customer focus report 2015 - moray 5... · ii. customer service excellence standard . a customer...

Customer FocusReport 2015

the moray council

Shonagh.Jancsics

Typewritten Text

APPENDIX 1

Case Study – Performance Management and Continuous Improvement Frameworks 10Case Study – Customer Satisfaction data used for service improvements for Occupational Health 12Case Study – Community support Unit 12Case study – Community Champions & Service redesign (Living it Up) 16Case study – Consistent approachto resource allocation for self directed support 16Case study – Creation of user-led organisation for Moray Resource Centre 17Audit Comment – SPIs 2013-14: Evaluation of Council response to the 2012 direction 21Audit Comment – Best value audit report summary 2015-18 22Case Study – Variety of consultative methods used 23Case Study – Waste reduction intervention campaign 23Case Study – Contact Centre Customer Satisfaction 24Case Study – Service Improvement from customer satisfaction feedback 25Case Study – Service User involvement (developed strategy by and for the service users) 26

ContentsIntroduction 3

SECTION1–CUSTOMERFOCUSSTRATEGYACTIONS 4Action 1 – New Customer Charter 4Action 2 – Developing customer service skills in our staff 6Action 3 – Improve Accessibility of Customer Care Information 9Action 4 – Consistency of Customer Engagement 10Action 4.1 – Service planning 10Action 4.2 – Systems improvement 10Action 4.3 – Reporting back 11Action 4.4 – Review of service priorities 13Action 4.5 – Overview of feedback 14Action 4.6 – Publicizing the Charter 14Action 5 – New technology 15Action 6 – Promoting Community Involvement in Service Improvements 16Action 7 – Customer feedback 18

SECTION2–CUSTOMERCHARTERACTIONS 20Pledge 1 – Provide high quality customer service 20Pledge 2 – Your choice as to how to contact us 23Pledge 3 – Responsive Service 24Pledge 4 – Respectful Service 25Pledge 5 – Fairly and equal treatment 26Pledge 6 – information security 27Pledge 7 – Prompt service 28Pledge 8 – Ever improving service 29Pledge 9 – Ongoing review of commitments 31

2 || The Moray Council

IntroductionWe aim to put customer needs at the heart of our service delivery. To do this, the Council is committed to customer service and values feedback from our service users. Customer views and experiences are important to us as they help us to understand what we do well and identify where we need to improve. We want our customers to feel that their feedback is valued, that we will listen and take action on lessons learned in order to improve service provision.

Arising from our Customer Charter commitments we agreed to regularly check that the terms of our Charter are being delivered to you. We also agreed to identify areas which have not met our Charter commitments and to address them. This report aims to do that.

We have reviewed information which has been reported to the public through committee reports, annual reports and audit reports over an 18 month period from January 2014 through to July 2015. The information captured in this report shows where we have achieved our Charter commitments and identifies some future action which we will be taking to further improve our customer engagement.

The report is divided into two sections. The first section highlights the actions which we have undertaken to deliver the Customer Focus Strategy. The second section details action taken against the Charter commitments including identifying areas for further work.

I hope you find the information in this report useful in informing you of our journey to improve our customer engagement.

Rhona Gunn Corporate Director (EDP&I)

Customer Focus Annual Report 2015 || 3

Action 1 – New Customer Charter

ProduceanewCustomerChartertoreplacethepreviousCustomerCarePolicy,reflectingtheCorporateMissionandCustomerCarePledge,updatedcustomercontactchannelsandsustainableworkingpractices.

During 2014 and early 2015 the Customer Focus Working Group examined the approach to customer satisfaction including:

• the 2008 Customer Care Policy which by that time had been overtaken by changes in technology and service delivery. Staff awareness of the policy was also limited

• strategies and care policies developed in other local authorities

• the link with the recently revised Performance Management Framework and the role of performance indicators in measuring customer satisfaction levels

• the link with the complaints process

• the link with service planning and continuous improvement

• the link to the Corporate Plan then being developed

The Group then developed the core aspects of a strategic approach to customer satisfaction and focus, together with a range of actions, the first of which was to prepare an updated approach to corporate service standards in the form of a Customer Charter.

The draft Charter set out the minimum standards which all customers could expect when dealing with Council services based on the method of contact chosen. The standards recognised the service pressures created by increased use of email and the impact on response times from partial routing of calls through the Customer Contact Centre. The draft Charter also referenced the need for customers to recognise their part in helping the Council provide high quality services.

SECTION 1

CUSTOMER FOCUS STRATEGY ACTIONS4 || The Moray Council

The Charter was subject to consultation through the Council Access Points and the Community Engagement Group (CEG). Feedback was generally positive. Most customers indicated that they liked the format, found it easy to read. Additionally they felt it covered what they wanted to know about how the Council will work with its customers. Some elected members of the CEG expressed concerns about the ability of some services such as home care to meet the Charter terms. With the exception of offices in some small schools which are not manned throughout the school day, the Charter standards were confirmed as achievable across the Council. For unmanned school offices, the view was that parents are familiar with school contact times and would be aware of when best to contact the school. During the hours which the office is manned, the Charter would be fully observed. For Integrated Health and Social Care Services, all Council employees will comply with the Charter until shared service standards are developed and approved by the Integrated Joint Board.

In April 2015, the council approved the new Customer Focus Strategy and Customer Charter. The Customer Focus Working Group regularly reviews

performance. Performance against the Charter is detailed in Section Two of this report. Additionally

the working group has begun work on the next review of the Strategy which is due to be completed by April 2017.


Action 2 – Developing customer service skills in our staff

I. Self-evaluation (PSIF)

How do we know if we are meeting customer needs? Most services will carry out some sort of self-evaluation. Self-evaluation allows the staff to review the current practices and to identify areas for improvement. This is usually carried out against a set of fixed criteria including customer focused criteria. Services use a range of tools for their self-evaluation, mainly from national models. Some services may use a profession specific self-evaluation tool like ‘How good is our school?’. Other services use the Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF) developed specifically for public services and based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). From PSIF self-evaluations, a number of customer focused activities were identified and used to develop customer awareness in our staff as described below.

PSIF customer focused actions

Over the past 18 months a number of services carried out their PSIF assessment. These self-assessments covered the majority of services within Environmental services department as well as some corporate services within the Chief Executive’s Office.

Many of these actions are embedded within the services. For example:

• Building Standards, Environmental Health, and Trading Standards use customer satisfaction survey links in all letters, emails, and on the website

• Heads of Service and Service Managers for Building Standards and Development Management have face to face meetings with key customers to discuss needs/gather feedback

• Economic Development, Planning & Development, and Transportation sections have regular customer interaction with community groups which are project specific giving opportunities to gather customer satisfaction feedback or to advise of changes to services

• Ongoing service specific surveys are used for Development Management for the duty service; Antisocial Behaviour Unit for reported incidents; a range of housing services; formal complaints to the council; and support to community groups from the Community Support Unit.

• Direct Services make regular use of the Citizens Panel to gauge their customer satisfaction levels.

• Building Standards and Development Services have developed their own charters which set out their service specific standards.


II. Customer Service Excellence Standard

A Customer Focus Sub Group was set up to explore the use of the Customer Service Excellence Standard (CSES) and other possible models. The CSES, specifically developed for the public sector by HM Government, is a tool to drive customer focused change in organisations. It looks at practice across 5 areas:

• Customer insight• The culture of the organisation• Information and access to it• Delivery• Timeliness and quality of service

The CSES can be linked to PSIF and used to inform preparation of an action plan. It is flexible enough to be used in all services and good practice can be recorded to support other areas. In addition it fits well with other council initiatives such as culture, workforce planning and digital services. For these reasons the sub group confirmed that this was the best model for the Council to adopt.

Next Stage – The council will use the CSES to allow teams to critically examine their customer practice, identify options for improvement and frame action plans which fit with other corporate initiatives and streamline service delivery. The sub group is now looking at how to roll out the CSES across the Council.

This is a challenge as the ultimate objective is to change staff behaviour at all levels in the organisation. Experience suggests that work aimed at promoting wider culture change is most effective if given time to bed in and develop. However, a lack of pace in driving culture change was identified in the latest Best Value report. The sub group will consider how best achieve the dual aims of a timely but effective roll out of the standards across a wide and diverse range of services. The Customer Focus Working Group will consider the recommendations from the sub group in early 2016 with the roll out being started by the spring.

III. Complaints

Complaints form an important component to customer satisfaction. They provide a useful way to measure how we are performing. We want our staff to be welcoming and equipped to deal with customer complaints whether they are complaints which can be dealt with reasonably quickly by the first point of contact, known as frontline resolution complaints, or more complex complaints requiring detailed investigation. Further, we want to ensure that our staff use complaints as learning points for service improvement.

In the period to March 2015, 490 complaints were dealt with (5.17 per 1,000 population) which is a slight increase from 2013-14. The increase tallies with a corresponding rise in population and greater emphasis on encouraging complaints reporting. Under half of our complaints were dealt with at their first point of contact.

Environmental Services and Education and Social Care together handle 91% of the council’s complaints, reflecting that these departments deal with the largest volume of customer-facing contacts.

Environmental Services received 70% of all council complaints, a figure which, although high, is not surprising considering the wide range of customer-facing service provision. Despite its large case volume, the department closed over half (53%) of its complaints at the frontline stage. Specifically, Direct Services, handled 25% of all complaints across the council, and should be commended for closing 89% of these at the first point of contact.

On the other hand, Housing and Property Services, Schools and Curriculum Development and Integrated Children’s Services together deal with the majority of complaint investigations. This is not unexpected as these services often require more time due to the need to involve third parties – be it external suppliers and tradespeople, Quality Improvement Officers (QIOs) in terms of school complaints, and multiple agencies and practitioners on complicated family issues.

Further detailed information on our performance against our complaints handling can be found in the Complaints Annual Report 2014-15.


IV. Staff Recognition

Customer Service excellence continues to be an active consideration in the Council’s STAR (Staff Thanks and Recognition) Awards which recognises exceptional conduct or performance by staff.

STAR Award 2014

The annual awards are submitted against three criteria supported by evidence. The criteria are:

• Why are you nominating the persons/team?• How has their work led to improvements within the council?• What is distinctive or exceptional about their contribution?

The winners for Outstanding Contribution which highlighted exceptional customer care were:

Hostel Caretaker – In recognition of the significant positive impact she has had on the lives of numerous vulnerable people achieving positive outcomes they may not have thought possible without her support. Overall winner of the Chief Executive’s Award for Excellence

Minibus Driver – To recognise his dedication, commitment and diligence in supporting vulnerable children and young adults in the community by building positive relationships with them and their parents. Special Commendation and 2nd place in the Overall Chief Executive’s Award for Excellence

Legal & Democratic Admin Team – For the team’s commitment to maintain a high level of customer service whilst delivering significant change.

Harbour Master (Buckie) – To recognise his sustained, selfless commitment and dedication during prolonged periods of staff shortages which ensured that our busiest harbour remained operational.

V. Customer Satisfaction Online Training

Over the past 6 months training modules have been added to the Council’s online training management system CLIVE. In particular, modules on the Customer Excellence Standard and communication have been added to the existing module on equality and diversity. These modules are recommended for all staff with online access. Each module can be completed in around 20 minutes and learning sessions can be stopped and started to fit in with service demands. At the moment, uptake levels have been lower than expected. All managers are now required to review completion for their teams through the annual Employee Review and Development (ERDP) process. For staff with no online access, managers are currently looking at how best to convey the key messages in each module to their teams.


Action 3 – Improve Accessibility of Customer Care Information

We are striving to publish more information about customer care including the policies guiding our work and how we have performed. The most up to date information can also be retrieved from the council’s website. There are two sections within our website which specifically contain customer care information on a corporate basis: the performance section and customer care section. This information is in addition to any service specific information contained within the particular service webpages. The customer care section is a new section developed specifically to support the strategy and character.

Use of Performance and customer care webpages

Both Performance management and customer care webpages are located within the ‘Council and Governance’ section of the website. Performance management has its own section but customer care is accessible under the ‘More services’ section.

Over an 18 month period, performance management information has had 2,121 unique hits on the site. The most popular page, service performance, achieved 13% of this traffic with 599 clicks. The other two sections, community performance (community planning performance) and Corporate performance (council-wide performance), received very limited number of hits with corporate performance receiving slightly more. None of the linked PDF documents were accessed.

By the end of July 2015, the customer care pages, which have only been live a few months received 275 clicks. Within the section, the Customer Charter itself was accessed 34 times and the complaints information 11 times.

Next Steps – As part of the Digital Service project content and layout of information on the council’s internet will be reviewed. To increase the visibility of the customer care information, it may be best to move specific customer care webpages into its own subsection.


Action 4 – Consistency of Customer Engagement

Usingcustomerfeedbacktoimproveservicesisakeyobjectiveofcustomerfocusstrategy.Inordertoachievethis,actionisneededonanumberoffronts:

Action 4.1 – Service planning

ServicePlanningGuidancewillbereviewedtomakespecificreferencetobothcustomerresultsandareviewofpreviousimprovementactivity.

In late 2014 a small group of senior officers revised the Guidance to achieve a more standardised approach to development of Service Plans. The Service Plan is in three parts: review of previous year; future direction/priorities for the service; and supporting management plans.

Review of the previous year informs the future direction and priorities for the service. The information captured focuses around feedback, performance and trends. Specifically, it is suggested that the content covers:

• Customer Feedback – satisfaction results, complaints• PSIF/self evaluation/staff survey• Performance Indicators • Service Plan monitoring• Review of previous improvement activity – has it met objective• Audit outcomes/recommendations

Action 4.2 – Systems improvement steps

ThePerformanceManagementFrameworkwillbealignedwithrevisedCustomerSatisfactionarrangementsandtorecognisethecontinuousimprovementcycle.ThiswillincludetheintroductionoftheContinuousImprovementAssessmentTool.

Over the past 18 months, work has been undertaken to ensure that systems to manage performance, monitor customer satisfaction information and promote continuous improvement are fully aligned. A number of key supporting documents within the frameworks are listed in the case study. These key documents support the services to capture and plan for improvements.

Performance Management and Continuous Improvement Frameworks – Key Documents

Service Plans – Service Plans set out what the service aims to develop over the coming year and the targets that should be achieved in terms of performance. Service Plans are developed by Heads of Service in discussion with their Corporate Director and approved by Committee.

Performance monitoring statements – Performance monitoring statements show progress against Service Plan actions, Performance Indicators reported to committee and management information to assist Heads of Service to review their agreed performance measures on a quarterly basis.

1 page summaries – The information from the monitoring statements as well as other information available within the services is compiled into 1 page summaries. The summary provides a quick glance of performance showing actions as green, amber or red along with some contextual information providing an explanation against progress. The summaries are a management tool for Corporate Directors and Heads of Service.

Continuous improvement assessment tool – This tool shows the full range of performance information across the Council, so providing a corporate overview. This is a management tool for Corporate Management Team (CMT) and also informs the reporting cycle for the Audit and Scrutiny Committee.

Exception reports – Exception reports are used for any areas where there is either significant concern or noteworthy excellence in terms of performance. These are reported to CMT and should follow the simple 3 minute brief format of “What, So What, What Next”.

Continuous improvement assessment programme – The Continuous Improvement Assessment Programme captures the areas for improvement reported to CMT. The Programme tracks the dates and decisions against each of the areas for improvement, again to provide a corporate overview.

Pre-planned agenda – Items agreed to be referred to Audit & Scrutiny Committee will be listed on the pre-planned agenda for this committee.


Action 4.3 – Reporting back

Ensureallservicesareprogressingwithdevelopmentofcustomersatisfactionperformanceindicatorsforreportingnolessthanevery3years.

There are variety of ways and timescales on which customer satisfaction is reported. Examples of reporting mechanisms are listed below.

I. Annual Service Plans

Our Service Plans contain relevant customer satisfaction evidence to inform service priorities. Below is independent feedback from our external audit report for 2014-15 on our performance in meeting their criteria against customer information. The feedback report identified instances where the Council’s service plans have been updated in the year to take into account the results of customer surveys:

Transportation – The 2015-2018 Direct Services Service Plan demonstrates the meetings and consultations carried out in 2014-15 and how these have impacted upon the future plan.

Roads maintenance – Direct Services 2014-15 Service Plan shows the consultations carried out in 2014-15 and how these have impacted the current year plan.

Housing and Property Services – The service plan details consultations with key stakeholders, service users, staff and partners and how these have impacted on the current year though revised housing support policies to be introduced.

II. Public Performance Reporting

Within the Best Value Guidance used by all councils, it is expected that public performance reporting is an essential component to service improvement. The guidance states that ‘the use of public performance reporting so that stakeholders are told what quality of service is being delivered and what they can expect in the future’. Many of our service areas produce public performance reports, sometimes known as Annual Reports, to show how they have performed.

Some examples are listed below.

Annual Reports:

• Chief social workers report• Corporate Public Performance Report• Health & safety (internal)• Housing Allocations Policy • Housing and property services• Housing Support• Housing’s downsizing initiative scheme• Industrial portfolio• Moray Adult Protection Committee (every 2 years)• Moray alcohol and drug partnership• Out of area placements• Planning performance framework• Risk Register (internal)• Schools Quality and standards report• Scottish social housing charter compliance• Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs)• Town centre health checks (every 2 years)• Workforce planning (internal)


III. Customer Focused Performance Indicators

Within the suite of indicators reported to committee, services provide a range of customer satisfaction measures including corporate performance indicators. Examples are provided in the Case Studies.

Case Study – Customer Satisfaction data used for service improvements for Occupational Health

In 2012, the Occupational Health (OT) service was redesigned to form part of the Access Team providing a rapid response to service users. The OT team focus on supporting individuals to be as independent as possible within their home environment. This includes supporting those people scheduled for discharge from hospital; receiving palliative or end of life support; or supporting children with disabilities’.

On average the service referrals are 135 per month. Customer satisfaction target for the service is 80%. In 2014-15 Performance in quarter 2 (100%) and quarter 3 (90%) exceeded their target.

Despite this good performance they have identified further service improvements including:

• Provision of major adaptions• Integrated approach with NHS to prevent admission to A&E• Integrated approach with NHS to facilitate discharge back to the home

environment through more intensive rehabilitations and a more preventative approach to prevent crisis in future

Case Study – Community Support Unit

The Community Support Unit exceeded their target of 90% of community consultations facilitated by this team achieving a rating of ‘good’ or above from the participants. All 27 participants rated the consultation as ‘good’ or above giving the team 100% satisfaction rate.


Action 4.4 – Review of service priorities

ThesixmonthlyPerformanceManagementReportswillbereviewedtomakereferencetobothcomplaintsandcustomersatisfactionresultsgatheredduringthereportingperiodtoenableelectedmemberstoprioritiseservicebasedimprovementactivity.

I. Customer Focused Service Improvements

Our Performance Management and Continuous Improvement Frameworks allows for an overall picture of service performance to be gathered, analysed and compared. This is to enable services to identify any performance issues including customer related issues. The framework also ensures that significant issues are reported to committee for consideration by elected members.

As part of the Performance Management Framework, services review their performance indicators and targets annually and progress is reported to committee every six months. Within the suite of indicators reported which are reports of committee, services provide a range of customer satisfaction measures.

Services are also following best practice as recommended in the national Customer Service Excellence standard. The standard recommends that services have an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of their current and potential customer groups based on recent and reliable information. Some of our services have used this in-depth information on their customer groups to inform future service provision.

Examples of how statistics on customer insight has have been use to identity service improvements are contained in the table.

Service Customerinsight Actions

Additional Support Needs

National trends for additional support needs and pressures facing the service are increasing

Increased budget for the service to cope with increasing pressures

Employment land audit

Not enough marketable/ effective employment land available

New site of 12 hectares is identified in Elgin in the Local Development Plan

Positive destinations for school leavers

Analysis revealed a significant drop out from further education

A variety of measures put in place to reduce potential drop outs including improved post school choices, better transition, robust selection criteria, additional pre college support and early engagement for student identified as vulnerable to drop out


Action 4.5 – Overview of feedback

CustomersatisfactionresultswillbeaddedtotheannualcorporateComplaintsReporttoprovideelectedmemberswithacomprehensiveoverviewofcustomerfeedbackandtohelpthemprioritisecorporateimprovement.

During financial year 2014-15, a survey was carried out to gain customer feedback on the complaints process. There were 296 surveys sent out in total, with 59 responses received to the survey giving a response rate of 20%.

Responses to this survey were mostly negative. Potentially customers who responded may have been frustrated by their service experience and this negative feeling may reflect their view of the complaint procedures. Despite this there is valuable customer feedback which can be used to improve the complaint experience for customers.

Further details of the survey is contained in the Complaints Annual Report 2014-15

Next steps – To gain further insight into how effectively customers feel that we handled their complaints, the complaints survey will be repeated in 2015-16. It will include an easy-to-use online option to encourage greater participation. The results will be compared against this year’s to assess areas where improvements were made and identify areas requiring ongoing development.

Action 4.6 – Publicising the Charter

ApublicitycampaignforthenewCustomerFocusCharterandStrategybothinternallyandexternallywillbelaunchedfollowingapproval.

Following approval of the Charter and Strategy, a press release was sent out. Additionally a limited number of hard copies of the Charter and posters were placed in Access Points. The customer care webpages were created. And, the Charter and Strategy were promoted to staff through the Senior Managers’ Leadership Forum, internal staff newsletter, Connect Monthly, and a corporate staff briefing, Team Talk.


Action 5 – New technology

Implementationofnewwaysofworkingtotakeadvantageofdevelopmentsintechnology.

I. Designing Better Services

Under the Designing Better Services Programme a Customer Services function was established that spans all council business delivering greatly improved access and service. This includes:

• A technology enabled telephone Contact Centre handling over 12400 calls a month.

• A more comprehensive and intuitive web site with improved facilities for on-line applications and form downloads (3500 e-mails per month).

• Technology enabled Access Points in Elgin, Buckie, Keith and Forres giving a single point of contact, self-serve facilities and direct calls to the Contact Centre (7150 per month).

• A central mail room with electronic document and workflow management system (SharePoint) which scans and indexes mail and sends it onwards to the appropriate place.

II. Digital Services

As confirmed in our recent Citizens Panel survey, the public expect services to be available online and that the majority are prepared to use these. Online services offer accessibility at a time that suits the customer rather than being restricted to office hours. Our Digital Services project will provide services to the public online, using the internet. It aims to provide opportunities and benefits by taking advantage of the rapid growth in technology and the increasing use of the internet.


Action 6 – Promoting Community Involvement in Service Improvements

Serviceinteractionwiththecommunity,serviceusersandstakeholders.

Some of our consultations have to follow specific statutory guidance such as the consultation on the development of the Moray Local Plan. Other consultations affect a large part of the population and therefore a wide spread consultation must be undertaken like the Sustainable Education Review and the Sport and Leisure Review. Further some of our changes arise from changes we are asked to make to services such as responding to Scottish Government feedback on our Alcohol and Drug Partnership to redesign the Recovery Oriented System of Care service.

The Case studies have been taken from individual committee reports updating Elected Members and the public about the engagement work officers have undertaken to improve or redesign services.

Case study – Community Champions & Service redesign (Living it Up)

Jimmy’s blog – Jimmy continues to write his blogs for the LiU site but is also being asked along to speak to community groups on a regular basis. Most recently Jimmy, along with other LiU volunteers, has been setting running technology taster sessions using tablet computers funded from LiU.

Redesign – The second iteration of the 21st Century TeleWEAR concluded with an exhibition at Forres Town Hall with appropriately 100 people attending. This was a project revived by Chubb Community Care where they worked with student designers, practitioners and the public to redesign the community alarm. The winning design from this project is currently under development by Chubb.

Case study – Consistent approach to resource allocation for self-directed support

National guidance for local authorities clarified the implementation of self-directed support in Children’s Services. The guidance clarified that the four self-directed support options should be available to all ‘children in need’ and not just to children with or affected by disabilities. The only basis to deem a person ineligible to receive direct payments is where the child’s safety is at risk by the provision of the direct payment.

Though the local level of variation between assessed levels of need and current resource allocations is great, it reflects experience elsewhere in the UK.

The current inconsistency of resource allocation was revealed through a desktop exercise. Therefore it was believed that the use of a Resource Allocation System will improve the fairness and equitability of resource allocation. Through consultation with parents, practitioners and managers, a Resource Allocation system was developed to enable a more consistent and equitable resource allocation based on levels of need.

Training was also developed in consultation with parents and staff. In Control Scotland, who are funded through local authorities and service providers, delivered training to a mixed group of staff and parents.

This training supported parents and carers to identify the outcomes they wanted from their self-directed support allocation. They helped them review what they needed and already had and empowered them to make creative use of the personal budgets.


Case study – Creation of user-led organisation for Moray Resource Centre

Arising from the ‘Improving Life Chances of Disabled People’ report by the Prime Minister’s Strategic Unit it was recommended that every local authority area with social care responsibility has a User Led Organisation (ULO). Disabled people’s user-led organisations (DPULO) are run by and for disabled people. It is recognised that DPULO have an important role to play in developing capacity within communities.

In March 2013 Moray Resource Centre was agreed to be redesigned to move towards a more use-led service. Early discussions began with service users and their families as they were concerned and were unfamiliar with the term DPULO and about the implications. During early consultation, service users and carers stated that they valued the service they were receiving from Moray Resource Centre and saw no need to change it. Given this a period of discussion, further consultation and education about DPULOs was held.

Part of the consultation was an ‘All together Now’ event including:

• Inclusion Scotland and Independent Living in Scotland, two national third sector organisations representing the view and rights of disabled people, spoke about DPULOs

• Grampian Opportunities (DPULO based in Inverurie) talked about their experience forming a DPULO

• Discussion groups highlighting changes facing health and social care and service pressures

From this event, there was a gradual change in attitude with most service users agreeing that a DPLULO was a positive step. A council officer was seconded for two years to assist service users to develop a DPULO. Additionally, tsiMoray assisted them to establish a management committee, Moray Disability User-led Organisation (Moray DUO), comprising of nine service users.

There are also numerous examples of how services have interacted with their stakeholders from staff or other partner agencies to achieve service improvements. For instance:

• In February 2014, Moray Early Year’s Collaborative held a seminar focused on early intervention and the early years. Over 80 delegates attended and seminar feedback was positive.

• Since 2006, the council has undertaken regular employee surveys. The most recent one in 2015 received 1,415 responses (31%). Planned actions and work programmes addressing the issues include holding annual Employee Conferences, undertaking interim and specific issue surveys, implementation of the Employee Engagement Programme and the development of the Workforce Culture Programme.


Action 7 – Customer feedback

CreatingandMaintainingaCustomerFocusGroupcomprisingofficersfromallservices

The Customer Focus Working Group is responsible for the development, implementation and review of the Strategy, Charter and relevant actions. To progress this work they met 5 times in the period covered by this report. Much of the work they achieved is detailed in this report like the development of the strategy and charter.

Some supporting actions, such as consideration of the Customer Excellence standard, were delegated to a sub group. Sub groups are useful to take forward specific projects where a smaller group is better suited to consider an activity in detail.

While overall progress by the working group has been steady, at times attendance from all services has been an issue. Unfortunately this has affected pace of our actions and this has been recognised in our recent Best Value audit. To address this issue, the Corporate Management Team (CMT) now monitors attendance to ensure good cross service representation.

During the last few months, the working group has focused on monitoring the implementation of strategy and compliance with charter. Additionally, the group has begun to revise the customer focus strategy.


Pledge 1 – Provide high quality customer service

As part of our national requirements, Councils must publish information on their performance. The quality of the published information is audited against a number of factors.

For the information which was published as part of statutory performance indicators direction, Councils were assessed as either ‘fully’, ‘partially’ or ‘not meeting’ requirements. In total, the council’s feedback concluded that it ‘fully met’ assessment definitions in 23 of 26 themes.

Evidence and comments from the auditors against the customer care requirements are listed over the next two pages.

Next Steps – While audits provide a good overall assessment against our performance it is recognised that we also need better quality of assessment directly from our customers. Given this, the Customer Focus Sub Group is looking at how to take a quick baseline on how our customers generally view our customer service. This will help to evidence the improvements which we hope to achieve through implementing the Strategy and Charter. This generic assessment is needed to create a baseline and differs from the service specific satisfaction information which is currently available. This is likely to include a survey through the Citizens Panel before the end of March 2016. The finalised approach to obtaining that baseline will however coordinated through the Community Engagement Group.

SECTION 2

CUSTOMER CHARTER ACTIONS20 || The Moray Council

Audit Comments – SPIs 2013-14: Evaluation of Council’s Response to the 2012 Direction

Responsiveness – (assessed as fully met)

The council provides the reader with comprehensive, contextual information on performance in responsiveness to communities and links to relevant documents. The Corporate performance reporting page links to: the Public Performance Report 2014; the 2013/14 Benchmarking summary overview report; the council’s Public Performance Report and Performance indicators for 2013/14. There is easy access to detailed information on complaints, FOIs, Citizens panel, consultations and customer care.

The council’s recent consultation & feedback page features closed consultations from 2012 to 2015. There were 13 consultations in 2013/14. However there is an issue with reporting consultations and it would be helpful to demonstrate consistently reactions to feedback gleaned through consultations.

Customer satisfaction – (assessed as fully met)

The Housing and Property Services Annual Performance Report 2013-2014 notes that the council conducts regular tenant surveys to improve housing standards. The Public Performance Report 2014 details a number of actions taken in response to feedback/satisfaction levels in a variety of service areas, but there is an issue with consistency.

Overall

Three themes were identified as areas for improvement:

Criminal Justice Social Work

PPR material uses few performance indicators, so it would be useful to reflect on additional performance information. The council agreed that Audit & Scrutiny Committee consider the issues that need to be addressed.

Dialogue with public

The council uses social media to engage with the public, but there is no evidence for how this method of engagement is used to mould Public Performance Reporting to suit the needs of the public. The Council Leader agreed to have discussions with Community Planning Partnership Community Engagement Group on how the performance reporting might be improved.

Accessibility

Public Performance Reporting material is reported in a number of ways. The council provides some information on how to request reports in different languages, but key documents do not include this information. The council agreed that Corporate Policy Unit take action to address this.


Audit Comment – Best Value audit report summary 2015-18

Councils are also audited against the national Best Value criteria. Below is independent feedback from our external auditor’s’ Local Scrutiny Plan on our performance in meeting that criteria.

Education and children’s services – Performance has improved across almost all measures over the past five years. Positive steps to accredit young people’s achievements beyond national examinations have continued. Positive progress in implementing Curriculum for Excellence has also continued. Some risk areas have been identified, for example, difficulties in recruiting teaching, supply and specialist staff and the impact of the removal of the principal teacher post from primary schools.

Social work and social care – The findings of the pilot joint inspection of services for older people were mainly positive. Some good outcomes were being achieved for older people and building blocks were in place to achieve better integration between social care and health. Gradings from the inspections of registered children’s service are also consistently good.

Housing and homelessness – Most data about the performance of housing and homelessness services is either positive and above the national average or where it is below the mean it is not significantly so. The majority of Moray’s satisfaction rates are above the national average.


Pledge 2 – Your choice as to how to contact us

Offeryouchoicesinhowyoucontactustogetinformation,requestservicesortotelluswhatyouthink

Besides the range of contact methods developed under the Designing Better Services programme, the council also uses a range of communication and engagement channels. These include:

• Citizens Panel surveys; Tenants Surveys

• Facebook sites – Council (main site); Childcare Partnership; Community Safety; library service; Moray Music Centre; Planning; Procurement; Sports Development; and Training Standards

• Twitter – Council (main site); Community Safety; Sports Development; and Trading Standards

• Websites – Council (main site); Community Planning; and Tenants Forum

• YouTube

In addition, services employ a variety of methods to interact with their service users as shown in the Case Studies.

Case study – Variety of consultative methods used

Consultation on the housing support services policy was undertaken during April 2015. To support the consultation, a plain language version of the policy was published alongside the full policy. The survey was available online but also one-to-one sessions with services users were undertaken. Third sector feedback was sought from the Moray Tenant’s Core Group, Moray Equalities Forum and tsiMoray. In addition the Homelessness Strategy Group, a multi-agency group, was consulted.

Case Study – Waste reduction intervention campaign

The waste management section has undertaken a number of waste audits over the years. The audits highlighted that at least 50% of waste in household residual bins could easily be recycled using current waste services. The most common materials (by weight) thrown away in the green residual bin were food waste (36%); paper and cardboard (9%); cans and plastic (4%); and glass bottles (2%).

In early part of 2014, various measures were developed as part of the Intervention Campaign to persuade residents to utilise available services and encourage more recycling. Use of press and media, attendance at public events, attendance at community council meetings and householder engagement were all part of the Intervention Campaign. During May 2014, 5, 000 houses were visited as part of the ‘Door knocking’ campaign


Pledge 3 – Responsive Service

Providearesponsiveservicewhereissuesareresolvedatthefirstpointofcontactwhereverpossible

The Contact Centre and Access Points provide a first point of contact for many of our customer interactions. They carried out two surveys to get feedback on their service, as evidenced in the Case Study.

Case study – Contact Centre Customer Satisfaction

The first survey sought the views of customers who had used the Contact Centre to access/deliver a service. Customers were given a call back one week after their initial contact to complete the survey. Around 25 customers were contacted each month between April and November 2014. The second survey was conducted over a three week period during October/November 2014 and sought views from customers visiting the Access points. Views were captured through inviting customers to self-complete a paper survey form. From the 200 customers were contacted, 90 customers who had used the Contact Centre agreed to complete the survey. 198 Access Point customers provided their views. The level of satisfaction with the service provided remains high with the majority of respondents either very satisfied or satisfied.

The key improvements suggested from the satisfaction surveys are:

• Manage customer expectations to what can/cannot be done at the first point of contact and review what can be improved to provide a full response.

• Continue to monitor and look at ways to improve telephone call response times and waiting times at the Elgin Access point.


Pledge 4 – Respectful Service

Bepolite,helpful,sensitiveanddiscreetinallourdealingswithyou.

It is important that we deal with customers in a positive way. Customer Satisfaction and Complaint feedback provide us with opportunities to improve the way we deliver our services. The Case Study shows how our services improved and responded to customer feedback.

Case study – Service Improvement from customer satisfaction feedback

The Scheme (known as ‘Dial M’) is available for both residents and visitors who are not able to access other forms of transport. Users must register for the scheme and book transport in advance. By Sept 2014 there were 1,646 registered users.

On board customer feedback is undertaken on customer satisfaction with the service. The feedback focuses on perception of booking, timekeeping, driver helpfulness and the service in general. From the Oct 2014 survey 87% of customer surveyed rated the service as good and 13% related it as excellent.

Changes to the service arising from customer feedback includes:

• Extending advanced booking to 14 days in advance from previously 7 days

• Introduction of a Saturday service in Forres

• Assisted residents of Larch Court, Elgin to register for the service when a local bus service ceased

• From Feb 2015, changed booking times to 3pm prior to the day travelling from previous requirement of 1pm

• Introduced a trial point-to-pint service between Tomintoul and Grantown-on-Spey who did not have any public transport links

The following is a summary of some of the service improvements arising from complaints that were upheld or partially upheld in 2014/15:

Department Yousaid… Welistenedandtookthefollowingaction…

Development Services That you had been served with planning enforcement notices without prior consultation.

We apologised, accepting that it would have been good practice to write to advise that the Council intended to pursue formal enforcement action.

Financial Services That your house was wrongly designated as a three bedroom house when in fact it was a two bedroomed house.

We apologised and confirmed our error. We reinforced the need to ensure the accuracy of imputing data.

Development Services That we didn’t follow our process for planning approval for a neighbouring property.

We apologised for errors made and reviewed our Non- Material Variation procedure as part of the approval process.


Pledge 5 – Fairly and equal treatment

Treating our Customers fairly and providing equal treatment in our services is an important aspect to our Customer Service. Feedback from our auditors highlights when we have achieved equal treatment.

An Equality impact assessment for the calendar year 2013 details the impacts identified in the year and areas for improvement in 2014. An Equality outcomes 2013-2017 report sets out equality outcomes for the council and a Mainstreaming report 2013 gives material on mainstreaming activities and comprehensive coverage of the workforce, including the employee profile.

These reports are available on our website.

We also involve service users in service development and improvement. The Case Study shows involvement of a particular group of service users and how we have ensured their participation.

Case study – Service User involvement (developed strategy by and for the service users)

The Autism Strategy has been developed jointly with health and social care and in partnership with people with autism and their families/carers. The vision is that all people with autism are accepted for who they are and valued for what they contribute to the world. A number of actions have been taken which support that vision.

• The Moray Autism Partnership is open to people with autism and their family members/carers. Through this Partnership, people with autism and their families feel more involved in how their community supports them and are part of the decision making process.

• Autism awareness training is available to any organisations or members of the public who wish to attend. So far 500 people have received autism awareness training. Through the training, awareness increases understanding of autism and how it affects the lives of people with the condition and their families.

• A coordinated children’s support service is available for children with autism. It is also available to children with other social communication difficulties, requiring further educational or transitional support within the school or home environment. They support 126 children of ages ranging between 3-18 years.

• The Moray One-Stop Shop offers activities and social opportunities. The service is for those diagnosed with High Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, who may not be entitled to other community care services, but feel they need of some support or opportunities. Since the launch of the One Stop Shop there have been 36 visits to drop in sessions.

• Various support groups for spouses, parents and siblings of people who have autism are being established. It provides peer support and advice from others in similar situations, especially those who may have just received a diagnosis for themselves or family members.


Pledge 6 – Keep your information safe

The Council follows the general rules from the Data Protection Act about how personal information is handled. The Act also gives rights to individuals to access information held about them. In general, being open about how we use information, using common sense and following the Data Protection principles should ensure that personal information is handled properly. Where data protection requests have been made, the Council’s performance in responding to them within the 40 working day timescale is very good. 87% of requests in 2013-14 were responded to the timescale.

However to continue improvement and to ensure that the staff understand their duties to keep your information safe, an essential online training module has been developed on Information Governance.


Pledge 7 – Prompt service

Respondtoroutineenquiriespromptlyortellyouwhyitwilltakelonger.Urgentenquirieswillberespondedtoasapriority,andwewillkeepyouinformedofprogress

There are a range of service performance indicators in place which measure how we perform against routine business, such as:

Community Care Services – 95.4% of service users received a service within 28 days of assessment (target 100%)

Drug and Alcohol Services – 100% of service users receive a first treatment appointment within 3 week of referral (target 100%)

Community Mental Health – 36.3% of Support Plans authorised by the team managers within 7 days of completing of the plan (target 100%)

Specialist Support Services – Learning Disability -73.59% of Support Plans authorised by the team managers within 7 days of completing of the plan (target 100%)

Criminal Justice – 100% of new probationers seen by a supervising officer within one week (target 100%)

Development Management – 11.5 weeks on average to deal with local planning applications (target 10.4 weeks)

Building Standards – 7 days on average to respond to Fast Track applications (target 10 days)

We also have indicators which measure the number and percentage of complaints at each stage which were closed in full within the timescales. Please note that stage one is frontline resolution at the point of contact. Stage two escalated complaints, transfer them form frontline to the investigation stage. Stage two is the investigation stage.

PerformanceAgainstTimescales Totalno.ofcomplaints

No.ofcomplaintswithintimescales

2014/15

Number of complaints closed at stage one within 5 working days as a %

224 195 87.1%

Number of complaints closed at stage two within 20 working days as a %

258 146 56.6%

Number of escalated complaints closed at stage two within 20 working days as a %

8 8 100%

The Council have performed well in closing the majority of frontline (87%) and stage two escalated (87%) complaints. They have performed less well in closing stage two complaints within 20 working days (57%).


Pledge 8 – Ever improving service

Usecustomerviewsincludingcomplaintstohelpimproveandshapefutureservicedelivery

Surveys are one of the easiest ways to gain quick feedback from our customers about how we are doing. During the period of this report we carried out 105 surveys across all of our services both internally and externally:

• Education and Social Care – 43• Corporate Services – 18• Chief Executive – 10• Environmental: Direct Services – 10 • Environmental: Development Services – 9• Integrated Children’s Services – 8• Environmental: Housing – 7

Examples of the use of these surveys for service improvements, planning and redesign are given in the table.

Service Yousaid Wedid

Legal services (internal) Concerned about length of time to deal with matters and progress updates

Staff reminded to set realistic timeframes for response at outset and provide regular updates

Taxi licences Online instructions for adding a taxi or vehicle to fleet is not user friendly

Review taxi vehicle guidance and online information and assistance

Liquor licences Concerned about length of time to deal with matters and progress updates

Staff reminded to set realistic timeframes for response at outset and provide regular updates

New tenants Dissatisfied with the standard of the property at the time of moving in

Refer to Voids Working Group for action particularly in relation to decoration of properties

Parental satisfaction with schools

Overall satisfaction with schools increased or remained the same

No generic action needed but results are fed back into individual schools and for consideration and action where appropriate

Private sector housing scheme of assistance

100% of respondents (102) indicated that they were very satisfied or satisfied with the overall assistance. 4% were dissatisfied with the performance of the contractor used for the improvements

Home Improvement team offers assistance to resolve issues between the client and contractor as well as offering advice on contractors they are considering for work based on satisfaction other of their clients with a contractor.

Print services (internal) Responses to this survey were almost all positive which resulted in 100% stating that they were either ‘very’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ with the overall service. The weakest area was in Stationery Stores and in Stationery Orders/Stock Availability.

Procedures and minimum stock at the stationary stores and orders was introduced.


Services have also used specific consultations and engagement activity to improve and shape the future delivery.


Contribution to adult social care costs

Introduce new contributions on a phased basis

Contributions applies to new people who come into the service or at the annual review for current users

Harbour action plan Frustration about how the harbours are managed and that the council strikes a balances that respects the interests of all stakeholders and gives them a feeling of shared ownership

Developed short, medium and long term action plan to address points raised

Customer engagement is also used to inform policy and strategy as illustrated in the table below.


Moray Health and social care service integration

Vision was good Vision approved

Empty homes strategy Overall satisfied with content of strategy

Strategy approved

Smoking Policy for Foster Carers & Prospective adopters

Number of comments and suggestions made to policy

Amendments incorporated into final policy

Physical and sensory disability joint strategy

Strategy developed from engagement with service users, unpaid carer, service providers and professionals

Strategy accepted and approved

Complaints

The following is a summary of some of the service improvements arising from complaints that were upheld or partially upheld in 2014/15:Department Yousaid… Welistenedandtookthe

followingaction…

Legal & Democratic Services That your Social Work Complaints Review Committee meeting wasn’t independent, objective and fair. You felt that there were errors in administration.

We reviewed our processes and introduced a training plan. All staff members involved in the Committee process will now be trained and made aware of revised processes and procedures.

Housing and Property That there was a six-week wait to complete the installation a shower.

An apology was given for lack of communication between different services. A senior manager spoke to relevant supervisors concerned to ensure that future works are co-ordinated in a better manner to minimise disruption and deys to tenants.

Community Care That those attending the Phoenix Centre were unhappy that they had higher costs than other day activity services.

Following a review, we apologised and reduced our Phoenix Centre costs.

Integrated Children’s Services That recorded minutes of a case conference hadn’t been received.

We apologised, reviewed procedures and introduced a new process for the issuing of recorded minutes.

Schools and Curriculum Development

That following a temporary pupil expulsion for bullying, there was a delay in contacting their parent.

We apologised and reviewed the implementation of our absence management procedure, as this would have highlighted the pupil’s continued absence.


Pledge 9 – Ongoing review of commitments

CheckregularlythatthetermsofourCharterarebeingdeliveredtoyou.Wherewehavefallenshort,wewilladdressthis.

We have provided a comprehensive description of the work undertaken from January 2014 through to July 2015. While we have carried out a number of activities to embed our Customer Strategy actions and Charter pledges into our organisation, there are always areas for improve. These are listed within the report and captured below.


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