Agenda item

To agree an updated Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Citizens Advice Tendring for 2017/18.

That the Service Level Agreement between Tendring District Council and Citizens Advice Tendring for 2017/18, as attached at Appendix A to item A.3 of the Report of the Leisure and Partnerships Portfolio Holder, be approved.

The following declarations of interest were made:

(1)     Councillors G V Guglielmi and Stephenson each declared a personal interest insofar as they personally knew the Acting Chairman of the Citizens Advice Tendring Board;

(2)     Councillor Broderick declared a non-pecuniary interest as a member of Citizens Advice Tendring; and

(3)     Councillor McWilliams declared a non-pecuniary interest as she was the Council’s appointed representative on the Citizens Advice Tendring Board.

There was submitted a report by the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Partnerships (Report A.3), which sought Cabinet’s agreement to an updated Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Citizens Advice Tendring for 2017/18.

Cabinet was aware that Tendring District Council (TDC) had, for many years, supported Citizens Advice Tendring by way of grant funding. Since 2013/14 the core grant had been £144,000. This had been backed up by an annually agreed Service Level Agreement setting out what Citizens Advice was expected to deliver.

It was reported that a review of the operations of Citizens Advice had recently been undertaken driven by a number of factors, namely:

·                The Chairman of Citizens Advice and 3 other trustees had recently resigned. The change in leadership and the appointment of new people to the Board would allow a fresh approach from the Trustees on the future direction of Citizens Advice.

·                The CEO of Citizens Advice had left the organisation in June 2016. The post of CEO had been deleted and new part-time posts of Operations Director and Strategic Director had been created.

·                Citizens Advice was now moving towards more electronic communication and National Citizens Advice was requiring all local bureaux to provide an advice line and webchat capability.

·                There had been on-going discussions between officers from TDC and Citizens Advice to look at where Citizens Advice could be more efficient. As overall TDC funding continued to reduce it was essential to ensure that funding to Citizens Advice was providing value for money to the Council.

The two key areas of the SLA were:-

·                Delivery of core services; and

·                Provision of advice at localities outside of Clacton.

Cabinet was informed that those areas had been reviewed and updated in order to ensure that they reflected the current position and were relevant both to the service Citizens Advice provided and what the Council expected for its money. In addition, the SLA 2017/18 included a requirement for Citizens Advice to provide information that would measure how well they were delivering on those two areas.

Cabinet was advised that in order to further ensure that value for money from the grant paid to Citizens Advice was being achieved, representatives from Citizens Advice would be attending a future meeting of the Community Leadership and Partnership Committee in order to provide an update on their activities.

Having considered the information provided:-

It was moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor McWilliams and:-

RESOLVED that the Service Level Agreement between Tendring District Council and Citizens Advice Tendring for 2017/18, as attached at Appendix A to item A.3 of the Report of the Leisure and Partnerships Portfolio Holder, be approved.