The experience of Citizens Advice Bureaux gives them a unique, fresh insight into the problems facing UK citizens. The CAB Service has always had two twin aims: to give advice and to seek to influence national and local services and policies. Citizens Advice has a central role in speaking up for clients, seeking to raise the issues brought into bureaux and contribute to public debate and inform legislation.

More general information about the scope of advice work can be found at:

INDEPENDENT CONFIDENTIAL IMPARTIAL FREE

As well as working with individuals to offer advice and information on a personal level, we also work with other CAB, and Citizens Advice to seek to influence local services and national policies. Whenever the CAB Service sees that services and policies are failing, it speaks out in order to influence a change and bring about fairer legislation.

The CAB is completely free and confidential. We are also independent and impartial, so policy makers listen to us.

Leeds CAB have Social Policy workers who oversee all the issues raised by clients, which advisers consider to be unfair.

Social Policy issues can be identified through:-

• Interviews with clients
• Contact with local groups and other charities with a similar client base

The CAB deals with many millions of enquiries nationally every year. As such, the CAB service has an enormous amount of evidence about people's experiences of the way a wide range of services operate in this country.

The CAB tries to use this evidence, wherever possible, to highlight the effects of the polices and services upon CAB clients. In this way, the CAB is able to make an impact not only on the lives of the clients who seek our advice, but also on the lives of the public in general.

CAB workers aim to integrate individual advice work and social policy work. There are various stages to carrying out social policy work. These are:

• Identifying issues, eg: administrative procedures going wrong
• Collecting evidence, eg: information on client's experience of a particular problem
• Presenting the evidence: collating, drawing out the implications, making any appropriate suggestions for change.

Leeds Bureau is often asked to comment on draft policies and guidelines before they are published. This enables us to influence policy and practice both locally and nationally. For example, we have recently commented on aspects of housing locally, and home care charges nationally. CAB can advise people on a whole range of problems. This means that we are uniquely placed to advise about lasting solutions, whether they lie in changes of policy, legislation or practice.

Evidence reports that Leeds CAB contribute to are published on the problems brought to Bureaux nationally, for instance on housing or benefits. Details of clients themselves are kept completely confidential, unless they agree. In them the CAB service recommends the changes that are needed to improve policies and services.

These reports often interest newspapers, radio and television. Journalists like to 'bring the story alive' by interviewing people who have personal experience of the problems, if they agree to "go public".

This can be an opportunity for you to have your say if you feel strongly about what has happened to you.

HAVING YOUR SAY

• talking about your experience helps the public to understand what is happening
• it can help to resolve a particular problem
• it can help other people in a similar situation because drawing attention to an issue makes it more likely that something will be done about it

During your interview at the CAB, you may like to talk to your adviser about contact with the media.

If you would like time to think about it, you can always get in contact with us later. If you tell us you are interested, we will bear you in mind if the opportunity for an interview with a paper or programme arises. We would not give out your details before speaking to you first and if you change your mind, don't worry.