Members requests for help and advice
Home > Members Requests - Can you help?
Do you want to ask someone something? Do you need some advice?
Send your query to admin@nwegg.org.uk we will co-ordinate your queries and responses
Value for Money - Examples Needed
Bolton Council is looking for Local Authority examples of transformed services/activities that demonstrate Value for Money and/or better service delivery for your citizens. Perhaps you have process re-engineered a service and are now reaping the benefits? Maybe you have managed to do more for the same expenditure? If you have a value-for-money success to share, please contact Nicola Bamford.
Nicola Bamford, Bolton Council, nicola.bamford@bolton.gov.uk
Project Management Dissertation Help
I am currently researching Project Management organisation and practices in the Public Sector as part of the research for my Masters Degree dissertation. I am a Project Manager at Craven District Council and I am keen to the have input from a number of organisations in the Public Sector. I would also appreciate your assistance in contacting your colleagues who you may feel would contribute greatly towards my research project.
I am currently researching Project Management organisation and practices in the Public Sector as part of the research for my Masters Degree dissertation. I am a Project Manager at Craven District Council and I am keen to the have input from a number of organisations in the Public Sector. I would also appreciate your assistance in contacting your colleagues who you may feel would contribute greatly towards my research project.
I have compiled a brief web based survey which I would like to circulate as the first stage in the process.Please feel free to complete the short questionnaire via the web link below and also circulate my email if you wish.
The audience I am trying to contact initially is anyone with experience or knowledge of Project Management in the Public Sector. The next stage of the research is designed to identify experts in Project Management Centres of Excellence, Project Management and Project Support Offices and for specific targeted organisations will involve a second questionnaire and possible further interviews.
If you are able to accommodate my request in any way I will be glad to discuss this further.
Andy Smith, Craven District Council, andysmith@cravendc.gov.uk
PDA/TABLETS
Does anyone know of a LA which has used PDA/ Tablets successfully and detailed the value of the use of such mobile technology. We are aware of project nomad, but just wondered if there was any LA within Merseyside specifically.
Any advice can be sent directly to John Curtis at JohnCurtis@merseyfire.gov.uk
PPM Software
I'm currently looking at introducing PPM software at Carlisle, initially for regeneration programmes and projects, but also for use on any other Council projects.
Does anyone have experience of PPM packages or advice that they'd be willing to share with me?
Things I'd like to know about are user-friendliness, amount of work needed to set up the system, indication of costs (including 'hidden' costs like essential consultancy that the suppliers didn't tell you about at the time you bought it), ease or problems with rolling it out, nice things to look for and nasties to watch out for etc. etc. Also any tips on getting users, including Board members, to use it!
Any advice or snippets of info that anyone can give me would be really appreciated.
Does anyone have experience of PPM packages or advice that they'd be willing to share with me?
Things I'd like to know about are user-friendliness, amount of work needed to set up the system, indication of costs (including 'hidden' costs like essential consultancy that the suppliers didn't tell you about at the time you bought it), ease or problems with rolling it out, nice things to look for and nasties to watch out for etc. etc. Also any tips on getting users, including Board members, to use it!
Any advice or snippets of info that anyone can give me would be really appreciated.
Carolyn Mitchell, Corporate Projects Manager, Carlisle City Council, CarolynM@carlisle-city.gov.uk
Call Centre (Opening Times)
Wirral Council are looking to progress proposals to extend their Call Centre opening hours to 8.00am-8.00pm and would welcome some information from other local authorities in terms of how their call centres were originally set up and then developed.
Can you spare some time to download and complete the attached survey and share your experiences with them to help them make a more informed decision as to how to progress their plans?
Please return your completed survey and any comments you may have to Andrea at andreabruffell@wirral.gov.uk
Customer Service Centre
Wrexham County Borough Council are currently developing a Customer Service Centre for all face to face contact with Wrexham County Borough Council.
They are not proposing to include cashiers offices within the Centre but would like automated paying in machines.
They would like to know if any of our members have a similar system in place and if so what system you use?
They are not proposing to include cashiers offices within the Centre but would like automated paying in machines.
They would like to know if any of our members have a similar system in place and if so what system you use?
If you can help, contact Helen Gerrard at helen.gerrard@wrexham.gov.uk
Data from Call Centres Request
We have asked would any of our members, with Call Centres, be willing to provide some data to help them to benchmark thier performance?
They would like to know the following information:-
-
What services do you offer through the call centre?
-
The volume of calls offered, handled and abandoned for different services or teams for 06/07 and 07/08.
-
How many agents do you employ in the Call centre?
-
Are you staff generically trained?
-
To what degree are you handling calls ie logging a request for the service to be dealt with by the service owner or a more in depth assessment of customer requirements with possible resolution for the call?
If you can help please send you responses to admin@nwegg.org.uk and we will forward them on.
Strategy to improve the co-ordination of helplines
The Ministry of Justice has lead responsibility in central government for developing a strategy to improve the co-ordination of helplines to the public following the report Getting earlier, better advice to vulnerable people and the relevant sections of the Varney Report, and are asking Local Authorities to assist this by completing a short survey.
As a first step to developing the strategy they are seeking to identify the range of helplines and to obtain some basic facts.
They have already surveyed central government bodies regarding helplines that they provide directly or fund, and are now issuing a similar survey to local authorities in respect of helplines that they
· provide themselves
They have already surveyed central government bodies regarding helplines that they provide directly or fund, and are now issuing a similar survey to local authorities in respect of helplines that they
· provide themselves
· outsource or
· otherwise fund, in whole or part.
They have developed the survey in consultation from local authorities, IDeA and DCLG. Completion of the survey is voluntary but the data generated by it is vital to them developing a robust and effective strategy. Therefore they hope that as many authorities as possible complete it in order to maximise the quality of the resultant dataset. They will feed back the main findings to local authorities who have participated in the survey.
They would be grateful if local authorities would complete the survey in respect of services they directly provide and, if it is more suitable, to forward the survey to third party organisations providing outsourced services or receiving local authority funding to provide helpline services.
They have developed a definition of helplines for the purposes of this survey, click here to download guide.
They have developed the survey in consultation from local authorities, IDeA and DCLG. Completion of the survey is voluntary but the data generated by it is vital to them developing a robust and effective strategy. Therefore they hope that as many authorities as possible complete it in order to maximise the quality of the resultant dataset. They will feed back the main findings to local authorities who have participated in the survey.
They would be grateful if local authorities would complete the survey in respect of services they directly provide and, if it is more suitable, to forward the survey to third party organisations providing outsourced services or receiving local authority funding to provide helpline services.
They have developed a definition of helplines for the purposes of this survey, click here to download guide.
Experience from central government is that some departments have found that some services that they do not themselves refer to as helplines fall within the scope of their definition (and vice versa). For example some central government contact centres dealing with benefits enquiries have come within the scope of the survey (because, for instance, they offer tailored help and advice to some of their callers, as opposed to offering solely information and transactional services). Conversely other helplines that purely assist callers to fill in a tax form have fallen outside of the scope.
They are very aware that there may be instances where there is some doubt regarding whether a particular service is in scope, and are more than happy to discuss any queries on this issue with individual authorities. The relevant contacts are Hannah Dent who can be contacted on
0207 210 8782
or at hannah.dent@justice.gsi.gov.uk or Howard Thompson who can be contacted on
0207 210 8817
or at howard.thompson@justice.gsi.gov.uk.
The survey is on-line at http://www.helplinesurvey.org.uk/ and has been designed to be light-touch, typically requiring 20 minutes for completion. The survey is hosted on a secure website which is password protected. The survey contains full instructions on completion and a glossary.
They have kept the Delivery Council, the Local Government Delivery Council and the Contact Council fully appraised of their proposals and progress. The work is linked to but discreet from the Contact Centre PMF. They have endeavoured to minimise duplication of requirements and see their survey population as being a discreet subset of the wider Contact Centre population. The methodology and purpose of the survey is also different from the PMF. This is a one-off survey designed to identify the range of helplines available to the public and to gather some basic information about them. Its primary purpose is not to measure performance in general but to understand more about the helplines available to the public and the degree of co-ordination and synergy between them.