1. South Lakeland Need Led Improvement Toolkit Delivering the services that meet the needs of our customers BEST VIEWED IN POWERPOINT ‘SHOW’ FORMAT IN ORDER TO USE LINKS

2. In October 2008 South Lakeland District Council decided to investigate whether it could move from being a customer focussed organisation to one which actively designed services around the needs of customers. Two pilot projects were undertaken taking two different approaches. One looked at the needs of a customer group - Older People - and the other looked at the needs of service users - Streetscene customers. In both projects the aim was to ensure services better met the needs, or requirements of customers in the future in order that they remain both effective and efficient. This toolkit is designed to guide you on your journey to develop need led services. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION

3. 1.Is there evidence that the way we deliver services, allocate resources and support the community helps to address their needs? 2.Are the Council’s plans and strategies evidence based and is it clear how actions will support outcomes for people? 3.Can we demonstrate that our services, projects, and interventions in South Lakeland really make a difference to customers, and their communities? Need Led is a simple yet powerful concept – all resources, services and activity at SLDC should be directed to meet the needs of those it aims to serve. It may not be possible to fully address those needs, and indeed it may not be the role of just one organisation to do so, but ignorance of those Needs can result in poor use of resources, poor results for people and is inefficient and ineffective. Click here for a description of the journey from being Need led to Service Led.Click here To become Need Led there are three fundamental questions to address: WHAT DO WE MEAN BY NEED LED? WHAT DO WE MEAN BY NEED LED?

4. This toolkit is focussed on the ‘making a difference’ element and how services can be designed to meet the needs of customers and communities. It is designed to help officers and members develop, and then continually scrutinise, services to ensure they address the needs of those who we serve. At the heart of this toolkit is the Need Led Improvement Cycle. The cycle describes a four stage process which will take you through the steps from understanding who the customer is, their needs, and our performance in meeting those needs right through to making changes. And those changes will of course go on to inform future ‘need led’ improvement projects. IT’S ABOUT MAKING A DIFFERENCE... IT’S ABOUT MAKING A DIFFERENCE...

5. This toolkit is based on our improvement cycle for creating need led services. There are four stages. You can click on the information button on any of the four stages to find out more. The toolkit is best used in ‘slide show’ format. To get back to this cycle just click this: On each stage slide there will be an overview and an information button like this to click for more detailed information, contact details for people who can help you or links to documents or best practice. HOW TO USE THIS TOOLKIT HOW TO USE THIS TOOLKIT capture service user needs capture service user needs

6. NEED LED IMPROVEMENT CYCLE NEED LED IMPROVEMENT CYCLE

7. You could start with a service... If you want to use your service as a starting point you need to think about who you serve...who are the people without whom this service would not exist? What do you already know about them?...Or you could start with a customer group. You may want to think about a particular customer group (workless, homeless, young people, the community of Kirkby Lonsdale) who are defined by their needs, age, location, circumstances (health, lifestyle, status etc) or all of these. What do you know about them already? What are the reasons for looking at their needs? There are two possible starting points: STEP ONE WHO IS THE CUSTOMER? STEP ONE : WHO IS THE CUSTOMER? identify identify Customer group(s) Customer group(s) identify service users identify service users

8. When you look at service users’ needs... Start by mapping out the information you have on your users, current and potential. When was the last time you asked for their views on how good a job you are doing? What are the consequences when your service doesn’t meet their needs? What information might other services or partners be able to provide? Does all this intelligence tell you about their needs or just their use of the current service?...Or the needs of a customer group. Information on a group’s needs will not only sit in many different places in the council, but within our partner organisations too. The South Lakeland Older People Programme, which we initiated, provides a useful starting point for understanding how to capture the needs of a group. There are two possible approaches: STEP TWO WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS? STEP TWO : WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS? capture capture customer groups’ needs needs capture service user needs capture service user needs

9. Mapping services to the needs they aim to address.. STEP THREE WHERE ARE WE TODAY IN MEETING THEIR NEEDS? STEP THREE : WHERE ARE WE TODAY IN MEETING THEIR NEEDS? One of the first steps is to map services to the needs that have been identified in stage two. A good example of this process was undertaken during the Older People Programme (click here).(click here). If we think about information as evidence it can help to both demonstrate where we are today in meeting needs and, if we agree a basket of measures, help evidence improvement over time. There are two broad information categories - information about how well we deliver services and information on whether we, or partners, are delivering the outcomes people want. Talk to staff and members who deliver services – their knowledge of how satisfied customers are & the ways in which customers want services improved will be invaluable. Using Using information to create information to create Intelligence Intelligence In many cases supporting information will already be available to you. Find out more here:

10. Having captured customers’ needs & understood how well we are addressing them, what can we do to improve? STEP FOUR MAKING A CHANGE STEP FOUR : MAKING A CHANGE When services better address peoples’ needs they, by definition, become more efficient and effective, reducing the need for people to contact us about unmet requirements and giving us the insight to proactively meet associated needs too. But how do you make the change? As the need led improvement cycle indicates there are a number of routes for improving services which may emerge as recommendations for action from an exercise to understand customers’ needs. Change Checklist Change Checklist When forming recommendations for change you might want to consider the following checklist:

11. Legislation, competing demands, limited resources or factors beyond our control can limit our ability to meet need. Its the reality of delivering public services – and some might argue this undermines the need led approach. However by capturing need, but recognising all the influences on services, we can make properly balanced decisions and be clear and honest with people of South Lakeland about what is, and isn’t achievable in terms of addressing their needs. Of course meeting need is ok, but what about all those demands on our resources that come from elsewhere? External influences External influences Consider undertaking an initial stakeholder workshop to capture all the external influences which may constrain, or indeed enable you, to deliver services that better meet the needs of your customers.

12. Think you know your customer? You might rightly believe you know exactly who your customers are! But it’s useful to dig a little deeper and consider their location, lifestyle, and preferences for accessing services. This kind of information often lies untapped in our systems or can be generated with help of other tools.. Customer Profiling The Council has a demographic profiling tool called MOSAIC. It groups our addresses in South Lakeland into 11 different ‘groups’ and 61 different types of customer. So if you know where your customer lives through the CRM for example, you can find out more about their background, lifestyle and channel preferences through MOSAIC. IN DEPTH IDENTIFYING SERVICE USERS IN DEPTH : IDENTIFYING SERVICE USERS Link to MOSAIC Software Link to MOSAIC Software Other tools and information

13. Why look at a Customer Group? By looking at a Customer Group you can begin to put yourselves in their shoes and think about our services from their perspective...socio economic & demographic information can help to shape your understanding of them, their location, lifestyle and income levels in conjunction with customer profiling tools like Mosaic.Mosaic Cumbrian Observatory The Cumbrian Observatory is a good starting place to help inform your understanding of a particular customer group or identify who the ‘priority’ customer groups are in South Lakeland. In the case of Older People they were clearly a priority group to consider, making up 27% of the population and, without preventative input, having increasing need of support from public services through reduced independence and/or ill heath. IN DEPTH IDENTIFYING A CUSTOMER GROUP IN DEPTH : IDENTIFYING A CUSTOMER GROUP Link to Cumbrian Observatory Other tools and information

14. Customer Journey Mapping The Cabinet Office developed a useful guide to help understand the experience of a customer trying to access services across multiple service providers. We can, with help from partners, map out customer journeys, but this should be validated with customers themselves to test our assumptions! Other tools and information IN DEPTH UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS OF SERVICE USERS IN DEPTH : UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS OF SERVICE USERS Link to Customer Journey Mapping toolkitLink to Customer Journey Mapping toolkit What is a Need? Needs are different to wants or desires. Let’s give an example – you may want a new four bed house in the country. What you need is a safe, comfortable home near to work and your children's schools. You may be able to satisfy this need, or the desire, yourself. Or you may, for a variety of reasons, need help to do so. This help may come from services the council and/or other organisations provide.

15. Mapping needs A basic mind map diagram (here) can help to capture the needs you draw together from consulting your customer group and other service providers.here This ‘needs map’ can then be used to update our Customer Relationship Management Software so when customers contact us we will understand any associated needs related to their request. Understanding the needs of Older People The Council developed a pilot project in 2008 to understand the needs of older people and then improve services to better address these needs across a range of partner organisations. The first step was to capture and understand these needs in a Challenge Report by working with partners and older people to map these needs. Other tools and information IN DEPTH CAPTURING THE NEEDS OF A CUSTOMER GROUP IN DEPTH : CAPTURING THE NEEDS OF A CUSTOMER GROUP Link to Older People Challenge ReportLink to Older People Challenge Report

16. Using Information to create Intelligence Measuring success is about defining what the council’s role in meeting needs is and then measuring to what extent we have achieved this. Customer insight is not about just ‘warehousing’ any information we have to hand – its about the continual gathering, drawing together and interpretation of information and data on the customer to tell us about their needs. Place Survey The place survey is a bi-annual national consultation exercise to understand peoples’ satisfaction with their locality and services. It provides a broad assessment of peoples’ feelings on issues like fear of crime, independence of older people, and satisfaction with the local area etc. The place survey provides useful measures as it directly captures peoples’ views on what matters to them. IN DEPTH USING INFORMATION TO INFORM US ON HOW WELL WE ARE MEETING NEED IN DEPTH : USING INFORMATION TO INFORM US ON HOW WELL WE ARE MEETING NEED Link to Place Survey Link to Place Survey Link to Place Survey Other tools and information

17. This checklist is not exhaustive but provides a useful starting point for planning changes resulting from a need led improvement project: IN DEPTH THE CHANGE CHECKLIST IN DEPTH : THE CHANGE CHECKLIST Recommendation(s)Possible types of change Next steps... Status Quo: Services meet Needs well or adequately given external influences None or limited service improvements via service planning Document and share with change & improvement team Update service plans Better co-ordination: Services could be joined up more effectively across partners to provide services proactively Shared service project Partnership initiative (LSP/LAP) Service improvement initiative As above but also... Use shared service toolkit to assess opportunity Liase with responsible LAP/LSP Officer Better access: Services require better access to address Needs Shared service project Partnership initiative Service improvement Transformation project As above but also... Advise Change & Improvement Team to inform transformation programme Internal cross cutting issue: There is a wider implication for our corporate approach to services Corporate ChangeAdvise Change & Improvement Team

18. Service based information: Service specific customer records, or CRM Data Service based information: Service specific customer records, or CRM Data Cumbrian Observatory: Socio economic data MOSAIC: Customer profiling information Covalent –performance data Timely Information tool Place Survey Information Understanding the Customer experience: Cabinet Office Customer journey mapping tool Understanding the Customer experience: Cabinet Office Customer journey mapping tool How to undertake Consultation: SLDC Toolkit Understanding the needs of Older People: SLDC Challenge report Understanding the needs of Streetscene customers: SLDC study Using information and intelligence: Paul Mountford on ext. 7412 Need Led Service Improvement and the Older People Programme: Claire Gould on ext. 7103 Effective consultation techniques: Emma Nicholls on ext. 7113 Managing improvement projects: Kate Kelly on ext. 7411 Performance Management: Gillian Llewellyn on ext. 7109

19. Need Led “Customer need is always the starting point for improvement. We know who are customers are, their requirements and how services meet those needs.” “We know which customers need more of our resources and plan services accordingly in conjunction with our partners.” “Our efficiency agenda does not lose sight of meeting the needs of customers and recognises that being need led is the most effective AND efficient form of delivery.” Customer Focussed “ We know who our customers are and we try to make sure our services provide high standards of customer care to them.” “We ask our customers what they think about our services and improve them in response to this feedback.” Service Led “We improve services and access to services and publicise any changes once they are completed.” “We try to improve take-up of services.” From ‘Service Led’ to ‘Need Led’

20. 20 OLDER PEOPLE NEEDS MAP OLDER PEOPLE NEEDS MAP