Issue details
Force Contact Centre (FCC) Future Structure - Investment
The FCC Investment Business Case has been
proposed to outline the investment needed for the Force Contact
Centre to address the challenges it faces in creating a more
resilient, high quality, responsive and consistent service. It will
supplement the existing change work ongoing in the branch around
replacing contact centre telephony, estates improvements, technical
upgrades and business process redesign around incident grading,
dispatch, crime recording, force operations and the people
strategy.
It addresses the recent issues surrounding the sub optimal 999 and
101 performances - where our service has fallen way below what the
public should expect of us, and the substantial amount of money
spent on overtime with limited impact on performance and which is
unsustainable to resource.
It looks at the resilience of the branch to handle the spikes in
demand and abstractions presented by the recent pandemic and the
need to review the resourcing model to meet and respond to changes
in demand, such as the increase in live chat and website contacts.
It also considers the high turnover of staff and sickness, plus the
capacity challenges experienced in selection, recruitment, training
and mentoring within the FCC.
It highlights the anticipated benefits to the public who should see
an
increased satisfaction with their police force as well as the
benefits to the health and wellbeing of staff, operational
integrity, compliance and
financial/operational efficiencies. It also summarises the key
practical
delivery considerations including any required enabling work,
central support, provisional timescales and risk management, as
well as projected costs.
The requested budget includes:
• an increase in call handling establishment by 42 (from 246
to 288) in
order to deliver 999 SLA.
• recruitment to 10% over establishment across Switchboard,
Call
Handling, Command & Control and Crime Recording to minimise
the
effect on performance of spikes in leavers (current attrition rate
is 10%) or delays in on-boarding
• the creation of a senior staff post for customer contact to
drive the
business forward.
• an investment into People and Development training resources
to
deliver the uplift and ongoing CPD.
• It also recommends a review of pay in call handling which
we
anticipate would be raised from grade C/D to E to align with the
Radio
Dispatch role. Dispatch would move to a single E Grade role,
aligned
to Call Handling.
• A pay review in the Customer Enquiry Unit (known as
switchboard)
and proposes they might see an increase of grade from B/C to
D.
Job evaluation and consultation will be required before it can
be
implemented, however planning for this can be progressed
immediately.
Decision type: Non-key
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Notice of proposed decision first published: 08/08/2022
Decision due: 29 Mar 2022 by GM Deputy Mayor, Treasurer GMCA
Contact: Lisa Lees Email: lisa.lees@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk.
Decisions
Background papers