Twelve Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) across Surrey have joined forces to launch Citizens Advice Surrey. This is in recognition that by working more closely together more can be done to improve the lives of people throughout Surrey, through delivering advice services county-wide, improving efficiency, and working more closely with other voluntary and statutory organisations throughout the county. Members of Citizens Advice Surrey provide advice services from 37 locations across the County with over 900 fully trained volunteers.

Norma Corkish, Chair of Citizens Advice Surrey, said ''CAB services are essential for reducing social isolation, child poverty and ill-health through helping people find solutions to problems such as unemployment, domestic abuse, unmanageable debt or homelessness. Whilst an affluent county, Surrey has significant pockets of deprivation with social problems as great as any nationally but which tend to be masked by the county statistics. In these difficult economic times, CAB services are even more likely to be needed, but many individual bureaux are themselves facing difficult times with reductions in their local authority funding. The launch of Citizens Advice Surrey recognises both these things and that the best way to continue to meet the needs of its communities is to look county-wide, whilst continuing to provide services to local communities.''

The formation of the consortium, Citizens Advice Surrey, will provide the structure to help member bureaux share with each other what they do best, to find ways to retain advice services throughout the county and develop new partnerships to respond to unmet need.

Click here to view the CAB Impact Report that gives an overall statistical summary of the work of the Surrey CABx during 2010-2011, including the contribution made by volunteers.

For further information contact:

Norma Corkish, Chair, or Peter Souster, Vice Chair, Citizens Advice Surrey at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. General information about the consortium and its member CABx is available on our website at www.citizensadvicesurrey.org.uk