Bexhill Foodbank Advice Service

 

Bexhill Foodbank Advice Service Statement of Purpose

 

What services do we offer?

The Bexhill Foodbank Advice Service provides an advice service that aims to maximise the financial capability of anyone accessing the Bexhill & Battle Foodbank. The service includes:

• advising on benefit entitlements and offering assistance to complete claim forms
• advising those who are finding it hard to make ends meet or are struggling to pay their bills, including energy and information about grants available.  We want to help remove the burden of having to choose between buying food and paying your bills.
• Assisting with the Benefits application process, Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals.
• Referring for Debt advice, working in partnership with local debt advice services.

 

How do you access our help?

When you come to the food bank for food you can ask to speak to our advisor and one of the team will refer you.

If you are already working with the foodbank, you can also ask for a referral to our advice service by calling 01424 736515 or by emailing [email protected] (If the line is busy when you call, please leave a message). We will respond to all initial calls and emails within five working days.

A member of our volunteer Information Services team will email you to confirm we have your referral. They will advise when they will call you to take your details so we can assess how we can help you. The volunteer will also advise you of what documentation the advisor will need to be able to fully help you, this may be an energy bill, bank statements, council tax bills, a letter from your landlord etc

Once we understand the nature of your situation and the help you might require, they will pass your details to the appropriate advisor. There can be a waiting list for new enquiries, but our volunteer will inform you of this when they speak to you. Please ensure that you let them know if your situation is urgent or if there are any deadlines for your claim.

 

What happens once you’re been referred to our Advice Service?

When our advisor calls you, they will ask some questions to find out more about your situation. They will expect you to have any evidence ready that the volunteer had requested you get together when they spoke to you.

The advisor may provide support in one of more of the following ways:

• By providing information guides and factsheets.
• By providing advice over the telephone.
• Via a face-to-face appointment. This must be arranged in advance and will be undertaken at Bexhill Foodbank Advice Centre, 28 Sackville Road, Bexhill or Upper Church Hall, St Mary’s Church, Battle (according to where you live).

 

What will happen if we can’t provide the service you require?

Sometimes people come to us with problems that we do not have the expertise or knowledge to help with. For example, at this time we are unable to provide immigration advice.

In these cases, we can provide you with basic information and direct you to another organisation for further help.  Where possible we will give you a selection of organisations to choose from. We will usually give you the organisation’s contact information so you can contact them yourself.  However, if this would be difficult for you, we can call the organization on your behalf (with your permission) and ask them to contact you.

Sometimes when advising you we will reach a point where we don’t have the expertise to pursue your case any further, or where we find that there is a conflict of interest between you and another client we are advising. In this case, we will refer you to another local advice service that can help you and provide them with copies of any documents already completed by our service.  We will always get your permission before referring you to another organisation.

 

How our service treats its clients

We follow four key principles when delivering our service.

 

1.The service is provided free of charge.

You won’t be charged for any of our information and advice. If we signpost or refer you to another organisation we will tell you if there is any charge for their service.

 

2. The information and advice we provide is independent of any outside influence.

We will never recommend a service or provider to you.  Where possible we will always provide you with a choice of alternatives and help you make an informed decision.  We’re not bound by local or national government policies and will always advise you on what’s best for you rather than what’s best for the council, the Department for Work and Pensions, Bexhill Foodbank or any other organisation.  We will never advise someone to do anything illegal or fraudulent.  We will immediately stop advising anyone we suspect to be carrying out illegal or fraudulent actions.

 

3.  All information is confidential.

Any information we keep about you is stored securely and only viewed by staff and volunteers involved in advising you or other people that you have allowed us to share this information with.  These may be external auditors that check the quality and accuracy of our work, organisations we are referring your case on to and agencies we are dealing with on your behalf (such as the DWP or an energy supplier).We won’t share your information or discuss your case with anyone outside of our service without your consent unless they have been given responsibility to act on your behalf by the Court of Protection or Department for Work and Pensions. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time.

There are a couple of exceptions to the above that you need to be aware of. We may share information about someone without their consent if:

• we are contacted by a statutory body about a client who is being investigated for suspected illegal or fraudulent activity and they have the appropriate warrant for information disclosure.
• we are concerned that someone involved in a case is at risk of abuse or harm or there is a possibility of abuse or harm to others. In this case, we may notify a relevant statutory body, for example, social services or the police. These disclosures will be done following our Safeguarding procedures that our staff and volunteers have been trained in.

Any data we hold about you is processed in accordance with data protection legislation and Churches Together in Bexhill Foodbanks Data Protection Policy.  A copy of our data protection policy is available on our website – https://bexhill.foodbank.org.uk/policies/

 

4.  Clients are treated with fairness, dignity and respect and we expect clients to treat our staff and volunteers in the same way.

We won’t judge anyone based on age, disability, gender, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, sex or sexual orientation.  We won’t judge anyone based upon the circumstances they find themselves in and we won’t try to influence the decisions you make following our advice.  Sometimes clients will make a decision that we don’t think is in their best interest. We will tell them if this happens and aim to provide enough information and advice to help them make an informed choice. We will respect whatever decision they then make.  Our Advice Service operates in compliance with Churches Together in Bexhill Foodbank’s Equal Opportunities Policy, which is available on our website – https://bexhill.foodbank.org.uk/policies/

We can also offer information and advice in community languages, but we will need to arrange for an interpreter to assist. Interpreting Services have to be booked in advance.

 

How to make a complaint, compliment or suggestion about our service

If you would like to compliment or make a suggestion about our Advice Service please contact the Foodbank Project Manager, Michelle Pannell, either in writing at Bexhill Foodbank, 28 Sackville Road, Bexhill, East Sussex, TN39 3JL by email ([email protected]) or by telephone on 01424 736515.

If you wish to make a complaint, please follow Churches Together in Bexhill’s complaints procedure.  A copy of the full complaints procedure is available on our website – https://bexhill.foodbank.org.uk/policies/ or call 01424 736515 and ask for a copy.

 

What we ask of our clients

In return for providing information & advice, we expect that you:

• treat our staff and other clients with courtesy and respect
• be patient as we will be working with you and also many other clients, but be assured of our best intentions at all times
• provide us with accurate and truthful information about your circumstances
• attend appointments or let us know in advance if you can’t
• promptly inform us of changes in your circumstances which may be relevant to your case
• provide us with information or paperwork that we need to assist you
• notify us of the outcome of benefit applications we have assisted you with

 

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