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Residents First Strategy

Last updated 27 February 2013

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The Residents First Strategy has been adopted by the Council following consultation with our residents.

The strategy provides a clear focus on the future direction the Council is taking to deliver excellent services, built around the needs and preferences of our residents.

It is underpinned by five key principles and a set of commitments to ensure we provide excellent services that put residents at the heart of everything we do.

We will review the strategy annually and will provide an update on our website each quarter to inform residents on our progress in delivering the strategy.

Quarter 3 update: October-December 2012

Priority: Make it easy to access all of our services

Between October and December, we have:

  • Continued to develop a Customer Portal for our website. This will allow residents to set up their own account online and view the status of any enquiries or transactions that they have with the Council. Additionally, more new online self-service forms have been on the Council website for residents to use since 22 January 2012
  • Made further improvements to the Registrars service. A proposal to restructure the Registrars Service is currently out for consultation. If accepted, the service will be restructured by May 2013, leading to a consistent, high quality service for residents
  • Continued with the preparation to move additional services into our Customer Services unit, such as Planning and Benefits. Work continues on projects to bringing in more services to Customer Services

Between January and March, we will:

  • Launch an online portal, which will enable residents to create a personalised account on the Council website, which they can use to raise service requests and track their delivery. The work is progressing well and is currently due to be delivered by our contractors by the end of March
  • Transfer elements of Building Control, Planning, Housing and Registrars into Customer Services. This work is ongoing and progressing well

New projects: Library Plus Improvement Programme

Since last summer, Residents First has been working with the council's Property and ICT services on an important new programme to refurbish and improve Waltham Forest's main library buildings. On 15 January, Cabinet approved £5m capital funding for the Programme. All four Library Plus branches will be refurbished and we have started work on the design of Leyton, where are already delivering additional services such as housing benefit appointments.

The vision of the Library Plus Improvement Programme is that the new Library Plus branches will:

  • Be modern and attractive spaces which match up to the best public library buildings in London
  • Provide a future library service equipped with cutting edge information technology
  • Enable easy access to the full range of council services, particularly through self-service
  • Empower staff to offer the best customer experience

Priority: Provide excellent customer care

Between October and December, we have:

  • Continued the progress towards Customer Service Excellence accreditation, awarded by an independent body, for our Customer Services Unit, which includes libraries, the Customer Service Centre, the contact centre and website

Between January and March, we will:

  • Review all Council receptions that are not part of Customer Services and developing proposals for their future management. Work commenced on this project in January 2013 and is scheduled to complete in March 2013
  • Ensure that Customer Services achieves the national Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard. Customer Services are in the process of completing their application and are due for external assessment in March 2013

Priority: Make every penny count

Between October and December, we have:

  • Progressed the introduction of voice recognition technology in our contact centre, to reduce the time that customers will spend waiting for an advisor in busy periods and enable them to be connected to the person they need to speak to as quickly as possible. This will improve the service for customers whilst also saving the Council money. Voice recognition software and hardware have now been installed at Council offices. The hardware and software is now ready for internal testing and plans for this are in place. Additional improvements in telephony processes and policies have been drafted and put in place to improve customer care telephony across the organisation. These will be tested and monitored over the next period
  • Allocated the second round of funding to voluntary and community groups from the Volunteering Support and Match Funding grant schemes, up to £60,000. The second round of grant panels was held in October. The value of the Match Funding grant awarded was £29,859. This money will be used by local voluntary organisations to secure equivalent funding from sources outside of the borough to deliver local projects. The total Volunteering grant awarded was £23,478 and this will be used by local groups to create new volunteering opportunities for residents and improve the quality of volunteer experiences
  • Continued to review service areas to identify potential opportunities for improvements or reduced costs. We completed reviews of Community Engagement, Arts and Events, the Council Website and Members Enquiries amongst others during October to December 2012

Case study: Community Engagement, Arts and Events services

The review confirmed important strengths in these services, but also identified opportunities to improve their impact and value for money.

The reviews found that the teams share many common functions and are often working towards the same outcomes. In early January, proposals were launched to bring together the Arts, Events and Community Engagement teams, to create a new Community Development Service.

If the proposals are accepted, the new service will:

  • Continue to lead community engagement and development activity across the council, creating stronger links with teams in other Directorates
  • Develop and promote a joint Residents First 'Cultural Offer' across Arts and Events, Library Development and Museums and Galleries
  • Develop capacity to successfully lever external funding and build strong external partnerships, particularly with the Voluntary & Community Sector
  • Deliver a cross cutting 'Culture and Communities' Grant Funding programme, linking communities, cohesion and culture

Following formal consultation on the proposals which is currently underway with affected staff, and consideration of comments and feedback, it is planned that a new service would take effect from May 2013.

Between January and March, we will:

  • Continue to make progress on our proposals to achieve financial savings in the Community Engagement, Arts, Events and Registrars services, whilst maintaining and/or improving the quality of their work

Priority: Tell residents how we are performing

Between October and December, we have:

  • Published our second quarterly Council performance report. This was published on the Council internet as part of the January Cabinet papers (click here and scroll down to item 12)
  • Published the findings of the Residents Insight Survey and mystery shopping exercises. As part of a wider drive to involve our residents in the work and decisions of the Council, we have completely overhauled the web pages relating to community involvement. The new “Get involved” web pages cover all the ways in which residents can have their say including: community engagement, council consultations and how to stay informed about the Council's work. As part of the on-going development of this area of the website we are looking to improve the feedback on both the consultations that residents take part in and post resident-friendly versions of the Resident Insight Survey reports to allow them to track the Council's core performance measures. This will be in place by March 2013. The results of external mystery shopping to assess how we are doing against the Residents First Charter will be published on the website in February 2013

Between January and March, we will:

  • Publish a further quarterly updates on progress in delivering the strategy. This will follow after the financial year end, in April
  • Introduce regular updates for residents on progress in delivering the Council's priorities – both through Waltham Forest News and the Council website. As part of the Council's commitment to keep residents informed about the progress of priorities, there have already been two eight page pull outs in Waltham Forest News, on 15 October 2012 to launch the proprieties and then on 14 January 2013. Both pull outs go into detail on how the Council is delivering on the priorities and commitments. They also outline ways that residents can get involved in decision making and the latest one outlines how the Council spends their budget. Both are also available on line. Around 100 000 copies are distributed

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