Falkirk Council: Councillors call for in-depth look at improvements for contact centre

Councillors have called for an in-depth report into how improvements could be made to the council’s contact centre. (Pic: Michael Gillen)

Falkirk councillors have called for an in-depth report into how improvements could be made to the council’s contact centre, which is the first point of call for the public.

Members of Falkirk Council’s Scrutiny Committee said they wanted to understand how the centre works as they continue to receive complaints from constituents about long waits to have phone calls answered.

But they were adamant that the service is a valuable one and emphasised that the staff working in the contact centre are working hard to cope with the sheer volume of calls.

Provost Robert Bissett, who chairs the Scrutiny Committee, said: “We called for a report because we value the contact centre and want to understand some of the issues our constituents have raised. We appreciate the work of the contact centre staff but do feel there may be ways to improve the already good service they provide.”

A report that went to members showed the sheer volume the council receives, with 642,000 calls received in 2022/23. Through self-selection by the caller, all calls go either to the relevant service, the automated payments line or to the contact centre staff, who deal with approximately 40 per cent of the total calls.

In addition to answering calls, contact centre staff also manage the Falkirk Council generic email box and online enquiries via Myfalkirk.

Councillors were told that staff numbers had been cut from a team of 20 by 1.5 FTE (full-time equivalent) in April 2021 as the council looked to all departments to make savings. This combined with higher than average sickness rates and problems with recruitment led to the service having just 12.7 FTE in the past year.

The council hopes that more and more people will go online in the first instance, but members heard that an expected switch to digital is not happening as quickly as anticipated.

Not only are customers continuing to phone, those who do are also on the phone for longer, although it’s not clear why.

The report acknowledges the result has been long waiting times and customers hanging up.

Members heard that the volume of calls is not consistent and that some times are much busier than others. But they were assured that new staff are now in place and trained and call waiting times are expected to come down.

The Scrutiny Committee will now recommend to Falkirk Council that a Scrutiny Panel should be set up to look into the issue further. If the council approves this, it is likely to start in the new year.