Citizen Advisors - Turning Point

Turning Point Connected Care Report 35
It is important to overcome the difficulties faced in Scotland, for example, where
it was felt that the local area coordinators were unable to provide both a service
and community focused model of navigation. One possible way of overcoming
this could be by employing members of the community as they have a natural
understanding of local issues and need, whilst ensuring that they receive in
depth training on the services that are available locally, arming them with quasiprofessional
skills. This is discussed in more detail below.
In addition to the issue of balancing time between community building and
signposting, the report has also drawn attention to other challenges associated
with delivering a Citizen Advisor service, such as managing caseload size, and
ensuring that there is buy in for the service amongst local agencies and
organisations. As well as the workload of the Citizen Advisors, the caseloads of
the services that they are signposting too must be considered. If a Citizen
Advisor service operates successfully then it may be that organisations cannot
keep up with the demand for the services. Equally, there may be an increase in
benefits claims as Citizen Advisors help clients to get access to the benefits that
they are entitled to.
7.1 Recommendations
First and foremost, it is clear that any Citizen Advisor model must reflect the
local area and the needs of the communities and individuals within it. Therefore,
it is problematic to construct one single model for this type of service.
Below we have set out our recommendations which should inform the
development of a Citizen Advisor style service. Central to these
recommendations is the recognition that service delivery should be ‘people’
focused and that communities should be at the heart of both service design and
delivery.
1. Citizen Advisors should have first hand knowledge of the local
community and/or be experts by experience, not professionally led.
The local community should be involved in the delivery of a Citizen Advisor
approach to helping people to access services. The evidence shows that the
relationship between staff member and client is most likely to be successful if
the Citizen Advisor has credibility with the service user by being a member of
the local community or by being an expert by experience in the issues facing the
client in question, as illustrated by the village agent programme.
Having a member of the community as a Citizen Advisor embeds the
programme in the local area, and helps the local population feel ownership of
the project making it more likely to be utilised as a resource which will build
community resilience. For example, in Hartlepool, much of the success of the
Connected Care service was attributed to the fact that the navigators were not
seen as the Council or the NHS, but as local people. Likewise, the community
mentor element of the Link Worker scheme in Milton Keynes, wherein, people
who have previously used a wide range of services and who have a criminal
background, volunteer to support people in engaging with services, has met with