Thurrock Council make improvements to Services

THURROCK Council “has made many improvements to how local people can access its services” according to the Audit Commission.

The inspection, in June this year, examined how easy it is for Thurrock residents to reach, use and find out about its services.

This week the council received a “fair, one-star rating with promising prospects for improvement” from the commission.

Cabinet member for Central Services, Coun Barry Johnson, said: “The inspectors praised many aspects of Thurrock’s work to ensure residents can access the services we provide.

“But we know there’s still work to be done and we are doing that - the commission recognised that ‘several aspects of improvement are very recent’, so it is difficult, at present, to judge how they will impact on improving outcomes for local people.”

He added: “We are committed to making life better for the people of Thurrock, ensuring that our residents are at the heart of everything we do and the report recognises the hard work and commitment of all staff towards improving access to our services.”

Inspectors praised the “range of effective ways to contact the council” that are available and said: “Thurrock residents have easy access to services through a combination of a telephone contact centre, customer service centre, area offices, libraries and an interactive website.”

The inspection report also highlights the positive results of a mystery shopping exercise inspectors carried out. It concludes that service requests and enquiries made by telephone and email were “responded to effectively” and how the mystery shopping resulted in a “good user experience”.

The promising prospects judgment reflects the plans and strong platform Thurrock Council has in place to continue its progress. However there are areas for improvement. For example, “despite its plans and investments, key public satisfaction indicators have not yet improved”.