Excellent service, very professional
History
Our History
This year Liverpool Central Citizens Advice Bureau celebrates its 70th Anniversary with all other bureaux in England and Wales.
Citizens Advice Bureaux have extraordinary origins as an emergency war service. When the prospect of a world war loomed, the National Council of Social Services (the forerunner of today’s National Council of Voluntary Organisations) established a group to look at how the needs of a civilian population in war time were best met. The group agreed that ‘Citizens Advice Bureaux should be established throughout the country, particularly in the large cities and industrial areas where social disorganisation may be acute.’
Preparations were made and on 4 September 1939, just one day after war was declared, 200 bureaux opened their doors for the first time. The arrangements for bureaux varied wildly according to Jean Richards in her history of the Citizens Advice service, Inform, Advise and Support: ‘Almost anyone could be involved. One lady described how her husband, a solicitor ineligible for military service, came home from his office in London and announced they were going to open a Citizens Advice Bureau in their front room the next day. She was given a copy of the Citizens Advice Notes, some government leaflets and circulars, and told to get on with it!’ Another bureau operated out of a converted horse box.
