Agenda item

Report No: OAS/SE/19/003

The Committee considered the above report, which contained the revised Customer Access Strategy covering the period 2019-2022.  Subject to approval, the Strategy would come into effect from 1 April 2019 following the creation of West Suffolk Council.

The West Suffolk Councils adopted the Target Operating Model (TOM) (as provided in paragraph 1.2 of the report) for Customer Services in 2014, marking a fundamental change to the delivery of the Customer Services function across both Forest Heath District and St Edmundsbury Borough Councils.  The motivation at the time of the implementation was to reflect the ambition to move to a single council in structure terms and to acknowledge the requirements associated with the public sector digital transformation agenda.

The general focus at the time of the implementation was to understand which of the Councils’ services could be drawn into the TOM and how best to deliver those against the backdrop of efficiency improvements aimed at releasing financial savings associated with the changes (£125,579 per annum). These financial savings were achieved.

In April 2018, a review of the initial strategy objectives was conducted.  The Committee noted the headline issues emanating from the post-implementation review, together with the outcome of the review of the achievement of the project objectives, as detailed in Sections 2 and 3 of the report.

Councillor Robert Everitt, Portfolio Holder for Families and Communities, was in attendance and drew relevant issues to the attention of the Committee, including that the review had identified that generally speaking, face-to-face contact had diminished considerably over the recorded period, with a general decline in the number of calls being made to the Customer Services team. Website use, having initially increased in the period between March 2016 - July 2017, was now settling into a more consistent level of attracting between 30,000-40,000 web users per month (having peaked at almost 50,000 in March 2017).

The work carried out to review the 2015-2018 Customer Access Strategy had considered technology as a key element of the future provision of customer access for West Suffolk Council customers. In producing the 2019-2022 Strategy, which was attached as Appendix A to the report, a focus had been placed on ensuring that the approach was flexible enough to deliver against the ambition and any emerging priorities of the new Council.

Alongside the strategy document, staff had reviewed the existing Service Standards document and also updated the existing Complaints Policy which now also included a section on the management of vexatious and persistent complainants. An action plan also accompanied the Strategy, which set out the specific activities associated with the document.

The Committee scrutinised the report and asked a number of questions to which officers duly responded.  In particular, discussions were held on the excellent percentage rate of 98% of the 479 persons that had responded to a survey had been satisfied with the customer service they had received (as reported on a quarterly basis to the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committees); the navigation of the website;  the establishment of the new West Suffolk Council’s Twitter Feed; and ensuring the Council continued to liaise with other public services to ensure that work to digitise services did not result in customers contacting other service providers about Council activities and services.  

Whilst recognising and reinforcing that face-to-face contact must be maintained for those in need or who could not access digital services, the Committee considered the new Strategy satisfactorily addressed the issues of improving the customer experience and using new technology to make things easier and better for all. The Strategy demonstrated an understanding about demand and expectation as well as appreciating how technology could be used to integrate services within the Council and their partners. 

RECOMMENDED TO THE SHADOW EXECUTIVE (CABINET):

That the Customer Access Strategy 2019-2022, as contained in Appendix A to Report No: OAS/SE/19/003, be approved.