Departing Chair
Observations - and a plea - from a departing Chair
by Simon Rennie, former Chair of CAS.
This article was first published in The Herald on 7 November 2026.
Three years ago, I had the privilege of being elected to Chair the Board of Citizens Advice Scotland. Yesterday I stood down from that role.
In my time on the CAS Board, I have seen the very best of society – exemplified by the nearly 3,000 people who work and volunteer in our network – and the very worst that even well-intentioned policies and plans can do to members of that society.
The challenges faced increase in volume and complexity from year to year. Our elected representatives recognise this, yet even the best of intentions can lead to unplanned outcomes and complications.
People seek CAB help from all parts of society, but increasingly the network has had to focus its most intense support on those who need it most. While a person may present with just one issue, the smallest amount of digging soon reveals just how multi-layered people’s problems are.
Because people don’t live segmented lives. Council Tax debt, for example, is often one symptom of wider financial hardship. The same circumstances that leave someone struggling to pay their Council Tax can also leave them behind on energy bills and cutting back on essentials like food.
Our institutional structures are segmented; they don’t fit the world people live in.
That is why CAS supports the principles and ambition of public service reform. CAB advice is public service reform in action. Advice prevents problems from escalating, helps put money back in people's pockets, and resolves issues before they become more costly. Because CAB advisers don’t just ‘add value’. They enable individuals to navigate an impossibly complex labyrinth of processes and rules.
An irony that I’ve only felt grow over the years is that public services need intermediaries to deal with the public they exist to serve and support. As financial pressures increase on public services, their capacity – and often their willingness – to help individuals, to be accessible at even the most fundamental level, has been eroded. Citizens Advice is often the last door open to people experiencing poverty and trauma.
And when we talk about poverty and trauma, we should recognise just how acutely that is felt by those affected. CAB advisers face unrelenting demand from people locked in deepening hardship and traumatic circumstances.
It is not uncommon – yet no less heartbreaking – for them to support people who are so overwhelmed that thoughts of suicide have become part of their daily reality. The resilience of staff and volunteers across the Citizens Advice network in the face of all this is remarkable.
That service and resilience must be recognised. CABs don’t just act as intermediaries between citizens and the public bodies that exist to serve them – they are the glue that binds the institutional support mechanisms together.
That CABs constantly struggle to make ends meet is a disgrace. So my plea on leaving my post would be that local funding for local CABs be put on a surer footing.
Because when people have nowhere else to turn, advice can be the difference between despair and hope.
My own hope is that the future of these indispensable services – and the people who need them – is never left to chance.