Life in Lancashire Wave 16
| Purpose | The questionnaire covered attitudes to the county of Lancashire, explored how people access council services and whether their background affects this, and the Directgov and Lancashire County Council websites. |
|---|---|
| Subject |
Accessibility Communications Quality of life |
| Commissioned by | Margaret Fisher (Corporate Web Manager) and Jane Abdulla (Equalities Advisor) |
| Geographic area |
All of Lancashire |
|---|---|
| Method |
Questionnaire - postal |
| Consultation with |
Life in Lancashire panel |
| Date | 07/06/2006 - 14/07/2006 |
| Undertaken by | Corporate Research and Intelligence Team, Policy Unit |
Results
| Number in sample | 2367 |
|---|---|
| Number of responses | 1461 |
| Response rate | 61% |
| Key findings | About one in three of the panel (31%) say they have heard of Directgov (www.direct.gov.uk) and a third of these people have seen or heard advertising for it in the last month. About two in five people say have done something as a result of seeing or hearing the advertising. The Lancashire County Council website: information on road works, school terms, and voluntary groups and organisations are seen as most important to have on the site. The most important things to be able to do on the county council's site are being able to report problems and make a formal complaint. The vast majority of people (78%) have found out information about county councils services in the last 12 months. The most common information sought tends to be around council services, facilities and their opening times, and public transport information. There is a wide range of channels preferred to access information and services, with the telephone, the internet and e-mail and leaflets and posters all popular. |
| Outcomes | The results for access to services have been used: * by senior managers to help them make plans to further improve customer service; * to develop the county council's Customer Access Strategy and Customer Care Charter for our services; and * by a working group of partners from many voluntary and community-based organisations. The Customer Access Strategy will influence the council's use of face-to-face, telephone and online customer services and drive the way the authority 'puts the customer first'. The county council is about to consult on the content of the Customer Care Charter and we hope to involve Lancashire residents in this. We are also developing a staff training programme on customer care around the things you wanted. The training programme will be developed over the next three months and will be piloted after the summer. County council website The results told us that it was important to find information easily - so improvements that have been made include: * installing a Google search engine; * checking the content to make sure it's all up-to-date; * launching a new homepage later in the year which will include our A to Z; and * putting more entries in the A to Z so you can reach the pages you want more quickly. People wanted to be able to use and pay for services online - so you can now apply for your children's primary and secondary school places online; and use one of the new online contact forms. From early next year you'll also be able to order and pay for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates online. In future we want to increase the number of things you can do online. |
Project document(s)
Report(s)
Questionnaire(s)
Contact information
For more information about this research contact:
Melissa Sherliker
01772 535019
Email: haveyoursay@lancashire.gov.uk
Related information
Life in Lancashire members' website:
http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/lil/