Find Help (BGCR)
Many problems can be resolved more quickly by contacting the organisation responsible directly. The contacts below may help you find the right service.
If you have already tried the relevant organisation and are still having difficulty, or you are not sure who can help, you can also contact my office.
Emergency & urgent help
Emergency services — 999
Call 999 where there is an immediate danger to life, a crime is taking place, or urgent police, fire or ambulance assistance is required.
Gwent Police — 101
For non-emergency police matters, including reporting crime or antisocial behaviour and seeking police advice. You can also report many matters online.
NHS 111 Wales — 111
For urgent medical advice when it is not a life-threatening emergency. For urgent mental health support, call 111 and select option 2.
Samaritans — 116 123
Free emotional support, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
General advice — not sure where to start?
Citizens Advice Caerphilly Blaenau Gwent
For free, confidential advice on benefits, debt, housing, employment, consumer problems, family matters & many other issues.
Advicelink Cymru: 0800 702 2020
Citizens Advice also provides local services and outreach throughout Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent.
Council services
For matters such as bins and recycling, roads and pavements, potholes, street lighting, planning, council tax, environmental health, school transport, social services & local housing services, your local council will normally be the first point of contact.
Caerphilly County Borough Council
Telephone: 01443 815588
Out-of-hours emergencies: 01443 875500
Caerphilly Cares — 01443 811490
A particularly useful first point of contact if you need information, advice or support but are unsure which local service can help.
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
C2BG Contact Centre: 01495 311556
The same number is used for the Council’s emergency out-of-hours service.
Housing and homelessness
If you are homeless, worried that you may lose your home, struggling with your tenancy or need housing advice, contact your council as early as possible.
Caerphilly
Housing Advice / Homelessness: 01443 873552
The service can provide homelessness prevention, housing advice and assistance with housing options.
Common Housing Register: 01443 873521
For social-housing applications and existing housing-register applications.
Blaenau Gwent
Housing Access / Housing Register: 01495 369736 — option 1
Housing Options / Homelessness: 01495 369736 — option 2
Out of hours homelessness emergency: 01495 311556
Independent housing advice
Shelter Cymru — 08000 495 495
Free independent housing advice. The urgent helpline operates Monday to Friday.
NHS and healthcare
NHS 111 Wales — 111
For urgent health advice where the situation is not life-threatening.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board — Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
01633 493753
PALS can help patients, relatives and carers with questions or problems concerning local NHS services and can often help resolve problems informally.
Llais Gwent — 01633 838516
Free, independent help for people who want advice or support with concerns or complaints about NHS or social-care services.
Social care and safeguarding
Caerphilly County Borough Council
Adult Services — 0808 100 2500
For advice, assessment and support relating to adults who may need care and support.
Children’s Services — 0808 100 1727
For information, advice, assistance or concerns about a child’s welfare.
Emergency Duty Team outside normal hours — 0800 328 4432
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
Adults and Children’s Services Information, Advice and Assistance — 01495 315700
For information, referrals and concerns about adults or children who may require support or safeguarding.
Emergency Duty Team — 0800 328 4432
Worried about a child?
NSPCC Helpline — 0808 800 5000
For adults concerned about the safety or welfare of a child.
Childline — 0800 1111
Free and confidential support for children and young people.
Benefits, money and debt
Citizens Advice — 0800 702 2020
A good first point of contact for benefit entitlement, debt, budgeting & financial problems.
Universal Credit — 0800 328 5644
Existing claimants can usually contact Universal Credit most quickly through their online journal.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) — 0800 121 4433
For enquiries about an existing PIP claim or award.
Pension Service — 0800 731 0469
For State Pension and Pension Credit enquiries.
StepChange Debt Charity — 0800 138 1111
Free and impartial specialist debt advice.
Welsh Government Discretionary Assistance Fund — 0800 859 5924
Emergency financial help may be available to eligible people facing exceptional financial hardship.
Help with food and essential costs
Caerphilly Foodbank — 02920 868151
Contact the foodbank for information about obtaining a referral or foodbank voucher.
Blaenau Gwent Foodbank — 07812 425130
Provides emergency food support at locations across Blaenau Gwent.
Caerphilly Cares — 01443 811490
Can signpost Caerphilly residents to cost-of-living assistance and other support services.
Domestic abuse and sexual violence
Live Fear Free — 0808 80 10 800
Text: 07860 077333
Free and confidential support for people experiencing domestic abuse or sexual violence, as well as family members, friends and professionals seeking advice. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you are in immediate danger, call 999. If you cannot speak safely on a mobile 999 call, follow the operator’s instructions and press 55 when prompted.
Children, young people and education
SNAP Cymru — 029 2002 8466
Independent information and advice for parents, carers, children & young people about Additional Learning Needs (ALN), IDPs, school placements, exclusions, disagreements & related educational issues.
Meic — 0808 80 23456
Free, confidential & anonymous information, advice & advocacy for children and young people aged 25 & under in Wales.
Text: 07943 114449
Available 8am to midnight every day.
Older people and carers
Age Cymru Advice — 0300 303 44 98
Information & advice for older people, their families & carers on benefits, care, housing & other issues affecting later life.
Carers UK / Carers Wales Helpline — 0808 808 7777
Advice for unpaid carers, including benefits, carers’ rights, assessments & support services.
Employment problems
Acas — 0300 123 1100
Free and impartial information & advice about employment rights, workplace problems, dismissal, redundancy & disputes at work.
Citizens Advice can also help with many employment-related problems.
Gas, electricity and water
Power cut or electricity emergency — 105
Free, 24-hour service for reporting power cuts & electricity-network emergencies.
Smell gas or suspect a gas leak — 0800 111 999
National Gas Emergency Service, available 24 hours a day.
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water
Water emergency: 0800 052 0130
Sewer flooding / sewerage emergency: 0800 085 3968
Both operate 24 hours a day.
Citizens Advice Consumer Service — 0808 223 1133
For problems with energy suppliers, bills & other consumer issues.
Complaints about public services
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales — 0300 790 0203
The Ombudsman can investigate certain complaints about Welsh public bodies, including councils & NHS organisations, normally after you have first used the organisation’s own complaints procedure.
Llais Gwent — 01633 838516
Independent advice & advocacy concerning NHS & social-care complaints.
Is it a Westminster issue?
Some matters are dealt with by the UK Parliament and UK Government rather than the Senedd, including areas such as immigration & visas, HMRC and taxation, much of social security, defence & foreign affairs.
You can find your local MP by entering your postcode into the official UK Parliament Find Your MP service.
Still not sure who to contact?
If you live in Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni and you are unsure who is responsible for your problem, or you have already contacted the relevant organisation but have been unable to resolve the matter, please contact my office & we will do our best to point you in the right direction or see whether I can assist as your Member of the Senedd:
Joshua.Kim-MS@Senedd.Wales
