London Borough of Hounslow
Best Practice And Strong Governance
London’s ninth largest borough to the west of the centre bordering Heathrow Airport, the London Borough of Hounslow need to save an additional £7.3m from their budget in 2018-19. Liberata is supporting them to meet this and future reduction with minimal impact on services. With the contract recently renewed and new services added, Hounslow has extended its trust in Liberata to 20 years.
Since entering the strategic partnership with Liberata in 2005, we have not only seen year-on-year improvements in revenue collection rates, but improved levels of service delivered to benefit claimants.
Director - Finance and Corporate Services
Our targets were...
Deliver Savings
Saving delivered upfront (at no risk to the council) through a strong partnership and governance model.
Improve and Upgrade Systems
information, a focus on debt recovery and SMS messaging.
Channel Migration Plan
A continued drive to move citizens online for council transactions has seen a decline in face-to-face customer services and an increase of 60% in those accounts transferred to ebilling.
Reaching Vulnerable Customers
This drive to online and self-service is freeing up resources to be able to offer appointments to those that need them most including welfare visits to people’s home and support for those returning home from care.
Improve Collection Rates
Almost 100% collection on Business Rates and highest level of Council Tax cash collected.
Implement Best Practice
The council benefit from using Liberata’s shared service centre, accessing systems and best practice from across the UK.
How Liberata helped
Customer support
We have implemented triage services at the customer services centre to help customers go online with their own device, to organise a home visit or book a one-to-one appointment where more support is needed.
Collaboration
We work in partnership with the council to provide seamless services that help them operate in a changing environment. There are close working relationships with daily interactions and a shared joint approach to problem solving.
Sharing knowledge
There are monthly briefing for Liberata staff and an environment that encourages collaboration. This ensures staff are up to speed on the latest legislative changes and that they are sharing best practice across the team, serving their customers better.
Toolkits
We have introduced partial home working for colleagues who wish to take this up including a technology toolkit to support a commitment to reducing occupation in advance of a move to new premises in 2019.
Engagement
This year we have introduced new formats to reach a wider audience and make it easier for the people to contact the council.
Social value
Ensuring that vulnerable customers and those that have difficulty getting online still have the same access to services as others via home visits and working with local disability groups.
What we achieved
£200m
additional Business Rates collected whilst achieving almost 100% collection
£21k
reductions in customer services calls due to continuing rollout of self-serve
92%
of customers seen in 15 minutes, the best results ever
1.73
days removed from new claims processing
1855
new Council Tax accounts and the highest cash collection result
55%
take-up of self-serve in year
