for 2024 onward and this may include some new programmes linked to the Household Support fund.
There are a couple of funding opportunities for new project work, this is through the Access to Justice Fund and through Citizens Advice Energy Project. Amy and I will have discussions and report back on the outcome of these opportunities.
The Connect Somerset expression of interest (re-commissioning of the Village Agents and the Somerset Cares Service) has been submitted and Citizens Advice Somerset are listed as partners to Somerset Community Council.
I am attending the following meetings on our behalf:
- Somerset Early Help Network: 6th September
- Somerset Homelessness Reduction Board: 19th September
- Somerset Board: 21st September
- Open Mental Health Partnership Board: 25th September
- the Voluntary Sector Assembly: 28th September
Our 2023/25 Business Plan is nearly complete and ready to publish. This is the detail behind the plan on the page that is already available on the information portal.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about anything at Citizens Advice Somerset do please drop me an email – [email protected]
