Royal borough introduces “first of their kind” service standards designed in partnership with residents
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has adopted a set of ‘service standards' that detail how staff should handle residents when they access council services.
"The standards are the first of their kind, with no other local authority designing authority-wide standards in partnership with residents," the local authority claimed.
The standards, implemented in response to the Grenfell tragedy, consider how residents "want to feel" when they contact the council, what the council needs to do to accommodate their feelings and what staff and services need to do.
The standards direct council staff to "focus more on resolving residents' issues rather than ticking boxes" and have "empathy when answering an enquiry".
It also calls for staff to "be human, honest, transparent and accountable".
The council consulted with a range of residents for more than a year to develop the standards. It also consulted with council staff ahead of their introduction.
Council staff have been invited to workshops to learn more about the standards.
There has also been an all-staff online Q&A with the chief executive and customer delivery team to explain the standards.
Cllr Johnny Thalassites, lead member for finance, customer service and net zero, said: "Our new service standards are part of our continuing change following the Grenfell tragedy. By setting them we want to become the best council we can be for our communities and build a positive legacy following the tragedy.
"After the tragedy, people told us we have failed to listen to our communities. These new service standards have been co-designed with residents where we have listened to their experiences with the council and understood what they need from us.
"Our challenge now is to embed the standards across all of our services so that when someone picks up the phone, sends an email they are listened to and they know that the person responding cares about the outcome."
Adam Carey
