Benchmarking analysis
Context
During November and December 2008 a questionnaire was sent to all 33 London Boroughs inviting them to complete a benchmarking questionnaire devised by Merton’s Direct Payments (DP) team.
From the 33, 7 responded with completed questionnaires and 2 could not complete the questionnaire due to staff holidays. No response was received from 23 boroughs, though reminders were sent.
From the 8 completed questionnaires, 3 (including Merton) were internal and the rest were external. 4/5 of the external services were user-led organisations, which the Department of Health have recommended as good practice. The other was a private business. By analysing them against our service we can learn what we do well and what needs to be improved on.
Size of Borough and Support Service
Merton has an average population size compared with the other benchmarked boroughs. The critical and substantial criteria under the FACS guidance appears to be a typical level for most boroughs.
According to the figures provided for each customer group, Merton ranked:
- The lowest for the intake of people with Physical Disabilities.
- The 3rd highest in relation to Older People,
- The 2nd highest for people with Mental Health issues,
- 7th for People with Learning Disabilities,
- 6th for children
- 5th for carers
- No boroughs account for self-funders, however, Merton DP team is currently starting to advise self-funders and promoting support through the care management teams to ensure that this service is available to all.
It is important to note that the way in which each borough counts the number of DPs has not be scrutinised and therefore each borough may have a different criteria as to what is counted as a DP. So customer satisfaction cannot be based on figures receiving DPs, however, a higher number of customers could indicate that DP is easy to access and use.
To consider if Merton has a good customer service, we found that cross-examining the types of service against other benchmarking councils should be a good gauge.
About the Service
Merton support team have a typical staffing level. They provide advice and support according to the customer’s need, however, the DP ethos of empowerment and self-responsibility for Merton means that the support service assists the customer to be able to handle the responsibility attached to DPs confidently in the future.
Merton support team fair slightly higher than the other 2 in-house services through providing advice. Merton does not provide a payroll service, as we believe that the customer should be allowed more flexibility in line with the ethos of DPs. A good example of this is that some of our customers have purchased payroll software instead of using a payroll agent.
Marketing
Merton has the most marketing available to their customers than any other benchmarked boroughs. The marketing, such as PA database & User Guide have been implemented to improve customer service after requests from our customers. All boroughs except one have updated policies, which only staff would need. However Merton (along with one other borough) do not have a hard copy. This is because of our commitment to limiting the environmental impact, as a hard copy is not necessary.
Training
At present, Merton’s training is basic and not as in depth compared with other boroughs. Most learning/training for DPs customers is completed with the support officer at their visits. For care management teams, the support service has provided ongoing training with staff, and would attend panel and team meetings to ensure the promotion of DPs. This is an area that Merton should consider improving.
Customer satisfaction
All benchmarked boroughs claim to measure customer satisfaction and implement changes within their service to improve. However, Merton gather customer satisfaction through more channels and more frequently than any other benchmarked borough. Merton and another borough have implemented the most changes. This shows that Merton listen to their customers and look at ways to improve their service accordingly.
Compared to the other in-house teams, Merton considers their user forum and the Personal Assistant database to be an outstanding part of their service. All in-house teams thought that they had a good customer service. However none of the externally provided services considered this.
All teams considered room for improvements except one. Another borough had the most improvements to make as its borough had just commissioned it. Merton also felt that it needs more improvements, which has become evident in the ongoing scrutiny of its service.
Conclusion
Without further scrutiny of how the data is collected among the benchmarked boroughs, such as looking for evidence of mystery shoppers or interviewing their customers, we can only draw conclusion from the responses given in the benchmarking questionnaire.
Merton produces the most literature to inform their customers of DPs and also gains feedback from their customers through more channels. Merton compares favourably with other boroughs in areas such as marketing and customer satisfaction.
However, Merton still has room for improvement, as we did not compare as well in the number of customers receiving DPs and training provided compared to other boroughs.
Identified Actions for Improvement
- To improve training opportunities to all our Customers; internal and external.
- To improve take up of DPs through promotion and developing internal relationships with staff, especially within the teams who support with people with Physical & Learning Disabilities and children.
- When considering our next benchmarking exercise, further guidance will be issued regarding data collection to ensure better data comparison.