Co-designed Service Standards

The plan below reflects the feedback received from residents and staff.

In addition to the plan being published, residents identified that the following will also act as ways to know if we are improving:

• Resident satisfaction survey feedback
• Complaints, comments and compliments
• Staff survey feedback

Contents

1. Residents have inconsistent experiences when contacting the Council.
2. Responding to residents when it involves more than one team/service.
3. Website.
4. Lack of information or access to the roles, responsibilities and contact information for different services.
5. Poor access to and recording of interactions with residents.
6. Accessibility and inclusion.
7. Training.
8. Contractors/third parties providing services on behalf of the Council.
9. Raising complaints.
10. Council Officers aren't visible in the areas where residents live, work and learn.
11. Listening to and working with residents.

Issue 1: Residents have inconsistent experiences when contacting the Council

Feedback

Some residents reflect that staff are helpful and friendly, but are unable to resolve issues quickly and properly. Other resident feedback indicates that staff do not always treat residents with respect, kindness or empathy.

Description 

We need to understand how different services design, develop, deliver and improve their approach to working with residents; including the statutory and non-statutory processes that they follow; to better understand where there are opportunities for improvement.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Design a framework to assess service's maturity against the standards.	End of October 2023	27 October 2023	Completed ready for the trial in November and December 2023.
Trial the agreed approach in three services, identify good practices, as well as actions to support improvement which are recorded in an action plan.	End of March 2024	13 December 2023	The trial has been completed and the maturity assessment process updated following feedback. A schedule to roll these out next year has been agreed.

Issue 2: Responding to residents when it involves more than one team/service

Feedback

• Residents feel that there is no accountability for resolving the issue and that they have to work out how to get things resolved or who to approach.
• Staff feel that they don’t know who to ask when it’s not something they usually deal with and staff don’t reply to emails promptly causing delays and poor resident experience.
• Residents and staff feel that different teams and services need to work better together; so that the resident journey is easier and quicker.

Description

• We need to understand if this impacts a lot of residents; which services often need to come together to resolve the enquiry or concern; what the experience is and identify if there are opportunities for improvement.
• We need to identify if there are specific services that need to work better together because of specific resident journeys/or internal processes.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Identify services where we can find examples of cross cutting service involvement.	End of June 2023	30 June 2023
Identify examples to see what is happening for the resident on the journey through to outcome.	End of October 2023	20 November 2023
Identify if there are opportunities to improve the resident experience from the example gathered.	End of December 2023		On 24 January 2024 the Customer Access Programme Board agreed to pause work on this action until we  have implemented the new Customer Relationship Management system.  Read more about the Customer Relationship Management system in Issue 5.
Pilot end to end service reviews to understand what opportunities this presents to improve resident experience	End of March 2024		We originally identified the service for the pilot, but it was agreed with the sponsor that it would be better to explore another service to work with. We have now identified this service and discovery will begin in June.

Issue 3: Website

Feedback

• Residents and services find it difficult to understand what services we provide and how to access them.
• Residents feel that online forms are difficult to navigate and need to be easier to complete.

Description

• We need to review feedback to look at the specific issues with the Council website.
• We need to agree minimum requirements for any new forms, or updates to existing web forms.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Analyse the findings from the Web review, assess the conclusions and recommendations and implement agreed changes.	End of March 2024
We need to agree what information, standards and guiding principles need to be shared with developers when they build forms, so that we are aligned with the Government Digital Standards.	End of December 2023		All forms need to be compatible with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system we use to record resident interactions with the Council. Our supplier will work with us to produce a guide which will then be handed over to our developers.

Issue 4: Lack of information or access to the roles, responsibilities and contact information for different services

Feedback

• Residents feel we do not proactively share information about different Council Services or how to contact them; especially if they are not accessing information online.
• Staff say that it is difficult to know who and how to signpost residents because there isn't enough information on what services do or how to contact them.

Description

• We need to understand the experience of residents who do not have digital devices or access.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Explore what options are available to improve our knowledge of different Council services, staff roles and responsibilities and contact information.	End of October 2023		Delayed as the tool Delve we had identified to use for this work will no longer be supported by Microsoft. We are looking at alternatives.

Issue 5: Poor access to and recording of interactions with residents.

Feedback

• Residents feel that the Council needs to improve systems so that operators can input and retrieve information more easily from both staff and residents.
• Residents would like to see a profile where they can decide what information to share and what can be shared with others.

Description

• We need to be clear about how we record interactions between staff and between staff and residents.

• We need to understand what data residents would like and expect to see in their online account.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Implement a Customer Relationship Management system which:  Enables staff to record interactions and actions that can be seen by other staff who interact with residents. Has a two-way integration with Line of Business systems, so that the Customer Relationship Management system record is up to date, and where there are rules based permissions for staff to access sensitive data.	End of December 2023		A preferred supplier has been onboarded. During a 15-week discovery period, we will work with them on the initial stages of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
Carry out a workshop to understand residents' feedback on the Council’s online account.	End of October 2023	18 January 2024	Insights have been handed over to our Digital, Data and Technology team.

Issue 6: Accessibility and inclusion

Feedback

• Residents say information needs to be available in other languages.
• Residents feel that the Council needs to do more to communicate and provide information for those that struggle to access Council Services for example if they have a learning difficulty, disability or need support with digital access.

Description

• We need to understand how to improve residents’ awareness of different accessibility support tools.

• We need to understand how services can and will work differently to support residents when their needs have been identified.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Explore the options for the Council website to be translated into the most commonly spoken languages.	To be confirmed pending review of web review actions.
Explore how this information can be gathered and recorded. Ensure the Customer Relationship Management system is developed to properly record resident needs. Ensure the Customer Relationship Management system is configured to highlight residents needs so that the organisation can work more proactively to support them.	End of 2024/25

Issue 7: Training

Feedback

• Residents feel that the Council needs to do more to communicate and provide information for those that struggle to access Council Services for example if they have a learning difficulty, disability or need support with digital access.
• Staff have said different roles require different support, skills and training.

• Residents feel that the Council needs to provide more helpful, proactive and prompt communication.

Description

• We need to understand how services can and will work differently to support residents when their needs have been identified.
• We need to understand what skills, support and training need to be available for various roles across the Council.
• We need to develop good practice principles that set out how we should be communicating with residents. 

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Explore how this information can be gathered and recorded. Ensure the Customer Relationship Management system is developed to properly record resident needs. Ensure Customer Relationship Management system is configured to highlight residents needs so that the organisation can work more proactively to support them.	End of 2024/25
Work with HR to review the training offer and ensure it meets the needs of staff as well as People Leaders that are responsible for service delivery.	April 2025		A series of courses called ‘Residents and Customers in Focus’ have been created and are available on our staff-only internal Learning Hub. A half-day face-to-face course entitled 'Giving our Best for Residents and Colleagues' has also started. Sessions run monthly.
Ensure "Our Contact Commitments" are fully adopted and embedded within service areas.	End of December 2023		Council-wide engagement occurred throughout October and November. Work continues throughout 2024.

Issue 8: Contractors/third parties providing services on behalf of the Council 

Feedback

• Residents say we need to hire better contractors as the standard of workmanship is not good.

Description

• We need to ensure that contractors are aware of the Service Standards and that contracts require them to share customer satisfaction data.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Share Service Standards with all Contractors in the Contract Register and ensure that contract monitoring and management requires contractors to demonstrate how they are working to these standards.	End of December 2023	10 October 2023	All contract managers have been briefed and provided with the Service Standards and implementation plan. They have been asked to share these with all contractors and include discussions and evidence of these as part of their regular contract monitoring.

Issue 9: Raising complaints

Feedback

• Residents say that they have inconsistent experiences when trying to access the complaints process.

• Some residents say that there is a fear of reprisal and that the Council needs to address residents’ sensitivity around using the complaints process.

Description

• We need to improve awareness and access to the complaints process.

• We need to identify which services residents are apprehensive about raising complaints against.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Carry out a communications campaign to raise general, external awareness of the complaints process, including how residents can contact the complaints team directly.	End of October 2023		Delayed due to a change in approach. Before carrying out a communications campaign, we have decided to carry out further engagement with residents to understand what they would like and need to know. As well as a digital campaign, we are also exploring how we will provide this information in other formats and locations.
Complaints Team to explore resident engagement feedback in more detail. Complaints Team to work with the identified Services and support them to address and overcome residents’ concerns about using the complaints process.	End of April 2024

Issue 10: Council Officers aren't visible in the areas where residents live, work and learn    

Feedback

• The community trusts other established organisations and so Council presence at these events will generate better relationships and higher attendance.

Description

• We need to understand what services and information residents would like to see and have access to; and where and when these needs to be delivered to best support residents.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Carry out a face-to-face access pilot in community spaces to understand demand and impact; and report findings to Programme Board.	End of October 2023	2 October 2023	Our formal pilot has concluded, but the decision of Programme Board was to extend for a further six months to allow us to better understands demand and impact.

Issue 11: Listening to and working with residents

Feedback

• Residents do not consistently feel as though the Council includes or consults them on the things that affect their lives.

Description

• Decision makers to act in line with the Charter for Public Participation, engage with residents early in the decision-making process and ensure that key decision reports include details of engagement and consultation carried out. PCF Team to continue to ask Citizen Panel questions about how involved residents feel in decision making.

Actions	Target completion date	Date completed	Update
Develop "You Said, We Did" guidance that supports staff to understand how to work with the community.	End of October 2023	11 August 2023
Continue with our feedback survey rollout across the organisation, so that residents can give feedback about staff and services at various touchpoints. More feedback across a whole resident journey will enable us to make improvements which we can report back to residents about.	End of December 2023		Delayed as the current platform we use to send out resident feedback surveys is not fit for purpose so we are looking to move to a new platform. Whilst discussions around this are ongoing, we will continue to gather requirements from services but we will not be implementing any new surveys until the new solution is ready.
Managers and senior leaders should speak to residents who have used the service on a quarterly basis. This will allow leaders to better understand resident experience and make improvements that positively impact residents.	End of December 2023		Council-wide engagement occurred throughout October and November. Work continues throughout 2024.