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Annual Report 2004 - Key achievements 2003-2004

Our Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS), launched in September 2003, received an extension in funding until March 2006. Funded by the Department of Health and covering six health regions in England, ICAS helped over 4,000 people with concerns about NHS services and treatments in just six months.

Our Citizens Connect IT programme now includes 95 per cent of Citizens Advice Bureaux. This puts the service firmly on the map to help increase access to e-government services to members of the public.

In March 2004, Citizens Advice International was launched. All member organisations share the same charitable principles of promoting free and independent advice, upheld by the Citizens Advice service for 65 years.

In 2003, working with Shelter, we intensified our ten year campaign to protect the rental deposits which tenants have to pay over to private landlords. The Housing Minister’s announcement in May 2004 that the Government would include such a measure in the Housing Bill was therefore a major achievement, leading, we hope, to new legislation in 2005.

Over 70 bureaux are now delivering financial education initiatives to adults and young people in the heart of their communities. These include nine new bureau flagship projects, in partnership with Prudential, that deliver face-to-face adult financial literacy education. A new partnership with the Department of Work and Pensions will support 20 bureau initiatives aimed to help people understand their banking options.

The number of health settings in which we give outreach advice increased by 23 per cent.

43 per cent of bureaux are able to give advice in more than four languages.

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