Our Common ground

Common Ground is about recognising and building on what we already share. Across Citizens Advice, staff, volunteers, and clients bring knowledge that comes from experience in daily work, in lived realities, and in the stories that shape our service.

This programme creates space to recognise and exchange that knowledge. It is a chance to listen carefully, speak openly, and connect across roles and places. No one arrives here as only an “expert” or only a “learner.” Everyone has something to offer, and everyone has something to take away.

It is also a chance to reflect on how our own staff, volunteers and clients already hold a wealth of insight, and by creating space for innovation and experimentation, we can strengthen both our services and our mission-based work, enabling us to have the greatest impact together.

Common Ground is shaped and strengthened by those who attend both the run-up events and the in person conference. We learn from each other, we celebrate what works, and we find new ways to act together. Our programme speakers and session leaders, whether from inside Citizens Advice or external voices play a vital role in sparking ideas, sharing practice, and inspiring action. 

At its heart, Common Ground is about meeting as equals, recognising the value in every voice, and building stronger work through what we share - celebrating the power of our network.

Draft Agenda

We’re still busy working on our agenda, and there are still more sessions to be announced, but please take a look at what we have confirmed for this years programme so far.

Day One - 13th November

Keynotes

• CEO’s Opening Remarks - Dame Clare Moriarty will welcome everyone to conference

• Nothing About Us Without Us Is For Us - Speakers from Poverty Truth Network and Citizens Advice will explore how “common ground” is created when professional expertise and lived experience are brought together as equal partners

• Effective influencing in the era of devolved power - Exploring how we can we navigate change and find opportunity in the devolved power era?

• Adapting to regional partnerships - a changing income environment - A panel discussion about the realities and opportunities of developing meaningful partnerships across the network with prime providers and other organisations, and adapting to regionalised funding opportunities

• What can Citizens Advice learn from collective action and community-driven approaches in tackling poverty? - Realising the power of our network and collective action at both a community and institutional level
  

Workshops

• Mission 1: Advice Fit for the Future: What would it take to develop a sustainable and high performing workforce?

• Mission 2: Close the gap: How can we work together to build capability for race equity across our service?

• Mission 3: Taking early action together to prevent more people reaching crisis: Contribute to how we're helping people to address problems earlier by sharing your experiences and developing ideas together.

• Theatre Informed Policy Making: Discover legislative theatre - a bold and creative tool for influencing change. In this interactive workshop, you’ll explore how to apply its techniques to campaigns of any size, from local initiatives to national movements

• Looking for a Poverty Truth Commission – Down your Street: Practical insights into how to strengthen trust and share power with your community for a more resilient service.

• Stronger Together Live!: Bringing Chairs and CEOs together with our Network Resilience Consultants to discuss how Stronger Together will work in practice, and explore how it can be tailored to meet the needs of local offices within a devolution and local government reorganisation area.

• Digital Transformation: Practical ways LCAs can join our digital transformation journey, explore how we can work together and share ideas to shape a more connected, tech-enabled future

• Hello Brave Present: Advancing Race Equity for Clients Through Participation -  An opportunity to hear from Hello Brave - who delivered our participatory Race Disparities Research - to understand how we shared power and decision-making with community organisations, and what insights came as a result of this approach

• Start the Fortnight with Campaigns - Live! -  Explore the challenges our clients face, the government action needed, and how we can campaign together for change

• Advice First Aid Community of Practice - Share and Learn: Hear from local offices about why they prioritise Advice First Aid, how they support it, and what lessons they’ve learned. Let us know if you’d like to help shape and deliver the session (google form)

• Making volunteering fit for the future: Come to this session, led by local and national colleagues from the Volunteering Transformation Steering Committee to find out about initiatives within the Volunteering transformation programme and how you can be a part of this important work.

Day Two - 14th November

Conference Assemblies

Take part in a series of dynamic, service-wide forums inspired by the Citizen Assembly format. Explore the top ideas from September’s Challenge Events and work with colleagues from across the network to shape bold and practical actions that can be taken forward into our local contexts.

Challenge event topics that we’ll be exploring in more detail: 

• How can we strengthen our external partnerships to ensure a comprehensive understanding of our clients?

• How can we further embed lived experience insights into our work?

• How do we better understand client journeys to unlock data-driven opportunities?

These sessions will be large interactive sessions. You don’t need to have attended a challenge event to benefit from joining these sessions. 

Workshops

• Future Tech workshop: When it comes to tech, standing still isn’t an option. Join us to explore how we can reduce risk, create value, and future-proof our systems.

• eVouchers: Learn how you can quickly and securely get funds where they’re needed most - join eVouchers for their interactive session - giveaways included!

• Modernising Debt Advice: Join a community of LCA’s modernising their debt advice, and securing funding as a result. Share, learn and build best practice with us!