At our Monthly Meeting on 28 August 2024, our speaker was Ceyda Milne, the Business Manager at Citizens Advice Service Harrow, who explained in detail how the Citizens Advice Service operates and is managed.

Her talk was supported with a large number of slides, and covered the history of Citizens Advice Harrow, including the comparatively recent move from opposite the Civic Centre to its new location in Gayton Road, opposite The Junction public house. Citizens Advice was started just before World War 2 in 1939, and found much of its work in those early days as a result of citizens coping with war damage.

Ceyda then moved on to the demographic being served in Harrow, dealing with which elements of the community are in need of the sort of advice that the service can provide. Half of the clients are coping with long term health issues and range in age from 15-99. Often the current issues are concerned with Benefits and with Tax Credits. A further complication is the housing availability in the London Borough of Harrow. Whilst we see many new blocks being erected, not all of them can be afforded by the Citizens Advice Service clients.

We then heard about the volunteers and staff working for Citizens Advice Service Harrow and learned about the current projects being undertaken. Volunteers and staff both go through a series of thorough training programmes before they get to meet the public, and even after training there is continuing supervision and assessment. Ceyda listed all the roles and their training requirements. The roles carry minimum hours per week and a minimum service duration, so that the investment in training can be yielded through the service given.

Many of the projects are run in conjunction with the Macmillan Cancer Charity, and we were told about the Household Support Fund and the Cost of Living Crisis Prevention Project. This was a fascinating talk that led to many questions and comments from the floor.