Other performance information

South Lanarkshire Household Survey 2014

A copy of the household survey was posted to all households in the South Lanarkshire area as part of the Spring 2014 edition of the council’s magazine The Reporter, with a freepost return.

The survey was also available on the council website, at all council reception points, emailed to partner agency staff groups (NHS, Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue) and publicised in Community Matters.

Responses were measured against a balanced 4 point scale: Excellent: Good: Poor: Very Poor plus a ‘Don’t use/Don’t know’ option.

Analysis of customer satisfaction

The following provides a summary of the responses to the 2014 Household Survey.

General service

Satisfaction with general service (variance compares 2010 to 2014)

Service Element	Overall 2010	Overall 2014	Variance	Status
The friendliness of Council Staff	92%	90%	-2%	Declining
Ease of getting in contact with the Council	88%	83%	-5%	Declining
KPI - The overall service provided by the Council	84%	84%	0%	Maintaining
All residents have equal and fair access to the council and its services	82%	76%	-6%	Declining
The time taken to deal with enquiries	79%	76%	-3%	Declining
The quality of information provided about the council and its services	77%	79%	+2%	Improving
Keeping you up to date with what the Council is doing	77%	81%	+4%	Improving
Staff take responsibility to deal with issues	77%	77%	0%	Maintaining
Meeting the commitments the council make to you when delivering services	75%	76%	+1%	Improving
The council's commitment to improve South Lanarkshire	74%	80%	+6%	Improving
Responding to the challenge of climate change	74%	73%	-1%	Declining
Interest in getting your feedback on council services	73%	75%	+2%	Improving
Using and managing council resources effectively	66%	62%	-4%	Declining

The customer satisfaction Key Performance Indicator for the council is satisfaction with ‘The overall service provided by the council’ based on the total of ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ ratings resulting from the survey – see below.

KPI - The overall service provided by the council 2014 84%
		Excellent	Good	Total
2014	84	17%	67%	84%
2010	84	10%	74%	84%

The assessment of council employees was very positive with ‘Friendliness of council staff’ continuing to score the highest level of customer satisfaction at 90% although this does represent a reduction of 2% from the 2010 survey.

Managing enquiries, the front end of council interaction with their customers, continues to score highly across a number of service elements including ‘Ease of getting in contact’ (83%), ‘Equal and fair access’ (76%) and ‘Time taken to deal with enquiries’ (76%). However, these three elements did see an average drop in satisfaction of 5%.

Effective delivery of service outcomes from enquiries appears to produce lower
satisfaction levels with ‘Staff taking responsibility’ and ‘Meeting commitments’
averaging a satisfaction level of 77%, but this is an overall 1% increase on 2010 results.

The low satisfaction of 62% given for ‘Using and managing council resources effectively’ contrasts with the 84% satisfaction with ‘The overall service provided by the council’ and ‘The council’s commitment to improve South Lanarkshire’ at 80%.

The 13 elements of General Service comparable between 2010 and 2014 show an average decline in satisfaction of 0.6% across the two surveys.

The most significant improvements in satisfaction relate to ‘The council’s commitment to improve South Lanarkshire’ rising by 6% to 80% and ‘Keeping you up to date with what the council is doing’, improving 4% to 81% of respondents satisfied.

Analysis of customer satisfaction

Council services
The survey allowed respondents the opportunity to provide an assessment of their satisfaction against a list of 22 key services provided by the council. The average customer satisfaction score across all 22 services is 77%, an increase in satisfaction of 7% since 2010.

Satisfaction with Council services (variance compares 2010 to 2014)

Service element	Overall 2010	Overall 2014	Variance	Status
Library services	95%	94%	-1%	Declining
Schools and nurseries (Education)	90%	97%	+7%	Improving
Recycling	88%	87%	-1%	Declining
Refuse collection	87%	92%	+5%	Improving
Provision and maintenance of street lighting	86%	83%	-3%	Declining
Processing of benefits	84%	73%	-11%	Declining
Sports and leisure services	83%	92%	+9%	Improving
Arts and museum services	81%	89%	+8%	Improving
Social services at home (Home Care)	80%	79%	-1%	Declining
Services for older people	75%	75%	0%	Maintaining
Council housing services	69%	78%	+9%	Improving
Processing planning applications and building warrants	67%	79%	+12%	Improving
Upkeep and maintenance of parks and public areas	62%	69%	+7%	Improving
Services for young people	57%	69%	+12%	Improving
Town centre improvements	55%	47%	-8%	Declining
The cleanliness of streets and public places for which the Council is responsible (exc private land, motorways,industrial estates)	50%	66%	+16%	Improving
Tackling anti social behaviour and community safety	33%	56%	+23%	Improving
Maintenance of roads and pavements	19%	28%	+9%	Improving
Adult and community learning	N/A	83%	N/A
Youth learning services and Universal Connections	N/A	84%	N/A
Consumer and Trading Standards	N/A	85%	N/A
Cemeteries, Crematorium, and other services for the bereaved	N/A	91%	N/A

‘Maintenance of Roads and Pavements’ recorded an extremely low score of 19% in 2010; however, this has now risen to 28%. In 2010 it was anticipated that the major investment programme in roads would produce an upward shift in satisfaction. As anticipated it has made one of the most significant increases in satisfaction.

Library service has the second highest level of customer satisfaction with a score of 94%. This represents a minor drop of 1% from the 2010 survey.

Education Schools and Nurseries received the highest rated service, rising by 7% to 97%. This improvement may be partly reflective of the ongoing investment in new schools.

Sports and Leisure rose to 3rd ranked service with a satisfaction of 92%, a rise of 9% from 2010.

Refuse Collection was the fourth highest service with a 92% rating, a rise of 5%.

Council Housing services rose by 9% to 78%.

Services for young people continued to produce a higher satisfaction rating, rising by 12% to 69%.

Cleanliness of streets and pedestrian areas recorded the second largest increase in satisfaction from 50% in 2010 to 66%.

Satisfaction with Town centre improvements continued to drop from 55% to 47%. This reflects the negative visual impact on town centres of retail closures arising from the economic downturn.

Processing of benefits has seen a drop of 11%, however, this should be considered in the context of the changes to the welfare system and the national statutory requirements being implemented.