ABOUT US

• The Bureau
• Quality of Advice
• Our Staff
• Premises
• ICT
• Trustee Board
• Friends of the CAB in Swale
• Citizens Advice - the National organisation
• Our Environment

The Bureau

The Citizens Advice Bureau in Swale was formed by merging the Faversham & District Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and the Sittingbourne & Sheppey CAB on 1 June 2004. The organisation is a Charitable company limited by guarantee providing free and confidential advice in Faversham, Sheppey, Sittingbourne and the surrounding villages in the Borough of Swale on the north coast of Kent, UK. The Memorandum and Articles of Association can be downloaded here.

The Bureau has three branches in Faversham, Sheppey and Sittingbourne. As well as providing "drop-in" services for clients most weekdays, a phone enquiry line is available four days per week, and the CAB responds to over 70 phone enquiries per month. Out of hours, the CAB provides a "24/7" automated telephone advice line.

Appointments are available for a range of support including Welfare Benefits, Debt Advice, Housing, Employment Tribunals, a Duty Solicitor and Form Filling. Following feedback from a client satisfaction survey, appointments for generalist advice were introduced in January 2002.

In 2001/2002 the CAB became one of the first organisations in the Borough to be awarded the Legal Service Commission (LSC) General Help Quality Mark. Our Welfare Benefits and Debt Advice Casework is accredited to the LSC Specialist Quality Standard.

Quality of Advice

The quality of advice given to clients is assured through adhering to the Citizens Advice Membership Scheme and the Community Legal Service Quality Mark. Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with the health and safety of all staff, clients and visitors.

Our Staff

• The CAB has a Manager and Deputy Manager who are paid part-time from core funds.
• We employ another 24 paid staff, all but three of whom are part time.
• The majority of the workforce are volunteers with 54 volunteer advisors during the last year. All advice staff undergo assessment and free training by the Bureau and are asked to work a minimum of six hours per week. They can qualify for a Certificate in Advice Work, and the training and experience gained are invaluable assets in many other jobs.
• The time the Volunteers give to the CAB is estimated to be worth £200,00 per year. However, they do have support costs in terms of training, supervision and travel, estimated to be up to £2,000 per volunteer per year.
• Much is made these days about having a diverse workforce. The workforce comes from a wide range of backgrounds with an age range spanning seven decades. They all contribute to the happy and productive atmosphere.

Premises

Sheppey CAB premises are all on the ground floor (no steep and narrow staircases) and the premises have been fitted out to a very high specification. They are very hot in summer and this has affected opening hours. discussion with the landlord has led to a partial solution. The premises are leased until February 2013.

We were the first tenants of this new community building at the Hope Centre and last year saw completion of the development with the re-opening of the Methodist Church at its centre.

At Sittingbourne the premises are dated and spread over several floors which are connected by very steep stairs. The lease expired in November 2008, but no suitable alternative was available at a rent we could afford and the lease was extended for a further five years.

At Faversham the premises are largely on the ground floor but the space is limited. The lease expired in 2006, but we continue to pay quarterly rental for use of the building. We are always looking at possibilities for new premises to improve access and the working environment.

ICT

We are in the process of implementing a new case recording system, Petra. Implementation is for all East Kent Bureau from September 2011. Our hardware and software systems have been reviewed as a result. Operating systems and anti-virus software systems have been up-graded and memory has been increased. We have also replaced some of our older hardware.

Trustee Board

A Board of up to 15 members oversees policy and planning in the Bureau. The members of the Trustee Board are also volunteers drawn from the local community with three nominated by the Borough Council. Members are elected for three years after which they must be re-elected at the following AGM. They meet four times a year. The Bureau Manager, Deputy Manager and up to four staff representatives also sit on the Board, but they have no voting rights. The current Chairman is Richard Calvert, who was formerly a long-standing councillor in Swale and Chairman of Swale Housing Association.

Friends of the CAB in Swale

If you would like to get personally involved in supporting the CAB, why not become a Friend of the CAB in Swale?

Citizens Advice - the National Organisation

Citizens Advice Bureaux in England, Wales and Northern Ireland belong to Citizens Advice, the operating name for the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB).

Citizens Advice delivers advice from over 2,000 CABx, each of which is a charity, run by paid staff and volunteers. The national organisation sets standards for advice and equal opportunities and supports CABx with an information system, training and other services. Citizens Advice also co-ordinates social policy, media, publicity and parliamentary work, operates a volunteer recruitment hotline on 08451 264 264 and a public information and advice website at www.adviceguide.org.uk.

Our Environment

The CAB in Swale tries to operate responsibly with regard to the environment. Whenever possible we recycle and re-use office materials, avoid non bio-degradable materials, reduce energy consumption and waste output, and promote eco-friendly policies generally within the organisation.