(a)

the purpose of the web platform was to connect customers, staff and partners to council services in a way that met their needs whilst reducing staff effort and eliminating unnecessary back office work;

(b)

members of the public would still be able to access services via personal contact where customer services assistants would process their enquiry on their behalf through the same digital service platform so that all enquires, whether digital or non-digital, were contained within the same database;

(c)

the digital service platform had been purchased from a provider called ‘Firmstep’ and, whilst it was not currently envisaged that the system would be used to provide a breakdown of cases on a ward by ward basis, it was possible as it was something that the system was capable of doing;

(d)

whilst stakeholder involvement hadn’t been extensive to date, staff within the Corporate Communications and Customer Services Teams had been asked to work with those on the tender shortlist to come up with some ideas and  develop a number of forms.  Now that the contract had been awarded, training on the system was under way on the automated business process and a customer panel would be established prior to roll-out;

(e)

in order to ensure that any post coming into the Council was registered promptly, there would be reinvestment of savings to ensure timely data entry was embedded throughout the council.  In addition, officers would explore why the customer was choosing to communicate that way and discuss the benefits of the digital service;

(f)

‘Firmstep’ was also capable of allowing/recognising communications from different social media platforms , such as twitter and Facebook, however, social media could be unstructured and some fine tuning of the system would be required before this could be taken further;

(g)

a significant amount of work had been done to address the problems in the call centre.  Staff rotas were checked to ensure adequate staff were in place to cover peak periods and the automated response service was working well to help reduce pressure.  Callers could still opt to come out of the automated service at any time and speak to a member of staff;

(h)

there was high confidence that when Amey saw the benefits of the system they would want to use it too.  Officers had seen it working in other authorities and it was in Amey’s interests to follow.  It would also have the benefit of providing one consistent face to the customer;

(i)

all libraries were seeing a decline in visitor numbers and it was therefore necessary to explore opportunities to extend their use by providing alternative customer services, such as registration of births, marriages and deaths, renewing parking permits etc.;

(j)

the City’s most visited libraries were Central, Plymstock, Plympton and St. Budeaux;

(k)

performance relating to the processing of benefit applications was monitored every week and was currently at –

·         7 days – 60%

·         8-29 days – 30%

·         30+ days – 10%

Delays were caused when further information was required;

(l)

initial problems with the First Stop Shop had now been resolved by a change in its layout and staff providing a meet, greet and complete service.

(1)

to enabling the Firmstep system to provide a breakdown of cases on a ward by ward basis for the benefit of councillors and their casework;

(2)

to including with libraries links to other government websites to help point customers using the facilities in the right direction.