CAB wins new role in helping public with concerns about NHS

PRESS RELEASE

Citizens Advice Bureaux are poised to assume a key new role in providing advice and support to NHS patients and the public, including help in taking forward any complaints they may have about the treatment they have received.

Health Minister Andy Kerr today launched a strategic partnership between NHS Scotland and Scotland's national network of Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Mr Kerr said: "No one should have to complain to be heard.  That is why we are committed to working with the people we serve to resolve issues and concerns they have.  However, there will be occasions where a patient or a carer feels that the care they have received did not meet the high standard to which we aspire.

"Last year's introduction of a simpler, quicker NHS complaints procedure has helped, but we need to ensure that the public also have access to independent advice and support when making a complaint.  Citizens Advice Bureaux are ideally placed to provide such a service.

"I have told NHS boards that I expect them to develop partnerships with their local bureaux to provide the public with the information and support they need, including more complex advice services, for example in relation to welfare benefits and money advice."

The move could open up a whole new dimension to CAB work, allowing bureaux to expand on the general advice and information service they already offer in healthcare settings

At present, Scotland’s 77 frontline bureaux offer free, independent advice to the public on anything from personal debt and employment terms and conditions, to housing and welfare benefits.  Beginning as a wartime information network, the CAB service has gone on to become a national institution.

The new NHS tie-up - formally known as the Independent Advice and Support Service - could see participating bureaux in each health board area form consortia to deliver this new role.

A framework agreed between the Executive’s Health Department and the CAB says the new service should provide “advice and support service to patients wishing to make a complaint or raise concerns about NHS services; and information and advice to patients on a variety of issues that impact on their health and well-being in order to maintain or improve these”.

Under this new system, people dissatisfied or concerned about the service they or their families have received from the NHS – including GPs, hospitals and even NHS-funded private healthcare – will be able to go to their local CAB for advice and help in resolving their complaint.

Bureaux won’t actually adjudicate in any complaints brought forward, emphasised Kaliani Lyle, chief executive of umbrella body Citizens Advice Scotland.  “But they will guide people through the process for taking forward a complaint and help them engage with the system on level terms,” she said.

“A trained CAB worker will first check whether any rules or standards have been breached, advise on what options are available to redress the situation, and can go onto to represent and support clients where necessary.

“Bureaux currently advise people on what their rights are and how they can best pursue them in areas such as employment and benefits, and represent them at tribunals.  Last year, for instance, Scottish Bureaux helped clients secure over £40m in additional income, often in benefits and other entitlements clients didn’t even know they were eligible for.  So as a service we have a lot of experience in helping ordinary people navigate often complex and bureaucratic systems.”

The move could also allow bureaux to extend their traditional advice service in more healthcare settings.  Across Scotland, many are already engaged in health projects.  All nine bureaux in Lanarkshire provide outreach advice to people affected by cancer, while Motherwell & Wishaw CAB offers home visits to people referred by Chest, Heart and Stroke.  Perth CAB has recently launched an outreach service within a pharmacy in Blairgowrie.  Money advice, welfare benefits and debt problems are among the specialist areas they help on.

“People affected by severe or sudden illness often do need advice on issues such as sickness and disability benefits, how to manage debts and mortgages if they are no longer working, and what their employment rights are,” insisted Ms Lyle. “Because CAB works across the whole picture, we can make that vital link between different problems, lifting that burden from hard-pressed medical staff.”

Academic research has also endorsed this approach.  One recent report by Aberdeen University notes: “Many problems presenting themselves to primary care are wholly or partly social in nature.  Addressing the social issues relieves demand on health services, both directly and indirectly.”

NHS Lothian’s Good Advice=Better Health initiative – under which CAB advisers help patients in eight GP surgeries one day each week - has proved so successful its funding has been extended for another three years.  An evaluation report, commissioned by the health board, said: “Across the UK there is increasing recognition of how the provision of citizens advice in primary care can contribute to health improvement and effective health care provision.  GPs and other health workers interviewed believed that the work of the advisors led to an improvement in the health of some patients, in particular in reducing anxiety and depression.”

One Edinburgh GP said it had transformed the lives of some of his patients.  “From seeing them all the time, suddenly you don’t see them.  It stops us having to medicalise these problems – getting help with benefits reduces anxiety and we don’t have to prescribe drugs.”

Notes for News Editors

1. Health Boards are required by the Executive to put in place an independent complaints-handling system for the public.
2. The CAB service has provided free, independent and confidential advice to the public for over 65 years.  Bureaux advise more clients, on a wider range of issues, than any other agency - last year, Scottish Bureaux dealt with over 400,000 new problems alone.  A recent MORI Scotland survey recorded high public approval ratings.
3. Each CAB is an independent charity, run by a committee of local people.   Each Bureaux must meet high quality standards to remain part of the CAB service. 
4. 85 per cent of CAB workers are trained volunteers.  All Bureaux workers – paid or volunteer – are trained to national standards.
5. Consumer debt is now the single biggest issue that CABx deal with.  Last year, CABx in Scotland dealt with debt totalling over £157m.
6. Images and logos of the CAB service are available from the CAS press and communications officer (see contact above).
7. Online advice is available from Adviceguide (www.adviceguide.org.uk), the CAB Service’s basic question-and-answer advice service.
8. Can I Help You? the guidance on the new NHS Complaints Procedure can be found at http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/Publications/ME/complaints/docs/1guidance010405.pdf