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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Covid-19 issues  →  Thread

Advice delivery

VCC
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Supportive Care, Velindre Cancer Centre

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We are having requests to see clients face to face.I wanted to get a gage of how other services are continuing to provide advice. Are any now running any element of face to face advice? Currently we are providing most advice over the telephone. I wanted to explore the possibility of offering face to face if needed. We would be following social distancing and wearing a face covering. Any shared experiences will be helpful.
Many thanks

annief
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Benefits adviser - Maggie's Centre, Edinburgh

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I am currently seeing people face to face by appointment only.
All drop in work has been suspended to ensure that we control how many people come in to the centre.
It seems to be working well. I am still doing a lot of work by phone but clients are wanting to be seen in person now, especially for form completion.
I am lucky that we have a lot of space within the centre to socially distance and we are taking the lead from the client as to whether they want us to use a mask or not. The rooms I have been using are big enough to be able to socially distance and not need to use a mask.

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

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We are currently undergoing risk-assessments, with a view to resuming face-to-face advice (with appropriate precautions implemented), as soon as possible. Home visits will be a problem though, owing to the lack of control over the potential risks in these environments.

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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Citizens Advice Bridport & District

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We’ve opened the office to face to face client’s on a limited basis in the last few weeks, still early days. as well as obviously remote working.

The attached may be of interest it’s a draft version just before we opened up. Like everyone else we are still learning what works and so on and so forth.

We are doing face to face with clients are in one interview room, advisor in another using video conferencing so far so good in terms of peoples reactions.

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CHAC Adviser
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Caseworker - CHAC, Middlesbrough

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We’re hoping to resume some face to face advice in nearish future. We’ll be having one client at a time, appointments only and wearing face masks. We’re going to be asking clients to wear face masks as well (though we’ll accommodate those that cannot) and sanitise their hands on arrival. We’re going to use the corridor outside our interview rooms which will allow for a good four or five meters between client and adviser who are hopefully both wearing face masks as well (perhaps a bit excessive but we’re firmly in the better safe than sorry camp!).

Some niggles around paperwork to sort out (Do we fill in the registration forms and then just get them to sign them? Can we safely handle a clients PIP form?) so I’d be interested to know what people’s experiences/plans/thoughts are on that?

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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We’re very much at the risk assessment stage with regards to exceptional circumstances where face to face is the only option. Nobody being seen at present.

Tracey D
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Welfare benefits advisor - Peterborough City Council

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Our Customer Service Centre remains closed so I’m still working from home full time with all appointments by phone for the foreseeable

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

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We have converted an interview room in the office to comply with social distancing rules. We will shortly therefore, be able to do limited face to face appointments, but only for exceptional cases. Home visits are off the table for the foreseeable future (we have no control over the environment or risk factors in people’s homes). This effectively means about 95% of our work will be over the phone, email, or using tools such as Zoom or WhatsApp.

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Benny Fitzpatrick - 12 August 2020 10:01 AM

We have converted an interview room in the office to comply with social distancing rules. We will shortly therefore, be able to do limited face to face appointments, but only for exceptional cases. Home visits are off the table for the foreseeable future (we have no control over the environment or risk factors in people’s homes). This effectively means about 95% of our work will be over the phone, email, or using tools such as Zoom or WhatsApp.

Indeed, ultimately I suspect where most of us end up is providing a service in a very controlled environment but minus home visits. Even then that doesn’t work for a significant number of people with poor mobility; poor immunity and so on. I’ve used Teams with a client and was really pleased with how it went but again there’s no one size fits all.

 

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

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“Indeed, ultimately I suspect where most of us end up is providing a service in a very controlled environment but minus home visits. Even then that doesn’t work for a significant number of people with poor mobility; poor immunity and so on. I’ve used Teams with a client and was really pleased with how it went but again there’s no one size fits all.”

I agree Mike. I know several clients who will struggle without home visits ( for pretty much the reasons you mentioned). For the rest, it’s not ideal, but we are going to have to manage as best we can. (On the up-side, It’s surprising the amount of clients who have previously claimed not to be computer literate, who have suddenly discovered perfectly acceptable IT skills when they realise we aren’t going to come and do it for them!)

Jana
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Girlington Advice Centre

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At the other end of the scale.. I’ve been doing face to face advice throughout lockdown: chair at either end of long picnic benches around the carpark, with me moving from table to table, filtering out those who can phone one of the advisers working at home, or who just needed food / support. Rigged up broadband cables and locks to enable us to have phones and laptops at the tables. When it rains we put up gazebos. Definitely not ideal, although distancing and wiping and masks etc help, and volunteers supporting by wiping everything down etc. We have been inundated throughout, though thankfully its slowing down now that other centres are more accessible. Have had people walk an hour to come, having been told that we can get them access to their UC accounts, as well as food etc, so we felt it was needed despite some risks to remaining open. As always, the disadvantages of only offering appointments you only get people who can phone, and stick to times.

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Benny Fitzpatrick - 12 August 2020 10:34 AM

On the up-side, It’s surprising the amount of clients who have previously claimed not to be computer literate, who have suddenly discovered perfectly acceptable IT skills when they realise we aren’t going to come and do it for them!

I wish staff would do the same. 21 years into the 21st century and… well I’d best not vent my true feelings.

You make a good point re: dependency though. Always seen it as part of my role to enable people to do more stuff for themselves as we go along where that is possible. There’s always some advisers who see dependent clients as a means of self-preservations as regards their role. It’s an interestingly complex and nuanced area.

stevenmcavoy
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Welfare rights officer - Enable Scotland

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I am going to be limited to face to face and online until home visits are possible as my office isn’t accessible for the vast majority of my clients.

Thankfully I have been able to manage the vast majority of tasks remotely but I have always been set up for home working so it wasn’t too much a shift.

The more problematic clients to help are those with no family/professional input and little to no literacy.

I recently delivered training online also and whilst it went better than I expected I felt that it was far more intense than doing it face to face. advantages there in cost for those attending and opening up the accessibility to who can attend but it also has its downsides.

Geri-G
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Welfare reform team - North Ayrshire Council

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We have managed to deal with the practically all our cases by phone/online. No face to face visits and certainly no Home Visits for foreseeable. Use text,/phone/email/whatsapp/zoom etc. Now looking at using Teams.

I have found that clients have managed quite well when there really hasn’t been a lot of option for them.

shawn mach
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rightsnet.org.uk

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Scottish Govt has announced that, with effect from Monday 24 August:

Face-to-face advice services, including Citizens Advice, can resume – following guidance.

https://www.gov.scot/news/scotland-remains-in-phase-3

shawn mach
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shawn mach - 21 August 2020 03:06 PM

Scottish Govt has announced that, with effect from Monday 24 August:

Face-to-face advice services, including Citizens Advice, can resume – following guidance.

https://www.gov.scot/news/scotland-remains-in-phase-3

And here’s Money Advice Scotland on the development:

From Monday, face to face advice delivery can resume for welfare, debt, and income maximisation purposes, when alternative methods of advice delivery are unsuitable or not possible.

Advice organisations are being asked to ensure that while clients can attend appointments for the above purposes, footfall remains minimised as much as possible and clients who are able to access advice remotely (e.g. by phone or email) should still be encouraged to do so.

In line with Test and Protect guidance, contact details for clients attending in-person appointments will need to be recorded and physical distancing measures must be put in place. Staff, volunteers, and clients will also be required to wear face coverings unless an exemption applies. Risk assessments should be undertaken in line with the current retail and office sector guidance which can be accessed from the Scottish Government website.

https://www.moneyadvicescotland.org.uk/news/coronavirus-update-21820

 

CHAC Adviser
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Caseworker - CHAC, Middlesbrough

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What are people’s organisations plans for the coming second lockdown in England? From a look at what’s been published so far it would seem that as long as we’re seeing clients who cannot be dealt with via means other than face to face then there’s no reason to not carry on seeing clients?