We currently commission a contract for the provision of an advice and information service to residents in the area. This covers advice on debt, budgeting and financial management, including the maximisation of benefits.
We must re-commission this contract from April 2023 for a 5-year period to ensure there is a consistent service for those who need support.
What we are proposing
Citizens Advice Bath and North East Somerset currently operates this contract. We would like to hear your views on how you have accessed this service in the past to help inform how the service should be delivered in future.
Since COVID-19, how residents access council services (including commissioned services) has evolved, and we have delivered an integrated system of support through our Community Wellbeing Hub. Some residents accessed advice and information this way, so we want to develop this service to build on some of the successes with this model, with more communication and collaboration between organisations.
Why we are consulting
We are consulting to understand the experiences of people who accessed advice and information from Citizens Advice in the past. We also want to gather information about how you access advice and information generally, through accessing the Internet and through other advice and information providers locally and nationally.
We have already carried out some work with Citizens Advice to understand the areas of demand, but we need to gather more information from residents to understand preferences for accessing advice and information.
Have your say
Complete our online survey by 17 June 2022. This should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.
Next steps
We will consider the results from the survey when drafting the new contract and making any changes to the existing service.
If you have any further questions or comments, please email damian_peak@bathnes.gov.uk