Issue - meetings

To provide an update on how the Council is performing for the period 1^st April 2023 to 30th June 2023 (report of the Assistant Director – Corporate enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director - Corporate which provided an update on how the Council was performing for the period 1^st April 2023 to 30^th June 2023.

The report was introduced by the Business Intelligence and Change Manager which provided an overview of how the Council was performing against its key performance indicators. Full details were provided at Appendix A to the report.

The key points of the report were outlined:

• There had been a revision to some indicators and targets to ensure they remained relevant to service delivery and monitored the key aspects of service performance.
• 33% of metrics presented a positive position, while 14% were below target. 
• Homelessness performance had particularly improved from the last quarter.

The Head of Customer Contact was also in attendance and highlighted:

• Customer Contact performance varied in quarter 1 as some metrics were red and others were green but noted that all metrics were green for quarter 2 which would allay Members fears.
• March and April were an extremely busy time for Customer Contact with benefits and council tax calls.
• Pre-emptive measures had been put in place for this period such as the call back service introduced on 9^th May, a ban on annual leave and extended hours.
• There were a number of improvements in the pipeline with new data in the Customer Relations Management system that could track the digital capabilities of customers and the number of enquiries received where there were no digital options in place. This information would be fed back to services to inform them of digital changes that could be made to their service.
• A Customer Experience Board had been set up, attended by the Head of Customer Contact, the Business Intelligence and Change Manager and the Assistant Manager – Wellbeing and Community Leadership, that looked at recorded data and used this to influence future service operation decisions.

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members asked whether there were any trends identified that had caused the increases seen.
  • The Head of Customer Contact stated that there was a natural uplift in the number of calls received in March and April which could be planned for to a certain extent, but demand this year was much higher than expected with a 38% uplift in April this year, compared to last April
  • It was also noted that financial pressures for residents had increased which had led to an increase in calls relating to benefit applications, council tax and homelessness. Many of these calls took longer to answer as they were sensitive cases and often needed to be signposted to additional support.
  • The Head of Customer Contact confirmed that a quality first approach was being taken to ensure all customers were given the best support possible. This approach did however have a knock-on effect as other customers would then have to wait in the queue for longer.
  • It was confirmed that digital self-serve avenues were being investigated with individual departments  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24