Agenda item
Future Customer Services: Delivering changes to the way Brent residents access services
The report provides an update on progress in establishing new arrangements for Customer Services resulting from the Future of Customer Services project and the creation of the Brent Customer Services Unit in January 2012.
Margaret Read, Assistant Director of Brent Customer Services, will present the report.
Minutes:
Margaret Read (Assistant Director – Brent Customer Services, Finance and Corporate Services) introduced the report that provided an update on progress in establishing new arrangements for Customer Services following the Future of Customer Services project and the creation of the Brent Customer Services Unit in January 2012. Margaret Read advised that the Future Customer Services Board was responsible for overseeing customer service arrangements and performance across all areas of the council and she referred to the changes implemented through the project and achievements to date as set out in the report, which included a new integrated e benefits form for Housing and Council Tax benefit. She then referred to the longer term aims and explained that a new content management system for web site would go live in early 2013 and would support a move to on line contact and the achievement of a wider channel migration strategy.. This would enable the council to be accessible to residents on a 24/7 basis. A digital post room was also to be created and this would complement the Civic Centre’s design in supporting a paper light organisation. The review of post had identified that approximately 60% of post was scanned, whilst 40% was stored as a paper document. The digital post room would be created to ensure most post was scanned and routed electronically.
Margaret Read informed Members that most customer contact was still by telephone and all Brent Customer Services calls were managed by Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) and this was used by the schools admissions service, Children and Families information service and concessionary service, as well as Housing Needs, Registration and Nationalities and Brent Housing Partnership, whilst Benefits and Council Tax had used ACD for a number of years. The committee heard that ACD technology enables calls to be directed to the appropriate staff and provide clear visibility of the volume of the calls waiting and resources available to handle them. Ways of extending use of ACD technology to other service areas was being considered to develop a better overall picture of call volumes and performance for all services with a view to implementing this during 2013. Margaret Read advised that telephone answering rates in Brent Customer Services ranged from 78% to 84% since January 2012 and greater consistency in the performance of individual teams had been achieved through increasing knowledge and skills sets for staff. She explained that the move to the Civic Centre and the impact of welfare reform would present significant challenges in the future and Brent Customer Services would play a key role in preparing and planning for these changes and mitigating the associated risks. This included designing and implementing a new localised Council Tax Support scheme and a local, discretionary welfare assistance scheme where the grant of £855k to be transferred to the council would be unable to meet the existing level of demand for payments. To help mitigate the forecast peaks in customer demand, the council was working with Capita to put a contingency plan in place.
During discussion by Members, further clarification was sought in respect of channel migration and increasing digital means of communication. It was queried why telephone performance in terms of percentage of calls answered for Children’s Services for October 2012 was low compared to other service areas. Members commented that the higher answering rate for Children’s Services in the summer of 2012 can be attributed to schools being much less busy, particularly as they would be closed for a large part of it and every effort should be made to increase the answering calls rate in this area as otherwise this leads to complaints from residents and present a reputational risk to the council. It was queried whether the telephone answering performance in Children’s Services could be addressed through a major restructure and details of performance in November 2012 were sought and a request for telephone performance figures from the previous 12 months was made. It was also asked whether steps were being introduced to simplify the schools admissions processes in order to reduce the number of calls. It was suggested that as seasonal increases in demand on school admissions could be anticipated, resources could be redeployed appropriately, whilst a review of telephone performance in April 2013 could be undertaken and compared with this year to help provide a clearer picture of performance and demand. Assurances were sought that the online schools admissions applications system would be an improvement to the service and it was enquired what steps were being taken to increase uptake of online applications.
Members enquired what other service areas had online applications available or would soon be offering such a service. With regard to digital services, it was queried whether this would be available on mobile phones as well as computers and it was suggested that offering such services may disadvantage those on low incomes who may not have such devices and those who used pay as you go phones. A member commented that for some customers, face to face contact was the most appropriate or only form of contact available and it was enquired if there were any plans to change opening hours of some services. Another member stated that some residents had expressed concern that parking permits could no longer be provided by scratch cards and that their details would be stored centrally. This could be of particular concern, for example, if the number of times a particular individual, such as a health visitor, had parked at a certain location was recorded. It was also asked if there were any details with regard to the time taken to transfer a call to a relevant member of staff, the average duration of a call and whether a call back could be requested.
In reply to the issues raised, Margaret Read advised that there was presently a number of ways in which customers could access council services. Digital services, such as web or mobile apps, were the least expensive way of providing these and there was an overall move to reduce telephone use as a way of residents accessing services and increasing digital use. Margaret Read advised that Children’s Services included school admissions and free school meals and that in the summer of 2012, the telephone response rate was very good at 90%. However, this was due to efforts being focused primarily on answering calls which had led to a detrimental effect on the rest of the service, which in turn generated more telephone calls and so there had since been change of focus in concentrating resources on providing the service of placing children in schools. Since this shift, the number of calls had reduced and this in turn had meant that the percentage of calls answered had risen to 71%. Margaret Read emphasised that concentrating resources on finding school places would protect the council’s reputation. The use of the online school admissions application form for secondary schools was being actively promoted, whilst an automatic e-mail update informing residents of what schools had offered places to their children would also help reduce the volume of telephone calls. Online applications for school admissions to primary schools would also be introduced and this would allow more resources to be available in providing the service. Parents may also be called to be informed of any school places offered and it was also important to manage parents’ expectations.
Margaret Read advised that online applications for other services, particularly those with a high number of transactions, would be considered as part of the digital migration strategy. She informed Members that the ACD system provided a call back facility for customers, however there may be some difficulty in obtaining telephone performance figures for Children’s Services over the last 12 months as ACD was only introduced in January 2012. The committee heard that there were no plans to introduce a 24/7 telephone or face to face contact service and telephone services now ceased after 5.00pm on weekdays and no service on Saturdays due to the very low volume of calls that had been received during these times. There were also resource implications for extending face to face time and this would only be considered if demand for additional hours was identified and appropriate budgetary provision could be made. Margaret Read advised that equality impact assessments had been carried out in respect of specific initiatives to increase take up of online services such as schools admissions and parking services. A wider equalities impact would be undertaken when channel migration plans have been developed. She advised that the Contact Centre dealt with a heavy load of telephone calls and ultimately the plan was to reduce these calls through extending other ways of accessing services, particularly by digital means. Members noted that parking permits would soon be available online and that feedback received had suggested that customers preferred to acquire their parking permits or pay penalty charge notices through this method.
Toni McConville (Director of Customer and Community Engagement) added that visitor parking permits can also be obtained online and she advised that there was potential for fraud under the previous scratch card system. She explained that the council’s website was to be redesigned in order to provide a mobile platform which could provide 24/7 access where possible. There were no present plans to extend face to face contact and in future more transactions would be undertaken online, as well as advice and links to relevant services. Toni McConville also commented that residents had not voiced any disquiet when Saturday opening ceased, however the council would respond to demand accordingly.
Councillor Jones (Lead Member for Customers and Citizens) added that any decision with regard to providing services online would be subject to a strong business case.
The Chair agreed to Phil Newby’s suggestion that the parking project could be considered at a future meeting. The Chair also requested that improvements in percentage of telephone performance and in processes be included in future reports.
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