04a JSNA Appendix , item 5. PDF 6 MB - Lambeth Council

DRAFT
would rather speak or visit someone in person 88 . It would be interesting to
explore the extent to which these perceptions are still held given the significant
rise in internet penetration.
Satisfaction with customer services has improved since the opening of the
Lambeth Service Centre which provides the first point of contact for all phone
queries and Lambeth Contact, the first joint service centre for walk-in queries.
Users of both of these are generally satisfied with the service provided.
Customers believed that the phone is answered promptly, it is easy to navigate
the system and the staff are friendly and polite 89 . There is however, a conflict
between satisfaction with resolution of problems. Users of the joint service centre
believed that the staff there were able to successfully resolve their problem
(92%) 90 ; compared with 59% of Lambeth Service Centre users who stated their
problem was not resolved at all 91 .
Prompt resolution of problems or queries was the most important priority for
residents when contacting the council or partners, yet across the majority of
service areas where we have data including housing, LSC customers, council
tax, benefits and Adult and Community Services, the final resolution of a problem
was the area that most people were dissatisfied with. Issues that were perceived
to contribute to the lack of resolution include a lack of joined up working between
front line and back office staff and people not being sure who is the correct
person to contact to resolve a problem.
This lack of prompt resolution of problems needs to be addressed by the Citizens
Focus Programme.
In 2006/07, 10% of borough residents said that they had let the police know their
views on policing, crime or anti-social behaviour compared with less than 0.5% in
2005/06. The most common way that people contacted the police was through
an informal chat with a local officer 92 .
Southwark carried out research in 2007 into the national ‘tell us once’ project.
This aims to enable customers to notify government once of a birth, death or
change of address and overall make contact easier. Overall 72% of respondents
believe that such a service would be helpful compared to only 8% who feel it
wouldn’t be. People see the main benefits as saving them time (18%), saving
them having the same conversations with different organisations (15%) and
being sure that all the relevant parties were informed (14%). However, people do
have concerns about who would have access to their personal information
88 Understanding our residents focus groups 2005.
89 Lambeth Service Centre Customer Satisfaction Survey 2007.
90 Lambeth Contact User Satisfaction Survey 2007.
91 Lambeth Service Centre Customer Satisfaction Survey 2007.
92 MPS public confidence report 2006/07.
Lambeth JSNA – Preliminary assessment
Version 4
October 2008
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