Leader Dominic Twomey wants “lasting change that strengthens our services and improves the lives of our residents”, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
Contacting the town hall over council tax and housing repairs will become easier as part of a planned “transformation” of the local authority, new documents say.
Barking and Dagenham Council says it wants to become more efficient – as it faces having to find £43million of savings over the next three years.
Labour council leader Dominic Twomey said he wants “lasting change that strengthens our services and improves the lives of our residents”.
As part of its transformation the council says it wants to improve how residents deal with council services – “starting with council tax”.
Plans set to be approved by council leaders next week say there is “consistent evidence” that people face “customer experience challenges” when dealing with the town hall.
They say that 54% of complaints are upheld or partly upheld, and that the council receives “sustained high volumes of contact relating to issues with repairs, planning and council tax dissatisfaction”.
Proposals say the council wants to reduce waiting times, as well as how often people have to contact the town hall repeatedly. It says it wants to improve its phone and email systems, and make it easier to pay council tax by direct debit.
It also says it wants to reduce the number of calls it receives as “it costs the council £4.80 per phone call”.
The changes are part of a wider plan to transform how the council operates.
Other changes include moves to keep people needing care living at home independently, rather than being placed in care homes.
Proposals say the council wants “significantly more adults to live independently in their own homes, with reduced reliance on traditional care homes”.
They say that “rising demand and the increasing cost of residential placements are financially unsustainable”.
Similarly, the council wants to depend less on “high-cost” care home placements for children.
Instead, it says it wants to create more local children’s home spaces and foster places. And it wants more “intensive” support for families “to prevent breakdown”.
The council says it needs to change in order to meet increasing demand for services and the rising cost of providing them, while financial forecasts predict it will need to find £43.8m in savings by March 2030.
Plans say the council wants to move from reacting to demand for services to preventing it, by taking action earlier.
They also say they want to make the council “easier to work in and work with” and leave the council with enough money “to improve, innovate and invest in the future”.
The three-year transformation will also include changes to how the town hall works internally, including how staff spend money on third-party suppliers.
The council says it currently spends £300m a year this way, with suppliers contracted by “non-procurement professionals” in various council departments.
Instead, the council says it wants to “centralise” how it contracts suppliers “to enable delivery of savings”.
Leading Labour councillors are set to approve the transformation at a cabinet committee meeting on Tuesday (14th July).
