Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Protecting Core Services including Transformation introduced the report and advised that the report also included an update on service delivery improvement.

In response to the comments raised by the Scrutiny Committee, the Director – Service Delivery, Transformation Lead, Case Services Team Leader – Service Delivery and Customer Connect – Team Manager advised that:

·         The response to the staff engagement survey was around 60% and the findings were discussed at the Staff Consultative Panel and fed through to the various services of the Council to look at any lessons that could be learnt from the results.

·         A summary of the results of the staff survey would be published on the Members Portal.

·         The Graduate Scheme was proving successful and was open to mature students as well as young people.

·         Further work was being undertaken to develop Mobile 360 throughout the whole of the District.

·         Planning Validation times had reduced significantly due to additional hours within the Planning Service.

·         The process for validation had not changed.  Parish and Town Councils received a hard copy of the planning application and plans which were sent out on the same day that the application was registered. 

·         There was a drive to reduce the amount of direct telephone access and to promote 24/7 access through the website.  Work was being continually undertaken to improve web presence to provide a better service, encourage the use of email contact and call backs.

·         A lot of work had been undertaken to make services more accessible.  The new Petters House Front of House was a new technology enabled space with self-service customer access points.  Customers had access to a multi skilled team who were able to offer advice on a range of services and encourage the use of online technology.

·         Community Access points were also available in Chard, Crewkerne and Wincanton.

·         70% of total services, which were available on both the website and over the telephone, were completed by self-service via the website.

·         A lot of time had been spent training new staff in the Connect Team to help shift customers to self-service which would allow officers to spend more time with those customers who were not able to access on line services.

·         Enquiries dealt with at the first point of contact had risen to almost 80% due to the time being invested in training.

·         Call waiting times were longer than hoped at times but whilst customers were waiting messages about channel shift were being delivered and they also had the option to leave a voicemail.

·         The development of the customer relationship management system and integration with the back office processes had been delayed due to problems with the Civica Platform.  The impact of these two areas had mostly affected the back office rather than the public.

During the discussion, members made the following comments:

·         There were still concerns with IT that needed to be addressed and a lot more work to be undertaken.

·         Improvements in service delivery were moving in the right direction.

·         Thanks were expressed to staff for all their hard work during a difficult time.

At the conclusion of the debate, members were content to note the progress report on the SSDC Transformation Programme.