Citizens Advice. Annual report and accounts 2016/17 Annual report 2016/17 We are Citizens Advice. We’re here for everyone. We provide free, confidential and independent advice to help people overcome their problems. We work to fix the underlying causes of these problems. We are a voice for people on the issues that matter to them. We value diversity, champion equality and challenge discrimination. Introduction The Citizens Advice service has much to funding. We supported our network to celebrate this year, despite a challenging raise £6.4 million in new business income economic climate. – in addition to £21.5 million of core funding. We’re continuing to explore how we can make We’ve helped 2.7 million people with 6.3 our funding more sustainable, our services million problems through high quality advice more resilient and help more people. provided by local Citizens Advice. People accessed this advice face to face, over the The theme of our annual conference was phone and by email and webchat. This was ‘staying ahead in a changing world’. Innovation because of the hard work of staff across the is an important part of this and it’s been service, and the incredible volunteers who exciting to see this brought to life through gave an estimated £114 million worth of time. the Martin Lewis Fund. More than half of the network shared ideas for new ways to help Our consumer helpline helped over half a people in their communities. We’ve been able million people this year and we’re delighted to give several of them the opportunity to test that our network will now deliver this service. and develop their projects, and the whole We continued to refresh our digital content service will learn from their experiences. to make sure it meets people’s needs. The number of people accessing our online advice The rich data from across our network increased from 36 million visits in 2015/16 to helps us to get a clear picture of the problems 43 million in 2016/17. people are facing and the underlying causes. We use this evidence to identify solutions and We’ve introduced changes to the Witness advocate for changes in public services and Service including a new delivery model and consumer markets. This year the government a new outreach service. This means we can adopted our recommendations to ban letting give more tailored support to those who give agent fees, cap prepayment meter costs and evidence in criminal courts – 156,400 people increase funding to enforce the national in 2016/17. minimum wage. Our One Service strategy (2015-20) continues It’s been a year of significant change for to make good progress. Last year we adopted our service and the people we help. Tough our new membership agreement, the result economic times mean our advice and of 3 years of close collaboration with our influencing work – and how we work as one network. This new way of working will help service to deliver this – is more important than us to deliver even better services, give us ever. Citizens Advice has a long and proud more robust data and reaffirm our history of helping people facing uncertainty. commitment to quality. We’re committed to being there for everyone We’ve maintained a relatively strong financial who needs us. A big thank you to our staff and position. Our total income for the year was volunteers whose hard work and commitment £99.1 million, down from £108.6 million in means that we can continue to change lives 2015/16. We expected this because of a for the better. reduction in some of our one-off project David Varney Gillian Guy Chair of Trustees Chief Executive CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 iii Contents 00 Trustees’ report 01 Our strategy 02 How our organisation works 06 The people we help 09 Our impact and value 10 Advice for everyone 14 Improving our whole service 18 Solving the underlying causes of people’s problems 00 Strategic report 22 Our structure, governance and management 36 Financial review 46 Financial statements iv CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 Trustees’ report Our strategy Our One Service strategy 2015–2020 has 5 key goals: 1. Make it easier to get advice 2. Be more influential 3. Work together as one service 4. Be even more effective and sustainable 5. Be a stronger equality champion In our annual report you can see how we’re achieving these goals using the following key. 1. Advice 2. Influence 3. Service 4. Sustainable 5. Equality CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 1 How our organisation works The Citizens Advice service is made up of Citizens Advice – the national charity – and a network of around 300 local Citizens Advice members. Witness DELIVERED IN Our members are all Service independent charities. Our network delivers services 240 Courts from: Pension over 600 local Wise Citizens Advice outlets D ELIVE over 1,800 community RED B centres, GPs’ surgeries Y and prisons Consumer service over 240 courts across SUPPORT England and Wales We do this with: 800 national staff 6,500 local staff over 23,000 trained volunteers National 300 local Our reach means 99% of Citizens Advice Citizens Advice people in England and Wales can access a local Citizens Advice within a 30 minute DATA drive of where they live. Advocacy and policy change 2 CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 | TRUSTEES’ REPORT National offices Local Citizens Advice Witness Service courts CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 | TRUSTEES’ REPORT 3 Temi’s story Temi is a single mother with 3 young boys. She moved from London to Kent after a divorce to find better schools for her children. Temi had been living in a rented property for a few months when she had some bad news. Her landlord wanted an extra six months rent in advance or he was going to evict her and her family. Temi felt helpless and was depressed and worried about what to do next. That’s when she went to her local Citizens Advice for help. Following the advice and support she was given, she was able to get the payment dropped and stay in her home. After seeing how important volunteers are to Citizens Advice, Temi decided to train as a Citizens Advice volunteer to help others. 4 CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 | TRUSTEES’ REPORT Our impact and and 78% said report for value they couldn’t 2016/17. have done it Alison’s story We are commit- without us. 9 in ted to under- 10 people we Alison’s husband standing and help would wasn’t able to demonstrating recommend us work because of our impact. to their friends health problems Credible evi- and family. he experienced dence and in- after leaving the sight helps us to: We change lives. army. Their ● improve 4 in 5 people family got into our services and said we improve £44,000 of debt. ensure that they their lives – re- meet people’s ducing stress, Alison accessed needs improving financ- our service in ● make es and stabilising different ways. effective deci- employment and She found out sions about how housing circum- about Citizens to best use our stances. Advice after limited resources searching online. ● show the We benefit She phoned the difference we society. Our national helpline make to people volunteers gave where she spoke and society. an estimated to an adviser. £xxx million They realised her We help every- worth of time issue needed one that needs last year. £xxx additional sup- support. Having million was saved port so she got a a problem can by the govern- face to face affect people’s ment and public appointment lives, including services. Nearly with her local their mental £x billion in CItizens Advice. health and fi- estimated total nances. People social and eco- Alison found out “I had a feeling oftenof relief come to us nomic value to her family was and empowermentfor support that when society. There entitled to more they’ve faced was an £xx benefits than someone wasbarriers there to to solv listen.- benefit to the they were receiv- They looked ating the their problem prob- inpeople we help ing. The support lem, don’t know for every £1 from her local a different way.what Butto do they next didn’tspent on Citizens Citizens Advice hold my handor – don’tthey have the Advice. helped with confidence to ongoing prob- strengthened takemy action. grip. For more on our lems – like get- I can’t express how impact and ting out of debt We help people value, including – and made her grateful I am becausefind a way for - new research feel she wasn’t I kept my home.”ward. We help and an updated alone. more than 2 in 3 estimate of our people solve value to society, “I was able to their problem – see our impact realise there was CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 | TRUSTEES’ REPORT 5 The people we help The Citizens Advice service helped 2.7million people with 6.3 million problems in 2016/17. How people got advice and support from us* * Number of enquiries where the main channel was face to face, phone and webchat 1,840,000 1,664,800 259,700 43 million face to face phone email and visits to our webchat online advice Top 5 issues people come to us about in person, on the phone, through webchat and email 1.9 million 1.5 million 1.2 million 0.4 million 0.35 million Benefits Debt Consumer Housing Employment 6 CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 | TRUSTEES’ REPORT Benefits 17.4 The top 5 issues people million come to us about online Employment 9.4 million Consumer 8.9 million 43 million visits online (36 million in 2015/16) Debt 7.4 million Relationships 6.2 million 7 With our help 7 in 10 people who came to us solved their problem 9 in 10 rated their experience as good or very good 82% said our advice made a difference to their lives £426 million was saved by the government and public services 8 CITIZENS ADVICE ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016/17 | TRUSTEES’ REPORT Our impact and value We are committed to understanding We change lives.