In the Council’s Customer Access Strategy, we committed to creating Service Standards with residents. We co-developed these with a group of residents who responded to an expression of interest form, indicating that they would like to work with the Council to do this.
We asked for your feedback on these draft Service Standards and whether you thought they were clear and easy to understand, and suggestions for improvement, and how the Council could be held to account and measure its progress.
We had 59 responses to the formal consultation survey and engaged with 76 residents in face to face consultation events.
You have inconsistent experiences when contacting the council - 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.
You find that council communications are inaccessible and not inclusive – Residents say information needs to be available in other languages, and 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.
There is a lack of Information about different council services and how to contact them - 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.
You do not feel that the Council includes or consults you early enough in the process on the things that affect your lives – Residents who responded to our survey were asked if they felt included in decisions that are made about them/their families. A round a third of respondents (20 out of 47) said that they ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ felt included in decisions about them/their families.
We developed some best practice guidance for staff about feeding back to residents to show how their viewpoints have been included in any decisions that have been made and communicated this to colleagues across the Council.
You can view the Service Standards and the Implementation Plan on the Council website.
You can view the Council Plan on the Council website.
We know contact with the Council is unavoidable, but it should be easy, helpful, and friendly for residents. Our Customer Access Strategy outlines our commitment to you to achieve the best possible customer service. We aim to resolve your query with us at the first point of contact to avoid frustration and delays and to signpost you to the services you need.
We will make sure by improving our systems and approach that anyone contacting the Council feels that they have had a positive experience. This means that they will feel reassured that their circumstances have been understood and taken into account, confident that action will be taken, and content that they have been treated with good customer care. In the Strategy we committed to work with customers to develop service standards that reflect this and against which we can be held to account.
After responding to expressions of interest, we created a user group combined of residents and staff to explore what matters to them, what good service looks like and adopted a co-design approach to developing service standards together, which we have shared below.
Proposed Service Standards
As a resident, I want to feel:
To achieve this, the Council needs to
and services and staff need to:
The Council is keen to hear your feedback on the proposed Service Standards. Feedback from this consultation will be analysed and used to inform the development of final Service Standards.
If you need help to complete this survey, or require it in an alternative format (e.g. paper copy or in an alternative language) please contact the Customer Access Team by email at casusergroup@rbkc.gov.uk
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