Agenda item

Consideration was given to the Report updating Members on the Clic Service. The Cabinet Member, Councillor Dafydd Edwards, together with the Corporate Manager- Clic and Customer Services Manager presented the report.  It was reported that the CLIC service was made up of the Corporate Contact Centre, Corporate Mail Room, Direct Contact (Face To Face), Blue Badge Team and Libraries.

 

Members were informed that the Contact Centre (CLIC) started taking calls September 2017 and was now providing the initial contact service for nearly all service areas. In the coming months, the final service area, Social Care would be transferred over to CLIC through the Through Age and Wellbeing Programme ensuring that CLIC will be the first point of contact for all services. Two cohorts of Customer Services staff had undertaken training to prepare for the introduction of Social Care calls in line with TAWP. Customer contact had also been involved in the development of the initial contact forms that would, in due course, be used by staff to handle Social Care enquiries

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It was reported that since the start of the Pandemic and the first lockdown, 23rd March 2020 the Contact Centre team had worked wholly from home, operating a full service with little change to hours or duties. The Team had also provided additional hours of coverage, Easter Weekend in 2020 and supported the Election services during the Welsh Government and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in May 2021, offering a telephony service from 7am on 10pm on Election day.

 

In addition to providing telephone support, the team also take payments, mange corporate mailboxes and provide additional COVID-19 information service. The service had experienced many challenging times due to staffing shortage and some technical issues but endeavors to provide a high level of customer service at all times.

 

The following information was presented which was based on enquiries received between 01/09/2020 and 31/08/2021.

 

 

•           Total calls received = 113,203

            English          Welsh Total

Sep-20           8820   1549   10369

Oct-20            8667   1527   10194

Nov-20           7478   1277   8755

Dec-20           5530   887     6417

Jan-21            8106   1405   9511

Feb-21           7483   1335   8818

Mar-21            9509   1755   11264

Apr-21            8236   1513   9749

May-21           7517   1379   8896

Jun-21           8419   1399   9818

Jul-21 8389   1453   9842

Aug-21           8191   1379   9570

Total   96,345            16,858           

Total Combined       113,203         

 

 

Abandoned calls = English 4% / Welsh 1%

 

•           Total emails received = 17,980

•           Total enquiries logged = 68,698

 

 

 

In relation to CLIC (CRM) Enquiries, it was stated that the system had 79 different categories (defined as service areas) and 407 sub categories. Calls/enquiries were recorded on the Customer Records Management (CRM) system in order to ensure a record of customer contact. Each enquiry was allocated a reference number.

 

Breakdown of the enquiries logged on the CRM was presented as follows,  with the top 15 categories as follows:-

 

Category        Total Logged

Waste Management  11,357

Childcare       10,956

COVID 19      6,686

Highways      4,954

General Enquiry 3,792

Blue Badge   2,879

Housing Register/Homelessness  2,856

Council Tax   2,819

Elections       2,347

Payment        2,054

Planning        1,724

Social Services         1,166

Environmental Control        1,025

Parking and Civil Parking Enforcement 978

Residential Home Appointments 835

Total   56,428

Other Enquiries        12,270

Total enquiries logged during this period 68,698

Revenues and Benefits notes logged on the Comino system during this period:-

 

Housing Benefit       3,023

Council Tax   14,900

Non Domestic Rates 1,396

Total   19,319

 

Breakdown per service area:-

 

Service           Total

Highways & Environmental Services       18,547

Schools & Culture   11,733

Customer Contact    10,151

Finance & Procurement      9,411

Porth Gofal Targetted Intervention           5,949

Economy & Regeneration  4,736

Policy Performance & Public Protection  4,191

Democratic Services           2,506

Porth Cymorth Cynnar        1,485

People & Organisation       192

Legal & Governance           158

Porth Cynnal 64

 

Councillor Enquiries

During the period 01.09.20 to 31.08.21, 2,034 enquiries were logged by County Councillors (696 in Welsh, 1338 in English). This is equivalent to 3% of total enquiries.

 

Welsh             696

English          1,338

Total Enquiries logged by Councillors     2,034

Percentage of total enquiries logged       3%

 

The Post Room had undergone the greatest change during this period with all post from other offices now redirected to Canolfan Rheidol. The post room team was assisted by the direct contact team to carry out daily duties.

The Post Room team had been instrumental in the distribution of 38,000 vaccination letters to Ceredigion residents; 1,040 Carers Afternoon Tea Packs; Carers Wellbeing Packs; assisted with 70 educational resource packs for home educated pupils; supported the posting of all documents relating to the recently transferred Direct Payments service, whilst continuing business as usual.

     

Each day, post was opened, sorted into services and scanned to generic teams for processing.  All timesheets, travel claims, invoices were scanned directly to payments and payroll; revenues and benefits correspondence was scanned and indexed; blue badge applications, financial assessments were all forwarded to teams along with any mail received for Complaints, Social Care, Legal, Corporate Lead Officers &  Chief Executive. All original documents received were recorded and returned to customers within two working days.

 

The post room continued to print out any cheques/BACS notifications for the Authority and post out all items of secure stationery.  The post room also now dealt with the printing and packing of outgoing mail for all Council services. The post room staff also dealt with any monies received through the post or posted through the letter box outside Canolfan Rheidol. Cheques and cash received were recorded and processed the day they were received with receipts if requested being posted out or scanned to departments. The post boxes at Penmorfa, County Hall, Cardigan Office, Lampeter office were emptied and the contents processed regularly.

 

The Direct Contact team had experienced the greatest disruption during the COVID 19 pandemic, with offices being closed since 20th March 2020. These members of staff were now assisting the post room team and the Blue Badge team whilst two members of the team have been redeployed to Contact Tracing. This had offered the opportunity to learn new skills and gain additional experience. Direct Contact staff have also supported, since June 2021, with the reopening of the Libraries.

 

The Blue Badge team had continued to operate throughout the pandemic with staff working remotely from home throughout. Between 01.09.20020 and 31.08.2021 a total of 1,713 Blue Badges were issued.

 

The service is performing very well, dealing on average with approximately 9,400 calls, 1,500 emails and logging 5,600 customer enquiries every month.

 

Several members raised their concerns that they were not informed by the relevant service if a job logged by them had been actioned. In response, the Cabinet Member reported that this was being addressed by all services.

 

Following questions from the floor, it was AGREED to note the current position and to thank all officers within the service for their work.