Agenda item

The Interim Assistant Director for Transformation will be present to answer questions. There will be a report from the Head of Electronic Channels – Gateway Services on the call centre.

Mark Stone, Interim Assistant Director Transformation, (Finance, Resources and Customer Services) gave a short presentation, answered questions and listened to concerns.

•   Figures for London councils show that it costs 28p for a council to deal with a report made on-line.  It costs £25 for a council to deal with a report made on the phone.

•   Vulnerable children and adults e.g. those suffering abuse, are far more likely to report a problem on-line than over the phone.

•   The council recognises that not everyone wants to go-online.  However the more people do so, the more phone lines are available for others.

•   Although Enfield has, like all councils, has had to make cuts to save money, it is in the bottom 10% for staff reductions in the UK.

WEB SITE

•   A new web site was launched recently and will soon replace the old one.  (They are currently both working.)

•   Because of the variety of things the site covers, it is 20 times the size of Tesco’s site and 40 times that of John Lewis.

•   Over 200 residents were involved in designing the new site including people from the over 50s forum.

•   There has been a four-fold increase in use of the web site following the launch of the new one.

•   About 2,500 people have provided feedback on the new site. 87% has been positive which is much better than for the old web site - about 13%.  (62% of Enfield residents regularly use the internet but only 6% were using the old web site.)

•   The more people who use the site, the more problems can be identified and resolved.  Over 13,000 small improvements have already been made as a result of feedback.

•   More feedback would be helpful especially in the first two weeks of May when more material is being added.

•   The site allows residents to communicate with the council at any time of the day, seven days a week.

•   Reports made on-line go directly to crews on the street and soon it will be possible for a response to be sent to the person who reported the issue.

•   Reports made on-line enable the council to map issues and identify hotspots thereby working more efficiently.

•   No password is needed to make a report.  One is required for transactions that use personal data e.g. paying Council tax.

•   If you do use your Enfield Connected account when reporting a problem it enables a response to be sent to you.

•   Enfield has one of the largest WiFi networks in the country.

•   Experian Research and Cabinet Office figures show that 89% of residents in the UK now have the ability to go online.

•   There is an Enfield app available for smart phones.

PHONE CENTRE

•   Enfield has one of the largest call centres in the country.

•   It deals with 175,000 calls each year.

•   The most common phone calls are requests for a service update.  As more people use the on-line service and receive feedback through that, these will reduce making it easier to access the phone service.

•   The new system will have information about wait times and will be able to route calls to an officer in the appropriate department who is available to answer the call.

Vicki Morgan, Head of Electronic Channels (Gateway Services -Finance, Resources and Customer Service) provided a written report - attached.