Our update this week aims to give you an overview of each of our workstreams. There is a lot going on and many crossovers with other programmes. We hope by working in the open we are able to keep you updated on our work.
Web content audits: applying content design to our online content
The work continues in the Housing and Waste spaces, with multiple pair writing sessions happening each week. The team are working on anti-social behaviour in Housing and have published:
- What is anti-social behaviour
- Reporting anti-social behaviour
- What happens after reporting anti-social behaviour
We will begin a new focus on homelessness in the coming days.
In Waste we are working on content around missed bins and commercial waste services and in the last couple of weeks we have removed over 58 out of date pages and inaccessible documents. We have also been asked to start our initial review of webpages that sit within Adult Social Care, so will start work on this space next week.
Housing: end to end journey of a housing tenant
Working with our colleagues across Housing, we have begun reviewing the 52 opportunities and recommendations from the Discovery conducted to understand the end to end housing tenant journey. Walking through the opportunities with the service leads will enable a process of prioritisation to identify the high-value items, items already inflight by the service; and items the programme could potentially take forward to the next phase (Alpha) to prototype and test.
Waste Management: improving digital communication with residents after a bin has been missed
Since our last update, the team has now concluded the alpha delivery, to see how we can help improve digital communications with residents on missed waste collections.
The team finalised the alpha report and shared this with the Waste Management service leads. The report included a set of recommendations for the service leads to review and approve. Our key recommendation was to proceed into the beta phase, so that we can implement the short-term opportunities tested during the alpha phase, however, we have been asked to take into consideration the other programme of work the service is currently working on. As a result, a decision was made by the service to delay the beta phase until the Slab in the Cab (SITC) rollout has been completed and fully implemented across all depots (target: Dec 2022).
The Customer Services Programme will continue to support the service on making case for the technical options we recommended against the medium to long-term state for missed waste collection.
Children’s Employment & Performance Licences
Our work began at the end of September with the aim of improving the process of applying for a number of licences and permits associated with child employment and performance. We are looking at:
- Work permits
- Child performance licences
- Chaperone licences
The service experienced immense pressure in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games. This exposed some areas of weakness in the service. As a result, the programme has been asked to work with the service to deliver improvements to improve the customer and staff experience, modernise the service and reduce complaints. We are using the double diamond to deliver this work and delivering this phase over six weeks.
User research started during sprint 1. The team is focusing on understanding the end-to-end journey for each licence. Current research has consisted of data analysis and research interviews with staff members.
These face-to-face sessions provided a valuable opportunity to expand our existing knowledge and understanding. The purpose of speaking to staff is to understand the process in more depth, including how they feel about the steps they take and what pain points they experience.
Following the interviews, an analysis session took place. The analysis session helped us to surface the positives and negatives of the staff experience, as well as their needs. Some key pain points are:
- They have difficulty locating the correct information
- The teams are quite separate and aren’t always working cohesively
- Sometimes there is inadequate communication with the customer
- The service is experiencing understaffing
We have also held group sessions with staff to discuss and visualise the process of issuing the licences and permit.
We have also been preparing and planning to conduct our user research with citizens. Customer interviews have begun and are taking place over the coming weeks. Speaking with customers is an opportunity to understand their needs and problems when using the service. Exploring the customer experience will enrich our understanding of the end-to-end process.
Once we have analysed our findings and shared these with our colleagues in the service, we will hold an ideation session. This will be a session to generate lots of ideas about how we can improve the service. This activity will lead to potential opportunities and improvements within the service.
Culture Change: Customer standards workshops
Roll out of the Customer Standards Workshops continued at pace during the September period, so a big thank you to everyone who’s managed to attend so far and hope the workshops prompt us to reflect on how we can improve what we do.
A further update will be provided in future weeknotes.
Customer Panel
The panel have now had two meetings with the second being a hybrid meeting, The focus for this meeting was to provide them an update on what the programme is designed to achieve, to welcome two new members and also to allow the citizens the opportunity to listen to calls in the contact centre as well as get an update from Sarah May on the workshops that have been running. Focus for the next meeting will be led by Dave Briggs, the interim head of capability and culture on behalf of the research area in his portfolio.
Thank you to the team who contributed to this weeknote: Pamela Kumari, Hannah Pinnock, Nikki Spencer, June Marshall, Sarah Russell and Sarah May.