Information & Advice Statement of Service

Information & Advice Statement of Service

Customer information about the Information and Advice Service provided by Age UK Worcester, Malverm Hills & Hereford Localities.

What services do we offer?

Age UK Worcester, Malverm Hills & Hereford Localities provides information and advice on a range of issues relating to older people and those who care for and support them. 

We can help you with:

• Welfare benefits - advice for people aged 50 and over, including working out benefit entitlements  and offering assistance to complete claim forms
• Residential and community care - helping people identify the care and support they need, including help accessing Social Services and advice on how to pay for care and support.
• Housing issues - staying warm at home, home adaptations and advice on housing options for older people.
• Accessing local services - providing details of services, support, groups, and activities available locally
• Money matters - advice for those who are struggling to pay their bills
• Legal issues - such as wills, power of attorney and how to deal with an estate
• Family and personal matters - social isolation and bereavement.

How do we provide help?

• Information guides and factsheets - These are available in hard copy or electronically and cover a wide range of subjects affecting older people and those who care for and support them.
• Telephone advice - you can call us Monday to Friday between 10:00am and 3pm. This call will be charged at a local rate. If you ring outside of opening hours, or if our staff are busy, your call will be diverted to our answerphone, where you can leave a message requesting that a member of the Information and Advice team calls you back.
• Appointments - to arrange an appointment at one of our offices or request a home visit appointment, please contact us.
  

Appointments

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 that we can make the best use of our staff and volunteers’ time.

• Worcester office
  • Bank House, 7 Shaw Street, Worcester, WR1 3QQ.
  • Tuesday, 10:00am - 3:00pm
• Malvern office
  • Great Malvern Train Station, Station Approach, Malvern, WR14 3AU.
  • Monday - Friday, 10:00am - 3:00pm
• Tenbury Wells office
  • Tenbury Wells Library, 24 Teme Street, Tenbury Wells, WR15 8AA.
  • Tuesday, 10:00am - 3:00pm
• Leominster office
  • Unit 10, Northern Light Business Park, Clinton Road, Leominster HR6 0SW
  • Monday - Friday, 10:00am - 3:00pm
• Ledbury office
  • The Master’s House, Ledbury HR8 1EA
  • Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10:00am - 3:00pm
• Hereford office
  • HVOSS, 52 Broad St, Hereford HR4 9AB
  • Wednesday, 10:00am - 3:00pm

Home visiting

We are offering a limited number of home visits for people who require urgent advice and are unable to access our service by any other method.

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 arriving at your door who claims to be from Age UK Worcester, Malverm Hills & Hereford Localities, please ask them to remain outside and contact us. We will confirm if the person works or volunteers for Age UK Worcester, Malverm Hills & Hereford Localities and has an appointment with you.

Out of hours advice

If you need advice outside of our normal working hours, please contact the Age UK National Advice line on: 0800 678 1602. Lines are open 8am - 7pm, 365 days a year.

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, knowledge or capacity to help with.

We are unable to provide:

• Consumer debt advice,
• Financial advice,
• Immigration advice.
• Assistance with welfare benefit appeals  / NHS Continuing Healthcare appeals

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 only share your information with a third party if you have given consent to do so.

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 via an appeal. 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:

1. 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.

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

The information and advice that we provide will always be impartial. 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 are 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. Where possible, we will provide you with a choice of options to meet your needs and help you make an informed decision.

However, we will never advise someone to do anything illegal or fraudulent and we will immediately stop advising anyone carrying out illegal or fraudulent actions. We may have to notify the appropriate authorities if we become aware of illegal or fraudulent actions being carried out.

3. All information is confidential.

We will only record your information if you have given your consent for us to do so. Any information that 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 will not 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, or if we believe that there are grounds for over-riding consent.

We may share 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 Hereford and Localities’ Data Protection policy. A copy of our Privacy Policy is available to read on our website or a copy can be requested by contacting us. 

You have a right to view any data we hold on you and can request to view it by contacting us or in writing to the Chief Officer, Age UK Worcester, Malvern Hills & Hereford Localities, Bank House, 7 Shaw Street, Worcester, WR1 3QQ.

You have the right to withdraw consent and request access to your records at any time.

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

We will not make judgements about you, based on your age, disability, gender, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex or sexual orientation or the circumstances that you are in. We will aim to provide enough information or advice to enable you to make informed choices and we will not seek to influence your decisions.

The Information & Advice Service operates in compliance with Age UK Worcester, Malvern Hills & Hereford Localities Equalities and Diversity Policy. A copy of the policy is available on request. 

5. Our service is as accessible as possible for older people.

Our Information and Advice Service is provided in venues that are suitable for people with disabilities. All offices offer full disabled access and disabled toilet facilities.

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 Worcester, Malvern Hills & Hereford Localities Equalities and Diversity Policy. A copy of the policy is available on request. 

What we ask of our clients

So that we can fully help you with your enquiry, we ask 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 if possible, let us know in advance if you cannot attend
• 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
• Keep us informed of any correspondence or contact that you receive from other agencies where relevant to your case
• Notify us of the outcome of welfare benefit or housing applications we have assisted you with or actions we have taken on your behalf

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

We welcome feedback about the Information and Advice Service, whether it is positive or negative. Raising issues with the Information & Advice team gives us the opportunity to review how we provide the service and to make improvements.

Comments and compliments

If you would like to give a compliment or make a comment about our Information & Advice service, you can complete our Compliment, Comment or Complaint leaflet, copies of which are available in our offices, on request, or can be downloaded from our website.

Alternatively feedback can be given to any member of the Information & Advice team in person, by telephone, email or letter.

If however you would prefer to give feedback directly to the Information & Advice Service Manager, please contact Anna Egginton, either in writing to Age UK Worcester, Malvern Hills & Hereford Localities, Unit 10, Northern Lights Business Park, Clinton Road, Leominster HR6 0SW, by email to anna.egginton@ageukwmhl.org or by telephone on 0333 0066 299.

Making a complaint

If you wish to make a complaint, please follow Age UK Worcester, Malvermn Hills & Hereford Localities’ complaints procedure, a copy of which is available on our website or by request contact us.

1. At the first stage, any negative feedback, complaints or concerns will be treated informally. The concerns should first be raised with the member of staff / volunteer providing the service or if preferred the Information & Advice Service Manager. We will listen carefully and will do our best to resolve your concerns at the earliest possible stage.
2. If the matter is unresolved, the complaint should be made formally in writing using the Comments, Compliments and Complaints leaflet or as a written letter or email. This should be addressed to the Information & Advice Service Manager, Anna Egginton or if preferred, to the Chief Executive Officer, Clare Thomas. Formal complaints will be responded to in accordance with our Complaints Policy.

All complaint information will be handled sensitively, sharing information with only those who need to know and we will follow appropriate Data Protection requirements.