Archive of Transition Project Frequently Asked Questions

At the moment the consumer service in England and Wales is delivered on behalf of Citizens Advice by a commercial partner, Agilisys, through three Delivery Centres. The service delivery contract with Agilisys ends on 31 March 2017 and we want to deliver the consumer service through a small number of local Citizens Advice offices (fewer than 10) from 1 April 2017.

It has always been our intention to integrate the consumer service into the Citizens Advice network. The end of the current commercial contract, added to the network’s ever increasing ability and track-record of delivering large scale and high demand services, now makes the timing ideal. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has been engaged and are happy with the approach.

We have developed a process that evaluates applicants in multiple stages:

There is no specific geographic requirement for Delivery Centres, with the exception of one being based in Wales to deliver our Welsh language service.

Once the application process has finished we will work with the new Delivery Centres to build on and develop the success of our current partner engagement and satisfaction levels. And, once the transition period is over, we will aim to increase the level of engagement on a regional level regardless of where the Delivery Centres are based.

With 74 applicants already through to stage 2 of our process we are confident that this will not be the case. However, we have developed a number of contingency plans that can be implemented should the need arise.

No. The service will be delivered by paid advisers, as it is currently. Advisers will receive the same training, covering legal and technical knowledge, practical advice provision, customer services and relevant business processes. Their competence will, of course, be assessed before they go live on the service.

Throughout the transition our aim is to retain the existing delivery model in full, including all current performance targets and business processes. We have committed to BIS and partners that the current level of service will be retained as a minimum and there will be no perceptible changes.

Once the transition is complete, we want to look at how to develop the consumer service, making use of the greater number of Delivery Centres and the opportunities to collaborate with the network of local Citizens Advice centres. Don’t worry! We will work with BIS and partners when considering any changes.

Quality has always been central to the provision of the consumer service and our monitoring framework, along with partner feedback mechanisms, helps us to track and maintain the level and detail of the advice offered.

Nonetheless, we do recognise that if we have to train a significant number of new advisers, the quality of service could be affected. As such we will be enacting additional tracking and monitoring initiatives during the transition phase to provide an even more granular level of insight. This will ensure that we are able to identify trends before they become an issue and work with the appropriate Delivery Centre to resolve them.

To help us with this monitoring we will be looking to partners to share their opinions of the quality of the newly transitioned service to give us an external point-of-view.

We are working with Agilisys to ensure an orderly transition of the service to the Citizens Advice network. They are an experienced commercial outsourcing supplier with a proven track record of starting up and closing down operations and campaigns. They will appoint an exit manager, as will the consumer service, to agree and oversee an exit plan.

To ensure a smooth transition, we will be starting the training process for new advisers from January. We expect some of the new Delivery Centres to start taking calls from the end of February whilst Agilisys continue to deliver the service. In addition, after 1 April 2017, we will be retaining the services of Agilisys for a short period to offer added stability and experience while the Delivery Centres become established.