Title: HELP CENTRES/PARTNERSHIP WORKING

BACKGROUND

1. During the late 90’s the Isle of Wight Council set up a pilot scheme and provided a one-stop shop type operation in Ryde. The scheme promoted the idea of a single and efficient point of access to Council services for the local community. Partner agencies were invited to use the centre and provide outreach services.

2. The scheme has since been expanded and now includes an office in Freshwater and outreach services in Shanklin, Brading, Wootton and Cowes.

DEVELOPMENTS

3. The council is keen to identify 5 multi agency hubs across the Island, these premises are presently expected to be shared under a partnership operation, the locations for these are: Sandown, Ryde, Freshwater, Newport and Cowes.

4. The benefits of partnership working, which were recently identified for the proposed relocation and office merge with Freshwater Parish Council include:

o Shared costs

o Located at the heart of the community

o Option to expand to become a multi agency location

o Reliable connectivity

o Option to explore further partnership working

o Increased involvement with the local community

o Sharing knowledge

o In line with the Council’s Aim High vision

Unfortunately this proposal has not progressed, however, it is now expected to be part of the multi agency hub.

5. The Public Access team have held discussion with representatives of Wootton Bridge Parish Council to explore the future management and delivery of services and how this may work. Clearly there is an opportunity to replicate this across other Island Town/Parish Councils; however, this could only be done in proportion to the Town/Parish Council’s capacity.

6. The Freshwater Help Centre is due to re-locate shortly, this is due to the sale of our present location which was owned by South Wight Housing Association. As Freshwater has been identified for a multi agency hub the Help Centre operation will transfer to the Council’s Library Service (expected move November 2006), this will result in a slight decrease in service, but is presently seen as the least cost option and a temporary solution until the multi agency hub is created.

ACCESS POINTS

7. It is worth pointing out that the council currently operates approximately 75 access points, these range from Tourist Information Centres, Neighbourhood Offices, Libraries and service specific receptions ie: Planning. Many of these buildings however, are not fit for purpose and although there is currently an asset management plan being developed, there is no one department responsible for the face to face activity across the Island. Therefore there is no consistency in the ‘citizens experience’ when dealing with the Council. To add to this, there are a number of access points in the same town, Newport for example houses the following premises all of whom have access points for our citizens:

Tourist Information Centre (Guildhall)

County Hall (currently occupied by a variety of departments)

Housing (opposite County Hall)

Planning (Seaclose Offices)

Social Services Head Quarters (Fairlee Road)

Family Information Centre (next to Library)

Library

Environmental Health, Jubilee Stores

Neighbourhood office 16+ Team (Social Services, located next to County Hall)

8. All these locations have to comply with DDA requirements, house receptions and front line staff and all have a different approach to our citizens.

CRM DEVELOPMENTS

9. During 2006 most of our access points were enabled with our ‘in house’ Customer Relationship Management system. This system allows someone from the front line to answer a variety of enquiries from our citizens at the first point of contact, this can be achieved in a variety of ways via the use of our CRM system – frequently asked questions, forms, on line payments and/or booking appointments can be processed and tracked.

10. There is a real opportunity to empower our staff to answer enquiries on a variety of services, however, this opportunity has not yet been agreed or fully explored.

PRESENT POSITION

11. Attached at appendix 1 is a summary of the present service, which the Help Centres operate; this includes details on resolution rate, type of premises used and customer satisfaction results.

CONCLUSION

12. It is clear that our access points need to be reviewed and a strategy developed to help us deliver services in a more joined up way for the benefit of our citizens.

Key Questions

13. Work to date on the best way of providing good quality customer services has identified a range of key questions which need to be addressed. These include:

13.1 What is the council’s preferred approach to working with partners (always, case by case, never, etc)?

13.2 What is the council’s view on neighbourhood management and how does this link in with the delivery of face to face customer services?

13.3 What is the council’s view on consolidating the presentation of services to the public (e.g. combining Planning, Highways, Revenues etc with a general customer enquiry function to provide a single service location in a given town)?

13.4 What is the council’s view about using specialist service points to provide a general face to face customer service (e.g. use libraries, TICs, Adult Services, Planning etc to provide general enquiry points)

13.5 Is the council comfortable with the idea of other people (town and parish councils, health etc) providing front line services on the authority’s behalf, and if so, what sort of services can be so provided (general enquiries, Planning, Highways etc)?

13.6 In what order of priority should the council seek to develop its customer services?:

Mediated services: - telephone

- face to face

- video link

Supported services - post

- e-mail

- text

- fax

-e-forms

Self help - web

- touch phone

- kiosks

- digital tv

13.7 What are the key outcomes / performance indicators for each service channel?

- unit cost

- resolution rate

- satisfaction rate

A clear strategy/programme needs to be agreed before any opportunities can be progressed.

David Price

Head of Organisational Development