Citizens Advice AGM 2009

Speakers at the AGM - Natasha Francis, Training Officer, Citizens Advice and David Martin, Head of Social Policy Campaigns, Citizens Advice England and Wales

Citizens Advice held its Annual General Meeting at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on the 24th September 2009. The event was held against the backdrop of the current downturn in the economy and the accompanying rise in unemployment, redundancies and debt. The conference focused on RPA (Review of Public Administration) and the impending changes to local government arrangements in Northern Ireland due to come into force during May 2011.

In addressing the meeting, Chief Executive, Derek Alcorn reinforced the message that official statistics on redundancies and unemployment were now reflecting the increased demand experienced by Citizens Advice Bureaux over the last 12 months.He went on to say that the current financial climate is having a profound impact on the lives of vulnerable people across Northern Ireland which had brought advice provision into "sharp public focus".

Official Government Figures

 Citizens Advice Statistics 2008-2009

Derek Alcorn, Chief Executive, Citizens Advice

Derek added that in recent times significant measures had been taken by Regional Office to standardize and improve the service being provided by bureaux and stated that "Standardization is the first step towards quality assurance". 

In addressing the many and varied projects in which CAB is currently the provider or partner provider Derek suggested that CAB needed to show it could be "flexible, responsive and adaptive " to clients needs and to segment its services accordingly. Derek finished by commenting that the proposals of the Review of Public Administration were "major, once in a generation changes" and that coming through them was CAB's "major and immediate challenge".

David Martin reading from the Annual Report

David Martin spoke about success stories from recent Citizens Advice Social Policy Campaigns. In particular he reflected on the impact Citizens Advice has been able to have on legislation on letting agencies as many CAB clients in England and Wales had felt let down by these agencies. In particular, they felt dissatisfied with the level of customer service and the fact that these agencies were free to charge exorbitant sums for performing relatively trivial tasks, such as renewing a tenancy agreement. Consequently Citizens Advice (England and Wales) produced a briefing report calling for reform of this service.

David also highlighted various Social Policy Campaigns undertaken by his department in London in regards to the regulation of bailiffs, ending child poverty and ensuring those who are successful in winning awards at Employment Tribunals actually receive their payments. Overall David focused on the ability campaign work to "Make a Difference and have a real impact on the lives of thousands of people".

Speakers at the Citizens Advice AGM were Brian Compston (Treasurer), Derek Alcorn (Chief Executive), John Devine (Chair),  Natasha Francis (Training Officer) and David Martin (Head of Social Policy Campaigns)

The second speaker at the event was Natasha Francis, who gave an expressive, informative and extremely personal talk on her experiences of being a Migrant Worker living in Northern Ireland. She reflected on her progression from volunteer to generalist adviser and finally to her current positon as Training Officer based at Regional Office in Belfast. Natasha described the role of the CAB adviser as "a cross between a priest, a solicitor and a counsellor", an opinion which many in the audience shared. Natasha also took the opportunity to praise the Adviser Training Programme made available to her, and now delivered by her, and said that she felt that "no other course equipped me with so much information in such a short space of time." Natasha's passion for her role and effervescent personality was very evident throughout and ensured her talk was extremely well received by all members of the audience.

Audience members at the AGM who were entertained and informed by Natasha Francis

The afternoon session heard talks from John Price, from the Department of the Environment, and Peter Morris from BT. John's talk focused on the way forward for Citizens Advice in light of the Review of Public Administration and the resulting reduction in the number of local Councils from 26 to 11. John graphically illustrated the challenging timetable ahead and complexities of the process as potential issues and urged all CAB Management Committees to work together with Council Transition Committees to ensure a smooth changeover, once the new Councils are established.

Peter Morris from BT took the opportunity to suggest potential areas for co-operation between BT and Citizens Advice that could extend access to advice and information services across Northern Ireland to as many people as possible.

 Afternoon speakers at the AGM - Peter Morris, BT and John Price, Department of the Environment

To see more photographs from the AGM click here