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Who are we and what do we do

Citizens Advice annual report 2007/2008
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Our vision

Our vision for the Citizens Advice service is to be recognised above all as an agent of social change; helping people take more control of their lives through accessible, responsive advice and enriching society through powerful influence on social policy.

Our principles

The Citizens Advice service provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities. It values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination.

Our aims

Our values

In carrying out their roles, Citizens Advice staff ensure that they build into all their work and future plans a set of core values. The Citizens Advice values are to:

Who we are and what we do

Citizens Advice is an independent charity and membership organisation with offices in the regions and in Wales. There are 448 Citizens Advice Bureaux across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all of which are also independent registered charities and members of Citizens Advice. Together we are the Citizens Advice service, delivering information and advice through face-to-face, telephone and email services, and online via adviceguide.org.uk. We use clients’ experiences as evidence to inform policymakers and service providers about the impact of their policies both locally and nationally.

The 22 bureaux in Northern Ireland are also members of the Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NIACAB). Activities of these bureaux are recorded in NIACAB’s annual report and accounts.

Citizens Advice provides support to member bureaux to ensure their continued presence in local communities, and access to the necessary training and information to provide consistently high quality advice. As the national organisation, Citizens Advice also coordinates social policy, campaigning, publicity and parliamentary work.

Citizens Advice Bureaux provide advice and information in a range of community settings from the high street

to libraries and GP surgeries. Bureaux rely on volunteers to keep their services running and receive funding from various sources. In England and Wales there are 653 main bureaux premises, 1,800 regular outreaches and 750 one-off or less formal locations.

During 2007/08 the Citizens Advice service offered free, independent, impartial advice to 1.9 million people, and dealt with more than 5.5 million issues. Benefits and debt problems are the main reasons people seek advice from a Citizens Advice Bureau, but clients also present problems on a wider range of other issues including housing, employment, legal and discrimination.

The Citizens Advice service has a strong brand recognition with 95 per cent of people having heard of us. In recent research into public perceptions of 21 major charities, the service was ranked first on six ideal charitable attributes. Citizens Advice was regarded as being the most honest, helpful, approachable, effective/cost effective, informative and fair. (nfp Synergy Brand Attributes Survey, March 2008)

At least as many people are now being helped by changes that result from our policy work as those that are helped face-to-face in bureaux. Policy makers increasingly look to the service for authoritative, evidence-based and constructive contributions to the development of policy, services and legislation.Citizens Advice in numbers:

26,000 people:

Advice is delivered by 16,000 advisers of which 12,000 are volunteers.

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Citizens Advice annual report 2007/2008
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