Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to provide Members with background information on how the public contacts the Council.

Contact Officer: Adrian Moores Tel: 0161 474 5405 email: adrian.moores@stockport.gov.uk

The Head of Customer Services submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) providing background information on ways in which the public contacts the Council.  The following questions were asked:-

• How many Stockport residents were surveyed as part of the Customer Services Strategy ‘Putting People First’. 
• Had there been an annual increase in the volume of activity when the Contact Centre combined into the new service, Customer Services in 2005.
• How footfall at Fred Perry House was estimated and recorded.
• The definition of a local centre library.
• How were the services and facilities available in the eleven District Centres advertised to residents.
• Did the Contact Centre offer a service to help residents fill in Council forms. 
• How often did the Citizens’ Panel survey take place.
• Which Council services were not included as part of the Contact Centre and the possibility of looking into this issue further.
• When residents contacted the Contact Centre were they advised of the Council’s website and online services.
• Why elected members and officers could not access social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The Head of Marketing and Communications provided information on the Scrutiny Review of Communications and informed the Panel that:

·        Research was underway as requested by the Scrutiny Panel on Communications which includes questions on how people contact the Council and how it would be completed by early November 2011.

·        Work was underway to achieve more effective and cost-efficient channel shift with regard to communications using public information campaigns such as ‘Right Thing Right Bin’

·        Qualitative research was underway on the accessibility of the Council website which would also be reported back to this Panel.

The following issues were raised / comments made:-

·        Councillors expressed concern regarding the need for Eforms to be integrated into the appropriate IT systems as currently this data was manually transcribed by staff at the Contact Centre. 

·        The proximity of the eleven District Centres, footfall at each centre and the possibility of investigating the return in value of money from the District Centres.

·        The possibility of investigating how Stockport Direct manages seasonal enquiries and an analysis on the type of information requested by the customer, for example a complaint or point of information.

·        Councillors questioned the difference in the administration process of completing a housing benefit form online as opposed to completing a hardcopy of the form.

·        Councillors commented on the efficiency of the services provided at the Contact Centre and whether the Centre could manage additional services.

·        The possibility of monitoring how many hits the Council’s website had on a particular day such as refuse days and to analyse whether this number was in line with national statistics.

·        Councillors suggested benchmarking against other local authorities to identify best practice and to compare current practices in Stockport.  Councillors commented that it would be useful to compare these statistics with a Council of a similar population, geographical and demography in respect to local and district centres.

·        Councillors requested a copy of the Council Communications Scrutiny Review for information.

·        Councillors agreed that part of the review should focus on the Council’s online offer and in particular the opportunities that the development of a suite of transactional online forms would present in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

·        Members felt that it would be useful to carry out some small scale research to identify how accessible the Council’s website was to members of the public. 

·         Councillors suggested a number of key themes when making comparisons between Stockport Council’s website and other authorities.  It was suggested the top five reasons should be Refuse and Recycling, Council Tax, Housing repairs, Benefits and Libraries, Advice and Information.

·        Members requested information on the cost of the contact centre and the potential increase in activity / volume at the contact centre due to the current climate.

RESOLVED – (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That the following objectives for the review be approved:-

(i)             Transactional forms - Explanation to the current process, barriers to improvements, cost implications and to investigate how other local authorities manage this process.

(ii)      The eleven district centres to investigate 1) the levels of footfall in each centre and 2) to question if the district centres provide value for the money and were the services provided the correct services required by the public. 

(3) That the Lead Officer – Head of Customer Services be requested to complete the project plan for the review and circulate to members.

(4) That the Head of Marketing & Communications be requested to update the Panel in respect to the outcome of the survey carried out as part of the Council Communications Scrutiny Review at the next meeting. 

(5) That the Head of Marketing and Communications be requested to supply Councillor Ben Alexander and Councillor Suzanne Wyatt a list of common questions by which Stockport’s website could be benchmarked in terms of navigability, against other Local Authority websites.