This Bulletin Board contains information about job opportunities and forthcoming Bureau closures/events

Bureau closure

Due to essential computer maintenance the bureau will be closed from 12 noon on Friday 26th March 2010 to 12 noon on Monday 29th March 2010.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

For CAB information on-line see: www.adviceguide.org.uk

Easter holiday closure

The bureau will be closed from 4:00 pm on Thursday 1^st April 2010

until 10:00 am on Tuesday 6^th April 2010.  

For CAB information on-line see: www.adviceguide.org.uk

Evening Service

Our evening service has ended.  Our Saturday service is not affected.

 Gateway Assessments

We operate a triage system of dealing with client enquiries, which is called ‘Gateway Assessment’. 

With this system, when a client arrives at the Bureau with a new enquiry, providing the Bureau is adequately staffed, they will be greeted by the Receptionist and invited to wait and see a Gateway Assessor.  The Gateway Assessor will see the client for a short interview in order to assess the problem.   Sometimes it will be possible to deal fully with the problem in that interview; sometimes an appointment will be made for the client to see a General Adviser or Specialist Adviser at the Bureau at another time, or, the client may be referred to another agency who can deal with the problem better than we can.  For some services, such as changes of name, statutory declarations, making a simple will, or if clients just want a leaflet, a telephone number, directions to somewhere in the area, the Receptionist will deal with this straight away.  Our opening hours remain Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm, gateway assessments are undertaken between 10am and 2.30pm.  Should we be short staffed, we may have to put a hold on the number of assessments that day and clients would be asked to come back the following day but we hope this will be a rare event.  Gateway assessments can also be undertaken over the telephone on 01702 610610.  Please note that the telephone is only answered when resources allow.  Please note that a full advice service is no longer given on this number. 

Outside of our working hours or if we are busy:

For CAB information online please go to www.adviceguide.org.uk

or you can phone Community Legal Advice on 0845 345 4 345

Southend Guild of Help and Citizens Advice Bureau - registered charity no 1090600

‘Please help us to continue to help others’

Southend CAB is an independent charity and has no guaranteed sources of funding, information that surprises many people, whether they have used our services or not.  We provide a service that is free to our clients but our services are not free to deliver and our costs are increasing beyond our ability to finance them from existing resources and sources of funding.  We want to be able to continue to serve the community and to do this we need to raise additional funds.  You can help us by becoming a member of Southend CAB (requires an annual subscription of a minimum of £10 for individual membership) or by making a one-off donation.

To become a member or to make a donation, please call the Bureau Manager, Trish Carpenter on 01702 456370 or write to Trish Carpenter, Southend CAB, 1 Church Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, SS1 2AL or email us at cab@southendcab.demon.co.uk.  Cheques should be made payable to 'Southend CAB'.