Our current Chair, Simon Rennie, is coming to the end of his second term and is stepping down from the Board in November 2026. We thank him for his dedicated service on the CAS Board.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly experienced leader with a background in the public, corporate and/or charity sectors, to drive impact at scale. Providing stewardship in the implementation of the CAS Strategy 2025- 2030 will make a real difference to people’s lives. The Chair of the Board will lead a team of trustees dedicated to making a positive difference to the lives of people across Scotland. Crucial to ensuring the organisation fulfils its purpose by providing strategic leadership, the Chair leads the Board in offering support and constructive challenge to the Executive team, enabling CAS to successfully achieve its ambitions.

We encourage applications from all interested candidates and would welcome sharing of the opportunity within your professional and personal networks. Helping us reach a diverse and high quality pool of candidates is vital, and your support in spreading the word is greatly appreciated. The deadline to apply is Monday 11 May. 

Full details of the role, including how to apply and the candidate brochure, are available on the FWB website. You can also read about and share the vacancy on LinkedIn via the CAS LinkedIn page here.

We are grateful to the following supporters and partners for their generous contributions, which have allowed us to deliver this important network event.

CAS Network Services Manager, Laura Plumb, is part of a six-strong rowing crew that departed from Eyemouth last month on a round-Britain rowing adventure.  Laura and crew, Row With The Flow GB, have battled unpredictable weather, fierce headwinds and stuck anchors to make it all the way south to Lowestoft.

Despite their valiant efforts the weather has thwarted them and they have been at anchor for the last few days.  In the face of some pretty dire impending conditions the Team has made the decision to change their plans and head back up north to circumnavigate Scotland.  We salute them for their resilience, determination and dedication to their fundraising causes. Laura said "we are truly having to bend with the wind and row with the flow ...".

You can keep track of Row With The Flow GB's progress online:

• Track progress here: https://my.yb.tl/counternavig8
• Follow stories on: 
  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rowflowgb
  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rowflowgb/

You can support Laura's fundraising here:

•  https://www.justgiving.com/page/rowflowgbblaura  

If a specific CAB is mentioned in the comments when donating they will receive the donation directly.

Best of luck to Laura and her crewmates.
 

Article from George Holmes from the Extra Help Unit at CAS, first published in The Herald on 03 February 2025.

The introduction of new technology can be daunting. At Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) we saw the benefits and embraced it early, integrating it into our work to enable us to help more people more efficiently.  

I work for the Extra Help Unit (EHU), a statutory service that’s managed by CAS and supports people in particularly vulnerable situations with their energy complaints.

By working closely with HelpFirst, we created a tool to help us prioritise cases and highlight those at most risk of harm. It notifies our caseworkers when there is an imminent safeguarding concern, meaning we can react instantly to prevent harm to those we are supporting.  

The development took two years and was launched in October 2024. The tool has had a hugely positive impact on our staff’s mental wellbeing. Urgent issues are flagged quickly, giving our teams the peace of mind that everything is being captured at the earliest opportunity. It acts as a safety net that helps our staff support more people.  

The system also helps our teams manage their caseloads, dealing with the most urgent issues first and allowing managers to allocate work more effectively. Our advisers can now close their laptops at the end of the day knowing that no one will be left at risk. Early indications also show that our team feel more protected from safeguarding risks.

Having this type of technology in place not only makes our working days more efficient, but it can literally save lives.

The technology really is groundbreaking. It has helped our staff feel better and work more efficiently. And while the AI tool is a huge support, it’s an enhancement to the personal service, not a replacement of it. Our caseworkers continue to make the final decision and spend time tailoring the support to each person seeking advice.

Article first published on 11 January 2025.

A huge congratulations to Natasha Gilmour, Head of Citizens Advice Scotland's Extra Help Unit, on receiving an MBE in the King’s 2025 New Year Honours for her outstanding services to vulnerable consumers.

Article by CAS Board member Gil Long, first published in The Herald on 14 December 2024.

Soaring numbers in prison, overcrowding, early release prisoners re-offending; recent headlines about our prison service only paint part of the picture.

Inside Scotland’s largest prison, good things are happening.

Improving Lives works closely with the prisoner-run radio station in Barlinnie, Barbed Wireless Media, producing podcast workshops on topics like housing rights, managing bank accounts, family support and budgeting. Prisoner feedback suggests that these are popular, with many learning and understanding things they never knew or found confusing before.  

The project also helps individuals navigate many core issues that are critical to ensuring a secure and positive return to their communities.  

Three main things that help to reduce re-offending are having a home to go to, keeping contact with your family and having a job. While the CAB network can’t magically provide jobs, we know that volunteering is often a first step to paid employment. The Scottish CAB network’s own record is enviable. Last year, 40% of our volunteers who left the service went on to take up paid employment, further education or training. 

Article by CAS CEO Derek Mitchell, first published in the Herald on 17 August 2024.

The Scottish Parliament has been holding an inquiry about how to fund the essential work of the third sector.  A chance to finally tackle some long-standing issues with the current funding model, making this both more effective and efficient, delivering services that really do improve lives.

While funding is increasingly precarious and uncertain – one thing remains certain and constant: the essential service provided by CAB network all across Scotland continues to experience record-breaking demand. Increasing numbers are matched with increasing complexity – we are supporting people who are presenting in ever more urgent and traumatic circumstances.  

Even in this desperately difficult context, we secure real change – the network helped over 187,100 people in 2022-23, resulting in £142.3 million being unlocked in local communities. 70% of people reported the advice they received improved their mental health and wellbeing. 91% felt the support they received increased their confidence in dealing with issues in the future. This is advice that changes lives. Imagine what more we could achieve for people with secure and sustainable funding?

That message runs throughout our response to the inquiry: long-term, secure funding for the third sector would be game-changing. It would have a truly transformative effect in terms of delivering the much-needed job security to the people delivering life changing advice, ensuring that we retain local knowledge and expertise in local communities to really help people.

Our response echoes the cries of the whole third sector – the false economy of short-term funding has gone on for far too long. Long-term problems demand long-term solutions. Failure to do so is costing all of us. Multi-year funding is the foundation that our work should be built on. 

Article by David Hilferty, CAS Director of Impact, first published in The Herald on 06 July 2024.

As the immediate celebrations and commiserations start to fade,  the ‘to-do’ list facing the new UK Government is coming into sharper focus. Time to realise the mission. This list is extensive, complex and no doubt a little intimidating. Yet it also presents real opportunity. To do things differently and, if not eliminate, at least reduce that harm that far too many are experiencing.

More than a decade of enduring austerity has had a profound impact on the UK Government’s social security provision, eroding any concept of a safety net. Gaping holes have formed. The two-child limit, the 5-week wait, the young parent penalty, deductions and sanctions – all of this amounts to destitution by design. Half of those seeking debt advice from Scottish CABs don’t have enough income to afford the essentials we all need. Reform of Universal Credit is overdue and essential. We must and can do better.  

The CAB network increasingly acts as a backstop for policy and market failure. Alongside social security, energy consistently ranks among our most in-demand advice areas. 76% of people supported by our Extra Help Unit are considered as ‘self-disconnected’. For many people gas and electricity can be a’ luxury’ for the first week or two of the month, before going without until the next payday.

And let’s be clear what self-disconnection really means. The lights go off; heating stays off; the fridge goes off; food goes off. This is unacceptable and unjust.

After the respite of falling prices, bills are forecast to increase in October. And then there’s the debt. On average, CAB debt clients have £2,300 of energy arrears. This soars to over £3,000 in remote or rural communities. These levels of debt demonstrate that the problem is rooted within markets, not with people. That’s why we have been advocating for an affordable social tariff as well as mass debt write-off. We must and can do better. 

Article by Derek Mitchell, CAS CEO, first published in The Herald on 08 June 2024.

Regular readers of this column will know we often talk about how the CAB network is embracing new technologies to improve and extend our service offer, about how you don’t have to physically go into a CAB to access our advice: you can do so by phone, email or online. We recognise that different people want different channels and offering choice is paramount to what we do.

And if you remember, there was a lot of sage talk around that time that this would be the new normal. “Ah yes,” went the argument, “it’s a shame it’s been forced on us in such an unfortunate way, but lockdown has just hastened the inevitable. People will get used to accessing services remotely and they won’t want to go back to travelling into towns to actually talk to people.”  

In 2021/22, the proportion of Scottish CAB clients who accessed our help at least once in person was 12%. The following year it was 30%. This year it had grown to 41%.

Meanwhile a recent YouGov poll has found that 68% of Scottish adults think face-to-face advice on complex issues is important or very important - an 11% increase from a similar poll in 2022. Those saying it is ‘not important’ fell from 30% to 24% over the same period.

But this doesn’t surprise me. Yes offering new platforms is important, but the heart of our service has always been based on the value of - often local - connection. Of being able to see your adviser face-to-face, seeing their expressions, accepting a tissue or a cup of tea from them as you talk through your problems.

So sometimes the wise old sooth-sayers of social trends are not as smart as they think they are. It turns out that people have their own plans, which means those sorts of predictions don't always age well. If you find something pleasing in that, you’re not the only one.

Article by Gillian Fyfe, head of the CAS Strong Communities team. first published in The Herald on 01 June 2024.

Monday sees the start of national Volunteers Week, which gives us a chance to say again that our volunteers are the very backbone of the Scottish Citizens Advice network. You may think this is an army of trained volunteers helping CAB clients on a daily basis with advice to help tackle their problems, and on the one hand you would be right. But on the other hand, did you know that there is another vital part of our volunteer base, and that’s our social policy volunteers? Their work is no less crucial than those giving front-line advice to CAB clients.

Social policy volunteering could involve trying to change policies or practices of government agencies, local or national, to make it easier for CAB clients to access services - maybe by preventing them accruing debt for instance. To give an example, Aberdeen CAB, like other CABs, has worked collaboratively with their local authority to make improvements to policies and processes on Council Tax debt collection, and this is something that could influence other Councils across Scotland to do likewise. That’s a real change that is not just benefitting CAB clients now but will benefit people going forward.

Other examples of social policy work by CABs have included research by Nairn CAB to understand issues of digital exclusion in their local areas and how the CAB can help to address that skills or access gap in their community. Likewise Glasgow Parkhead CAB, who run an outreach service in HMP Barlinnie, undertook social policy work and research there to understand common issues that those on remand required advice on, and whether there were other ways this could be provided. This resulted in changes within the prison to accommodate this.