A verbal update provided by Jacqui Hurd, Head of Customer Services.

Jacqui Hurd, Head of Customer Services, updated the Conference on the procedures for contacting the council. Jacqui Hurd explained that the biggest frustration was that ‘nobody was getting back to me’. There are a number of projects going on currently. These include:

·         Main channel by phone and email and complaints officer too. In the process of gathering evidence and then analysing what the queries were so analysing why officers were not getting back to answer queries.

·         The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a lean borough. Information from the Parish Councils to planning, steps had been put into place. A VIP Call number for Parish Councils only, not for the public for all urgent enquiries was distributed at the Conference. The line was going to be open from 8am to 6pm currently and 8am to 7pm from June 2016. All calls would get through, logged and dealt with. A management team number was also provided. Email id’s were also included.

ACTION: Provide information card with all contacts provided electronically.

·         Lagging – signed contracts with Jadu, starting  1 May 2016 where customers would be able to set up their own accounts. The first function available for customers would be ordering green waste, the process will be abled to be tracked. The same functions for Members would be available by the end of the year. Jacqui Hurd informed the Conference that volunteers were being looked for.

·         Customer insight – what’s going on in their ward/parish/area. The borough were looking for an insight of what local people are concerned about.

·         Telephony System – this was currently out to tender and a decision would be made at the end of June 2016. This would offer the functionality of visibility of what officers were doing. Jacqui Hurd suggest attending a future conference to report back on this.

Points raised by Conference Members included:

·         The Parish Councils would like distribution charts to see who does what.

ACTION: Provide distribution charts to all Parish Councils.

·         If Parish Councils already have contacts who they have been working with in the council, should they now only use the team email. Jacqui Hurd explained that it would be better to use the team emails as these would be logged. If other contacts were used and no one responded to a query, then it would not be able to be tracked. The preferred route would be the central route as it could be tracked.

·         What was the standard turnaround time for responding to enquiries. Jacqui Hurd explained that there were no written contract with standard turnaround periods, however, ten working days was a general standard. If no response was received within five working days, it would be worth chasing again.

·         Parish Councils and Members would like to know of outcomes of consultations before actions taken forward, this would assist them to inform the public if asked. Ben Smith explained that outcomes were put on the website.

ACTION: Ben Smith to ensure that Members and Parish Councils are initially informed of consultation outcomes.

The Chairman requested that Jacqui Hurd updates the Conference in six months.

ACTION: Clerk to note.