A visit to Granton could improve your health – and maybe your wealth!

A visit to Granton Information Centre could improve your health – and may also improve your wealth! The local advice centre received top marks from clients in a satisfaction survey conducted over the summer.

Highlights of the survey include:

• Around 71% of GIC clients have a medical condition – but almost half of them feel GIC has helped to bring about an improvement in their health

• 48% of clients received additional income following GIC’s intervention – and with another 22% awaiting decisions it’s very likely that this figure will rise to over half.  Additional income includes both one-off payments and ongoing benefits entitlements – ranging from a few pounds to five-figure sums.

• 97% of clients would recommend GIC’s services to others

• 96% found GIC assistance ‘very helpful’, 98% found staff ‘very approachable’ and 74% found the help and support they had received ‘more than expected’.

Two hundred clients were chosen at random from GIC’s live cases database and invited to participate in the Satisfaction Survey, which was carried out over the summer. The results are based on the final total of 108 respondees.

GIC manager Caroline Pickering said: “There has been an increased demand on GIC’s service over the past few years and our management committee thought this would be an ideal time to review the services we provide – to look at what we are doing, what works well and what can be improved.

“The best people to guide us in this are the people who use those services, so we are very pleased with the positive results of the survey. It’s great for staff to be recognised for the hard work they do. Some of the comments we received from grateful clients were really touching.”

GIC chairperson John Mulvey said: “We know the staff are working exceptionally hard in difficult circumstances so we’re delighted to see how much service users and the wider community appreciate their efforts. The organisation has been working in North Edinburgh for thirty years now but it’s clear that GIC’s services are needed as much today as they ever were.”