I am going to describe the type of business, purpose, ownership and the different stakeholders who influence two contrasting organisations. The first organisation, Citizens Advice, is a non-profit charity that provides free advice, in contrast to Fold Hill Foods, which is a profit making pet food factory.
Citizen Advice Bureau
Citizen Advice bureaus are located in England Scotland and Wales and their aim is to provide the advice people need to solve their problems and improve the policies and practices that affect people's everyday lives. It is ran by 338 individual charities. Citizens Advice is the national body for bureaux and is a registered charity in its own right. Together they are the Citizens Advice Service. There are 28,500 people who work for CAB, over 22,000 of them are volunteers who receive free training and only 6,500 are paid staff. In 1935, the Government considered the need for an information service linked to the fledgling social welfare service. In 1938 a prospect of a war appears so the National Council of Social Services, establishes a group to meet the needs of the citizens in war time. On 3rd of September, 1939 the war was declared, and on the next day 200 Citizen Advice Bureaux opened. From the start volunteers ran the service in public and private houses. At first they gave advice mostly on the loss of ration books, homelessness and evacuation. In 1999 advice guide, a website which provides information and advice, was launched to allow people to use CAB’s service 24/7.
Citizens Advice is in the Tertiary sector. I know this because they provide a service to their clients. Although they are more classed as a Voluntary sector, because they are a charity and do not charge their clients for the service and do not make profit, or have an owner.
They are a place where anybody can come and receive confidential advice. Their aim is to ‘to provide the advice people need for their problems they face and to improve policies and practices that affect people’s lives.’ Their principles are to ‘provide a free, independent, confidential and impartial advice’ and their actions; ‘to value diversity, promote equality and challenge discrimination’. They provide advice through the phone, email, advice guide and through their bureaux, where clients can book an appointment and get professional advice from an advisor. They provide advice on benefits, education, relationships, work, consumer, housing, law and rights, debt and money, discrimination, tax and healthcare. They also have a Research Campaign which will record any problems they deal with and if they see the same problem repeating for a number of times, they will gather all their evidence and try to overcome the problem or even change a certain laws and policies.
Citizens Advice are a national organisation, which operates across England and Wales. ‘Citizens Advice is the national association for Citizen Advice Bureaux across England and Wales.’ This is a quote from their website to prove it. (www.citizensadvice.org ) They deliver advice services from over 3,300 community locations in England and Wales.
They exist to support people with the problems that they are facing and to take the pressure of the local services. ‘We provide free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities’ this quotation, from their website shows that Citizen Advice provide their services without any costs. They are a charity and get financial support from businesses like Barclays, EDF Energy and Royal Association for Deaf People. They are also supported, but not owned by the government. Citizens Advice makes people happier and healthier: 46% of people felt less anxious, less stressed, or had less health problems after getting help from CAB. They take the tension off other local services by for example preventing homelessness, avoiding any unnecessary legal action and
