Issue - meetings

To seek Cabinet’s agreement to an updated Service Level Agreement with Citizens Advice Tendring for 2021/22.

RESOLVED that -

a)     Tendring District Council enters into a Service Level Agreement with Citizens Advice Tendring for a further year from 1st April 2021 on the terms and conditions, as set out in the updated agreement shown in Appendix C to item A.3 of the Report of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder; and

b)    authorises the Assistant Director (Partnerships) to sign the agreement on the Council’s behalf.

Earlier on in the meeting Councillor Placey (Deputy Leader of the Tendring First Group) had declared a Personal Interest in respect of this item insofar as she was a Trustee on the Citizens Advice Tendring Board.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder (A.3) which sought its agreement to an updated Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Citizens Advice Tendring (CAT) for 2021/22.

It was reported that Tendring District Council had provided grant funding to CAT backed by an annually agreed SLA, for a number of years. This arrangement supported the provision of free, confidential and impartial advice to residents across a wide range of issues.  Since 2013/14, the core grant awarded each year had been £144,000, payable in two instalments of £72,000.

Members were made aware that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, CAT had remained a vital information and advice service to the residents of Tendring. They had helped many people navigate their way around both established and entirely new challenges such as furlough, Government schemes for the self-employed, redundancy, claiming benefits, dealing with debt, accessing food and services and housing issues.  The CAT team also now included a Warm Homes Adviser. This was a 2 year funded post to assist clients with income generation, accessing energy grants, switching suppliers and insulation advice.

Cabinet was advised that Schedule 2 (2.8) of the 2020/21 SLA provided for reductions in CAT core services beyond their control. On 31 March 2020, CAT had reported that they had been operating a reduced service since 16 March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown. This had involved an envisaged temporary cessation of all face-to-face advice. Advice staff had been deployed to remote home working, providing advice via email, telephone and in writing. The CAT‘s office closures and suspension of services at their outreach sites had remained in force since that time.  CAT had seen the departure of a significant number of volunteers during the course of the pandemic but had recently recruited a number of new volunteers and were in the process of undertaking intensive training with those individuals. 

Having considered all of the information contained in the Portfolio Holder’s detailed report:-

It was moved by Councillor McWilliams, seconded by Councillor Talbot and:-

RESOLVED that -

a)     Tendring District Council enters into a Service Level Agreement with Citizens Advice Tendring for a further year from 1st April 2021 on the terms and conditions, as set out in the updated agreement shown in Appendix C to item A.3 of the Report of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder; and

b)    authorises the Assistant Director (Partnerships) to sign the agreement on the Council’s behalf.