The Government is simplifying the consumer landscape. Consumer Direct's advice-giving work will be transferred to Citizens Advice Scotland and Citizens Advice (England and Wales) in April 2012.
The Government has also proposed that at a later date we take on much of the advocacy and education work currently done by Consumer Focus Scotland and the Office of Fair Trading. You can read our response to the government consultation by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
In material terms we will be setting out to provide:
- A single, GB-wide point of contact for consumer information and advice, with choice over the channels they are accessed through (e.g. telephone, email, online, face-to-face)
- An online one-stop shop, featuring interactive problem-solving tools for use by clients and advisers/ assessors (grown out of Adviceguide)
- Capacity to deal with 3.5 million consumer enquiries a year, across all channels, throughout Britain
- Better representation of consumers’ interests through greater involvement of the public at all levels of consumer protection activity
- An integrated system for collecting evidence from clients, and the wider public, to improve service delivery and inform the advocacy and policy work undertaken by CAS
- Learning materials to develop consumers’ ability to prevent and resolve problems
- A world-class consumer representation and advocacy service.
The Consumer Direct phone line advice will be delivered by Citizens Advice Direct which will grow to meet these new duties. Anyone with very complex problems in need of specialist consumer advice will be referred to partners, such as Trading Standards or to the Extra Help Unit which will also sit within CAS. As happens at the moment, anyone with wider problems or in need of face-to-face advice will be referred within the service - either to a new in-depth generalist phone advice service or to a bureaux.
Through integrating consumer advocacy into the Citizens Advice service we will be able to make the best use of the evidence we gather in giving advice which will mean that our advocacy work will be even better informed and more effective than now.
It will also create new opportunities to involve people in protecting themselves and each other. It is because we are anchored in virtually every community that we are able to represent consumers effectively at a national level. Our network of local bureaux means we can also empower consumers at a very local level, on specific issues affecting particular areas.
This programme of change, known as Programme 2014 brings together the various projects that will make us the first choice for advice and advocacy by 2014: work that will enable us to develop our advice services for all our clients, whether they choose to contact us face-to-face, over the phone or online, and to become an even stronger voice for consumers in particular.
If you have questions about Programme 2014 or our consumer advice and advocacy proposals please email info@cas.org.uk.
