Citizens Advice Enfield
Shortlist – Managing Turnaround
Who they are
Citizens Advice Enfield has provided free, confidential advice to anyone in need in the London Borough of Enfield since the outbreak of World War Two. It provides advice by drop-in sessions three times a week, telephone advice two days a week and email advice, as well as home visits to housebound clients and outreach from 16 locations across the borough. Its specialist services include advice to people affected by HIV and TB, women escaping domestic violence, advice at children’s centres across the borough and drop-in sessions for older people and those in the far north of the borough. In 2019, the charity also provided extraordinary support to its 30,000 strong community of EU nationals (offering guidance on applications for settled status before Brexit). Local legal firms offer specialist pro bono legal appointments in family, employment, housing, immigration and general law from their premises twice a week and evening drop-in services fortnightly.
What they’ve achieved
At the beginning of 2017, core funding had been cut by approximately £60k a year due to austerity and much of the charity’s trust funding was coming to an end. Reserves stood at three months running costs, and so the board could not use these to support frontline services. At the same time, demand for the charity’s services was increasing — several other local charities had either closed or reduced their services radically. The board realised that they had to simultaneously reduce the staff complement by a third, renegotiate terms and conditions of employment, find new ways of generating income and maintain the morale and commitment of staff and volunteers. The board chose to be transparent with its stakeholders. A meeting was convened with all paid staff led by three trustees – the chairman, a trustee who was also a trade union organiser, and another trustee who had experience in human resources. They explained the financial problems and set out a clear process, and timetable, by which for consultations and decision making. Redundancies were respectfully handled without incident.
At the same time, trustees secured funding towards a new venture to open two charity shops — a first for the Citizens Advice service on the UK mainland — with the aim of increasing sustainable (and unrestricted) income. Trustees helped with the practical details of opening the retail venture – painting and decorating, sorting and steam-cleaning donations, and working the till alongside staff and volunteers. Clients had told the organisation that the office was too far away from the southwest of the borough, where the shops were located, so the board decided to hold regular advice sessions at one of the shops to support local clients.
The decisive actions of the board kept the charity on track with a breakeven budget, and as additional money came in, the charity was able to restore some services, add new ones and double its reserves to six months running costs. The shops earned the charity a small surplus of £8.8k in the first year, but earned more thant £11k in the first six months of the following year, and the charity had increased the number of clients by 40% on the previous year.
Despite the difficult situation, seven months into the turnaround strategy, staff and volunteer satisfaction with the board’s leadership was found to have improved even over the previous year.
Why they were shortlisted
As funding sources dried up, the board came together to lead the charity through its financial crisis and, at the same time, reform the organisation by developing a new source of revenue. The skills and expertise of the board members were leveraged to support the charity not only strategically, but operationally, as the charity relied upon fewer resources. Even through a difficult time, the board’s compassion for the charity’s stakeholders – such as staff and clients – was evident, along with its determination to continue to support the community.
