Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Panel noted that there were no substitute members.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked to pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

No declarations of interest were made.

To note the minutes of the last  meeting held on 25 November 2008.

The minutes from 25 November 2008 were noted and agreed as a correct record.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse asked about the current position of the report on the Forester consultation. He was told that the report would go to the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee in June. Officer were also currently in talks about incorporating some regular LSP articles (from the Police, Health, Fire etc) into the Forester magazine. They could pay for the space used, thus helping to reduce reliance on the amount of advertising in the publication.

The final report of the Customer Transformation Task and Finish Panel (attached) was fully endorsed by Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 11 December 2008.

The Chairman of the Panel subsequently presented the report to Cabinet on the 6 February 2009.  Contained within the report were nine recommendations, which the Cabinet were requested to agree.  These are listed below:

(1)         That given the increasing importance of the Council’s Website with respect to communication, information and electronic interactions, the level of dedicated resource to the maintenance and development of the Council’s Website be increased;

(2)         That a Continuing Services Budget growth bid be made to fund an additional two, Range 5 (subject to job evaluation) Website Support Officers as part of the Budget Process for 2009/10, at an estimated cost of £48,850 per annum;

(3)         That a re-organisation be undertaken at the Civic Offices to enable customers to access the majority of Council Services at a single reception/customer services area of the ground floor:

(4)         That further detailed feasibility work be undertaken to establish the costs of the new single customer services/reception area to include innovative use of information technology, for which provision should be made from the existing allocation of funds within the capital programme;

(5)         That a Customer Relationship Management System be developed and deployed to provide accurate and timely information to enquiries;

(6)         That any such Customer Relationship Management System be capable of providing accurate management and monitoring information, not only to meet the requirements of N14, but also to drive customer satisfaction levels higher;

(7)         That the results of the Forester consultation be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee prior to any fundamental design changes or content;

(8)         That the establishment of a Corporate Services front office model, such as “Contract Harlow”, be pursued by the Council in order to complete the maximum number of enquiries and transactions at the first point of contact; and

(9)         That the Corporate Customer Services facility be achieved by the utilisation of existing staffing resources being brought together to become “generalists” as per the “Contact Harlow” model.

The Cabinet accepted that communication with the residents of the District was important and as such the Council’s website required additional resource.  It was proposed that an extra Website Officer be employed on a three-year fixed term contract at a total cost of £25,000 per annum, funded out of the District Development Fund.  The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Performance Management explained that it was prudent for the Council to avoid growth of the Continuing Services Budget for extra staff given the current budgetary constraints.  The Panel Chairman was requested to reconvene the Task and Finish Panel and further prioritise the remaining seven recommendations of the report, for further consideration by the Cabinet.

Options for Action

When the Council set its budget for 2009/10, the District Development Fund bid for an additional Website Support Officer at Grade 5, on a fixed term three year contract, was agreed.  The recruitment process for this post  ...  view the full agenda text for item 36.

The meeting noted that the Panel’s final report went to the Cabinet on 5 February 2009 where it was well received. The Cabinet accepted that communication with residents was important and as such the Council’s website required additional resource and proposed that an extra Website Officer be employed on a three year fixed term contract.  This Panel’s Chairman was requested to reconvene the Task and Finish Panel and further prioritise the remaining seven recommendations of the report for further consideration by the Cabinet.

The Panel noted the suggested order of priority for the remaining recommendations as set out in the agenda.

Councillor Philip remarked that the Panel needed to put them in order of priority and not just of affordability. He thought that the Council needed a contact centre and to redesign its reception areas.

Councillor Whitehouse agreed with Councillor Philip. The Panel needed to think about how residents contacted the Council. Where should the money go, on people, telephones or the website? He thought that the number of visits in person would reduce in time and therefore it was probably the telephone system that needed to be looked at first.

The Assistant Director of Community Services and Customer Relations, Julie Chandler, had visited Waltham Forest Council recently where the manager told them that they would not have purchased their CRM system but would have developed their own. Councillor Philip said that customers often said it would be cheaper to develop a system for themselves, but it rarely was. But there are often alternatives to just buying off the shelf.

Councillor Mrs Brookes said that she was sorry for the receptionist who had to deal with a lot of people at the same time, it was so much better in Harlow where they had 2 or three receptionists on at any one time. This should be a high priority. Councillor Philip agreed, which was why he said the Council needed a contact centre. They needed to get that structure in place to focus on the workload. He would not put a CRM above a contact centre.

The Panel agreed that they should consider the report on NI 14 – Avoidable Contact before they came to any decision on prioritising the recommendations.

AGREED: that the Panel consider the next report on the agenda, NI 14 – Avoidable Contact, before they come to any conclusions on this item.

To consider the attached report.

The Performance Improvement Officer, Mike Warr reported back on the completion of the ‘NI 14 – avoidable contact’ measuring exercise. A total of seven service areas were included as part of the measuring exercise. These were: Planning, Finance (benefits), Finance (Council Tax), Licensing, Electoral Services, Housing and Environmental Services.  Staff were asked to note all types of contact and record it if they thought it was avoidable or unavoidable, this was recorded in five different ways. It was a paper based exercise, collated on a daily and weekly basis.  The overall result was that the council had an overall ‘Avoidable Contact’ result of 26.9%, with a telephone avoidable contact result of 36%. This would be reported as part of the National Indicator Set to the government.

Mr Warr tabled a paper that broke down the results into service areas and the types of contact recorded by number and percentages. The Panel noted that there was a much higher avoidable contact figure by telephone and the poor call transfer figure was high. The various directorates had been tasked to take this on and produce improvement plans to try and reduce the final avoidable figures.

Members thought it was clear they needed to address contact as a whole. Telephone contact may reduce over time if the other areas were improved.

It may be that a consultant be asked to design the reception areas and also asked to look at putting in a Contact Centre incorporating CRM for the future when funding may be more readilly available.  The Panel needed to say what its priorities were and how they could be delivered. A feasibility study may need to be commissioned. Perhaps Overview and Scrutiny should be asked to task this Panel with looking further into this. A lot could be done in house.

The Panel summed up by saying that work on ‘The Forester’ was a given. The Forester survey had already been carried out and any redesign could be accommodated within the existing budget. There was no need for additional resources and if some money could be had from the LSP to replace some of the present advertising, that would be helpful.

The other recommendations needed to be prioritised. There was a need to look at how the council could do things more efficiently. There was a need to get a contact centre in place; this should be done by putting in a CRM system and redesigning the reception areas. There would be a need for financial due diligence to take this forward.

The Panel did not want to alter anything in their original report, but did want to keep Cabinet financial concerns in mind. There was, therefore, a need to look at this in more depth as a Panel before they reported back to the Cabinet and would ask Overview and Scrutiny to extend the life of the Panel into next year.

RESOLVED:

1.                  That the National Indicator 14 (Avoidable Contact) report be noted and that the results be suitably communicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

No other business was raised.