Customers at the heart of council plans

     



Customers are at the heart of Shepway Council's key plans and a range of accessible services is available to them across the district, says an independent report released today (Thursday 19 July).

The report follows an Audit Commission inspection that looked at how easy it is for customers to access council services.

Inspectors say that customers benefit from a ‘committed and enthusiastic' frontline staff; One Stop Shops provide easy access to services; and a high proportion of council buildings are accessible to people with disabilities.

They also praised the council for working well with partners and said it communicates regularly and effectively on access matters.

The council's strengths included:
• Customer focus is an important, cross-cutting theme for the council and is reflected in its corporate and community strategies
• The council's One Stop Shops and street scene customer services team provide easy access to services.
• There have been very recent improvements, like the easy-to-use website and changes to the Civic Centre.

But the report says the council needs to have a clearer picture of who uses its services and does not have an up-to-date profile of the local community. It should also make more progress on its equalities agenda.

The council was rated at ‘fair' by the Audit Commission. To help the service improve inspectors said the council should develop a longer-term access/customer service, improve its understanding of different needs of people in the community and make some elements of services more accessible - like simplifying the waiting system, improving disabled access and reducing the time it takes to process benefits applications.

Cllr Pamela Carr, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said she was pleased that the council's strengths had been recognised.

"We want to deliver good and reliable services and to ensure that these services are available to everyone.

"The inspectors have said that our prospects for improvement are uncertain. We are already addressing this and have reduced the time it takes to process benefits applications. We will shortly be introducing a new system of logging and tracking customer enquiries so that our front-line staff can respond to calls more effectively."