Don't call us.........

Back on 29 November 2010 the Cabinet met to discuss "The future of the Parking Service". The entire report can be found here

http://tinyurl.com/48nwf28

My eye was caught by one particular paragraph :-

9.3.4  The Parking Service still retains control over the contact centre, which has historically suffered from poor performance.  This is in part due to the fact that when  the  contact  centre  was  created,  the  number  of  calls  was  severely underestimated  and  the  team  has  never  grown  to  accommodate  the  call levels.  The table below shows the quarterly figures and that the performance issue is still very real.

Table 3

	2009/10			2010/11
	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1
Calls Received	70225	58547	54822	55817
Calls Answered	34928	33212	33549	32516
Calls Abandoned	35297	25335	21273	23301
% Abandoned	50%	43%	39%	42%

So the hard to contact centre has historically suffered from poor performance due to being under-staffed. 

What would be the proper response of a good manager ?

Assess what the proper staffing level would be and increase the staff accordingly ?

Barnet's response. Leave the contact centre under-staffed and then use it as a reason to justify privatisation.

Of course the "performance issue" ( why not write in plain English "poor performance " would be better understood) is still very real. Management has not taken any management actions. Doh.

"The team has never grown to ..." The team wouldn't grow would it without management action ? and in fact the size of the parking department has recently been reduced from 69 to 47 ( see Delegated Powers Report 1277).

http://tinyurl.com/6agqfpq

So management think it is OK that 105,206 calls can be abandoned by callers and nothing is done. 

"Putting the Community First" Complete codswallop.

One of the overarching aims of the One Barnet Programme is " a relentless drive for efficiency". You've driven off the road on this one Barnet Council.

New slogan

Barnet Council - Happy to waste the time and money of 105,206 people.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard