Agenda item

This Council Meeting believes:

 

·         that “if Stockport residents don’t feel that they’re able to contact us in the manner they expect, want and need, they either won’t or they’ll be left dissatisfied, both of these being undesirable outcomes” (Foreward. “How the Public Contact the Council Scrutiny Review”, CRMG, June 2012).

·         that residents have a right to contact their Council in a variety of different ways and that the Council and its services should be easy to access, as stated in the Council’s Customer Charter.

·         that prioritising digital communications above all other forms of contact can have the effect, however unintended, of marginalising older and vulnerable people as well as hard to reach groups and unfairly excludes those people who do not have access to the internet or who have low confidence in their internet skills.

 

This Council Meeting notes:

 

·         that the preferred way for members of the public to contact the Council is by telephone. Over 485,100 telephone calls were received by the Council in 2013-14. In contrast, 41,860 emails were received.

·         that the Council Contact Centre’s answer rate for telephone calls fell to 70.6% in 2013/14, the lowest level in the 3 years for which performance data is available.

·         that ONS statistics show that, as at Q1 2014, 263,000 people in Greater Manchester had never used the Internet and that use of public authorities or services’ websites among adult age groups was lowest among the over 65s.

 

This Council Meeting further believes:

 

·         that cuts made to Contact Centre staffing levels since March 2013 are proving unsustainable and have been undertaken without the support of a Customer Engagement Strategy which assesses actual demand and levels of incoming calls.

·         that Councillors are receiving increased levels of complaint about contacting the Council by telephone, difficulty getting through and long waiting times.

·         that the Council’s aspirations to move towards increased self-service, online solutions and a Digital Stockport approach have not made adequate provision to support traditional methods of getting in touch with the Council during the changeover period.

 

This Council Meeting requests that the Executive:

 

·         increase staffing levels at the Contact Centre by at least 4FTEs to reduce waiting times, improve performance for residents and reflect the fact that the telephone is still the preferred method of contacting the Council; and

·         Support this increase in staffing through the allocation of appropriate resources (of around £200k over the two years of the current proposed MTFP) from the Investing In Stockport reserve which is available to assist with projects requiring extra resources and where there may be a need to incur costs while new delivery models are embedded more successfully.

 

Moved by:                  Councillor. Alanna Vine

 

Seconded by:           Councillor Syd Lloyd

MOVED AND SECONDED - This Council Meeting believes:

 

·        that “if Stockport residents don’t feel that they’re able to contact us in the manner they expect, want and need, they either won’t or they’ll be left dissatisfied, both of these being undesirable outcomes” (Foreward. “How the Public Contact the Council Scrutiny Review”, CRMG, June 2012).

·        that residents have a right to contact their Council in a variety of different ways and that the Council and its services should be easy to access, as stated in the Council’s Customer Charter.

·        that prioritising digital communications above all other forms of contact can have the effect, however unintended, of marginalising older and vulnerable people as well as hard to reach groups and unfairly excludes those people who do not have access to the internet or who have low confidence in their internet skills.

 

This Council Meeting notes:

 

·        that the preferred way for members of the public to contact the Council is by telephone. Over 485,100 telephone calls were received by the Council in 2013-14. In contrast, 41,860 emails were received.

·        that the Council Contact Centre’s answer rate for telephone calls fell to 70.6% in 2013/14, the lowest level in the 3 years for which performance data is available.

·        that ONS statistics show that, as at Q1 2014, 263,000 people in Greater Manchester had never used the Internet and that use of public authorities or services’ websites among adult age groups was lowest among the over 65s.

 

This Council Meeting further believes:

 

·        that cuts made to Contact Centre staffing levels since March 2013 are proving unsustainable and have been undertaken without the support of a Customer Engagement Strategy which assesses actual demand and levels of incoming calls.

·        that Councillors are receiving increased levels of complaint about contacting the Council by telephone, difficulty getting through and long waiting times.

·        that the Council’s aspirations to move towards increased self-service, online solutions and a Digital Stockport approach have not made adequate provision to support traditional methods of getting in touch with the Council during the changeover period.

 

This Council Meeting requests that the Executive:

 

·        increase staffing levels at the Contact Centre by at least 4FTEs to reduce waiting times, improve performance for residents and reflect the fact that the telephone is still the preferred method of contacting the Council; and

·        Support this increase in staffing through the allocation of appropriate resources (of around £200k over the two years of the current proposed MTFP) from the Investing In Stockport reserve which is available to assist with projects requiring extra resources and where there may be a need to incur costs while new delivery models are embedded more successfully.

 

AMENDMENT MOVED AND SECONDED - This Council Meeting believes:

 

·        that “if Stockport residents don’t feel that they’re able to contact us in the manner they expect, want and need, they either won’t or they’ll be left dissatisfied, both of these being undesirable outcomes” (Foreward. “How the Public Contact the Council Scrutiny Review”, CRMG, June 2012).

·        that residents have a right to contact their Council in a variety of different ways and that the Council and its services should be easy to access, as stated in the Council’s Customer Charter.

·        that prioritising digital communications above all other forms of contact can have the effect, however unintended, of marginalising older and vulnerable people as well as hard to reach groups and unfairly excludes those people who do not have access to the internet or who have low confidence in their internet skills.

 

This Council Meeting notes:

 

·        that the preferred way for members of the public to contact the Council is by telephone. Over 485,100 telephone calls were received by the Council in 2013-14. In contrast, 41,860 emails were received.

·        that the Council Contact Centre’s answer rate for telephone calls fell to 70.6% in 2013/14, the lowest level in the 3 years for which performance data is available.

·        that ONS statistics show that, as at Q1 2014, 263,000 people in Greater Manchester had never used the Internet and that use of public authorities or services’ websites among adult age groups was lowest among the over 65s.

 

This Council Meeting further believes:

 

·        that cuts made to Contact Centre staffing levels since March 2013 are proving unsustainable and have been undertaken without the support of a Customer Engagement Strategy which assesses actual demand and levels of incoming calls.

·        that Councillors are receiving increased levels of complaint about contacting the Council by telephone, difficulty getting through and long waiting times.

 

This Council Meeting further notes

 

·        that the Executive has already taken action, increasing staffing levels in the contact centre by 5 FTE from 1st September by outsourcing Council Tax related calls to Civica and the Executive proposes to maintain this additional staffing for as long as is necessary to ensure the proper operation of the call centre with much reduced waiting times and unanswered calls.

·        that further improvements are being worked on to make it easier to contact the Council by both phone and internet.

 

This Council Meeting resolves that the CRMG Scrutiny Committee should be fully briefed on the currently planned improvements and be consulted upon any further changes on an on-going basis.

 

For the amendment 40, abstentions 21.

 

AMENDMENT CARRIED

 

FURTHER AMENDMENT MOVED AND SECONDED - This Council Meeting believes:

 

·        that “if Stockport residents don’t feel that they’re able to contact us in the manner they expect, want and need, they either won’t or they’ll be left dissatisfied, both of these being undesirable outcomes” (Foreward. “How the Public Contact the Council Scrutiny Review”, CRMG, June 2012).

·        that residents have a right to contact their Council in a variety of different ways and that the Council and its services should be easy to access, as stated in the Council’s Customer Charter.

·        that prioritising digital communications above all other forms of contact can have the effect, however unintended, of marginalising older and vulnerable people as well as hard to reach groups and unfairly excludes those people who do not have access to the internet or who have low confidence in their internet skills.

 

This Council Meeting notes:

 

·        that the preferred way for members of the public to contact the Council is by telephone. Over 485,100 telephone calls were received by the Council in 2013-14. In contrast, 41,860 emails were received.

·        that the Council Contact Centre’s answer rate for telephone calls fell to 70.6% in 2013/14, the lowest level in the 3 years for which performance data is available.

·        that ONS statistics show that, as at Q1 2014, 263,000 people in Greater Manchester had never used the Internet and that use of public authorities or services’ websites among adult age groups was lowest among the over 65s.

 

This Council Meeting further believes:

 

·        that cuts made to Contact Centre staffing levels since March 2013 are proving unsustainable and have been undertaken without the support of a Customer Engagement Strategy which assesses actual demand and levels of incoming calls.

·        that Councillors are receiving increased levels of complaints about contacting the Council by telephone, difficulty getting through and long waiting times.

·        that if the Council had delivered an improved digital offer, it would have freed up significant capacity for the Contact Centre to deal with those who do not have online access

 

This Council Meeting requests that the Executive:

 

·        notes the contents of the forthcoming report to the Corporate, Resource Management and Governance Scrutiny Committee which will be presented on 16th September

·        takes the steps necessary, including a review of staffing levels, to ensure that by March 2015 the Contact Centre achieves an answer rate for all calls of 80% or higher, and answers calls on average within 2 minutes at an average call length of 5 minutes or less

·        makes the Digital by Design Project a top priority for the Council, as the lack of progress made towards ‘channel shift’ is affecting residents both who would like access to web-based services and those who would like to continue to use the Contact Centre

 

For the amendment 22, against 36, 2 abstentions.

 

AMENDMENT NOT CARRIED

 

The motion as amended was then put as the substantive motion and it was

 

RESOLVED – (60 for) This Council Meeting believes:

 

·        that “if Stockport residents don’t feel that they’re able to contact us in the manner they expect, want and need, they either won’t or they’ll be left dissatisfied, both of these being undesirable outcomes” (Foreward. “How the Public Contact the Council Scrutiny Review”, CRMG, June 2012).

·        that residents have a right to contact their Council in a variety of different ways and that the Council and its services should be easy to access, as stated in the Council’s Customer Charter.

·        that prioritising digital communications above all other forms of contact can have the effect, however unintended, of marginalising older and vulnerable people as well as hard to reach groups and unfairly excludes those people who do not have access to the internet or who have low confidence in their internet skills.

 

This Council Meeting notes:

 

·        that the preferred way for members of the public to contact the Council is by telephone. Over 485,100 telephone calls were received by the Council in 2013-14. In contrast, 41,860 emails were received.

·        that the Council Contact Centre’s answer rate for telephone calls fell to 70.6% in 2013/14, the lowest level in the 3 years for which performance data is available.

·        that ONS statistics show that, as at Q1 2014, 263,000 people in Greater Manchester had never used the Internet and that use of public authorities or services’ websites among adult age groups was lowest among the over 65s.

 

This Council Meeting further believes:

 

·        that cuts made to Contact Centre staffing levels since March 2013 are proving unsustainable and have been undertaken without the support of a Customer Engagement Strategy which assesses actual demand and levels of incoming calls.

·        that Councillors are receiving increased levels of complaint about contacting the Council by telephone, difficulty getting through and long waiting times.

 

This Council Meeting further notes

 

·        that the Executive has already taken action, increasing staffing levels in the contact centre by 5 FTE from 1st September by outsourcing Council Tax related calls to Civica and the Executive proposes to maintain this additional staffing for as long as is necessary to ensure the proper operation of the call centre with much reduced waiting times and unanswered calls.

·        that further improvements are being worked on to make it easier to contact the Council by both phone and internet.

 

This Council Meeting resolves that the CRMG Scrutiny Committee should be fully briefed on the currently planned improvements and be consulted upon any further changes on an on-going basis.