To answer any Member questions.
Minutes:
In accordance with the agreed procedure the Chairman invited Members to submit questions.
Gary Cowan asked the Chairman of the Committee the following question:
On more than one occasion I brought to the attention of the Executive my concerns about the evolution of Century 21 in that technology seems to play a big role yet very little attention seems to be paid to methods that encouraged the Public/Members/Officers personal communication when, in fact, it is a very simple process. Is this driven by the desire to be secretive and keep the public/Members at a distance or are there other reasons why the Executive seem to want to steer away from a closer more personal relationship with our residents and Members, particularly backbenchers and Opposition Members?
Answer
The 21C programme has adopted a “Digital by Choice” approach to services, and this has ensured our customers continue to have the ability to choose how they interact with the Council.
The programme has been able to improve responses to customers at first point of contact by the introduction of the Customer Delivery Service. Customer Delivery has centralised a number of teams across the Council, ensuring the customer is able to contact the right person, at the right time to receive the right information, irrespective of the channel they choose to use.
The introduction of the Localities offer has grown our customer service offering by further developing our offer within Libraries and creating Community Hubs, as well as launching a Locality Engagement Team that is focussed on community engagement.
In addition, in order to improve communication to all residents, the 21CProgramme highlighted the need to build a stronger, more resilient Communication and Engagement Team. This team is being set up, with a number of smaller teams being centralised across the Council and increased resource that will ultimately create a better level of engagement both internally and externally.
New technology that has been introduced will help both the public, and Members to carry out their duties more effectively, for example, the new HIMS system (Highways Information Management System) for logging potholes and the introduction of a new Members Intranet.
Supplementary Question
I have no problem with the 21CC programme. However, every one of us has the experience of when the phone rings and the caller is not identified. You speak to a person and you have no idea who they are, so you are on guard. The way 21CC works is missing out the development of those personal relationships between the Council and members of the public. I know that this cannot be 100%, but in communications the intention should always be to include the name of the relevant individual rather than just the name of the department. For example, responses from Highways are badged as a response from the Highways Department with “we will respond within five days”. If you are dealing with a person you should tell that person who you are.
Should we not be looking at the personal relationship between the Officers, the Members and the residents to make our interactions as personal as is humanly possible and not too technical?
Answer
I have some sympathy with your views, but I will take it away and provide a written answer.