Berwick Council providing residents with poor access to services » Local Government » 24dash.com

Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council is providing local people with poor access to services, according to an independent report released today by the Audit Commission.

On a scale from zero to three stars the Audit Commission inspection team gave the service a zero stars rating. This was because the Council does not have a comprehensive understanding of local needs, is not providing a wide range of quality options for residents to access to its services - particularly for those in rural areas - and new technology is not used effectively to increase opportunities for contact with the Council.

Marion Talbot, Audit Commission senior manager, said: Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council does not have a consistent and strategic approach to improving access and responsibilities for leading improvement are not clear. The Council is at very early stages of developing an understanding of access needs across all strands of the community by communicating direct with them. It provides good information to enable the local community to contact service departments and clear standards have been set for frontline customer services to respond to customer contact. However, the Council is not meeting these response standards and there is no monitoring and consequently no reporting of performance against them. 

The Council will need to discuss the opportunities for improvement highlighted in the report with the team setting up the new single authority for Northumberland so that the needs of Berwicks residents are reflected in the delivery plans for the new council. 
 

The Inspection found:
 

• Public areas for accessing Council services are poor quality, although the Council has approved plans to improve the main reception facility.
• Opportunities to access the full range of Council services in rural areas are limited.
• There are only limited examples of the Council sharing facilities with other partners to make services more accessible particularly in rural areas.
• There are gaps in web-based service provision and the Council is not taking all opportunities to encourage and support people to use new access channels particularly to overcome rural isolation.
• There is no monitoring of compliance with the Councils standards in the Customer Charter and inspection checks found that the Council was not meeting its own response standards
• Positively, the annual resident survey shows that most residents are satisfied with helpfulness and competence of staff and the A-Z of services delivered to every home in the borough provides a quick reference guide to Council services with contact number and email details.
   

To help the service improve, the inspectors made a number of recommendations. These included the following.
To improve access to services in the short term:
 

• make better internal use of electronic systems and data to understand more about access needs, user access preferences and performance; and
• communicate standards clearly, apply them, monitor application of them and feedback performance to customers and staff.

For longer term improvement, work with the team setting up the successor authority in Northumberland to:
 

• develop a full understanding of access needs in the Berwick area;
• carry out a gap analysis to ensure comprehensive access opportunities are provided for all;
• develop partnership working arrangements to meet access needs more effectively, including increased use of Council and other facilities in rural areas to improve access to Council services.
   

Access is a council-wide responsibility and is about focusing services to meet the needs of all members of the community to improve outcomes for all. This inspection looked at access in the widest sense by looking not only at contact channels but how the Council as a whole and with partners provides local people with opportunities to improve their quality of life.
 

Copies of the report are available from Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council or from the Audit Commission website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk/reports