Triage Officer

South West Aberdeenshire Citizens Advice Bureau is based in Westhill, is an independent and innovative advice organisation providing holistic advice and support to local people.

We work with North West Aberdeenshire CAB, North East Aberdeenshire CAB and Kincardine and Mearns CAB as a Consortium to provide advice and support to people across Aberdeenshire.

This role is designed to help individuals across North West Aberdeenshire during ongoing times of stress and uncertainty by offering timely, effective and targeted support, whilst allowing the bureau to effectively manage resource and performance, whilst creating positive impact. We will do this by offering a triage support service which will aim to assess client need at the earliest opportunity, effectively prioritising support and allowing more effective appointment/resource management.

Triage is important to the advice service where people are looking for reassurance and advice about their issues but are unsure or unable to move forward by themselves. Triage is a brief intervention and aims to sort client priorities, based on their needs. Due to the complexity of many of our clients’ needs and issues, triage assessment is imperative to ensure our clients are properly and timeously dealt with and facilitates the flow across our services.

Type of contract: Fixed-Term Contract until 31 March 2025

The type of issues that the Triage Office would help advise and direct on include: Benefits, Income maximisation, Budgeting, Money & Debt, Housing, Relationship, Employment and Legal.

This post is designed to help individuals across North West Aberdeenshire during ongoing times of stress and uncertainty. The postholders will;

• Assess clients’ needs and establish level of advice and support needed by using sensitive listening and questioning skills.
• Identify any emergencies and triage as appropriate ensuring the correct type and level of support required.
• Direct clients to the most appropriate form of advice only once they have found out as much information from the client as possible using a 4-tier assessment system from non-urgent to emergency advice.
• Provide internal and external referrals and information on advice and representation and other tackling poverty initiatives throughout Aberdeenshire.
• To check whether individuals are eligible to apply for benefits or access other income maximisation support and arrange appointments with advisers as necessary.
• To explore clients’ circumstances, support needs and access channel preferences considering language barriers, accessibility needs, and issues around digital access and ability.
• Develop and maintain knowledge in relevant legislation e.g. debt, welfare rights and benefits.
• Co-ordinates the needs of the client and liaises where appropriate with specialist bureau staff and other relevant agencies.
• Maintain accurate case records and files in both written and electronic form in line with national standards and CAS quality assurance.
• To record, update and maintain information on a case management system for the purpose of continuity of casework, information retrieval, statistical monitoring and report preparation.