Projects & Partnerships 8 April 2022
Redbridge and Havering partnership
The benefits of partnership working
Staff, volunteers and trustees from Citizens Advice Redbridge and Citizens Advice Havering recently came together for a joint away day on March 24th to develop partnership working across both boroughs. The partnership arrangement between Citizens Advice Redbridge and Havering is now over twelve months old, since October 2020, both organisations share a chief officer and collaboration between staff members has increased gradually, yet informally.
The boards of both organisations are now taking the next steps with regards to collaboration to make sure that the planned improvements in effectiveness and efficiency can be fully realised. This involves developing a joint business plan in order to pool and centralise back-office functions for both organisations, achieve greater alignment of systems, and adopt common strategy for Havering and Redbridge.
A great deal of ground was covered during the day including:-
- The changing demography and the challenges (economic, social, environmental) facing both boroughs
- The funding landscape both locally and London-wide, and partnership opportunities
- External Stakeholders and meeting their needs
- Identifying the common threads for both LCAs and prioritising advice needs for the partnership
It was a hugely positive day for both LCAs; Council Officers from both boroughs shared their insights, and interactive sessions engaged the Pan-London project and presentations about what Citizens Advice data saying about access to the service local, what the challenges are for Citizens Advice performance locally and across London, and how we can better adapt services to meet the needs of younger people and low-income working families in both boroughs.
Finally, we also bid a fond farewell to Eddie Collins who is retiring – it was his last working day. A Senior Consultant Strategic Change with Citizens Advice, Eddie has been working for the Citizens Advice service for many years and has been hugely supportive in the Redbridge and Havering partnership. We wish Eddie well and will miss his wise counsel and good humour.