Meet the Team - Kate Furniss (Head of Service Performance and Quality)

Who are you and what is your role at Citizens Advice Manchester?

“My name is Kate and I’m Head of Service Performance and Quality here at Citizens Advice Manchester! I’ve been working for CAM since July 2021 as a Service and Performance Quality Manager and moved into my current role in September 2022. Prior to working at CAM I worked for the General Medical Council in various roles, and I studied History at the University of Westminster.” 

“My role is really varied and I work across all of our teams here to make sure the quality and performance is where it needs to be to deliver a good service and good advice. I do a lot of meetings reviewing performance on a weekly basis and addressing any issues that may be affecting performance and seeing where I can help. My role is definitely more staff-focused than client focused, but I do deal with any complaints that come through, which I actually enjoy because it’s a nice feeling letting someone know that their views are being heard!”

What does a typical day look like in your role?

“I split myself between working in the office and working from home, so it depends where I am but normally I will look at various dashboards to look at our performance the day before, I’ll see if there’s anything coming up in terms of things I need to respond to like complaints, and I often have a lot of meetings with various people.”

What are some of the projects you’re currently working on?

“For the last six months we’ve been running a leadership programme, which is a pilot programme I designed to give our aspiring and current managers the tools they need to be a manager. We realised that we were really good at promoting people when they were good in their role, but once promoted we realised they needed some extra help with adapting to their new role and developing the skills of being a manager, like leadership and listening skills. We’re currently in the evaluation stage of the programme and hope to get funding to run another cohort of aspiring managers! 

Being able to design a programme from scratch and put all the material together and get some external trainers involved has been a really rewarding process for me. It’s a great project because not only are our staff gaining skills but it also benefits our clients as we are improving our service and empowering our staff which has a great impact on our service delivery.”

Why is quality improvement important within Citizens Advice Manchester?

“It is fundamentally important. The advice clients are receiving has to be high quality, it has to be right and accurate. If we’re giving clients incorrect advice then we cannot move them forward in their journey and they won’t be happy or get the resolution they need in their lives. For our staff, they need to feel like they are actually able to do something in their role and they need to be confident in the advice they’re giving and be empowered to do so. Quality and improvement is also vital from a reputational standpoint too, we are such an essential service and quality advice is important because if the quality is off, then it affects everything that we do. On an even bigger scale, it then affects our ability to lobby the government, to get funding to deliver services, so it is so vital we are delivering high quality, accurate advice.” 

What do you enjoy the most about your role?

“I like the fact it is so varied, and I get to work across the organisation and interact with so many different teams and roles. There isn’t any single day that it is the same as another, and there is also a great deal of autonomy in my role which I enjoy a lot.

CAM as an organisation is great to work for. The people are so lovely here with great energy and drive, and we are such a big and varied organisation that being able to draw on that network is great too. There’s so much experience and unique perspectives and being able to collaborate with these people is fantastic. Knowing I’m helping to make a difference in someone's life through our advice and ensuring its quality is so rewarding too. ”

What would you say to someone who is thinking about working or volunteering for Citizens Advice Manchester?

“I would absolutely say go for it. Citizens Advice as an organisation does more than you might think and there’s so much opportunity here as a staff member or volunteer no matter what area or role you’re interested in!”