A-Z of Services

Council Plan 2012-2016 - Corporate Theme: Organisation

Corporate Theme: Organisation

Striving for Excellence

Wrexham County Borough Council is made up of 52 elected Members. It is led by an Executive Board who are supported and held to account by Scrutiny Committees. The Strategic Management Team for the Council is made up of the Chief Executive, three Strategic and Performance Directors and nine Heads of Department. Services are provided and enabled by around 6,400 people in 4,900 full time equivalent posts.

The Wrexham Context

Each year, the Auditor General for Wales reports on how well Welsh councils are planning for improvement and delivering their services. The report for 2010/11 found that Wrexham County Borough Council:

Is making slow progress in developing its arrangements to support improvement and in improving some services

Continues to have good financial management and is developing collaborative projects, but it has made slow progress in improving its governance and other arrangements

Is making mixed progress in improving services

Extensive time and resources are used in performance monitoring but the Council is not making the best use of information to support self assessment and performance management

How this theme was developed

This priority theme will mainstream the Council's transformation programme and focus it upon effectiveness as well as efficiency.

'The Council should 'listen to [local people] and take notice of what they hear''
Survey respondent

The opportunity to influence decisions was a key issue for improvement highlighted by survey respondents, as well as one that has been raised by regulators as an area for improvement.

'The Council should 'value and support its staff'
Survey respondent

O1 – Engaged and Satisfied Customers

Over seven thousand people contact Wrexham County Borough Council each working day for advice and information, to request services or to report problems. Thousands more benefit from the universal services the Council provides or enables, such as waste collection and trading standards.

We will strive to ensure that these services reflect the requirements of local people, and that this is reflected in the satisfaction of local people with those services.

In 2008 the Council had over 100 published phone numbers and nine town centre receptions between which customers were directed depending on the service they want. The Customer Contact Centre was established in 2009 as a single point of access for those services most frequently requested by customers. This has significantly reduced the range of published numbers in use and the services accessible through the centre is continuing to grow.

By 2016 the Council will earn the public's trust by engaging with local people and using what it learns to make significant changes in the services that it provides. As a result, customers will value the work that we do and will tell us they have seen a significant improvement in the services they receive and how they receive them.

We will monitor our success through:

Outcome Indicator	Comparison	Wrexham 2011/2012	Target 2012/2013	Target 2013/2014	Target 2014/2015	Target 2015/2016
Percentage of popular services accessible through the Contact Centre Telephone (Tel) Face to face (F2F) E mail (E)	-	Tel: 25% F2F: 38% E: 23%	Tel: 38% F2F: 61% E: 38%	Tel: 61% F2F:69% E: 54%	Tel: 85% F2F:85% E:77%	Tel: 92% F2F:92% E M: 85%
Customer satisfaction with Contact Wrexham Services by: Telephone Face to face Web	(UK average) 93% 73% 45%	95% 80% 59%	96% 82% 60%	97% 84% 61%	97% 86% 62%	97% 88% 63%
Percentage of customers who trust the Council to deliver the service they requested	-	63%	68%	73%	78%	83%
Percentage of local people who feel that the Council takes accounts of residents' views when making decisions	41%⁴² British average	n/a	British Average or Better	-	Above British Average	-

We will achieve this by:

Migrating the majority of customer contact currently delivered by departments into the Corporate Contact Centre;
Delivering a significant upgrade of the Council's Customer Relationship Management system to support the ability to resolve queries at the first point of contact;
Continuing to review processes to make them streamlined and easily accessible for customers;
Implementing an enhanced complaints process and structure;
Implementing a robust customer satisfaction survey across all channels and services;
Analysing customer information to ensure we learn from mistakes and continue to improve services;
Publishing an annual report setting out how customer feedback, consultation and engagement information has impacted on decisions; and
Undertaking an annual survey to understand local people's satisfaction with, and perceptions of, the Council.

⁴² LG Insight/Populus poll January 2011. Wales average was 39%

O2 – Creating the Conditions for Success

Wrexham County Borough Council wants employees who do their best work and 'go the extra mile' to deliver the required service. We also want our employees to have jobs that are worthwhile, jobs that inspire them and to understand how what they do contributes to the success of the authority.

To build an authority that delivers positive results again and again we nurture an organisation where employees feel valued. Feedback and challenge are seen as healthy processes and there is a commitment to listen and respond.

Good leaders create the environment for employees to be innovative in how we improve what we do and the outcomes we deliver for the people of Wrexham. In short, we create a passion within the Council for customer service within Wrexham. Employees understand their unique contribution to the Council and this inspires change, creativity and innovation.

We will monitor our success through:

Outcome Indicator	Comparison	Wrexham 2011/2012	Target 2012/2013	Target 2013/2014	Target 2014/2015	Target 2015/2016
Level of staff engagement (Amalgamation of employee engagement measures taken from the new staff survey)	-	58.9%	60%	65%	70%	75%
Percentage of an identified basket of national indicators⁴³ where performance is first quartile⁴⁴ for Wales	Quartiles are an indicator of comparison	56% (2010/11)	67%	Future targets will be reviewed following the current Welsh Government review of statutory national indicators
Percentage of an identified basket of national indicators where performance is first and second quartile for Wales	Quartiles are an indicator of comparison	66%	78%

We will achieve this by:

Developing and improving the workforce planning approach across the Council, ensuring we have appropriate staffing and skills;
Implementing and developing an integrated human resources and payroll system to improve workforce monitoring;
Undertaking a programme of strategic assessments to shape the organisation and to deliver improved outcomes;
Cultivating positive staff engagement by developing our leaders and ensuring staff behaviours reflect the values of the Council;
Developing our employees to ensure they are equipped with the skills they need to help them achieve the Council's strategic priorities and their full potential;
Retaining the Investors in People status by affirming processes within the organisation through the reassessment process;
Integrating equality and valuing diversity through each department achieving the 'gold standard' of the Council Equality Award;
Achieving the Corporate Health Gold Standard by 2016;
Putting forward to Council proposals for changes to scrutiny, decision making and business processes;
Updating the Medium Term Financial Strategy to show how the Council integrates its processes for developing future strategic priorities and allocating resources to them.

⁴³ Identified basket of National Strategic and Public Accountability Indicators where the Council wants to sustain or improve comparative performance. Will be reviewed following the Welsh Government review of these indicators

⁴⁴1st quartile means that performance is amongst the best 25% in Wales; 1st or 2nd, the best 50%.