What is being done to improve the customer experience

34/09
20 November 2009
MPA briefing paper 34/2009

Author: Ch Supt Dave Reed and D/Chief Inspector Gerry Campbell, MPS

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Summary

At Full Authority on 29 October 2009, Members spoke about the underreporting of crime by victims and linked it to the customer experience - making reference to the reception they receive at the front counter and on the telephone. The Commissioner agreed to provide Members with information on the work being done by the MPS to improve the customer experience.

The following report sets out current MPS activity in respect of customer experience and Appendix A provides some specific hate crime related examples.

Customer experience

The Metropolitan Police Service prides itself in the service it provides for Londoners but recognises that in the area of ‘the customer experience’ there is room for improvement. In recent years there have been major programmes including the introduction of Safer Neighbourhoods, C3i and the Policing Pledge which have had customer service at their heart. These are now in place but continue to be key routes and drivers behind the areas of further work.

Front counters

Recent work on the Front Counters project has concentrated on the areas of improving the corporate image and in particular improved information availability. The team have been ensuring that all front counter staff are aware of the local Safer Neighbourhood contact details, along with displays providing details of partnership agencies and alternative methods of contacting police.

The MPS intranet service has been developed and made accessible to those who are not ‘on-line’ through the trial of police information points. These kiosks are located at police station front offices or shopping centres and offer direct link to internet services including on-line crime reporting as an alternative to queuing or even attending a front counter.

Volunteers have provided the ability to increase the use of triage. This means the quick identification of priority cases and dealing with minor requests that do not require a member of front counter staff to deal so enabling the public to be dealt with more swiftly.

The recruitment of station police community support officers (SPCSOs) both internally and externally is now managed centrally as part of normal business. Their selection and the enhanced training (including crime reporting and customer care, which is given to SPCSOs in addition to standard PCSO training) provides for specialist front counter staff which together with existing Station Reception Officers have all but reached the budgeted target of 510.

In addition to the specialist customer care training for SPCSO’s a number of senior MPS staff are members of the Institute of Customer Services (ICS). The MPS is itself a corporate member of the ICS and the institute have assisted some departments over recent years with additional bespoke training programmes in customer service.

Safer Neighbourhoods

The ethos of Safer Neighbourhoods is about officers being visible, accessible and familiar to their communities. In the very early days of rolling out the programme the MPS looked at how the teams could effectively engage with their communities in order to determine what the long term issues affecting the area were. As a result it was identified that SNT officers needed to have ‘contact points’ where public could go and engage with their officers.

The term ‘contact points’ has now developed in a number of ways which include police surgeries/meetings in libraries, supermarkets, places of worship and other local premises.

The introduction of the Police Pledge has placed a requirement on all forces for all Neighbourhood Policing Teams to hold regular public meetings, held at least once a month to discuss local ward priorities. Details of these meetings (including street briefings) are published on each SNT web page and through newsletters or similar channels.

The meetings, are the most effective and preferred type of approach in engaging with communities. This approach is more successful in encouraging groups from all walks of life and differing communities to come forward and discuss local issues as it is recognised that some people may not wish to attend a police building. Key to the ‘contact point’ concept is that they need to be where the community wants them and not where the MPS thinks they should be. A ‘one size fits all’ resource may not increase contact with the sectors of a community that it needs to reach. SNT officers need to discover their different communities and go to where they are and that may mean that these meetings are not at a police station or office, the key will be the increased ability to create and maintain relationships.

Safer Neighbourhood bases are not open to the public and this can give rise to false expectations. The balance to be struck is that the SNT need to be out and about, being visible within their wards dealing with matters that are important to their communities. The value of front counters is not to be underestimated but there is rarely sufficient ‘trade’ at a SN base to justify a business case for a member of staff to remain in a building to wait for the public to come to them.

However, to help manage expectations, the MPS has introduced signage and branding to inform the public that whilst SN bases are police buildings they are not open to the public. In addition, most sites have also been equipped with a LCD screen to inform the public where the nearest front counter is located as well giving additional information. The information is also published on SN web pages and in the local media.

Central Communications Command (C3i)

The Central Communications Command (CCC), through Operation Aspire and the central HR Business Group are progressing plans to embed improved customer service competencies into telephony and probationer training. The OCU has also combined their organisational learning and misconduct unit into the 'Confidence, Satisfaction and Standards Team' to take on a new role to contact and resolve dissatisfaction where it can within 24 hours. If more formal processes are required then the unit co-ordinates these and ensure the public are kept involved.

CCC have introduced Confidence and Satisfaction teams at each centre to better deal with protracted responses to members of the public and also manage appointments in the Pledge Pilot boroughs. These teams text callers with crime report numbers and also call people back if officers have been delayed on route. This has reduced the number of additional calls from people asking where the police are by keeping them informed. This team also text people who have wrongly used the 999 system with details of the 0300 123 1212 number and a text asking them to save this to their phone for future use.

The Pledge Pilot which sees a focused concentration on getting the non emergency response that suits the customer is continuing. To date it has been rolled out across six London Boroughs and has seen an improved attendance against Pledge promises in call response and importantly a move towards genuine appointments with customers with dedicated appointment cars now operating across each of the pilot boroughs. This will go live to another two boroughs in December.

CCC have also introduced new software (total view) that allows better matching of staffing levels to demand. This has resulted in faster and more consistent telephone answering times throughout the day and now sees the MPS answering over 90% of emergency (999) calls within 10 seconds and over 91% of non emergency calls with 30 seconds. In addition CCC have reviewed and revised call routing processes to ensure that while callers are waiting on non emergency lines there is a clear recorded message advising them to other possible access points such as the internet.

The removal of telephone switchboards (a legacy from C3i) is being trialed. The aim is to make sure that all calls go through to one contact point who can give the right response along with push button options that prioritises incidents rather than requests to be connected to internal numbers.

MPS wide initiatives and continued development

The results of the User Satisfaction Survey of 18,000 service users every year have remained fairly consistent since 2005 with satisfaction regarding the manner in which they were treated being above 90%. Throughout 2009 an MPS wide internal publicity campaign has been delivered with information on both the requirements of the MPS Pledge and how to deliver that through a set of customer focused ‘quality of service’ principals. This should help to imbed the ethos of customer service across the whole MPS regardless of whether internal or external facing.

The MPS have an established ‘Reward and Resolution’ process to resolve and learn from complaints from service users regarding failures in delivering our Pledge and other quality of service failures. The database has been used to handle around one thousand pieces of feedback in less than a year. Much of this has been in the form of a commentary on current policing issues but there have also been occasions where the feedback has been used to trigger operational action, for example the closure of an unruly nightclub in Westminster, or give praise to officers and staff about the action that have taken. The feedback recorded on the database is analysed and the product is used to improve service delivery.

The aim is to continue to improve the ‘customer experience’ across all aspects of our work and we continue to work with the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) to identify good examples in other force areas and take these forward through a programme based approach. For example, the citizen focus team have also been working with the NPIA to investigate the MPS progress against various citizen focus hallmarks standards. These are: understanding people, understanding services, designing services, delivering services. The MPS in conjunction with the NPIA have completed Hallmark 1 and are now taking the recommendations forward. By embedding the hallmarks in the organization the customer experience will be improved and customer service becomes an even greater part of the culture of the organisation.

Appendix A

Improving the customer experience - examples of hate crime related activity

Performance

The performance trend for Race/Faith and Homophobic crime over the last 5 years shows an improving picture:

MPS Performance Trend over Last 5 Years (Race/Faith Offences)

The Race/Faith Hate SD rate increased from 17.9% for FY03/04 to 44.1% for FY 08/09. The volume of offences fell during the first 4 years; however there was a slight increase in FY 08/09. The volume of SDs has increased from 2364 in FY 03/04 to 4204 in FY08/09.

With the exception of FY 07/08 there has been a year-on-year increase in the actual number of perpetrators charged or cautioned for their offending.

MPS Performance Trend over Last 5 Years (Homophobic Offences)

The Homophobic SD rate increased from 17.9% for FY03/04 to 46.2% for FY08/09. The volume of offences has fluctuated over the last 5 years with a slight increase in FY08/09. The actual number of SDs has increased from 223 in FY03/04 to 520 in FY08/09.

There has been a year-on-year increase in the actual number of perpetrators charged or cautioned for their offending.

Activity

The following activities are some examples of the focus the MPS places on improving the customer experience for victims of hate crime:

Identification of Hate Crime Incidents (CRiS update)

On 5 December 2009 the Crime Reporting Information System (CRiS) was updated to more accurately identify and flag hate incidents. This has led to an improvement of the identifications of all categories of hate crime including; Race Hate, Faith Hate, Islamaphobic, Ant-Semitic, Homophobia, Transphobic and Disability Targeted Hate and identifying victim’s needs.

The victim’s sexual orientation (if disclosed) is recorded for homophobic crime and the victim’s gender identity (if disclosed) is recorded for transphobic crime.

These changes have enabled the MPS to improve how it identifies the communities and people targeted by suspects, identify victim’s needs (such as access and communication needs), improve intelligence products and better identify hate crime locations and hate crime perpetrators. It also enables the MPS to deploy its resources and that of its partners in a more cost effective way.

Third Part Reporting

The MPS fully supports and is committed to the concept of third party reporting e.g. GALOP, non-police reporting e.g. True Vision, assisted, self and online -reporting of all aspects of hate crime. The MPS recognises the need to provide different mechanisms from that of traditional reporting of crimes/incidents direct to police. It is essential that victims and witnesses are provided with a wide range of choice of third party reporting service providers so that they feel comfortable, confident and safe in disclosing sensitive and distressing information.

The MPS encourages hate crime victims and witnesses to report all occurrences so that the police (and partners) have a clearer picture of what has transpired, monitor community tensions & crime pattern and intelligence to better inform effective (and proportionate) resource allocation and deployment.

We know that the under-reporting of hate crime represents missed opportunities to support victims (many potentially repeat victims) and missed opportunities to arrest and seek the prosecution of perpetrators.

The MPS Violent Crime Directorate is currently leading a review of Third Party Reporting. There has been much discussion over the last couple of years about the effectiveness of such schemes. The MPS remains committed to ensuring that victims and witnesses of/to all forms of hate crime are afforded accessible and safe opportunities to report those crimes.

The MPS, which currently operates on-line reporting facility is currently assisting the Home Office to develop the national on-line reporting system following the collapse of the last national mechanism. The MPS is facilitating the development of the national system by allowing controlled access through the MPS portal.

Marketing / Awareness Raising

The MPS has been consistent in its key messages to communities and people affected by hate crime:

Recent messages, for example have included:

‘The MPS is wholly committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms including homophobic and transphobic hate crime. We are committed to improving our service delivery to LGBT people as victims, witnesses and mainstream service users and any changes are being made to further improve the quality of our services.’

In addition regarding LGBT Hate Crime a forthcoming campaign - which follows previous marketing – will promote the following message:

LGBT Hate Crime: Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people to tackle homophobic and transphobic hate crime. Don’t Tolerate It. Report It. Stop It.

The MPS has conducted awareness raising sessions to assist victims to identify that they have experienced hate crimes and to report the matter to Police. These activities include: multi agency partnership working with GALOP, Lesbian and Gay switchboard, Albert Kennedy Trust, FFLAG, LGBT Advisory Group and Media activity e.g. poster campaign in venues, LGBT press publications e.g. Boyz & QX magazines and GAYDAR radio programmes.

Workshops and awareness raising sessions have been attended by DCIs, CSU staff, LGBT Liaison Officers, Safer Neighbourhood staff etc.

The MPS’ work has been conducted across business groups e.g. TP - VCD DCFD, Youth Strategy Team and SO 15 CT – SET. Products and programmes have been developed in conjunction with LGBT people and their informed representatives e.g. LGBT Advisory Group, strategic and operational LGBT NGOs - as previously highlighted to engage a diverse range of LGBT people e.g. Youth, Older and BME people.

Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT)

The SNTs are well placed to provide an effective front line response and follow up service to hate crime victims and witnesses e.g. Southwark are developing a project to ensure that all its borough’s ward have a LGBT link officer. In addition they are well placed to find lasting solutions to ward hate crime hotspots and to repeat victims.

To these ends the VCD has developed a tactical menu of options for the SNTs deployment in the effective management of public protection matters, which includes hate crime.

SNTs are working with their ward panel to identify local problems and local solutions. Such community empowerment and community driven lawful solutions will lead to inclusion of the widest range of community members to the exclusion of hate crime perpetrators. Community driven solutions will have a longer lasting effect thereby reducing repeat victimisation. The MPS fully supports this process.

The PCSO’s course contains specific lessons around Hate Crime, DV, Safeguarding Adults and Critical Incidents. The content of the lessons is based around definitions, recognition, patrol skills and action taken at the scene. PCSOs must also complete all MPS mandatory training e.g. DV risk assessment training.

Station PCSO’s Training

SPCSOs are at the forefront of providing a customer-focused service to London’s community. SPCSOs are responsible for reporting approximately 25% of all crime and 25-40% of all serious sexual assaults, domestic violence and race/hate crimes. Consequently SPCSOs can make a significant impact on the way victims of crime perceive the performance of the MPS in relation to the recording and investigation of crime and the service’s performance in relation to National Crime Reporting Standards (NCRS).

The SPCSO course also contains lessons around Hate Crime, DV and Safeguarding Adults At Risk. The emphasis is on recognition, seriousness and correct recording and flagging on the CRiS system.

The VCD is committed to working with the trainers to ensure that organisational learning and further improvements are embedded in training e.g. the importance of confidentiality and sensitivity.

Call Handling/Communications Officers

All communication’s officers are required to attend the 6-week accredited National Call Handling Training Course. The main aim of the course seeks to improve the relationship that the Police has with the public. This requires that the Police should seek to meet the full reasonable public demand and provide a timely and good quality call handling service for both 999 and non-emergency calls.

Specific lessons are delivered around Hate Crime and DV. Lessons highlight definition, recognition and response. The response module ensures the correct tagging and coding of calls to ensure the correct level of service is delivered.

To further support this work, call centre staff are engaged as LGBT Liaison Officers. LOs support the call handlers in the dispatch of their duties.

The VCD is also committed to working with the trainers to ensure that organisational learning and further improvements are embedded in training.

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