Bedworth Rugby & Nuneaton Citizens Advice Bureau

Who we are

History

Bedworth Rugby and Nuneaton CAB (BRANCAB) was established in July 2007 following the amalgamation of the services of the previously separate bureaux operating in Nuneaton & Bedworth and Rugby. The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee. To retain their local identities within the separate communities the bureaux continue to use their original names of Nuneaton & Bedworth CAB and Rugby CAB as their operating names.

The service has been continually operating in Nuneaton and Rugby since 1939 and Bedworth since 1981 providing an advice and information service that is well respected and trusted by the local communities we serve.

In October 2012 having worked alongside Tamworth CAB by offering interim management support BRANCAB and Tamworth CAB amalgamated their services. Tamworth CAB will continue as an operating name of BRANCAB and the bureau has been delivering services continuously to the people of Tamworth since 1978.

Funding

The Bureau receives core funding for its generalist advice services from Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council, Rugby Borough Council, Tamworth Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council. In addition to general advice BRANCAB offers debt and welfare benefits casework services, a Macmillan funded advice service for cancer sufferers and their families as well as financial capability and integrated money advice services. These services are funded by a variety of sources.  In the financial year 2014/15 BRANCAB’s total income was £925,425.

Access to services

Access is offered to clients via face to face drop in sessions, telephone and email, information via our websites, SMS newsfeed and community information films.  Our secure electronic referral system in Warwickshire links over 350 local frontline workers enabling them to refer their service users directly to advice, in Tamworth 189 frontline workers are linked to their referral system. We also provide regular outreach advice sessions, pop up advice sessions and energy clinics.

During the financial year 2015/16 BRANCAB had contact with 16,630 clients, generating 19,411 enquiries and client 40,338 client contacts. We handled 47,287 new advice issues of which the largest enquiry areas were welfare benefits (27%) and debt (26%). 62% of our clients contacted us via face to face services, 17% by our telephone advice lines, 6% by email and 15% were contact by letter to clients and third parties. 36% of our clients were disabled or had a long term health condition and 9% of our clients were from BAME groups. Our income gains for clients during 2015/16 were £2,917,364, debts written off £3,505,435 and repayments rescheduled £153,425. 

BRANCAB Team

The BRANCAB team is led by an experienced and diverse Trustee Board comprising of accountants, solicitors and people with experience of working in local government, education, the private sector and managing charitable organisations.

The Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive have over 50 years of combined experience of working in the Citizens Advice Service having both started as volunteer generalist advisers. They are supported by 33 full and part time paid staff advice service supervisors, caseworkers, integrated money advice workers, outreach advice workers and financial capability workers. Most importantly the bureau team has 138 volunteers, the majority of whom are fully trained generalist advice workers committing 2 days per week to the service, other volunteer roles include receptionists, training supervisors, campaign and research workers, administration workers and people who support clients to complete benefits and other forms.

Quality Assurance

BRANCAB has always strived to provide an excellent, quality assured service at our last Quality of Advice Assessment (QAA) held in November 2013 we achieved an outright pass at all of our offices with the Lead Assessor commenting ‘All 3 sites scored an outright pass. The level of consistency across a large site is commendable’.

At BRANCAB we do not just rely on Membership Audit results to prove our commitment to providing quality services and a positive, professional and supportive working environment. We have continuously been recognised (through 3 year external assessments) since 2005 as an Investor in People organisation, we have been a Positive about Disabled People organisation continuously since 2003. In 2007 we won a Warwickshire County Council Employer of Choice special achievement award for ‘offering a range of flexible working options, personal support and training opportunities, which allow people to return to paid or voluntary work’. In 2010 we were a finalist in the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards as a not for profit organisation who are recognised for their exceptional contribution to access to justice. We are also recognised as a Skills for Justice Approved Training Centre.

We hold the Advice Quality Standard and when we operated Legal Aid contracts we were recognised as holding the Specialist Quality Mark for our debt, housing and welfare benefits casework

Partnership Working

At BRANCAB we recognise that to achieve the best results for local people we need to work in partnership with other organisations and we are experienced in leading partnerships and being part of partnerships led by others.

Innovative Service

We have always been an innovative service having developed a financial capability service in 2001 when only a small handful of CABs were delivering a similar service nationally. We have developed a county telephone advice line with CABs in Warwickshire and delivering email advice since 2005. We also established a BRANCAB Film Unit to produce community information films and harnessed social media channels. More recently we are developing an early intervention integrated money advice service, developing pop up and energy clinic advice and information sessions and incorporating our financial capability work with local healthy eating, community growing projects.