We are very pleased to announce that we scored Green on our recent audit with Citizens Advice.
The full audit took place in September. Our auditor spent the whole day checking, reviewing, questioning and scrutinising, having already been passed a considerable amount of paperwork as evidence of the way the charity is organised and managed. It was also an opportunity for feedback and some advice and suggestions which will help us over the coming years.
We have retained our Advice Quality Standard (AQS) for Debt and Benefits Casework, thanks to our specialists. In addition, we obtained the AQS for telephone work for the first time this year. The Advice Quality Standard is the quality mark for organisations that provide advice to the public on social welfare issues. Organisations that hold the standard have demonstrated that they are easily accessible, effectively managed, and employ staff with the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of their clients.
We scored high across a raft of indicators in the audit. The auditor commented, “Your organisation sets itself ambitious objectives to continue to improve, develop and maintain a leading edge, in order to benefit the local and wider community. The leadership self assessment revealed the scale of this ambition in how the organisation scored itself. In terms of your own objectives and life cycle, you will always have more to achieve because you’re not content to stay still if there is more to do to serve the community.”
What was also pleasing was that the auditor could see that everyone in our organisation played their part in its success – from our front line of volunteers and staff, to the supervisors, training, manager, marketing, fundraising and the trustees. In particular our financial leadership and partnership working were commended. Team and teamwork were highlighted repeatedly, and we scored highly as a good environment to work and volunteer.
