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Review of the
Year 2010-11: Main Achievements in 2010-11
In operational terms, our main achievements
in 2010-11 involved significant improvements in terms of both the scope and quality of
service to the community.
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In September, we introduced ‘Gateway’, a triage
system. All new clients, whether they ‘drop in’ or telephone are now given a
short interview to determine the next step in their advice process. In around
half the cases we are able to satisfy the query by providing information or
signposting and in the remainder we make an appointment for further advice.
Gateway has significantly improved the client experience – waiting times are
shorter and clients are now able to access advice services via appointment at a
time to suit them.
·
During the summer of 2010 we introduced
telephone advice at the bureau and in October we joined East Surrey Adviceline,
a ‘virtual’ call centre operated on a rota by 5 bureaux – Redhill, Banstead,
Dorking and Leatherhead in addition to
·
In February 2011, we began opening on Tuesday
evenings between 5pm and 7pm for both ‘drop in’ and appointments. This has
allowed us to serve those in work who find it difficult to attend the bureau
during working hours.
·
To our specialist debt advisers’ client service
we added an outreach service at the Longmead Centre, supported by funds from
Surrey County Council. This service has proved very popular with clients who
for various reasons are not able to travel to Epsom.
·
Having initially received notice of termination
of funding from the NHS for our Mental Health Outreach project, we made a
submission as part of the Equality Impact Assessment and in January 2011, the
NHS Board approved continued funding. We are also grateful to Toyota (GB) who
provided funding for this project.
·
A further significant increase in the number of
volunteer advisers and gateway assessors, resulting in greater resources to
handle increased demand.
·
156 cases of homelessness avoided following our
assistance at Epsom County Court.
·
We continued to develop our website which, as
well as providing information and links to online advice, is proving
increasingly useful for recruitment, fundraising and campaigning.
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Impact
of the CAB in Epsom & Ewell in 2010-11 |
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