Report of the Director of Housing Operations

This report provides members with an overview of the advice services within the city. It details the range of provision across the city and outlines the outcomes achieved through the advice contracts that the Council commissions.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Housing Operations which provided an overview of the advice services within the city. It detailed the range of provision across the city and outlined the outcomes achieved through the advice contracts that the Council commissioned. It articulated the pressures that were increasing for all advice providers in serving Manchester’s population and explained the offer that other advice providers gave, including the Council’s retained advice service and Registered Providers provision.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• An overview of the advice services in Manchester;
• Advice demand, trends, and pressures, including the impact of cost-of-living rises;
• The impact of the City Wide Advice Service contract, including social value and tackling inequalities;
• Manchester Advice Forum;
• The response to COVID-19; and
• Future demand and delivery.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

• To praise the work of advice workers and their tenacity in contacting companies to seek a resolution;
• That the problems residents were contacting Ward Councillors about were increasingly complex and it would be helpful for Members to be provided with some guidance or training on where best to signpost residents depending on the situations they needed advice on;
• Access to advice services for people who were working during the day;
• To note that trade unions provided advice on employment issues to their members and to encourage workers to join a trade union; and
• How the locations for the Mobile Advice Van were communicated.

The Strategic Lead for Homelessness agreed to work with advice organisations to arrange training for Members.  She reported that work had taken place to improve digital access to advice outside of office hours, including a digital chatbox.  She advised that over the next year the Council would be reviewing what was needed in terms of advice services, in preparation for putting in place a new contract from 2024, and that this would include consideration about what was needed in terms of advice access on evenings and weekends.

In response to the Member’s question about the Mobile Advice Van, the Service Manager (Homelessness) reported that Citizens Advice had targeted publicity in the areas where the Advice Van was visiting and that she would speak to Citizens Advice and the Council’s Communications Team about improving communication in regards to this, if Members were not seeing this information.  The Member stated that the Advice Van might not currently be visiting her ward but that it would be useful if it did.  The Deputy Leader advised that Members could suggest to Citizens Advice any locations that they felt that the Advice Van should visit via their website, or through her or the Service Manager.

In response to a question from the Chair, the Strategic Lead for Homelessness advised that retained advice services were within the Adult Social Care Directorate.  She informed the Committee that representatives from a core group of services were meeting to look at how best to serve the demands arising from the cost-of-living crisis.  The Deputy Leader reported that an additional £200,000 would be spent in 2023/24 to give additional capacity to advice services in response to the cost-of-living crisis.

The Chair welcomed the work taking place and asked that the Committee’s thanks be passed on to all those providing advice services across the city.

Decisions

1.            To receive an update at an appropriate time.

2.            To request that Ward Councillors be provided with training on signposting residents to advice services.

[Councillor Wilson declared a disclosable pecuniary interest as an employee of the Trussell Trust and left the room for this item.]