Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Judith Bax, Stephen Gilbert & Sheila Peacock.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. Where the item is already included on the agenda, it will be dealt with under that item but new items of urgent business will be dealt with at item

None.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgement of the public interest.

None.

The Review Panel to approve the appointment of Lydia Dlaboha as an Expert Adviser to this review.

Lydia Dlaboha introduced herself, she is a Consultant with Housing Quality Network (HQN), which mainly worked on housing projects. There are a lot of cross cutting issues such as customer care, access and performance. She led on the Housing Mock Inspection in Haringey which took place in preparation for the ALMO. There were some vital issues picked up in the mock inspection on customer care, equality, diversity and the links of customer service with housing.

The Panel endorsed the appointment of Lydia Dlaboha as an Expert Adviser to this review subject to the terms and conditions of appointment set out in the service level agreement.

The Panel to note and comment on the contents of the attached report and receive oral evidence from the Head of Customer Services.

The Head of Customer Services introduced this report, which followed a question and answer session:

Q1)        Is Homeless Unit part of Customer Services (CS)

          Ans 1)   Homeless Unit is not part of CS or part of this review. Although external Inspectors do look at how local authorities serve vulnerable people in the community.

A key challenge for Customer Services was joint working and the Housing Improvement Plan in response to the housing mock inspection detailed ways to address this issue.

Action: JW- Issues relating to CS in the Housing Mock Inspection, along with the Improvement Plan relating to them be presented at a later stage of the review.

          Q2)        The Customer Services Telephone Survey data table for CSC’s & CC had a high proportion of actions which were agreed with customers but not carried out. Can you explain why that is? Can this data be split into Directorates to identify those departments not undertaking the actions.

          Ans2)    This may not necessarily be a Customer Services issue. For example if a resident phones up about a Housing Repair, but for some reason the repair does not get done but the transaction has been completed on CS side then this obviously is out of the remit of CS. This data can be split into Client Service and I will provide a copy to the Review Panel.

          Action: JW – Data of % of action carried out by Client Service. (Please See Appendix 4)

          Q3)        During our visits to the CSC’s it was obvious managing and displaying leaflets was an issue. There were boxes lying around and it was not clear if the leaflets they contained were out of date.

          Ans 3)   We are currently looking into this and it has been proposed that Corporate Communication take responsibility for all reception and corporate leaflets, which includes version control. At present we have boxes lying around as departments get them printed in bulk and give to us as it is cheaper and we have to store them wherever possible. The re-design of some of the reception areas in CSC will create further display space, in particular for ALMO.

          It was noted that the CSC’s were a very important way of communicating with residents for the Council. It was imperative that the information displayed are accurate and sufficient.

          Q4)        CS’s last recruitment was undertaken through the website. This meant that a lot of people were excluded. Are there any Government Schemes which pays for local people to train in such a job, or do you have any plans to recruit local people? What do you look for in your officers? Local people will have more empathy towards residents and also a better understanding of the issues affecting the borough.

          Ans 4)   Through the New Start Scheme we have taken on 2/3 people each year, and most of these have secured permanent jobs with the Council. There may be a possibility of setting up a Customer Service Academy which is self financing. This will obviously need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Panel to note and comment on the contents of the work plan.

The Review Panel made the following comments on the work plan:

That the meeting arranged for 18^th October 2005 be combined with the meeting on 29^th November 2005. JW to arrange staff from CS and Client Sides to attend meeting on 29^th November 2005. CS will arrange for facilitation of this focus group.

LD suggested that perhaps visits to private sector or Housing Associations such as English Churches or Metropolitan Housing may be a good learning experience for Members.

JW suggested that perhaps a visit to Westminster Council Call Centre which is operated by a private company would be beneficial.

LD stated that Customers view points needed to be taken in to account. JW said that a focus group with customers could be undertaken and agreed to arrange a focus group with local service users.

Action: AH to amend work plan and arrange the visits.

To deal with any new items of urgent business admitted at item 2 above.

None.