Creating a culture of service through the people

Kent County Council’s innovative Gateway programme was designed to reshape how residents access public services. Gateways are one-stop-shops in Kent’s major towns that allow access to a range of services under one roof. Management was keen to build the foundations for a collaborative and customer-focused culture, while planning for the rollout of ten Gateway centres.

Gateway: one stop shop for the Council’s service provision

Aims and challenges
The brief was to improve and sustain customer service by engendering a culture of customer-centredness and collaboration. The main aim was to help the staff to get better at thinking across services and to consider the broader needs of individuals. One challenge is the ‘multi-agency’ arrangement that means staff from different organisations and agencies have to work together, matching services to the needs of individuals whilst negotiating the complications of joined-up working.

Meeting the individual’s needs through great customer service

Methods
The staff asked for simple and practical tools that they could use to support their job. Engine developed a methodology that encouraged them to investigate their own questions about services and the needs of customers through direct engagement with customers in research and workshops.

Engine used the insights and customer stories collected during research as the starting point for the co-design of a practical toolkit for identifying customers’ needs.

Ensuring continued results
The resulting Insight to Idea toolkit was successful in supporting each location to tackle challenges and to support staff in new Gateway locations. To prepare for this, Engine led a series of workshops that were focused on improving staff communication around services and needs of residents. A period of development with staff to further localise the service in each centre was undertaken with residents and staff that were familiar with the key support areas. This was part of a process of spotting opportunities for improvements and innovations to the services offered by Gateway.

Facilitating the insights and opinions of staff and members of the community

Gateway
The project served as a demonstration of the potential of working across organisations and proved to be an effective way of sharing expertise and building awareness of the Gateway offer. Beyond instigating a new approach to working together, this work provided a mechanism for frontline staff to adopt an effective tool for creative collaboration and to stimulate innovation within each Gateway location.