The public could find it easier to see someone from the council face to face from next year.
The potential changes would follow a review of Brighton and Hove City Council’s customer services that is currently under way.
The customer service centres at Brighton and Hove town halls could close as part of the review, with staff moved to other locations.
But the council did not confirm whether this was the case when asked.
Labour councillor Tristram Burden, the council’s cabinet member for service transformation, said: “Providing residents with the ability to have face-to-face contact with council staff is vital and we are actually planning to expand our face-to-face provision.
“We are currently in the process of reviewing our customer service offer and looking at how we can make council services and support more accessible to residents.
“We are determined to increase the availability of face-to-face customer service for residents and provide more services in person because we know this is something which is really valued by residents.
“Once the outcome of the review has been finalised, we will share details of the changes, which may include the service moving to more accessible locations, and make sure residents are fully informed on how best to contact the council and engage with services.”
Currently, people can visit the customer service departments at Bartholomew House in Bartholomew Square, Brighton, and Hove Town Hall, in Norton Road, Hove.
At each location, computers are available for people to access online services as well as phones to contact staff and facilities to scan documents.
Staff are available to arrange support in urgent cases such as homelessness.
The existing centres do not provide face-to-face appointments with specific teams or take payments for parking permits or council tax.
Face to face customer services at BHCC have been virtually non existent since lockdown. They are the only large organisation in the city where this remains the case and I have yet to read or hear of a good reason why. I appreciate that most employees would prefer to work from home but in my experience this is not conducive to maintaining a good level of service.
Plenty of good examples where office-based working is unnecessary. Your opinion could stem from many different reasons including an unwillingness to change, fear of middle management redundancy, lack of physical oversight, and cost of restructuring to name a few.
In my experience, there is very little difference in what can be provided WFH for many industries, the death of the high street is an excellent example of F2F dying out generationally.
Let’s face it Benjamin… There is an ingrained culture of laziness, ineptitude and profligacy at BHCC. But, as a Council Apologist, you will continue to deny this.
Too many council workers are shirking from home – this has to end
Interestingly, the ones that I have to chase up with to get things done tend to be the ones that have never worked from home, at least in my experience. My perspective has a flipped narrative.
Although, I agree with you regarding the council not getting value for money Tom. It is a challenge that comes up a lot.
There are those who will defend almost any action (or lack of it), by BHCC including Benjamin, but most readers will see through the obvious vested interest. The irony in his comment is that it is the council who seem to be the most resistant to change. The change back to normality.
Except, I’ve not mentioned or referred to the council on this instance, instead opting to speak broadly across industries.
The WFH model has some real benefits, and there are downsides to it as well, such as the reduced productivity due to a lack of oversight, as has been eluded to by Tom and yourself.
In terms of this article, I like the idea of decentralisation. Perhaps having officers attend a variety of locations to have the council come to residents.
I am not deriding WFH as a concept, but when services are best offered on a face to face basis, clearly it does not accommodate this. This is the reason for the many complaints.
Whilst you did not specifically refer to WFH at BHCC, you are responding to an article that is.
I maintain that BHCC have been very slack in reinstating services to their equivalent levels pre-Covid.
Depends on which area you’re referring to. Repairs for example, is catching up on the backlog following the latest numbers, although communication still remains a challenge.
Servants of the people. Not
109 employees to run that doughnut – on – a – pole?
Streuth!
Was it someone’s typo?
Word is that staff will be put in libraries…
Christopher Hawtree, have some staff resisted FTF, and contacted the union?
Time to end Shirking from home.