Agenda item

Purpose of report: Scrutiny of Services& Policy Development and Review

The purpose of this report is to give the Communities Select Committee an overview of Customer Services’ role, performance and future plans.

Declarations of interest:

None.

Witnesses:

Mark Irons, Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support

Helyn Clack, Cabinet Member for Community Services

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The report was introduced by the Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support. He explained the purpose of the report was to introduce customer services and detail each of the teams it contained. The Head of Customer Services explained that historically there were lots of contact numbers for different directorates and no performance measuring. The aim of the centralised customer services team was to reduce cost and increase levels of customer satisfaction.

2.    A member of the committee asked if the contact centre had received more calls with the recent fire service strike. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support stated that the contact centre had not received any increased volume of calls.

3.    A member of the committee expressed concern over the misuse of blue badges and asked what could be done to ensure people used them correctly. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support explained that the district and boroughs policed the use of blue badges and that SCC issued them. SCC was working with district and boroughs to ensure any concerns were being addressed.    

4.    The Cabinet Member for Community Services offered members the option of visiting the contact centre and learning more about how the contact centre works.

5.    A member of the committee identified a possible income generation opportunity if the contact centre were to make provision for taking calls on behalf of district and borough councils. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support explained that a Surrey Contact Centre Group which included representatives from district and boroughs had been set up to discuss the possibility of taking local calls. This is something the service would be interested in undertaking but ultimately the choice rests with the district and borough councils.

6.    In reference to  page 41-42 of the report, a member of the committee asked what happened to complaints that were not answered in 10 working days (i.e. outside the response target). The member asked when these complaints would be answered. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support explained that the 10 working days was a statutory target for the council. If complaints were not answered within this timeframe, it did not mean that responses went well beyond the target, in some cases responses just missed out on meeting the target e.g.  11, 12 or 13 days. The Head of Customer Services explained that he could provide exact figures in respect of this.

7.    Some members of the committee raised concerns over the high number of children’s social care complaints which were not answered in the 10 working days response target. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support explained that the adult social care and children’s social care teams had their own complaints teams and procedures. The adult social care and children’s social care complaints had been included in the report for illustrative purposes. The nature of children’s social care complaints was varied and complex which affected timescales.   

8.    A member of the committee congratulated the contact centre on its 90% customer satisfaction rating. The member referred to a recent experience she had in calling the contact centre on an urgent issue, being directed to the children’s social care team, but experiencing a delay in receiving an initial response from them. The member asked if it was possible to get the Customer Service Excellence programme implemented in the children’s social care team. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support explained that a CRM (customer relationship management) system could help with this sort of situation, as at the moment once a call was put through by the contact centre, it was very difficult to monitor it to resolution.  He explained that a customer focus board (based on the customer service excellence framework) which aims to drive customer service improvements had been set up. The board will feedback to the corporate board on changes and improvements it feels need implementing.  

9.    A member of the committee explained that when correspondence was directed to the contact centre and a response was received, it would be helpful if the response could be linked to the original correspondence to create a trail. The Head of Customer Services acknowledged that this would be helpful and agreed to investigate further.

10.  A member of the committee congratulated the work of the blue badge team for turning things around very quickly for a constituent in difficult circumstances.

11.  A member of the committee recognised that a large number of Environment & Infrastructure complaints were escalated to Stage 2 and asked how this could be reduced. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support explained that complaints at stage 2 did not necessarily always qualify as stage 2 complaints. He further expressed the need for the service to respond more intelligently to stage one complaints to ensure that they did not escalate to stage 2. 

12.  Members of the committee asked for clarification on which libraries would provide a blue badge checking service. The Cabinet Member for Community Services agreed to find out the details relating to this and would let members know if this service was available in their area.

13.  Some members commented that the information on the public website was not always up to date. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support stated that if residents were not happy with a webpage they now had the option to provide feedback whilst on that webpage by clicking on the happy, average, or sad smiley face. This would provide targeted feedback in order to push for improvement. The Cabinet Member for Community Services stated that a new look public website would hopefully be launched next month, having taken account of feedback received from members and customers.

14.  Members of the Committee remained concerned with the poor performance against the target response rate for children’s social care complaints as identified on page 42 of the report and asked for this to be raised with the Children and Education Select Committee.

15.  A member of the Committee asked if Local Committees could have clarification on the use of blue badges. The Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support expressed his support for this and explained that a four minute video guide on blue badges had been set up and would be sent to members.

Recommendations

a)    Note the report.

b)    The Children & Education Select Committee scrutinises the poor performance against the target response rate for children’s social care complaints in 2012/13.

Actions/further information to be provided

For the Interim Head of Customer Services and Directorate Support to provide advice and information on the use of blue badges to local committees.

Committee Next Steps:

None