CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU (CAB) 25,000 People Used the Service in the Last Year

ANNEX TO ITEM 9 (i) GRANT AID CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU (CAB) 25,000 people used the service in the last year. Total financial gains from their casework yielded £1.4 million. Benefit, employment housing and immigration enquiries were nearly 60% of all new issues represented. 15% of users considered themselves disabled and 34% from an ethnic minority group. 46% of clients were from postcode areas MK1-6. CAB continues to run three franchises and has annual audits from the Legal Services Commission, NACAB and CLS. Welfare benefits, Employment and Immigration have all received the LSC Specialist Quality Marks. The Service is increasingly focusing on initiatives to better target resources to those people already on the margins of society. This year they have secured funding from the Home Office for a prison project at Woodhill. Seen as a model of excellence, this is an innovative project and works with prisoners who are at Woodhill short term and those people on their run up to release. The work at Moorlands and Bletchley has proved successful and will continue. Additionally, CAB are running a regular afternoon session in Wolverton. A service is also run from the Grove Surgery in Netherfield funded by the PCT. Evidence is emerging that suggests the number of client visits to GPs is falling and could be related to issues being picked up by CAB. CAB is funded to provide a money advice service. Final details are being put together in a Partnership Agreement that will identify each party’s expectations. This initiative will be supported by an appointment only service to people on the verge of eviction and seeking final advice. CAB and MKC are about to embark on a new initiative secured by funding from the Local Network Fund in regard to raising attainment in 0-5 yr olds by encouraging parents to seek financial support that will enable the children to access pre-school education. CAB continues to go from strength to strength reflected by the variety of services they are working on. They have sourced additional, albeit project funding and the Milton Keynes Council grant represents less than 50% of total income. CAB has 68 volunteers and 29 f/t and p/t staff. The management committee has 29 members. The organisation remains vibrant but in a recent response to the budget consultation suggested that ‘If the ODPM are serious about an additional 70,000 homes over 30 years then there has to be some serious new money to accompany it. The voluntary sector cannot continue to absorb the slack endlessly and for nothing.’ L:\Committee\2003-04\CABINET\24 FEB 04\24-02-04_ITEM09_ANNEX.doc Funding requested : £297,359 Recommendation To maintain funding for 2004-5 at the 2003-4 level : £268,160 CITY COUNSELLING CENTRE (CCC) Seventeen organisations (many with limited funding themselves) have benefited from using the Centre’s facilities this year. CCC received 7000 telephone calls to the Centre. They now have over 80 volunteers supporting the Service and contributing many hours to the organisation. The number of people accessing the Crisis Counselling Service has increased to 620 an increase of 7%. Nearly 50% of people are in the 22-40 age range. This Service is becoming widely known and used by MKC professionals who refer people. Issues arising include depression, abuse and stress. After initial counselling, clients are then referred to specific agencies. This year CCC have been successful in obtaining funding from Children’s Services and the PCT for the CHATS Service, working with children and are part of the post disaster response team. Funding requested: £19,500 Recommendation To maintain funding for 2004-5 at the 2003-4 level : £19,920 MILTON KEYNES COUNCIL OF VOLUNTARY ORGANISATION (MKCVO) CVO works with a membership of 200 groups and 300 non - members. In the course of the last year they have radically revised the way they deliver services to improve cost effectiveness and increase accessibility – early signs are that it is making a real difference reflected in the number of enquires increasing from 6 to 22 per week. To an extent, this has impacted on the 1:1 service of providing very specific support and guidance to organisations over a period of time. Additionally, demand outstrips supply on providing Independent Examinations of Accounts. From Jan 2004, they are hoping to increase the annual turnover from 30 – 50 in response to this. CVO continue to be in the forefront of providing voluntary sector representation in the wide array of National and Local Government initiatives. CVO are taking an active role locally in the CMK Partnership. L:\Committee\2003-04\CABINET\24 FEB 04\24-02-04_ITEM09_ANNEX.doc Their funding base is wide and varied and the MKC Grant contributes 13% of the projected budget (2004-2005), the lowest for some considerable years and largely because of the Children’s Fund contribution of £379,690. CVO would argue that Council funding is falling behind the recommended target given the size of MK and certainly in anticipation of its impending population increase. Funding requested: £112,879 Recommendation To maintain funding for 2004-5 at the 2003-4 level : £84,620 MILTON KEYNES RACIAL EQUALITY COUNCIL (MK REC) The MK REC has during 2003 – 2004, consolidated both its structure and organisation. Additionally it has been successful in funding bids from a number of different sources. They have taken on extra office space within Acorn House (which MKC contributed towards). There are now nine staff members working on a variety of projects funded from SRB, Home Office and the Community Foundation. The MK REC is directly tackling racial discrimination in Milton Keynes. The MK REC is a lead agency for the Anti-Racial Harassment Group who handled 210 cases, a small increase on last year. MK REC has achieved all the CRE core standards of operating at Level 3 (the highest possible). All appropriate policies and procedures are in place. They are now exploring Investors in people and the CLS Quality Mark. MKREC has worked hard in a number of different initiatives. These include cultural awareness raising programmes on a number of MK estates where there has been racial tension including Fishermead, Shenley Brook End and Bletchley. REC continues to play an active part in a number of BME and local community groups as well as the broader Council initiatives. MKREC have been recognized for their work by being awarded funding that they are responsible for distributing to other organisations. This includes the Community Champions Fund (Dfee and GOSE) and the Community Ambassadors Leadership Programme. REC continues to provide good value for money reflected in the diversity and standard of work achieved. Funding requested: £64,120 Recommendation To maintain funding for 2004-5 at the 2003-4 level : £31,370 L:\Committee\2003-04\CABINET\24 FEB 04\24-02-04_ITEM09_ANNEX.doc RELATE 1550 individuals (excluding training programmes) benefited from the service in the year a similar number to last year. Relate have continued to develop its outreach services and to this end continue to work with MK Carers, Greenleys / Moorlands Family Centre and HMP Woodhill. The family counselling service goes from strength to strength and they have three practitioners who are working with families as a whole in addition to the couple counselling. The project now has an outreach service working from Moorlands. Relate continue to provide quality services which are recognized nationally. Interestingly, a number of government statistics have helped to stress the importance of the work Relate and its services are addressing. 80% of runaways stated that they had run away because of family difficulties. Family break up is cited as one of the critical causes of poverty. 50% of homeless adults cited family break up as the reason for it. Non payment of maintenance stems largely from acrimony in family break up. Only 31% of lone parents are receiving maintenance from the father. The biggest problem in this area according to the Government unit is the lack of quality adult relationships. Milton Keynes Council should continue to be proud of its support to MK Relate, which is recognised as being a model of excellence to other parts of the Country. Relate continue to offer nationally recognised high quality services in a variety of settings increasingly reaching those more marginalised in society. Funding requested: £59,855 Recommendation To maintain funding for 2004-5 at the 2003-4 level : £59,860 MK FAMILY MEDIATION 1304 clients used the Family Mediation service last year, an increase of 28%. The service continues to be audited by other funding bodies including the Legal Services Commission. (LSC). MKFM is the only ‘not for profit’ mediation service locally. Mediation provides a means of resolving difficulties between partners, and enables them to make agreements and plans for their families, that ensure the well being of any children, and takes into account other important issues such as property and finance. MK Family Mediation assist in clients making informed decisions about their futures. Due to the increasing demand on the service they have had insufficient mediator capacity to be able to resource the outreach work, so they have concentrated on resourcing their core service and in building up their L:\Committee\2003-04\CABINET\24 FEB 04\24-02-04_ITEM09_ANNEX.doc capacity.(It takes around 2 years to train a mediator and have them accredited by the LSC MK Funding represents 15% of their total. It should be recognized that MKFM reserves are planned to be used in 2004 – 5 to cover the shortfall. Funding requested: £16,000 Recommendation To maintain funding for 2004-5 at the 2003-4 level : £15,520 MK SAMARITANS Samaritans provide a confidential listening service for people passing through crisis and despair in their lives.

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