What happens if we don’t fix these problems?

There’s a lot at stake. We need to get this right.  

For customers 

Our customers won’t get the services they expect from us. Simple transactions will continue to take an unnecessarily long time. Customers will get frustrated.  

For vulnerable residents, the situation will be worse: customers will not get the right services when they need them.  

For us 

We’ll keep spending money on an inefficient and costly way of working. Staff will have an increased admin burden, tying them down to often unnecessary work, and preventing them from doing tasks that really matter. This issue will become even more acute as, by necessity, we become a smaller council. 

We will be unable to identify vulnerable customers early, which means that we’ll be unable to provide them with the services they need now – services which will improve their quality of life immediately – and which means we’ll have to provide more expensive services in the future. 

All of which means we’ll fail to reduce our spend in line with our pressing priorities, and a reduced workforce will have more work to do, meaning that we will struggle to provide our residents with the right services at the right time. 

We must not let this happen.