Meeting The Targets For E-Government

Wychavon has recently submitted it’s last statement to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister setting out it’s position in relation to the e-government targets.

There was a Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI 157) against which we had to measure the percentage of e-enabled services we offer. In this case ‘e-enabled’ means services that we offer online, over the telephone, face to face via our Customer Contact Centres, or by fax. By 31^st March 2006 we achieved 100% against this target.

Additionally, we had to show how we have done against a number of ‘priority outcomes’. These are specific targets in relation to how services can be offered using technology.

The full IEG 6 Statement is available here  (176.94 KB).

Committed To Partnership Working To Provide Effective Government

Wychavon District Council is committed to improving service provision through electronic service delivery and the provision of effective services through the use of technology. Wychavon is a ‘good’ council and aspires to be excellent. We take pride in the fact that we offer our residents good services at good value

Wychavon District Council is also committed to working in partnership with our local community to develop a council that provides value for money services and opportunities to meet the ever-changing needs of the community. E-government in Wychavon has always meant much more than just electronic government – the emphasis is on ‘effective and efficient’ government. The work already done in Wychavon and in partnership across the county of Worcestershire provided us with the foundations on which to start looking at shared service initiatives, in line with the recommendations of the Gershon Report.

We are a partner in the Worcestershire Hub Partnership, working with the County and District Councils in Worcestershire to implement a county wide e-government strategy. By working in partnership we are able to share knowledge and experience. The partnership also extends to private sector organisations, thus ensuring that we have access to expertise at the highest level and additional resources.

Priority Outcome Targets Provide Extra Push!

The Priority Outcome Targets have provided us with focus in all areas, enabling us to consolidate progress and spearhead the final push to achieve the e-enablement of 100% of all Council services. At the same time the Priority Outcomes gave us the impetus to work on some specific projects, such as e-billing, text messaging and the use of our customer relationship management system (CRM) in the back office.

We have worked with our partners to meet the majority of the targets, as this will provide a cohesive, high quality service to all residents of Worcestershire.

Senior managers within Wychavon have led pieces of work in relation to those targets which cannot be achieved so easily in partnership and the Web Development Group, a cross department group, made up of the relevant officers, is leading the work in relation to our website.

Achievements!

We have continued to make progress in many areas.

Since opening the Evesham Community Contact Centre – which provides one stop access to the three tiers of local government and the local police, we have taken on board a number of new services, including, the Probation Service, Pensions Service, and a number of voluntary organisations. As our services are available 74 hours a week at this location we not only meet our targets but provide residents with a service that is easy to access where they want it and when they want it! We are now working with the Department of Work and Pensions and Job Centre Plus to enable them to re-locate in our Contact Centre in Evesham to provide even more public services from one easily accessible Centre. This project will come to fruition in June 2006 when Job Centre Plus open their service at our Contact Centre. Job Centre Plus opened at our Droitwich Community Contact Centre in October 2005, and verbal feedback has been sufficient to prove to us that residents are keen to see as many public services as possible available from one location.

We have been using our CRM system, ‘e-shop’ for over a year. This is being used to log and track all personal enquiries made at our Centres in Wychavon. In addition it is being used right across the County in all the other customer service centres. It provides the presentation of property related information, via GIS, links to all relevant knowledge bases, and full reporting capabilities. Whilst we have taken an incremental approach to rolling this out across the County this has enabled us to learn from each other and ensure that we are continuously meeting local needs. We are now working on the integration of this with back office systems and we went ‘live’ for highways enquiries early in 2006, with Social Services, Street Lighting and Refuse/Recycling services to follow. We have focused on the high volume but easily dealt with transactions in the first instance to ensure we learn our lessons before looking at integration with some of the more complex systems such as revenues and benefits.

Once again we are working in partnership in relation to e-procurement. We have recently started online ordering of all our stationery supplies. This has resulted in greater efficiency for the authority as it will streamline the ordering and payment process whilst also maintaining the flexibility we require in order to obtain best value.  

We now use Modern.gov for all our committee management needs. This has enabled us to improve the information available on our website. We already have web pages dedicated to the Chairman of the Council and some other members of the Council have their own web pages, which the update and maintain to let you know what they are doing in the community.

One area of work we are particularly excited about is around web-based GIS which will open up a world of opportunity for us in terms of service delivery. We have gone live with this internally to trial and fine tune before launching on our website in the coming months. We are developing the facility to enable users to access a wealth of property based information by entering their address, including council tax band, nearest schools, links to recent or current planning applications and many more online services.

Our Telephone Service Centres are also constantly improving to enable easier access to experienced staff dealing with all front line services. We have just started a full-scale review of the way we provide telephone service to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of the public whilst also providing the most effective service possible. It is expected that this review will be completed later in 2006 and options will be reported to members for consideration.

Customers can pay their bills 24/7 either by phone or online but we also maintain a range of choices for the customer. They can pay face to face at our one-stop shops, by direct debit, or can pay by post if they prefer. In April 2006 we started a campaign to encourage customers who pay by cheque to transfer to Direct Debit. This will not only be more efficient for the customer but will also help to ‘reduce the queues’ at the Contact Centres.

World Wide Wychavon

Our web-site, which is being constantly developed, provides information, advice and access to council services. It provides a comprehensive a –z of all council services and links to all relevant forms. We have information available about all the services we provide.

In addition because our website is linked up with the County Council’s customers can access all council services from one website. Services range from applying for school places to renewing library books, from looking up bus timetable information to taking part in online polls. There is now a county wide ‘clubs and societies’ database on the website which community groups can update themselves. This can be used to advertise events and provide contact details.

By using multi-media resources you can now take a virtual tour around the Civic Centre and the Contact Centres in Evesham and Pershore. This may be helpful if deciding whether the facilities would be appropriate for a meeting or other event.

Increasingly the website is used to consult with residents. There is a weekly online poll run by the Worcestershire Hub which asks users to feedback their view on key questions.

Finally there are a number of on-line services now available. Customers can appeal against car parking fines online, using an electronic form, or can report that their refused has not been collected. These transactions are recorded in our Customer Relationship Management system (e-shop) so the customer can subsequently track the enquiry all from the comfort of their home or office! Agents can submit planning applications on line or residents can look at the plans for new developments being proposed nearby.

The services available online will just grow and grow over the coming months!

Using Technology To Improve The Flow Of Information

Some of the biggest benefits if the e-government agenda are not so visible but the use of technology is ensuring that departments are sharing information better – where they can.

Although legislation prohibits the sharing of some data there are many arrangements now in place to ensure that we can make the best use of any information we can share. Whether this be in support of crime reduction initiatives, or to enable Trading Standards to share information with Environmental Health Officers, technology is constantly being developed to speed up the process and ensure information gets to the right people.

Managing Performance

Of paramount importance is performance management to ensure that we are doing what we say we will and that we are doing it well. We have therefore developed an electronic performance management tool, in partnership with a private sector partner, which meets our needs as an authority. This enables all managers to track and log performance against all of our performance indicators, priorities and promises. This is also used for Risk Management and in the same way all managers can use it for their Risk Assessments. As both performance and risk assessment goes hand in hand it is helpful that the same system is used for both.

Effective government is a corporate priority and e-government has been no different. All senior managers have been involved to ensure that we not only meet our targets but also make a real difference to those who use our services. E-government initiatives formed part of every manager’s service improvement plans and the Council’s overall priorities and promises statement.  

We are now looking to the future and how we can continue to use technology to transform services. In the future customers will be able to register the birth of a child and all appropriate records will be updated, for example if they are in receipt of benefits the information will automatically be updated. If a resident moves house all government records will be able to be updated without the customer having to contact lots of different organisations. Whilst this is still some way off, as lives get busier and time more precious, there is no doubt that customer’s expectations of how we use technology to provide a seamless service will become more demanding.

Amanda de Warr, Democratic Services Manager. May 2006