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RESOLVED:  Cabinet approved the Resident Access Strategy
2024-2029 at Appendix A.
 
REASONS RESOLVED:
1.    
To set out a clear vision for the development of
improved and more accessible channels of contact.
2.    
To provide a unified structure for how services
develop their customer offer making full use of resident feedback,
technological developments and predicted changes in consumer
behaviour and expectations.
3.    
To make clear to residents the resources available
to them to find information and advice and to access services in
ways that meet their needs, at the time they need us most, with a
focus on solutions.
4.    
The strategy is an important part of the
Council’s One West Northamptonshire plan and in particular
our commitment to act as an efficient and effective organisation
facilitating the delivery of our priorities and especially how we
support our vulnerable residents to live well and
thrive.
5.    
As such this resident access strategy brings
together the principles of:
• Think Family (considering all aspects of a
person’s life, not just their immediate request for a
specific service),
• Making Every Contact Count (using every
opportunity to intervene and prevent needs from getting worse),
and
• Human-centred Design (organising services and
information in ways which mirror life events and circumstances,
rather than the structure of our services and
organisation).
 
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:
·      
Option 1: Focus resources into the traditional
contact centre model of delivering services, with a standard offer
of 9-5, Monday to Friday, and using the corporate website as a
source of information.
·      
Option 2: Move to maximise the use of automation and
artificial intelligence to divert as much contact as possible
towards self-service and releasing resources by removing the human
element of the interaction whenever appropriate.
·      
Option 3: Develop a mixed offer which builds on the
existing resources, the learning from residents so far and the
opportunities available to us. This will see us continuing to
diversify our offer, with more options for self-service online,
with smart forms which guide the customer towards the correct
information and provide them with updates on their applications,
more automated solutions for customers who are happy to receive
links to information and forms to their mobile phone, or
pre-recorded information about specific issues, webchat available
across a wider time period, and additional training for our
advisors to enhance the depth of advice and resolution they can
achieve at the first point of contact.