Broxbourne Citizens Advice Bureau The charity for your community The Olympic Torch comes to Broxbourne on 7th July at the White Water Centre - see page 3 Old Bishops College Telephone: 08444 111444 Churchgate, Cheshunt, Email: [email protected] Herts, EN8 9XP www.broxbournecab.co.uk Annual Report and Accounts 2011 - 2012 Registered Charity No: 1121196 Company No: 6317053 Broxbourne Citizens Advice Bureau Annual Report and Accounts 2011 - 2012 Page 2 Chief Executive’s Report During 2011-12 Broxbourne CAB continued to successfully work in partnership with a number of borough and county wide organisations for the benefit of the local community. I always take every opportunity to sing the praises of our hardworking staff and volunteers, but this year I have asked two of our long-standing partners to write about what it is like to work with us from their point of view for this annual report. BCAB has been working with B3 Living (formerly Broxbourne Housing Association) since 2007 where our relationship has developed from a simple referrals service to the close working relationship we enjoy now in 2012. This relationship allows us to work with B3 Living tenants and leaseholders providing them with confidential and impartial advice and assistance. Partnership working with the Borough of Broxbourne, who support us with core funding which enables us to provide our face to face service and the specialist work we do with Housing and Community Care has evolved into the longest and most enduring partnership we have. As you can see from their article we receive referrals from the Housing Needs Team with regard to people who are in danger of losing their home. Our specialist workers assist these people to stay in their home by working with them to deal with any number of issues including maximising their income, dealing with their debts or any other issues they may have. To date this has been a very successful partnership which we hope will continue into the future. Broxbourne CAB also works with the other CABx in Hertfordshire for the benefit of all the residents of the county. There has been success in attracting county wide funding to provide support to people in need of additional advice and assistance with issues such as surviving winter. CABx also works closely with Trading Standards in order to assist residents make informed consumer choices. Adviceline is a county wide initiative which has led to a 30% increase of the number of telephone enquiries answered. The lines are open between 10.00am – 4.00 pm and the client is connected to a Gateway Assessor who will take details of the enquiry. The assessor will then either signpost to a relevant agency, send printed information or arrange a telephone call back from the client’s local bureau so that full advice can be given. BCAB’s ability to offer the level of service we do to the residents of Broxbourne would not be possible without the close working relationship we have with other organisations and I am constantly aware that the services we offer are limited by the funds we can attract. So to all our partners, funders and the individuals who made a donation I would like to offer my sincere thanks for their JO ILETT support throughout the year. CHIEF EXECUTIVE CONTENTS 15 T’TEES, VOLUNTEERS & STAFF 16-17 BUREAU STATISTICS 2 CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT 18-22 CASE STUDIES & OUR PARTNERS 3 THE OLYMPIC FLAME 23 HERTS CONSORTIUM - HCAS 4 CHAIR’S REPORT 24 A DAY IN THE OFFICE 5-6 REPORT OF TRUSTEES 25 CITIZENS ADVICE CAMPAIGNS 7 INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT 26 NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2012 8 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES 27 SPOTLIGHT 9 BALANCE SHEET 28 OUR SERVICES 10-14 NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS Broxbourne Citizens Advice Bureau Annual Report and Accounts 2011 - 2012 Page 3 The Olympic Flame at Lee Valley White Water Centre On Saturday 7th July, Day 50 of Olympic Flame journey, it came to Broxbourne. and CAB Trustees Bob Bick, Ken Ayling and Tony Ames watched its progress down the White Water Centre. Tony takes up the story - the site was very impressive, being situated in a new landscaped parkland setting, including path and bridge networks to enable spectators to have access and view the events. A new facility building houses reception, café, changing rooms, shop, offices, temporary spectator viewing for around 12,000 spectators, equipment storage and water pump and filtration. The venue has now opened again to the public after the Games. Spectator seating has been removed and the venue has returned to providing a leisure attraction for canoeing and white water rafting and a competition venue for elite events. The gates opened at 7.30 am and with my camera at the ready, I took my seat in one of the stands. The view of the purpose built slalom course for the Olympic white water canoe events was quite dramatic. The main competition channel is an international and Olympic standard 300 metre canoe and kayak slalom course. It and the shorter warm-up course empty into the warm up and cool down lake. Initially we were entertained by members of the GB Olympic team practicing hard for the forthcoming Olympics. Not a sport for the faint-hearted I decided. By about 9am, the crowd had built up and the air of excited anticipation in the air was so tangible you could feel it creeping along your skin. The announcer told us that the torch had arrived at the White Water Centre and we saw the raft in the warm- up/finish pool. The torch carrier was British junior team canoeist Zachary Franklin, who held the flame aloft as the British men’s rafting team was taken up by the boat conveyer to the start pool. Then from the top of the course the torch raft made its way down the rapids In the photo, Zachary realises the flame has gone out, but nothing is announced. The turbulent water makes sure the torch is fully extinguished. Most spectators were not aware that the flame had gone out and nothing was said. Then, the diplomatic announcer ignored the problem and asked everyone if we would like to see the torch run again. Of course we would and with bearer Zachary's best efforts, the Eternal Flame survived this time, as evidenced by the front cover of this Annual Report . Later in the news an Olympic spokesperson said - 'It is not uncommon for a flame to go out and this can happen for a number of reasons. In this instance it was due to water being splashed into the boat from the slalom course. It was relit from the mother flame, which is kept in a specially designed miners’ lantern and successfully taken down the course on the second attempt.’ Broxbourne Citizens Advice Bureau Annual Report and Accounts 2011 - 2012 Page 4 Chair’s Report As with previous years changes have continued to take place within the bureau. The restructuring that we had intended has been delayed and interim measures had to be put in place due to the resignation of our front line services manager who left to embark on a new career outside of the service. This obviously could have caused problems and I would like thank all staff who made sure we had a seamless change. However in 2012 – 13 we will need to reduce costs, change our staffing structure and the way we operate to enable us to survive financially in these uncertain economic times. Looking forward we can expect further far reaching changes to the way we work and a possible increase in client base. Earlier in the year Citizens Advice held a series of meetings countrywide to discuss their plans for changing the bureau network. As it turned out there was much opposition to their plans and they were put on hold, but we expect within the next year a revision of those plans will be announced and as yet we do not know what impact this will have on us. Citizens Advice also commissioned a new software program for entering client’s details called PETRA. Unfortunately when piloted it did not function properly and its introduction has been put back for software upgrades. We now expect implementation in June 2013 with the corresponding training that all assessors and advisors will have to undertake starting in March 2013. The way housing benefit is calculated is also changing and because the changes will be implemented by local authorities, they may differ from bureau to bureau. As yet we do not know to what extent this will affect our clients or our workload. The next unknown for us will be the change in government legislation. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 ushers in the greatest changes to welfare benefits in some sixty years. These changes will have far reaching impacts for benefit claimants, particularly for vulnerable people. Although many parts of the act do not come into force until April 2013 we can expect many enquires prior to that date which could have a considerable impact on us. It has wide ranging implications which will have to be managed very carefully as the trend may initially be for benefits advice rather than debt advice which is currently the biggest issue with our clients. During the year Michael Janes resigned from the board I extend my thanks to him for the time and expertise he gave to the bureau. We are still seeking new trustees to the board as responsibilities and work load increase I would like to thank Jo, the senior management team and all the staff at the bureau and my fellow trustees for all the help and assistance they have given me over the year.