Meeting documents

Report to Executive

4-Monthly Performance Report

SCOPE OF REPORTING AREA

Customer Access Programme

E-government

Service Standards & Quality Schemes

Complaints

LSP & Partnerships

Community Legal Service

The report provides estimates at end of December of the outturn at the end of March

Main achievements

The main achievements this period are:

The Customer Access Programme

· The Disability Discrimination Act upgrades to Saltford Library have been completed and the library has re-opened. Major work is underway to implement the recommendations of the Disability Discrimination Act audit for Bath Central Library, and to improve customer access and facilities generally. This will provide the foundation for establishment of libraries a first stop shops for first level customer enquiries in line with the first stop shop strategy.

· A Business Process Re-engineering team has been agreed and will be established to support service reviews across the council and prepare for contact centre implementation.

· A Member Working Group has made recommendations to the Executive on the Customer Access Programme which will feed into the review of the Corporate and Financial Plan. Work is being initiated in 04/05 to progress the Contact Centre project together with a Customer Relationship Management system

· InfoPlus launch event held to publicise new level access & staff NVQ achievement

· Service Level Agreements implemented between Customer Services, Libraries and Information and services represented at customer access points.

· Keynsham library in partnership Job Centre Plus is now offering telephone access to job centre services and will be expanding to The Hollies.

· Staff recruited to provide peripatetic support across multiple service points and provide marketing support to enable better customer consultation.

· Training and development continuing to achieve consistent services across reception points

· Consistent physical environment being developed for service delivery points including colour zoning, improved lighting, hearing loops and new flooring. Will help deliver Disability Discrimination Act requirements.

· Staff development workshops have been held to support the associated culture change with the developing customer services organisation

E-Government

· Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) strategy developed and endorsed by Directors' Group and Executive

· Current and planned e-enablement of services has been evaluated by Heads of Service and reported in IEG4. This shows that 56% of services will be e-enabled by March 05 and 65.3% will be by March 06. These are lower than the previous estimates given last year. This is due to a changed method of calculation which may have lead to an underestimate. The Council's business development programme is being reviewed to identify opportunities to increase this level of performance within available resources

· The E-Pay National Project has produced an online Toolkit for implementing e-payment solutions within an authority (http://www.e-payment.org.uk). The Council received funding for two demonstrator systems (automated telephone payment of parking fines; payments for items ordered via Library Link to be made by mobile phones) and two case studies (use of self service cash machines to make payments including council tax Payments business rates, rent, recycling purchases, parking fines and miscellaneous payments and cashless catering in schools).

Local Strategic Partnership

· Initial scoping work on "refreshing" the Community Strategy has begun

· A tool for assessing the effectiveness of Key Partnerships is being piloted, in line with recommendations from the Partnership Review Group

· Work with Local Strategic Partnership partners is taking place on "joining up" information and consultation processes

· Regular performance updates on progress against the community strategy ambitions are reported to Local Strategic Partnership meetings and are available on the Local Strategic Partnership website.

· The Local Strategic Partnership is working closely with HBS Business Services Group on a project to "e-enable" partnership working

Services Customer access initiatives

· Video conferencing facilities have been installed in the Hollies, Keynsham Town Hall and Lewis House enabling remote access to specialist services on a planned appointment basis.

· SMS text messaging facility introduced for contacting council services.

· Choice based lettings self service kiosks installed and due for activation in January 05

· Planning on-line project started to enable access to planning and development control documents on-line.

· Community wardens are using Hand held devices to link the Southbanks Business Services system enabling them to record customer access enquiries and ambassadorial encounters and resolve them at point of contact improving customer service and response times

· Creation and distribution of a new signposting leaflet for Social & Housing Services (called 'Social & Housing Services - what do we do)

· Introduction of information sheets for Social & Housing Services. These replace traditional, pre-printed leaflets and have many advantages, including minimal waste and printing costs, increased ease in providing up to date accurate information, empowering service users as they can download information straight from the internet, (as well as being able to obtain from Council offices), no storage or distribution required, teams can be self-sufficient and print as and when information is needed.

· Launch of Purple Pages service (July 2004) - Purple Pages is a free telephone helpline that provides information about a large range of different groups, services and organisations. The main target group are disabled people, older people, carers and their friends, family and professionals.

· A model of delivery called Locality Based Support to Schools (LBSS) has received positive evaluation from schools so the Youth and Community Service is starting to extend this across the authority from January 2005.

· The Building Access Group has continued with its programme of works to ensure that our services and buildings are accessible

· There is now a well publicised telephone interpreting service across the Council to assist in service delivery with minority groups

· Sensory Services teams have video link facilities available to offer advice remotely

· Social and Housing Service have got a bi-lingual referral form in Chinese and English for people who's first language is Cantonese or mandarin to refer directly

· Home seekers application form has been rewritten to include better equalities monitoring to ensure more equitable housing allocation

· The Elder Aware programme delivers a resource pack to Vulnerable older people that ensures they know how to access services

· We have one single point of entry for Drug and Alcohol Clients and this has simplified their ability to access services

· We now have a young people only, stand alone, Drug and Alcohol service and this replaces a previously fragmented service where self referral was not possible

Planned Actions not achieved

· The planned level of achievement on Implementing Electronic Government has not been achieved, and action is being taken to address this

· Corporate Equality Commitment and Equal Opportunities Policy have been through consultation and are awaiting full Council approval

Development Opportunities

· There is a programme of training, underway, for reception and other staff in Social and Housing services around Race and Disability issues in order to improve the understanding around the needs of our local communities

· Supported living people are working with the content management strategy team for a British Sign Language video clips to be available on the web site

· Work to promote understanding, with the public and staff, of the Council's plans to improve customer services and the achievements to date

· Co-ordinated approach to change programmes established which will help integrate improved customer service with other change projects.

· CitySpace funding proposal for Kiosks has potential to widen customer access in remote areas of the authority and maintain existing city based Kiosks.

· BT Connect project to enable wireless internet access in Bath City centre public realm and other key locations

· E-Innovation round 2 funding available from Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. A range of proposals put forward by services

· We are currently setting up a Drug and Alcohol user/carer forum to support and inform the work of the Drug Action Team

· The gap analysis to determine Customer Services Libraries and Information compliance with Level 2 Disability Discrimination Act access requirements is continuing.

Potential threats

· Funding for Customer Access Programme one of many pressures on financial plan

· Lower than anticipated achievement on Implementing Electronic Government may impact on capital funding allocation from government and future Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

2. Reporting on targets and commitments made in the Performance Plan

3. Analysis of complaints - Service take up

Future reports will aim to include as soon as possible