Who we are

We are a local independent charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee and we are a member of the national Citizens Advice service. We were established in 1964 and support people living in the borough of Barnsley. We aim to provide the advice people need for the problems they face and we seek to improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives by influencing social policy both locally and nationally. We provide advice and information on a wide range of issues from our town centre premises and also at a range of other locations throughout the borough.

Our service is free, confidential, independent and impartial. We will listen to your problem, explain all the options available to you and, where appropriate, support you with the course of action you decide to take. We will not judge you or tell you what you should do. We value diversity, promote equality and challenge discrimination in all that we do. We respond to an individual’s needs without regard to their age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race or religion.

Citizens Advice Privacy Policy

At Citizens Advice we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.

We only ask for the information we need.  We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need it and treat it as confidential.

When we record and use your personal information we:

• only access it when we have good reason
• only share what is necessary and relevant
• don’t sell it to commercial organisations

We handle and store your personal information in line with the law.

To see the Privacy Policy for Citizens Advice Barnsley please click here

To see our full Privacy Policy please click here

Our staff and volunteers

At Citizens Advice Barnsley, we have 31 paid staff, and 13 active volunteers who carry out a wide range of roles – from careful administrative work to thorough, up-to-date and confidential advice on a wide range of issues and social policy work.

The value of the work completed by our volunteers each year is estimated as being worth more than £84,000 Many of our volunteers remain as members of the team for years; most of those who leave us do so to move into paid employment or full time study.

Our board of trustees has 9 members, each of whom bring with them different areas of expertise, and play a strategic role in organisational oversight and development. The trustee board is supported in its role by our management team, led by the Chief Executive.

Our funding

Throughout the year we continue to seek funding from various sources for a variety of projects to help us provide the services to our clients.

Partnership Working

We work closely in partnership with other local and national organisations to ensure that we can offer people the best possible support: in the last year we have worked with Barnsley Area Councils and Ward Alliances, Berneslai Homes, BMBC, the Money and Pensions Service, Mind, the South Yorkshire Community Foundation and many more.  Working with other organisations helps us support the people of Barnsley.

We are a Third Party Reporting Centre for Hate Crime, more information can be found on our ‘Get Advice’ page.

We hold the Advice Quality Standard, which provides you with assurance that we have met certain criteria that demonstrate a commitment to quality.