Agenda item

To receive an update from Citizen’s Advice New Forest on their activities and operation  over the last year and to make recommendations on future funding.

The Panel received a report on the future funding for Citizen’s Advice New Forest (CANF) and the Revenue and Benefits Service Manager introduced the item. 

The Panel were reminded that New Forest District Council (NFDC) provided a three-year funding agreement to the CANF since 2019. The latest and final year of funded, commencing from 1 April 2024, totalled £195,306 (+2.5%). The agreement over the past three years had enabled the CANF to plan and budget ahead with a level of certainty while also providing them with a platform to apply for further funding elsewhere. 

The Chief Officer of CANF provided a summary of what the Citizens Advice organisation was, along with an overview of the works undertaken by them. Members heard of the various ways in which the CANF had supported residents of the New Forest through the various advice programs and projects. The main points raised during this summary were as follows: 

The CANF is an independent organisation, whose mission as a charity working within the New Forest was to be a sustainable and adaptable service that continually reflects the demands and needs of the community.

In terms of priorities, the organisation’s three-year business plan was launched in 2023. The four main priorities are: to build the organisation’s services, to work in collaboration with partners, to grow the staff and voluntary base, and to deliver programmes of growth across Hampshire. 

The CANF attend community hubs across the District and liaise with Council departments, such as housing benefit and council tax. Work also takes place in partnership with local food banks and where possible the CANF will signpost people to other support channels across the New Forest. 

In 2023, 6500 people were assisted by the CANF and around 19500 total cases were answered on a range of issues. Typically, users of the CANF would have an average of 3.5 issues to raise including housing debt, benefits, employment.

41% of all people who accessed CANF services last year were met face to face, with 23% taking place on the telephone and 36% over webchat or email.

60% of users reported lower levels of stress, anxiety and depression as a result of the assistance received from the CANF. 

Of all the cases last year, 1483 related to benefits and tax credits, 985 concerned food banks and charitable support, 829 were debt-related and 805 were housing matters.

The CANF had worked, using a treasury-approved model of finance, to place a financial value on all of the work undertaken. Alongside this, robust internal management assessments found the financial benefits to the people in the area to be positive and for every pound that the CANF receive in funding results in £2.98 saved to public services.

65 volunteers gave around 17000 hours of service to the CANF last year. those trained volunteers saves £444,000 a year. 

The CANF employs 30 members of staff, the majority of which work on the CANF’s various projects.

One of the organisation’s largest funding streams is the national lottery project. 

Financial planning over the next three years will see the CANF working in a deficit budget through 2024/2025 (due to an IT upgrade and a review of services), before seeing a balanced budget in 2025-26 and then again in 2026-27. 

Some of the main challenges to the CANF’s budget are: project funding, future office space, investment in income generation projects, identifying new funding streams and developing and implementing new technology to help deliver advice.

One of the CANF’s major projects is the Macmillan project (which is supported by the MacMillan charity) to provide support for people affected by Cancer. Further major projects include energy advice, cost of living support, financial Inclusion works with food banks and schools to support people in poverty, money and debt projects to help people manage money, home and wellbeing support for people returning home from hospital and the widely used general advice which provides information on a range of issues including welfare, housing and consumer rights.

The CANF is focused on building for the future and adapting its service to support the residents of the New Forest. 

A Panel member praised the financial inclusion project in schools across Ringwood and Fordingbridge and requested that this be expanded to cover schools across more of the District. It was explained that the funding for this project was provided by a charity in the Ringwood area called STAFF and was being run as a three-year project. For this project to be delivered to more schools in the District, further funding would need to be obtained, and it was hoped that the positive outcomes of the three-year period in Ringwood and Fordingbridge would provide evidence for future funding bids. 

On training, the Panel were informed that there was a whole stream of training programmes offered to volunteers in order for them to develop the necessary skills to provide advice. 

The Hampshire Debt Project funding was due to finish in 2025 and was managed in partnership with the Hampshire Citizens Advice Consortium, who will seek further funding from the National Lottery in order to deliver the project going forward beyond this date. 

On winter fuel allowance queries, it was explained that CANF worked closely with NFDC to communicate annually with people who may be entitled to pension tax credits, normally this is to around 100 people on average. It was reported that the CANF was seeing more people concerned with winter fuel payments and it was hoped that work at the national level from Government in order to signpost people to pension support schemes would have a positive impact. 

The ongoing CANF service review would seek to address the various needs of the District’s diverse communities and aimed to better reach people who needed support. One consistent issue across the District was debt and the demand for food support vouchers, although plateauing in recent months, was still high and whilst not appearing to lower. 

Face to face meetings with CANF advisors had increased gradually since the end of the COVID pandemic as people’s confidence in re-entering public increased. On this, the Panel heard that the new CANF office in New Milton, for example, had been open for three weeks and this was to be communicated to encourage access by residents.

The Panel discussed the length of funding certainty that the Council should award the CANF. Some members suggested a five-year period of funding, following on from the £195,306 given in 2024/2025, whilst continuing to increase alongside inflation. Whilst the potential merits of this were acknowledged, other Panel members expressed that a three-year certainty period would provide security to the CANF whilst also allowing the Council to adapt to any potential changes that may arise in the future. The Portfolio Holder acknowledged the various points raised and reported that he would consider this with Cabinet when they came to resolve the matter.