Job Description
About the Role
Advice Giving
• Deliver a multi-channel advice service, including home visits, to clients regarding their energy needs and income maximisation support, ensuring advice provided meets the requirements of Citizens Advice quality standards.
• Ensure all case recording and other record keeping is completed within agreed timescales and conforms to the Office Manual and the Advice Quality Standards
• Use sensitive listening and questioning skills in order to allow clients to explain their problem(s) and to identify the next course of action.
• Use a range of information sources to find relevant information, then interpret and communicate this to clients, enabling them to tackle fuel poverty and financial hardship for the long-term.
• Assist clients with other related problems where they are an integral part of their case and refer internally or to other specialist agencies as appropriate.
• Meet the individual performance targets set as part of this project.
Research & Campaigning
• Take an active role in the research and campaigns process by identifying trends and social policy issues and communicating these to the Project Supervisor and Research & Campaigns Co-ordinator.
• Keep up to date with current research and campaigns priorities, initiatives and plans.
Administration
• Collect and record all relevant information given during interviews on to Casebook to meet the monitoring and evaluation requirements of the project.
• Be self-administering and undertake general administration tasks e.g. taking messages; photocopying, collating, filing; processing post etc.
Professional development
• Pass the City and Guilds NEA Level Energy Awareness exam within 2 months of starting the role.
• Keep up to date with relevant energy advice issues and maintain an up to date working knowledge of all new relevant legislation through:
o Attending training opportunities.
o Reading monthly subscriptions, relevant publications and Citizens Advice Updates.
• Prepare for and attend supervision sessions/team meetings/staff meetings/forums, as appropriate.
• Identify and implement your own learning and development needs.
Other duties and responsibilities
• If required, work from a variety of Citizens Advice Liverpool outlets across the city as required over the course of the week.
• Promote the aims, policies, and membership requirements of the Citizens Advice service.
• Ensure all processes and procedures that relate to the responsibilities of the role are delivered with a high level of awareness of the organisation’s equality and diversity ethos and policies.
• Be a positive ambassador for Citizens Advice Liverpool.
• Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.
Requirements
Desirable
1. One year’s experience of delivering generalist advice within Citizens Advice or another quality assured environment such as AQS.
Essential
2. Experience of using interpersonal skills, including sensitive listening and questioning skills to understand the needs of others, especially in the context of telephony.
3. Ability to give and receive feedback objectively and sensitively.
4. Effective oral and written communication skills, with good IT knowledge to support delivery of service
5. Ability and willingness to work both on own initiative and as part of a team.
6. Willingness to learn and develop skills and be flexible with service delivery.
7. A good understanding of fuel poverty issues and the issues affecting society and their implications for clients and service provision.
8. Ability to assist with research and campaigns works by providing information about clients’ circumstances
9. Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of the Citizens Advice service and its equal opportunities policies.
10. Ability to pass City and Guilds NEA Level 3 Energy Awareness exam within the first 2 months of starting the role.
About us
Citizens Advice Liverpool is a charity that provides free, confidential and impartial advice to people who live and work in the city. We depend on a workforce of paid staff and over 120 trained volunteers. We give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem. We are the leading provider of advice and advocacy services in Liverpool and have helped clients with over 106,000 issues in 2022/2023.
CAL have achieved accreditation with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, showing we are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our workforce. We've also gained an award for outstanding contribution by an employer to workplace health and wellbeing 2022 by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust.
We've gained awards from Citizens Advice National recognising our Advising Margainalised Communities Team for championing equity, diversity and inclusion in both 2021 and 2021. We were also named volunteer team of the year in 2022.