To report on the project's developments
since it started in 2016
Decision:
To accept the report
Minutes:
A report was
submitted to the Committee, following a discussion held at the Scrutiny Working
Group (10/05/21), outlining the efforts made since 2016 to increase the
interactive provision on the website and to make it easier to contact the
Council about a number of matters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It was noted that there was a significant increase in the
number of residents using the service, which was positive and confirmed the
value of the investment. It was reiterated that the
service continued to develop and collaborate with Services and consulted with
other Authorities in an attempt to improve the provision. The possibility of
establishing an internal system to support the provision was noted, and
although the project itself could not claim any direct savings, it had assisted
in making savings in Services e.g. Galw Gwynedd to
save £23,000 by developing an internal system.
It was highlighted that the pandemic had led to the
introduction of on-line services in fields where there were previously none,
and this had led to an increase in requests for on-line services generally.
Reference was made to future developments that
included establishing a web-chat function, sharing school admission details,
maritime forms along with further requests to submit, e.g. Housing waiting
list, recycling equipment, crematorium slots for undertakers, foster carer
applications. It was considered that this should be
welcomed and posed another challenge to prioritise all the requests in a way
that brought benefits to our customers and the services in question.
The Cabinet Member reiterated that the Cabinet was fully
supportive of the project and was proud of the good work being
undertaken. She noted that the option to use technology for 24
hour contact was beneficial and that Gwynedd was breaking new ground in
offering the service bilingually.
Gratitude was expressed for the report.
During the ensuing
discussion, the following observations were made by members:
·
The service was
undertaking excellent work - it was certainly the way forward
·
The perseverance and enthusiasm of the Team should
be congratulated
·
There was a need to review the 'draw attention to
potholes' steps - too complex
·
A good experience needed
to be ensured if a 'web-chat' was to be introduced -
it had to be ensured that back-office staff had up-to-date information and
carefully considered which Services were suitable to offer. Needed to avoid a
frustrating and impersonal situation for the customer.
·
Needed to ensure that a Powys postcode was accepted
in 'Where I Live' - some of these postcodes were relevant to Gwynedd residents
In response to a
question on responding to poor feedback and whether those
comments had a pattern, should it be a technical matter, it was noted
that the Website Team would deal with the matter with support from the IT
Service. If one of the other Council Services received poor feedback, then the
response would be likely to vary from Service to Service but that every attempt
would be made to ensure a response. In terms of a pattern to comments, it was noted that the Project Team was examining analysis
software to undertake this work.
In response to a question on the time-scale of responding to comments, it
was noted that the Project Team would work with
Services to agree on a time-scale, while insisting that a response period was
set in order to ensure regulation of the situation.
In response to a
question on completing an application on behalf of someone else and having to
submit personal bank details as a result, attention was drawn
to the fact there was a specific box to input a different address, but that the
request for bank details remained. It was agreed to
look into this.
In response to a
concern that the on-line service put jobs in Galw
Gwynedd at risk, although the service had saved £23,000 for Galw
Gwynedd, it was noted that this had not led to any
redundancies. It was added that saving administrative
time had been the greatest advantage by releasing time to achieve other work
such as referring a resource to 'chat'. It was reiterated
that discussions had been held with Galw Gwynedd
staff and that they were committed to the project.
In response to a
suggestion that the service could be offered to wider
sectors, it was stated that the possibility was desirable albeit premature -
needed to develop the standard before sharing further.
RESOLVED:
To accept the report
Supporting documents: