A story of Momentum driven change
The pandemic has changed the way lots of services have to operate and ours at Citizens Advice Southampton is no exception; for very good reasons our pre-COVID business as usual will not return. Despite the ease of offering a ‘drop-in’ for urgent support, it took a lot of managing, as did helping clients with sensitive issues in a public space. Add to this that despite the convenience for us, we don’t really want our clients having to spend money many can ill-afford on transport to visit our services. Never mind sitting in a waiting area full of people to be seen.
For reasons many of us well-understand, lots of people just ‘want to see someone’ — it’s the most repeated phrase at any Citizens Advice. Many of our clients won’t or can’t use the phone, and, as everyone with anything to do with public services is aware, too many can’t get online to self-help.
Outreach services in local communities have always been a preferred option but finding the right space is a challenge, and they can be expensive to operate. In addition, they tie up scarce resources at a location that may or may not attract footfall; meanwhile we’re struggling to meet the demand of enquiries elsewhere.
Throughout the pandemic we had a small but steady stream of knocks on the door from very vulnerable people in desperate need of help, not knowing where to turn. But the number was nothing like we’d been seeing pre-COVID, so we feared that many of our most vulnerable clients weren’t accessing help they might need.
Back in February 2020 we discovered we had this thing called Teams. What great fortune, why didn’t we think of this earlier?! Now all we need is our clients to get online and we can be virtually face to face… but despite the rush to get online, many of our clients remain digitally excluded or limited, despite a fantastic drive by community-led initiatives to increase digital access during the last 18 months. Our initial user research documented the issues:- no broadband, no or poor quality hardware, lack of digital confidence or literacy to name a few. So with CAST Catalyst support and the technical wherewithal of our Digital Partner, Allteks we set about developing our first ‘hands-free’ video hub at Southampton Central Library.
Our requirements list went like this… no login for clients, easy for advisers to use working remotely, reliable, robust, able to scan documents for uploading onto our case record system, screen-share and join in third parties such as an interpreter to meetings. Plus as you’d expect from a Citizens Advice, confidential, secure and accessible.
Thanks to the generous co-operation and patience of Southampton Libraries team, Allteks cracked the requirements in record time. Since April, our clients have successfully been getting the ‘face to face’ help they need from us over a virtual connection from our very own Big Brother diary room style advice hub. Now we just needed a few more of these dotted around our city and we’d be sorted.
At this point, the opportunity arose to apply to the CAST Catalyst Momentum programme. We wanted to expand by developing another video hub in a non-city centre location, again in a publicly accessible space. In addition, we wanted the system developed for Citizens Advice Southampton into something that could be used by other agencies — so the investment has greater reach and impact. Working with the Southampton City Council Employment Support Team was a natural choice: many of our clients need their help, and vice-versa.
So over the summer we’ve been working to develop a second hub at Shirley Library which officially opened on 9 September, with the help of Southampton Lord Mayor, Alex Houghton and Cllr Satvir Kaur (pictured above).
At our launch we got the opportunity to talk about the programme and what we’ve learned:-
- We needed digital partners that understand our service. Allteks have taken the time to learn about how we work, developed a strong relationship with our staff and volunteers and engaged with us in way that we can manage alongside the running of a busy advice service.
- Partnership is everything. Without the full-hearted support of the Library Team at Southampton City Council and the enthusiasm they had for the project it would have been going nowhere fast. The Library Service Manager, Liz Whale “got it” from the moment she saw the first hub in action and was keen to do what she could to help, marshalling the necessary IT support and permissions and even smartening up the room we’d be using with a lick of paint. Equally the small and incredibly busy team at Shirley Library couldn’t have been more welcoming of the initiative, they were keen to bring services into their community.
3. Synergy — From the moment we put the proposal to Francesca Prior, lead for the Southampton City Council Employment Support Team, to join the system they were on board. In different ways we shared the same problem and we were keen to find a way to support vulnerable clients to benefit from both our services. Equally, their input helped us look at how we can improve accessibility for people with hearing loss.
Developing this Virtual Outreach solution has not been easy in the timeframe of the Momentum programme during peak holiday period, and with long lead times for equipment orders. But it has certainly been worth it. Just hearing from Francesca’s team about how the project will benefit their service users, including people with learning difficulties and young women suffering from perinatal depression, made the stress of meeting a tight deadline fall away.
In a large diverse city like Southampton the challenge of being accessible to all is ever present. There will always be a place for traditional in-person support, however this second hub offers us the opportunity to demonstrate how we can develop a cost-effective and truly accessible digital “outreach” that’s open when people need us, where they need us.
Liz Donegan, Chief Officer
chiefofficer@sotoncab.org.uk
