Agenda and minutes

Venue: Diamond Room 5 - Council House. View directions

Contact: Usha Patel  Tel: 024 7683 3198

Items
No. Item

27.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

28.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 84 KB

(a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2015

 

(b)  Matters Arising

Minutes:

The minutes of the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources meeting held on 7 December 2015 were signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

29.

Update on Customer Journey Programme and Customer Services performance pdf icon PDF 108 KB

Report of the Executive Director of Resources

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Executive Director of Resources which provided a comprehensive update on the progress of the Customer Journey Programme and Customer Services performance.

 

The report stated that the objective of consolidating customer reception/face to face services and telephony within the Customer Service Centre in Broadgate House had been achieved. The Customer Service Centre was opened to staff in September 2015 and to the public on 18 November 2015. This was a key milestone and marked a completely new way of delivering Council services. Located in the heart of the city, the centres brings together telephone and face to face service delivery for the first time along with a meet and greet team to help customers with their enquiries and supporting use of our new online services and self-service kiosks.

 

Services available to customers include housing benefits, council tax, housing and homelessness, payments, planning and building control, school admissions, free school meals, bus passes and blue badges. Other services would be phased in over the coming months.

 

The report stated that some of the biggest challenges continue to be balancing the resources available to deliver Council services, with the demand for those services. It is hoped that through the Customer Journey Programme telephone calls received can be reduced and in turn, wait times and abandonment rates also reduced.  In terms of telephony, it was reported that an average of 45,000 calls a month were received with the main volume areas being missed bins, council tax and housing benefits. 

 

Work was currently underway to understand why people contact the Council in the first instance in an effort to reduce the sheer number of calls.

 

Over the last 12 months, discussions had also taken place with other service areas to determine how they could benefit from the programme and potentially make savings in terms of time and resources as a result.

 

The report had been considered by the Finance and Corporate Services Scrutiny Board (1) on 6 January 2016 (their Minute 30/15 refers). The Board recommended that information on the location of the new Customer Service Centre at Broadgate be included with the Council Tax Bill sent to every household.

 

The Cabinet Member requested that key performance indicators be developed to allow progress to be bench marked and monitored. It was noted that data was already being collected with a view to presenting it in a constructive way. 

 

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources:

 

1.  Considered comments raised by SB1 and endorses the progress made.

 

2.  Agrees that in future, an informal update on the Customer Journey Programme and Customer Services performance would be acceptable.

 

30.

Outstanding Issues Report pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Report of the Executive Director of Resources

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member noted a report of the Executive Director of Resources that identified those issues on which further reports has been requested and were outstanding, so that progress could be monitored.  

31.

Any other items of public business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.