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Information and Advice statement of Service

I&A ServiceStatement of Service

Information about Age UK N E Lincs Information & Advice Service for its customers

What services do we offer?

Age UK N E Lincs provides information and advice on a range of issues relating to older people and those who care for and support them.  In particular, we specialise in:

  • welfare benefits advice for those over retirement age, including working out benefit entitlements and offering assistance to complete claim forms
  • helping people identify the care and support they need, including help accessing Social Services and advice on how to pay for care and support
  • advising on housing issues, including help with maintaining a property and advice on the different types of housing for older people who need more support or want to move nearer to family or friends
  • advising on the services, support, groups, activities and concessions available locally
  • advising those who are finding it hard to make ends meet or are struggling to pay their bills
  • helping people to make complaints or challenge decisions about welfare benefits, social services, health services and energy providers.

Our service is working towards the national Advice Quality Standard Quality Programme. This ensures we comply with recognised Advice Sector standards of practice and means our information and advice is accurate and high quality.

How do we provide help?

  • Information guides and factsheets. These cover a wide range of subjects affecting older people and those who care for and support them
  • Telephone advice on an appointment basis. Call us on 01472 344976 from Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm.  This call will be charged at a local rate. If you ring outside of opening hours, or if our adviser is busy, your call will be diverted to Age UK’s national Advice Line who will either help with your query or arrange for an adviser from Age UK N E Lincs to call you back
  • Office appointments. To arrange an appointment at our office you can drop in to our office or call our office, Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm on 01472 344976. Arranging an appointment in advance lets us prepare for your visit and gives us an opportunity to tell you if there are any important documents we need you to bring along. This means we make the best use of our staff and volunteers’ time and can hopefully avoid people having to wait in the office for an appointment
  • Home visits. If it would be difficult for you to visit us, we will visit you at home for certain types of advice that can’t be provided over the phone. For example, we regularly visit people to complete welfare benefit application forms.  However, home visits are expensive and time consuming so we will ask you about alternative ways we could help.  If you would like to arrange a home visit, please contact our office, Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm on 01472 344976.  We often have a two to six week waiting list for home visits.  When we visit we will always arrange the time with you in advance and our adviser will carry identification.  If you have any concerns about someone turning up at your door who claims to be from Age UK N E Lincs, please ask them to remain outside and ring us on 01472 344976. We will confirm if the person works or volunteers for Age UK N E Lincs and has an appointment with you.

What will happen if we can’t provide the service you require?

Sometimes people come to us with problems that we do not have the expertise or knowledge to help with. We are unable to provide consumer debt advice, financial advice or immigration advice.

In these cases we can provide you with basic information and direct you to another organisation for further help.  Where possible we will give you a selection of organisations to choose from and we will either signpost or refer you to them. 

When signposting, we will give you the organisation’s contact information so you can contact them yourself.  When referring, we will contact the organisation on your behalf, arrange an appointment and provide them with copies of any documents already completed by our service.  We will always get your permission before referring you to another organisation.

Sometimes when advising you we will reach a point where we don’t have the expertise to pursue your case any further.  This most commonly happens when there is a need to challenge a welfare benefit decision.  We will refer you to another local advice service that can help you if this happens.

How our service treats its clients

We follow five key principles when delivering our service.

The service is provided free of charge.

You won’t be charged for any of our information and advice. If we signpost or refer you onto another organisation we will tell you if there is any charge for their service. While we provide help free of charge, running the Information and Advice Service is expensive and only some of the money to do this comes from external funding.  Any donation you can make will be greatly appreciated.  If you wish to donate please ask one of our staff or volunteers about donating to Age Uk N E lincs, and Age Uk Gift Aid.

The information and advice we provide is independent of any outside influence. 

We will never recommend a service or provider to you, including Age UK’s own services.  Where possible we will always provide you with a choice of alternatives and help you make an informed decision.  We’re not bound by local or national government policies and will always advise you on what’s best for you rather than what’s best for the council, the Department for Work and Pensions, Age UK or any other organisation.  We will never advise someone to do anything illegal or fraudulent.  We will immediately stop advising anyone carrying out illegal or fraudulent actions and may notify the appropriate authorities.

All information is confidential. 

Any information we keep about you is stored securely and only viewed by staff and volunteers involved in advising you or other people that you have allowed us to share this information with.  These may be external auditors that check the quality and accuracy of our work, organisations we are referring your case on to and agencies we are dealing with on your behalf (such as the DWP or an energy supplier).We won’t share your information or discuss your case with anyone outside of our service without your consent unless they have been given responsibility to act on your behalf by the Court of Protection or Department for Work and Pensions. You have the right to withdraw consent Please see Age Uk N E lincs, data protection/privacy policy .

We may hare information about someone without their consent if:

-          they insist on taking an illegal or fraudulent course of action

-          we are contacted by a statutory body about a client who is being investigated for suspected illegal or fraudulent activity

-          we are concerned that someone involved in a case is at risk of abuse or harm or there is a possibility of abuse or harm to others. In this case we may notify a relevant statutory body, for example social services or the police. These disclosures will be done following Adult Safeguarding’ procedures that our staff and volunteers have been trained in.

Any data we hold about you is processed in accordance with data protection legislation and Age UK N E lincs Data Protection policy.  A copy of our data protection policy is available at https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/or by calling 01472 344976.  You have a right to view any data we hold on you and can request to view it:

Personal Data held by Age UK North East Lincolnshire

5.1  Various data is held on staff relating to their employment with Age UK North East Lincolnshire; this will cover all aspects of recruitment, selection and employment such as the job application form, interview assessments, reference, probationary and annual reviews and supervisions, bank details and national insurance numbers, details of any deductions from pay (e.g. to the courts), sick notes and medical assessments, details of grievances and disciplinary proceedings including current warnings (within the timescale allowed by the appropriate policies), reference requests etc.

5.2  Much of this data is, by its nature, highly personal and Age UK North East Lincolnshire recognises that it is its duty to safeguard the data by all possible means, and to notify staff about what is kept and why, along with information on how the data can be accessed and by whom.

5.3  The data kept on staff is exclusively in relation to their employment with Age UK North East Lincolnshire; no unrelated data will be kept.  The data that is kept will be used for the purpose of administering and managing the employment.

5.4  Most personal data is kept in individual personnel files in the Chief Officer’s office in a locked cabinet.

5.5  Other data (e.g. bank details, N.I. number, deductions details) are kept in your personal file, and again these are kept locked.

5.6  A copy of this information is supplied to Smethurst and Buckton Accountants to process the wages

5.7  Chief Officer to also keep staff files covering supervision sessions plus any job-related information.  Again, these are kept locked.

5.8  Computer files (e.g. supervision records, payroll details) are pass-worded and secured.

5.9  Staff are entitled to see their own personnel files; to do so, they should arrange a mutually convenient time with the Chief Officer.

External Data

7.1  Age UK North East Lincolnshire recognises its duty to safeguard the data it holds on external groups and individuals.  To this end, we annually conducted an audit of all data held, disposed of outdated information.

7.2  Secure storage systems for current data includes locked/pass-worded storage, and locked archive facilities.

7.3  Any Age UK North East Lincolnshire member is entitled to know what data is kept on her/him, why, how it is kept, and who can access it.  Any Age UK North East Lincolnshire member may also see what data is kept on her/him and correct it if necessary; to do so, s/he should make a written request to the Chief Officer.  All information will be copied and posted to the individual within 40 days of the request.

8.1  Any questions or concerns about the implementation of the Policy should be addressed to the Chief Officer, and further information on data protection issues generally is available from https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act

Clients are treated with fairness, dignity and respect and we expect clients to treat our staff and volunteers in the same way. 

We wan’t judge anyone based on their age, disability, gender, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex or sexual orientation.  We won’t judge anyone based upon the circumstances they find themselves in and we won’t try to influence the decisions you make following our dvice.  Sometimes clients will make a decision that we don’t think is in their best interest. We will tell them if this happens and aim to provide enough information and advice to help them make an informed choice. We will respect whatever decision they then make.  The Information & Advice Service operates in compliance with Age UK N E lincs Equalities and Diversity Policy.  A copy of the policy is available at https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/or by request from Mrs Helen Goodman. 

Our service is as accessible as possible for older people. 

Our offices are suitable for people with disabilities, we have step free access, ground floor interview facilities and disabled toilets.  Where clients have difficulties accessing or understanding our information and advice, for example because of a disability or language issue, we will take all reasonable steps to provide our service in a manner that is accessible and appropriate to their needs or circumstances and we will always aim to give you as much time as you need when we see you.  The Information & Advice Service operates in compliance with Age UK N E lincs Equalities and Diversity Policy.  A copy of the policy is available at https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/or by request from Mrs Helen Goodman. 

How to make a complaint, compliment or suggestion about our service

If you would like to compliment or make a suggestion about our Information & Advice service please contact the Information and Advice manager, Miss Linda Tuplin, or the Chief Officer Mrs H Goodman,  either in writing at Age UK N E lincs, 27 Osborne Street, Grimsby, DN31 1EYor at helen@ageuknelincs.org.uk, or linda@ageuknelincs.org.uk or by telephone on 01472 344976 10am till 4 pm.

  • If you wish to make a complaint, please follow Age UK N E Lincs complaints procedure.

 We are a charitable service, run by both staff & volunteers. We want to provide a good service and it helps us to do that if you will make suggestions for improvements or, if necessary, complain about the way you feel that you have been treated, or the service you have received.

Your comments will be treated seriously by us. We will address them, and do what we can to improve things within the resources we have got.

If you have a suggestion or would like to make comments about the service, please report it to the Chief Officer  and ask for it to be noted and if necessary, put it on the agenda for the next Trustee meeting.

Alternatively you can write to us at:

Mrs Helen Goodman

Chief Officer

Age UK North East Lincolnshire

27 Osborne Street

Grimsby

North East Lincolnshire.

DN31 1EY

01472 252929/344976

helen@ageuknelincs.org.uk

If it is a complaint, we will look into it, and contact you to try and resolve the issue within one calendar month.

The Trustee Board meets every two months.

We thank you for suggestions and comments and will let you know what we have done, in order to improve our service as a result of your comments.

A copy of the full complaint procedure is available at https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/ or by request from Mrs Helen Goodman on 01472 344976.

What we ask of our clients

In return for providing information & advice we expect you to:

  • treat our staff and other clients with courtesy and respect
  • provide us with accurate and truthful information about your circumstances
  • attend appointments or let us know in advance if you can’t, if possible
  • inform us of changes in your circumstances which may be relevant to your case
  • provide us with information or paperwork that we need for your case
  • not negotiate on your own behalf or respond to information requests that relate to your case without first discussing it with us.
  • notify us of the outcome of welfare benefit applications we have assisted you with

How you can help us 

Our Information & Advice Team gain satisfaction from our work and the positive impact we have on our clients.  We don’t expect any further form of recognition or gifts.  And while thank you gifts are lovely to receive, there are a number of other ways you can support us so we can continue to provide the service.

  • Make a donation – bygoingtoour website https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/ and pressing the donate button, alternatively you can drop cheques or cash into any of the offices from any fundraising activity you may do.  Please make it clear when you make your donation if you wish to donate specifically to the Information & Advice service.  And if you are a tax payer please ask us about ‘gift aid’.
  • Volunteer – we have volunteer opportunities in admin, retail, driving, chaperoniing and catering across 4 sites in Grimsby and Cleethorpes. You can complete the volunteer application form from our website   https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/ or call us on 01472 344976
  • Provide a case study of your experience of our Information & Advice service and the difference it has made to you – you can do this by contacting the Information and Advice Manager, Miss L Tuplin Telephone 01472 344976 10am till 4pm
  • Campaign for us by writing to your councillor or MP to tell them how helpful you found us.  From time to time we run local and national campaigns.  If you would like to support us in our campaigning work contact Mrs Helen Goodman 01472 344976.
  • Donate to, or buy from, our charity shop(s) – We have 2 charity shops, 100-102 Freeman Street Grimsby and 2 Market Street Cleethorpes.
  • Purchase a service or product from us.  The Age UK Group offers a wide range of products and services specially designed for people in later life. For more information, please call 0800 169 18 19.
  • Join in with our activities.  Age UK N E Lincs provides a range of activities for older people see our website for details https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northeastlincs/activities-and-events/
  • Tell others about our service and recommend us to your friends.  

Helen Goodman                       Linda Tuplin

Chief Officer                                            Information & Advice Manager

30th August 2019                                  30th August 2019