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

DRAFT
People are keen to hear how services are performing and whether they are
keeping their promises. They would like to see balanced, realistic reporting (not just
good news) that shows how money is being spent to tackle important local issues.
Most people contact the council by telephone (70%) followed by face to face
contact at 13%. Face to face contact increases to 34% for housing tenants. Whilst
happy to use it as a source of information, people have less faith in using the
internet for interactive contact.
It is getting easier to get through to Lambeth on the phone, phones are answered
promptly and staff are perceived to be polite and helpful. However, customers
across service areas are less satisfied with the resolution of their problems. It can
be difficult to speak to the correct person and there is perceived to be a lack of
joined-up working between front and back office staff. Prompt resolution of
problems is an important area of customer service to be addressed.
Half (48%) of Lambeth residents currently feel that they can influence local
decisions which is higher than the London average (43%). There is an appetite
among Lambeth residents to be involved in local decision making with 40% keen to
be involved regardless and 52% dependant on the issue. One in five (20%)
residents have taken part in consultation, an increase from 16% in 2005, but there
is a need for consultation to be meaningful and for honest feedback that shows
how people’s views have been taken into account.
Recommendations for further research
- At Lambeth Council, we currently have a weak understanding about how
Lambeth residents view the services offered by partnership organisations:
What do people think of their customer experience of Job Centre Plus,
Metropolitan and community police services, health services, the voluntary
and community sector and fire services within the borough? How well do
council services link up with partnership services? How can these services
complement each other and work better together?
- Research has shown that there are two groups of people accessing services
within Lambeth. One group uses a lot of services and require detailed
contact specific to their needs. They like to contact us by phone or in
person. The other group use very few services and may potentially want
less contact. Research could be carried out to determine whether this is the
case and how customer service can best be structured to meet the needs of
heavy and light users of local services.
- There is currently little information available on the views of business users.
It would be interesting to understand their views on the services they use
and how they could be improved.
- Although people see the internet as an important source of information,
there appears to be barriers to using technology interactively for contacting
services, making payments and resolving problems. Further work could
investigate the barriers to interactive contact via the internet.
Lambeth JSNA – Preliminary Assessment
Version 4
October 2008
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