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3

Foreword

Over the last 12 months the fruits of this relationship have been realised. We have

continued to strive to deliver service excellence. We have engaged with the City Council

to ensure that we meet the needs of the; communities, organisations, stakeholders,

schools and businesses we serve. At the same time, reduce the annual cost of the

services to Liverpool City Council by 4.5 million per annum with no reduction in

service.

Despite the current financial climate and the pressures and challenges this brings

Liverpool Direct Limited has delivered a solid financial performance evidenced by

growing the order value of the Company. This could not have been achieved without the

commitment of all the stakeholders and most importantly the staff of Liverpool Direct

Limited. Service performance continues to excel and all Service Level Agreements have

again been met or exceeded their targets. For 2013/2014 these will be further

enhanced.

2012/2013 has witnessed a number of key

achievements. This has required new approaches

to the way we work. We said last year that we

had set new standards in public service

performance, thinking and innovation. And, we

have but there is always more we can do and

more that can be done. We are committed to

continuing to lead and help to shape the delivery

of services and keeping the customer at the

heart of the organisation.

We are pleased to be able to reflect on, and

acknowledge the achievements and successes

over 2012/2013 and have set the continued

standard of excellence we will meet and exceed

during 2013/2014.

The agreement by all Partners to a comprehensive Contract Review in 2011

provided an ideal opportunity to re-invigorate and refresh the partnership

between Liverpool City Council and BT delivered by Liverpool Direct Limited.

Neil Rogers President, Global Government, BT. Chairman of Liverpool Direct Limited.

Joe Anderson Mayor of Liverpool. Director of Liverpool Direct

Limited. .

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5

1. Review of 2012/2013

Liverpool Direct Limited has had a

solid financial year in 2012/2013 and

its staff again has delivered excellent

services on behalf of its customers. It

has been a challenging year with our

customers facing growing budget

constraints and increasing customer

expectations. Our staff have excelled

in delivering first class services under

what are difficult trading conditions.

Financial Review

With the current economic climate, and the pressures this places on both current and

prospective customers, 2012/2013 has been a challenging year. However staff have

responded positively to these challenges and once again exceeded expectations by

delivering excellent customer service and overcoming the increase in the levels of

demand (especially within the area of Careline and Benefit Services).

In 2012/2013 Liverpool Direct Limited reduced its price of service to Liverpool City

Council by 4.5 million per year with no direct impact on services. This follows on from

a price reduction in 2007 of nearly 2 million per year. There has been significant

investment in the business also.

The key measures of financial performance set by the Board. The outturn against

targets for 2012/2013 are; revenue was 86.1 million. The total sales order value (iTOV)

of the company has grown by over 36 million during 2012/2013. The iTOV position has

been helped substantially by; securing two contract extensions for the Security Industry

Authority and the delivery of several significant projects (eg. Desktop Refresh, Equal Pay

and Job Evaluation Projects). These latter projects also impacted on a strong revenue

performance.

6

In 2012/2013 Liverpool Direct Limited committed over 8.5 million in investment into

the business. The Investment Plan included a fundamental review and planned

implementation of:

Investments Value ( million)

Desktop refresh 2.0

ICT Infrastructure Projects 1.8

Storage Network Upgrade 1.7

Next Generation Data Centre 1.5

Expansion IVR / Automation Self Service 0.5

Adults Social Care system Replacement 0.5

Internet Upgrade 0.2

E-recruitment System 0.2

Total 8.5

Table 1.1: Investments 2012/2013.

In 2012/2013 Liverpool Direct Limited delivered over 6.1 million of added value to

Liverpool City Council through initiatives and improvements across all Service Areas.

Added value can be a combination of; avoidable costs, additional services, additional

performance and service developments:

Added Value Value ( million)

ICT Service 3.5

Customer Access Service 1.0

Benefits Service 1.0

Revenues Service 0.5

Human Resource and Payroll Service 0.1

Total 6.1

Table 1.2: Added Value to Liverpool City Council 2012/2013.

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The SIA Service answered

100% of calls all received within 30 seconds.

Real examples of this added value across all service include:

ICT successfully deleted a total of 3436 legacy Active Directory (AD) user accounts

across the period of March to July

2012. This work resulted in 638

Gigabytes (GB) of saved data space.

Careline exceeded the contractual

target for percentage of calls

answered during 2012/2013; with an

achievement of 90%. This exceeds

the contractual target by 3%.

Contact Centre has exceeded the contractual target for percentage of calls

answered during 2012/2013 with an achievement of 95%. This is 3% above the

contractual target at no additional cost to Liverpool City Council.

The One Stop Shops exceeded the contractual target for percentage of customers

seen within 15 minutes (without an appointment), with an achievement of 97%. This

exceeds the contractual target by 7%.

The Benefits Service implemented the Northgate ICT Landlord Portal is a secure on-

line application that allows access to limited data by landlord representatives to the

Northgate Benefits System, via a web portal. This is restricted to claims which are in

payment to a landlord and provides only that data to which the landlord is legally

entitled in these cases. This facility is now live.

The Payroll Team continues to

administer the Childcare Voucher

Scheme. This is a salary sacrifice

scheme where employees can reduce

their gross pay and benefit from tax

and National Insurance savings. As a

result of employees participating in

this scheme the employer's National

Insurance liability is reduced.

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Performance Review

Performance excellence remains a key priority of the business. To maintain a strong

culture of performance excellence (across the entire business) remains a constant

challenge. Liverpool Direct Limited has set performance excellence as its competitive

advantage and to give it distinctiveness within a crowded market space.

A review of some of the key successes and highlights of 2012/2013 help to demonstrate

the progress made and the dedication of all staff engaged. Performance is key to the

success of the business but by itself this is simply not enough. Success depends on both

performance and value. It is also about dealing with customer priorities, concerns and

expectations. A lot happened in 2012/2013 and it was a good year in this respect.

Some of the key highlights and achievements across the Partnership include:

Benefits Service

The Benefit Service handled over 82,000 cases in 2012/2013 and administered over

328 million of benefit to Liverpool City Council and also delivered:

A campaign around Free School Meals, which are a vital source of nutrition for

children, and a revenue source to individual schools. Each child entitled to free

school meals generates a Pupil Premium to the school of 900 per annum. In

2011/2012 Liverpool Direct Limited completed a campaign to ensure every child

entitled to a free school meal was

registered. Through a programme

of data matching (Housing Benefit

Records and Schools Rolls) and

deploying a model of implied

consent, the Benefit Service delivered

over 1,200 extra free school meals

entitlements generating 0.72 million

additional revenue to schools via the Pupil Premium. From 2012/2013 claims

without Free School Meals data are reviewed each month and updated; ensuring

that under claiming is addressed on a continuous basis. Processing of free school

meals has continued to be performed quickly with over 99% of applications

processed within six weeks.

Over 50 Apprentices have

been recruited through

Liverpool Direct Limited.

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Attendance Allowance is a major form of benefit entitlement to the elderly. Again

deploying data matching techniques the Benefit Service ensured in 2011/2012 that

an additional 516 people received

their entitlement and generated, to

them, 1 million in cash. This

campaign has continued during

2012/2013 by contacting and advising

individual customers to support them

in claiming Attendance Allowance;

this has contributed to record levels

of benefit gains through benefit

maximisation checks.

The Benefit Maximisation Service generated over 8.6 million in Liverpool who were

entitled to benefits not claimed. The Service handled over 4,500 benefit

maximisation checks and over 2,000 people gained income they were entitled too.

In 2012/2013 the Benefits Service Counter Fraud team has continued to direct its

efforts at detecting serious fraud based on the Services strategy of targeting the

most serious forms of fraud. It had applied 67 legal sanctions, identified 2.5 million

in fraudulently overpaid benefits and prevented 0.65 million in fraudulent

payments.

Benefit Applications reached a record 22,000 however processing times remained at

top quartile levels of 25 days.

Benefit Subsidy Clawback is effectively a cost on poor performance by Local

Government. It is paid back to

Government by the Local

Authority. In 2005/2006 it was over

5 million. For the last four years it

has been nil. A massive saving to

Liverpool City Council. Indeed the

last three years the City Council has

received effectively a performance bonus of over 1 million each year for the

performance of the Benefit Service.

Revenues Services collected over

15 million in corporate

debt during 2012/2013.

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Revenues Service

The Revenue Service collected over 300 million in 2012/2013. It collected; debt, Council

Tax and non-Domestic Rates due and also delivered:

A barcode solution to replace payment cards. All Council Tax bills and recovery

documents now incorporate the barcode solution. This has particular benefits for

44,700 customers who will have to pay

8.5% Council Tax for the first time

under the Governments Welfare

Reforms. Customers will be able to

make their payment free in any Post

Office or Paypoint outlet.

The Council Tax Net Debit contractual

collection rate outturn for 2012/2013

was 92.82% which is 2.82% above

target. In relation to Council Tax

arrears, the reduction outturn for 2012/2013 exceeded the annual target by

4.5million.

The target for processing Council Tax correspondence is 90% within 14 days and it is

pleasing to report that this challenging target was achieved for the first time ever in

2012/2013. The take up of e-billing has also improved by over 35% during 2012/2013

with over 35,500 customers now enjoying the benefits of receiving a paperless bill.

The collection of Non Domestic Rates exceeded the annual target at 97%. The

reduction in arrears has also exceeded the target by 1 million.

Implementing the National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) Deferral Scheme which now

means 386 ratepayers successfully deferred part of their increased rates liability.

Implementing the extension to the Small Business Rates Relief scheme which

benefited over 4,200 ratepayers in the City.

Piloting a scheme to improve collection under attachment to earnings. In 2012/2013

this scheme identified 10.7% of cases issued resulting in over 12,000 being

collected. Introducing a scheme for improving collection in 203 probate cases by

over 9,000.

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Contact Centre Service

The Contact Centre again exceeded its contractual target for percentage of calls

answered. Achieving an exceptional rate of 95% calls answered. This is 2% above

2011/2012. This is now 10% ahead of performance in 2001 with regard to calls

answered. It remains the only 24 x 7 x 365 local government contact centre and also

delivered:

In April 2012 the Library telephony service for; Childwall, Speke, Garston and Walton

Libraries transferred into the Contact Centre (as part of the phased service take on

for all the library calls). This continued throughout 2012/2013 with all Libraries

telephony transferring into the Contact Centre. The Contact Centre received over

17,000 calls during 2012/2013. Customers can now access the service 24 x 7 x 365.

The Service was successful in its bid to

run the Liverpool Mutual Homes Out of

Hours Service. The contract with

Liverpool Mutual Homes commenced

on the 1 August 2012. The contract is

for three years and has helped to

protect jobs.

Two Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) Services were launched during 2012/2013.

IVR was launched on 30 May 2012 for customers wishing to make a Revenues and

Benefits appointment at a One Stop Shop. An IVR Forms Request Service was

launched on 15 September 2012 giving customers the opportunity to request forms

in respect of; Revenues, Benefits, Elections and Educational services without the

requirement to speak to a Customer Service Advisor.

In September 2012, the Contact Centre started to handle the Cruise Liner Terminal

Telephony transferred into the Contact Centre. The Contact Centre can now offer

customers a wealth of advice and guidance in support of the Cruise schedule

providing information about the Ship, Cruise berth and surrounding area as well as

signposting about job opportunities and public transport links.

The Contact Centre maintained a strong performance for all its customers not just

the City Council. Liverpool Mutual Homes and London and Quadrant both achieved

96% of all calls answered. The percentage of calls received and answered by

Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) Automation was over achievement of 10%.

During 2012/2013, 99% of

One Stop Shop customers were

offered an appointment within

five working days.

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During 2012/2013 the number of Automated Services customer transactions

completed without the need to speak to a Customer Service Advisor totalled over

130,000. The new automated service launched in 2012/2013 and now includes:

o Making a Revenues and Benefits appointment at a One Stop Shop.

o Request a form for Revenues, Benefits, Elections and Education.

o Merseyside Waste Tip opening times.

The Careline Service

The Careline Service is a critical service and acts as a first point of contact for both

residents and professionals seeking advice, support or referrals for both children and

adults. It operates 24 x 7 x 365 and also delivered:

In 2012/2013 exceeded the contractual

target for percentage of calls answered

with 90%. This is 17% above the

comparison when the Careline Service

transferred into Liverpool Direct

Limited. Referrals in Careline were up

by 13% in 2012/2013 compared against

same period 2011/2012.

Careline generated a total number of 15,869 Referrals in 2012/2013, an increase of

15% compared to 13,788 Referrals in 2011/2012. Adult Referrals increased by 29%

to 8,404 Referrals in 2012/2013 compared to 6,516 Referrals in 2011/2012. Children

Referrals increased by 3% to 7,465 Referrals in 2012/2013 compared to 7,272

Referrals in 2011/2012.

A Hillsborough Family Support Helpline was launched in Careline on 12 September

2012. An agreement between the Home Office Independent Hillsborough Panel and

Liverpool City Council determined that a support network is to be made available for

families of the bereaved, survivors and those who may need emotional support on

the disclosure of information relating to the Hillsborough Disaster by the

Hillsborough Independent Panel on the 12 September 2012.

The Careline Service maintained a strong performance for Knowsley Borough Council

Out of Hours Service throughout 2012/2013. The Careline Service exceeded its target

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of calls answered by 12%. The Contract was renewed in 2012/2013 by Knowsley

Borough Council.

One Stop Shops Service

The network of eleven One Stop Shops exceeded all their targets during 2012/2013. This

face to face service acts as a front line for Liverpool residents to interact with the City

Council and also delivered:

The management of a merged Library and One Stop Shop service at three library

sites; Garston, Speke (Parklands) and Walton. The opening times of the three sites

changed to incorporate the library

customer demand which includes

Saturday opening at the Garston site.

Six Library staff transferred into

Liverpool Direct Limited and have

been trained to become Customer

Service Advisors. One Stop Shop

Customer Service Advisors have also been trained in Library Services. This has saved

Liverpool City Council over 115K per year with extended hours.

Achievement of 99% for an appointment to be offered 5 working days from the date of the request.

Over 96% of customers were seen within 15 minutes with an appointment and 97% of customers seen within 15 minutes, without an appointment.

Web Services

Web Services provides a wide variety of services focused on delivering solutions which

give the best end user experience possible, working closely with clients focusing on

simple solutions for both end customers and service areas and it delivered:

In the last twelve months Web Services have worked closely with Liverpool City Council to enhance the already industry recognised Liverpool.gov.uk website. The website has been further developed focusing on the ease of access to services for the end user. The delivered website is now being acknowledged as an example of

Benefits Service has generated over

8.6 million in addition benefits for

Liverpool residents.

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best practice for local government websites and focusing on the needs of the residents, businesses and visitors of Liverpool.

In 2012 Web Services provided services for a number of the public sector

organisations; strategic consultancy for Gloucestershire County Council during their

website redevelopment. This

included detailed user task analysis

and content training for the staff of

the County Council. Gloucestershire

launched their new website in April

2012, and have seen a 28%

reduction in calls on key service

lines due to the new tasks-focused

approach of the website. In

September 2012, Web Services

developed the digital services

strategy for North Ayrshire Council and is continuing to aid in the redevelopment of

their website and associated digital services with the aim of producing a more

customer focused website. A new website design for the Northumbria Police was

completed in January 2013. The new look gives the Police an increased ability to

communicate with residents in neighbourhoods and raise awareness of campaigns

across the force region. The Redesign is part of the continuous support that Web

Services offer Northumbria Police.

ICT Service

The ICT Service met or exceeded all its targets in 2012/2013 and there were no Major

Incidents and also delivered:

The average resolution times for all categories were significantly improved

compared to targets. For example, our Category Three Internal SLA is 20 hours. For

the year, ICT has achieved an average resolution time of three hours and 20 minutes

for this particular Service Level Agreement.

A Desktop Refresh programme commenced and is seeing all of the City Council's

4,000 aged PCs and monitors replaced with state-of-the-art ICT equipment. The new

computers are much faster, smaller and more energy efficient, with 4GB of memory.

They run on Windows 7 with Microsoft Office Suite 2010 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint

and Outlook 2010) and each one is installed with a new tool called 'Appsense', which

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gives you a 'virtual profile' so you can log on quickly to any PC on the Council's

network and access all your personal files/applications.

A total of 15,615 Access Databases were successfully deleted resulting in 570GB of

saved data space and reducing levels of risk.

As part of Continuous Service Improvement, ICT introduced two new, high powered

servers into the Solaris infrastructure. As a direct result of this work new hardware

has been introduced at no cost to the customer while saving cost in investment in

memory upgrades and in supplier installation charges as ICT Specialists planned and

implemented the change internally.

The ICT Service successfully completed the migration of 150 databases from the

previous legacy equipment to a new

Structured Query Language (SQL)

cluster environment. This extensive

piece of work ensures the platform

is fully supported and introduces

improved resiliency for customers.

The ICT Service has upgraded the

ageing e-mail system to the latest

version of Microsoft Exchange 2010. This offers enhanced capabilities in an industry

standard communication suite. This work involved the migration of the existing

email system, users and mailboxes onto a new Exchange 2010 platform. The

programme refreshed all hardware and software. The new platform is resilient

across two Data Centres and provides enhanced Business Continuity over the old

solution. Exchange 2010 also offers improved collaboration, greater security and

improved business intelligence capabilities. During the seven month

implementation from February to August over 13,000 mailboxes were migrated and

rationalised.

Human Resources and Payroll Service

The Human Resource and Payroll Service provide advice and guidance on the nature,

interpretation and application of all employment policies, procedure and related

processes. The service provides employee relations and employment law advice whilst

facilitating consultation and negotiation with recognised trade unions. The Payroll

Over 40,000 customers applying

Housing and Council Tax Benefit had

their application, as per the Benefits

Service Ten Day Promise.

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service provides transactional HR and payroll processing using powerful software from a

market leader. This enables the service to complete a payroll and pension function and

produce a range of standard report to inform follow on processes and also delivered:

The Payroll Service has consistently met the contractual performance target for

contractor errors relating to payments made outside the payroll cycle. The target

level for contractor errors is currently less than 0.5% of payments made in the year.

In 2012/2013 the Payroll Service performance was less than 0.1%. Due to the

consistently positive performance the target has been stretched to less than 0.2% in

2013/2014.

The Service has consistently produced 100% performance in its contractual

indicator for ensuring BACS payments are made on the due date. In 2012/2013 over

200,000 BACS transactions were

processed with a value of over

265 million for customers and third

party organisations.

Payroll has consistently exceeded the

target of 90% of pension requests for

estimate of benefits processed

within ten full working days. The Service has processed 100% of the 589 estimates

completed in 2012/2013 within ten working days.

Implementation of the e-recruitment system has already yielded saving since its

introduction in June 2012. Since the implementation of e-recruitment the numbers

of electronically submitted applications has increased to 98% in 2012/2013 from

91% in 2011/2012 with a reduction in paper applications from 9% in 2011/2012 to

just 2% in 2012/2013. This has reduced postage and paper usage to customers.

Learning and Development Service

The service has been re-engineered with its processes and practices realigned to ensure

that e-learning is a core service option to reduce costs to the user and introduce high

levels of risk management. It delivered:

Over 2000 staff to date within the City Council have undertaken a piece of development with the Learning and Development team and 97% of staff were satisfied with their development. In 2012/2013 the Learning and Development team

During 2012/2013 Liverpool Direct

Limited continued to financially

support the Duke of Edinburgh

Award in schools across Liverpool.

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worked closely with the City Council to provide a piece of learning; Managing Council Projects. This worked to a City Council Project Management Framework with the aim of ensuring that all projects being managed across the City could be managed to the same consistent level. The Pilot was a great success and this has just started to be rolled out across the authority. Over 60 City Council staff have completed this in the last three months. Also:

Investment was made in the Atlantic link e-learning software during 2012/2013. This

has provided the team with new

functionality to enhance the learner

experience. There have been 35

new interactive pieces of e-learning

developed which includes a New

Information Security awareness

course created to support the City

Council. There were 20 new

apprentices and trainees recruited

across the City Council. All these

new recruits came from the greater

Merseyside area and their skills are benefiting both organisations and boosting the

local economy.

Security Industry Authority Service

The Security Industry Authoritys Service received over 200,000 applications and

handled over 360,000 calls during 2012/2013.

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) Service exceeded all their stretched targets

during 2012/2013. These targets were enhanced in 2011 and formed part of a

significant reduction in the price of the Service. These include; answering 99% of all

calls offered to the Contact Centre, 100% of calls were answered within 30 seconds

against a target of over 99%. Achieving an average of 1.67 days to process an SIA

application against a target of nine days. Achieving over 99% system availability

against a target of 98%.The Security Industry Authority (SIA) Service exceeded all

their stretched targets during 2012/2013. These targets were enhanced in 2011 and

formed part of a significant reduction in the price of the Service. These include;

answering 99% of all calls offered to the Contact Centre, 100% of calls were

answered within 30 seconds against a target of over 99%. Achieving an average of

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1.67 days to process an SIA application against a target of nine days. Achieving over

99% system availability against a target of 98%.

Other 2012/2013 Key Developments

Corporate Social Responsibility

Liverpool Direct Limited is committed to continuing to conduct its business responsibly.

We recognise and embrace the responsibilities we have on the environment, to our

people, customers and the local community and we are working to make sure Corporate

Social Responsibility is an integral part of all our business operations to ensure we fulfil

our commitments. Highlights in the

last twelve months in the area of

Corporate Social Responsibility (and

targets for 2013/2014) include:

As part of its commitment to the

community, Liverpool Direct Limited

launched a successful

Apprenticeship and Traineeship Programme in 2011. Since its inception, the

programme has given opportunities to over 50 young people in a range of areas

across Liverpool Direct Limited and Liverpool City Council.

In 2012/2013 staff selected and supported two local charities; The Lily Centre and

The Newborn Appeal. Staff also continue to support and take part in fundraising

days for national charities such as; Comic Relief, Jeans for Genes and Children in

Need. In total during 2012/2013 over 17,000 was raised.

During 2012/2013, Liverpool Direct Limited continued to support the personal

development of young people within the community through the partnership with

the Duke of Edinburghs (DofE) Award. The Partnership witnessed hundreds of

pupils from schools across the city achieve the award at varying levels, enriching

their development and providing them with valuable skills and experiences. In

addition to supporting local schools in delivering the scheme, we have also funded a

number of our own employees to complete the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, with

five members of staff enrolling onto the Award during 2012/2013 and a further

In the last 12 months, over 2,000 employees completed a

development programme with

Learning and Development.

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seven embarking on a Leadership Programme which provides them with training and

supports them in mentoring young people through various levels of the Award.

During 2012/2013, Liverpool Direct Limited has made significant achievements in the

area of environmental management, including;

Improved recycling facilities have been provided for staff to use, such as colour

coded bins for recycling paper, card,

plastic and batteries.

Launched Cycle to Work Scheme

which enables staff to purchase a

bicycle through a salary sacrifice

scheme. Over 80 staff successfully

applied for the scheme and have

now purchased bicycles.

Expanded Save the Planet intranet

pages were provided with information and tips for staff to be more environmentally

friendly in the workplace.

Further audio conferencing facilities were provided to avoid unnecessary travelling.

Having achieved certification to ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems

Standard in 2007 for the whole Partnership, Liverpool Direct Limited will maintain

and continue to develop its environmental management system and adhere to our

environmental policy to ensure continued compliance to the requirements of the

standard.

Quality

Quality is at the heart of everything Liverpool Direct Limited does and plays an integral

role in achieving our vision to deliver excellence and to place the customer at the heart

of everything we do. During 2012/2013 Liverpool Direct Limited successfully

maintained the quality framework in place. The framework consists of over ten national

quality standards and accreditations.

These standards provide a proven business improvement framework that can

significantly improve financial performance, profitability, productivity and increase

employee involvement and focus.

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Whilst Liverpool Direct Limiteds quality agenda is fully implemented, work will continue

to ensure compliance to the requirements of the standards/accreditations across the

organisation. Work is on-going to strengthen the internal audit process and an internal

reviewer development programme is being established to up-skill and improve the

knowledge of our internal auditors. The resulting improved internal audit process will be

supplemented by ad hoc third party audits, undertaken bi-annually across the business,

to ensure adherence and continual improvement.

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2. Looking Ahead 2013/2014

In 2010, Liverpool Direct Limited developed

a Strategic Framework based around the

European Foundation for Quality

Management (EFQM) Model. This is

successfully applied across Europe and

beyond as a rigorous structure to examine

an organisations current capability. The

framework sets out our purpose and the

processes we have put in place to deliver

service excellence. This is kept under review to ensure it continues to meet the needs of

all the stakeholders.

Strategic Priorities

To help give Liverpool Direct Limited a clearly defined sense of direction and focus, a set

of four strategic priorities are in place supported by a set of agreed aims. They help to

give shape to service delivery and to embed innovation and excellence across the

business and provide a platform for growth. They underpin the Companys core

processes.

Strategic Priority One: Customer at the Heart

To place the customer at the heart of the organisation.

Aims:

Challenging, transforming and continuously improving the way services are

delivered; and only accepting performance excellence.

Adopting new approaches to service planning and delivery, effecting real change

in ways that create opportunities now and for the future.

Bringing together knowledge, expertise, experience and customer feedback to

positively build a customer service excellence culture.

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Strategic Priority Two: Service Excellence

Delivery of sustainable service excellence.

Aims:

Using excellence as a benchmark to inspire innovation and encourage each other

and our customers to achieve beyond our ambitions.

Exploiting the opportunities of data, metadata analysis and the gift of contact to

plan and sustain organisational performance and act as a catalyst for

improvement, innovation and transformation.

Understanding our customers ambitions to shape and define strategies to

deliver customer centred and intelligence led solutions.

Strategic Priority Three: Workforce Matters

A committed, trained and developed workforce that matters.

Aims:

Ensuring people are living the values and behaviours of the business; and

engaging in meaningful consultations and communications to capture our

employees perspectives and feedback.

Enhancing and investing in learning and development, apprenticeships and

training opportunities across the Partnership to enable and encourage our

people to excel and develop their individual skills, knowledge and confidence.

Developing leaders who have the capacity, skills and vision to lead, transform

and continuously improve services and people.

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Strategic Priority Four: A Socially Responsible Partnership

Committed to our people, the local community and economy

and the environment. Aims:

Creating growth through harnessing the power and leverage of Liverpool Direct

Limited, the City Council and BT.

Developing our business with an awareness of the environment, optimising the

use of resources to eliminate waste and deliver value for money services.

Ensuring corporate and social responsibility is part of the culture of the

Partnership

Financial Targets

The following financial target for Liverpool Direct Limited have been set for 2013/2014

as:

Description Target

2013/2014 (million)

Revenue 80.0

Table 2.1: Financial Target 2013/2014.

A key priority will remain the creation of new jobs and the protection of existing jobs.

Investments will also continue to be made into areas of business activity during

2013/2014. Potential investments and will include:

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Investments

Desktop Refresh Completion

Next Generation Computing Platform

Adults System Replacement

Childrens System Replacement Completion

Corporate Wireless extension

Leisure Services System Replacement Completion

Total

Table 2.2: Planned Investments 2013/2014.

These investments will support Liverpool City Council and protect future performance

and help deliver immediate (and in year) savings for Liverpool City Council (eg. energy

costs) and reduce risks. It is the belief of Liverpool Direct Limited that further real and

significant savings can be delivered to Liverpool City Council through the hard work of

both sets of staff and managers, and councillors.

In plain terms if we continue to work more

closely and collaboratively the Partnership

can simply do more to support Liverpool City

Council. There are many opportunities.

Examples include: additional revenue and

debt collection, reduced accommodation

costs, increased productivity (i.e. home

working) and standardisation of processes

and services.

The next twelve months are a real opportunity to build on this successful Partnership

and help to continue to generate real value to the City and to create real and

sustainable job opportunities. The targets set for 2013/2014 will be kept under

constant review and reported to meetings of the Board. They will also form part of our

Annual Review.

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Enhanced Performance Targets

As part of the Refresh Agreement in 2011, we reviewed our contractual and non-

contractual service level agreements. The review recognised that a culture of

performance excellence is firmly embedded across the business. Performance targets

were regularly being met or exceeded.

A further review has now been completed for 2013/2014 which has agreed a revised set

of Service Level Agreements of 57 targets that will be applied in 2013/2014. These will

of course continue to be kept under review and refreshed as required. The enhanced

contractual performance targets are as follows:

Service Level Agreement Target

2012/2013

Target

2013/2014

Contact Centre

% of all calls received answered by IVR 5% 10%

Careline

Total calls answered 87.5% 90%

Revenues

Checks on void properties twice a year for Council Tax. 95% 97.5%

Checks on void properties twice a year for National

Non Domestic Rates 95% 97.5%

ICT

Severe Business Disruption: Business Unit 99% 99%

Major Business Disruption: Critical User or User Group External: 99% Internal: 95%

99%

Minor Business Disruption: Single User or User Group External: 99%

Internal: 95% 97%

Minor Disruption: Single User or User Group 95% 98%

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Service Level Agreement Target

2012/2013

Target

2013/2014

Advice and Guidance offered to users via

Connect2ICT 100% 100%

HRP

DBS requests completed within two working days 95% 97.5%

% of payroll errors attributable to the Service < 0.5% < 0.25%

ICT

% Customer Satisfaction with ICT 96% 97%

Business Critical Service Availability New 97%

ADM5 Requests* within five working days 99% 95%

Asset Management updated within five working days New 95%

% of calls resolved at First Time Resolution New 60%

% of invalid links on www.liverpool.gov.uk

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Planned Developments

2012/2013 witnessed a lot of performance and service improvement. Many new

developments were delivered. Plans for 2013/2014 are well underway and include:

Benefits Service

The Benefits Maximisation Service was formed in 2006 to bring together and

improve the quality of advice and support provided to Liverpool citizens. In its first

year this specialist team received 3,500 referrals for advice and helped customers

claim 2.8million in additional benefits. By developing and improving its ways of

working it has been able to support

more and more customers each

year. Last year the service received

6,000 referrals and helped

customers claim an extra 8.2million

in benefits. As the Governments

welfare reform programme takes

effect even greater levels of demand

for advice and support can be

expected. In 2013/2014 Liverpool

Direct Limited has invested in a new

ICT case management system for the Benefit Maximisation Service to streamline the

work of the team. This new system has opened up opportunities to further

modernise and extend the service. By rolling out the new casework system to

customer services staff it will be possible to provide casework information and

advice to customers more quickly and comprehensively. This will also free up

resources to provide additional benefits advice.

The Benefits Service has delivered financial assessment and benefits maximisation

advice for around 7,000 customers receiving non-residential care since 2006. During

the last year the service has also assisted with the management of closely-related

functions including assessments and advice for residential care (a further 4,000

customers) and customers receiving direct payments to manage their personal care.

This will now total over 12,300 customers. In 2013/2014 these teams will be

combined to ensure that there is a single process for benefits advice, financial

assessment and charging, including providing benefit maximisation and ensuring that

Careline operates 24 hours a day,

7 days a week, 365 days a year.

90% of all calls received were answered

during 2012/2013.

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all appropriate benefits are awarded. By bring together these teams it will be

possible to develop and implement a common approach to the way customers

access advice and services, underpinned by common ICT platforms and processes.

The service will be built around the needs of the customer and their advice and

entitlement needs rather than the historic split of functions and teams.

Although a detailed timetable for converting the benefits system to Universal Credit

is still being finalised by the Government it is anticipated that the first stage will be

go live for certain new claimants of Job Seekers Allowance in October 2013. This will

be key focus of work in

2013/2014 for the service.

Roll out to additional

groups will commence in

April 2014 and the aim is

to transfer all new and

existing claims by the end

of 2017. It is important

that services prepare plans

for how customers will be

affected by these changes.

This will include providing

assistance and advice to customers who need support making or transferring claims

under the new arrangements. As the Government provides further details of the

planned transfer of claims, the Service will develop a detailed programme of work

for aligning its information, processes and systems to the new national system,

which will gradually be implemented between 2013 and 2017.

The Benefits Service administers Housing Benefits and Council Tax Support for

around 82,000 customers at any one time. The Housing Benefit Regulations oblige

Local Authorities to provide written notices of decisions to customers claiming

Housing Benefit. These regulations also specify the detail that needs to be included

in the decision letters. Because the letters are formal legal notifications they can only

be partially amended by the Local Authority and this can result in customers having

difficulty understanding the content. Many customers have to contact the service for

an explanation of what the letters mean. The Services key software provider is

working to provide a simplified summary letter that will be meaningful and

understandable to customers. This does not replace the legal notification letter,

which is still required to be produced, but will provide a simplified version to help

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customers. The Benefits Service will be implementing this new arrangement in the

summer of 2013.

Revenues Service

The Radius Recoup ICT System (which currently houses Community Charge and

archived Council tax, along with

Radius Arms which supports Sundry

Debts) will be replaced with a new

Civica Legal system which will provide

increased functionality. The system

will enable the service to proactively

collect debts and increase collection

rates. The greater recovery functionality will enable us to develop an enhanced

single view of debt. Additional user licenses will allow for the transfer of all calls to

the contact centre which will in turn improve the customer experience. The

introduction of a Debt Prioritisation module will assist in developing a process that

uses the latest data available about customers. Collection rates will improve through

identifying and targeting debts which are collectable whilst writing off those deemed

to be uncollectable.

Northgate e-Revenues allow certain liability amendments to be automatically

uploaded into our core system. E-Serve brings all the core system electronic services

together and implementation will allow customers to view their account. There will

also the facility to allow customers to make basic updates. In 2013/2014 these

enhancements will achieve the following; increased first point of contact resolution,

improve the customer experience, reduce the number of service requests to the

back office, reduce costs, reduction in calls/ visits/ correspondence being received.

There are currently 30,923 customers signed up to receive an electronic bill. The

Office for National Statistics has recently revealed that over 21 million households

(80%) in the UK have internet access. In 2013/2014 a targeted mailshot campaign

will identify owners of more than one property and those customers who contact

the service by email. This will be supported by colleagues in customer access who

will promote the advantages of e-billing. By promoting e-billing the service will see

the following benefits of; reduction in printing and postage costs, support the green

agenda, and reduce calls/ visits.

Benefits Service administered

over 328 million in Benefits

to Liverpool residents.

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Customer Access Service

The Contact Centre, Careline and One Stop Shop and Web Services make up the

Customer Access Service. The planned developments for the Customer Access Service

include:

Enhancing the options of self-service for basic transactions through Instant Voice Recognition (IVR) Auto Attendants and the web. It is anticipated the number of basic transactions planned for automation will reduce call volumes by over 55,000 pa and in doing so widen customer choice through alternative forms of contact. Automation and self-serve is the most cost effective way of providing Customer Access therefore transferring basic transactions to automation will create efficiencies and free up advisors time to deal with more complex enquiries.

Customer Access will be working closely

with colleagues within ICT during 2013/2014 to upgrade the current Telephony

Infrastructure. This planned upgrade will provide a multi-media environment with

the capability to ensure service excellence with improved accessibility for customers

into the future. The enhanced infrastructure once in place will enable Liverpool

Direct Limited to meet the requirements of the changing customer contact channels

over the next four years and beyond.

During 2013/2014 Customer Access will be looking to enhance self-Serve options for

Careline Services for both Professionals and Service Users. By again transferring basic

enquiries to self-serve options will reduce call volumes by over 7,000 pa and help

create efficiencies for the service. The enhancements to self-serve for Careline will

also ensure service excellence is retained for both service users and professionals

and increase customer choice by providing more via automation without the need of

Customer Service Advisors intervention. Again allowing more complex queries to be

dealt with.

Customer Access will be working closely with colleagues from the Benefit Service

during early 2013/2014 to enhance the frontline service provided on behalf of the

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Benefit Maximisation Service. Teams across both One Stop Shops and Contact

Centre will be given access to view cases within IIZUKA the case management system

used by the Benefit Maximisation Service. This will enable more queries to be dealt

with at First Point of Contact Resolution which will significantly reduce the

production of unnecessary hand off enquiries and service requests. It is anticipated

the quantity of service requests generated by Customer Access teams will reduce by

50%. This will free up specialised resources within the Benefit Maximisation Service

to focus.

ICT Service

The introduction of 4000 new small form factor tiny PCs and 20 Monitors to

replace the current Liverpool City Council estate. New toolsets will allow a more

efficient utilisation and centralisation of applications, reducing desktop complexity,

and will provide a more enhanced service. The new PC solution will deliver a

minimum 60% power reduction saving money and supporting the environment with

the associated Green Energy Star award. Through centralised software

management, applications can be deployed

without a visit to the workplace or disruption

to the user. Major operating and system

software upgrades and rollouts or security

patches can be undertaken almost instantly

across the whole estate.

In 2013/2014 delivery of a new virtualised

Next Generation Compute Platform VBlock

will take place. This is scalable platform that

will replace a vast majority of the aged;

servers, storage and networking devices in

the Data Centres. Allowing it to host all the

current services on a smaller more efficient

footprint. The new VBlock system will release up to 30% more space in the Data

Centre avoiding the need for expansion. Power savings will be reduced by at least

25% saving an estimated 26,000 per annum. The server provision time from point

of request into the Platform Support Team will reduce from 14 hours to two hours

using enhanced provisioning and management tools.

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Delivery in 2013/2014 of a Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) system across the City

Council and Liverpool Direct

Limited to reduce the current load

of 750 calls per month. SSPR

functionality allows users to

authenticate with their known

username and password and

register themselves with the

system. The system then requires

the users to register answers to a number of questions. When the user then requires

their own password to be reset, instead of calling Connect2ICT, the user can access

the Password Reset portal via the internet or the logon client on their PC or laptop.

The benefits are reduced administration effort, reduction in help desk calls and

reduced down time for users waiting for system access.

Following the agreement of a contract with security industry leading McAfee,

Liverpool Direct Limited now has access to 72 McAfee security products rather than

just four previously available (at no extra cost). ICT Security will be implementing

the three most beneficial of these security products to increase our delivery of pro-

active security to the desktop. Rather than responding reactively to security, a

hacking attempt or Zero-Day virus infection as it happens, early warning and

control will be enabled through the implementation of McAfee Risk Advisor and

Policy Auditor and a new, real-time security protection service will be delivered

through McAfees Global Threat Intelligence platform, taking advantage of threat

analysis from millions of computers around the world. All three of these products

will introduce a shift in our security capability and protection.

Human Resource and Payroll Service

The second phase of the electronic recruitment system will provide assistance to

managers linked to the payroll system. This will remove the current manual

processes. It will introduce customer branding presenting a more professional image

to users and potential new business customers. There will be a redeployment area

that will support the current redeployment process and provide at risk employees

with direct access to the vacancy system. Whilst this phase will not provide a

financial saving it will improve the overall application of the system through a more

streamlined approach.

In 2012/2013 Liverpool Direct Limited

successfully retained the

Gold Investors in People Standard

across all service areas.

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Introducing the facility to access the Human Resource and Payroll system via the

internet will provide access to

Employee and Manager Self Service

all year round and will help remove

paper payslips. This development

will allow users of smart mobile

phones to access payslip

information on the mobile phone

removing the need to produce over

100,000 paper payslips per annum

making savings of printing and postage of approximately 12,000 yearly and

reducing over 1300 unnecessary related calls per annum.

Extended Oracle system development will provide an improved service and system

access for managers, employees and external customers. The introduction of a new

starter process through manager self-service for organisations who do their own

recruitment will streamline payroll new starters and reduce emails by over 1200 per

annum. The development will enable managers to track their submissions via a

single route and reduce an estimated 400 calls per annum to Connect2HRP.

There will be a review of

employment related policies and

procedures to standardise the

documents. This will provide

managers and employees with a

consistent understanding of the

employment framework. Each

policy will follow an agreed format

and, where appropriate, a

procedure will follow. Online

learning will be developed for both managers and employees to understand of the

reasons and use of such policies. Standardising the policies will ensure that queries

and requests for information are dealt with at the first point of contact. They will be

more user friendly and will reduce the need for staff to contact HRP as the

documents will be easy to navigate through the intranet. This should reduce the

numbers of calls to Connect2HRP by approximately one third.

Learning and Development Service

Human Resource and Payroll Service

launched a new e-recruitment portal.

Over 4,000 a year of printing and

photocopying costs has been saved.

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The upgrade to the Epstein Training Centre will improve the learning environment

and reduce space. This will enable much more responsive, efficient use of

technologies which supports our investment in people development. Combined

with the conversion to more efficient means of learning to aid cost efficiencies by

reviewing learning/eLearning to ensure it is accurate and fit for purpose and cost

effective.

Establish a new Learning Management System that will improve the customer

journey; provide greater and more accurate reporting and cost analysis; enable a

platform which will house e learning in order to aid consistency or message and

minimise cost.

To support the transition from the

former social care system (ISSIS) to

a more robust and up to date social

care system (Liquid Logic)

incorporating greater financial

controls. The training planned is

aimed to minimise down time for

staff concerned with a just in time

approach so that learning can be

undertaken directly prior to the go

live date of the system. Post go

live support and floor walking is built in to aid stoppage time and maximise benefits

of the system to the user and subsequently provide a more streamlined service to

the customer.

2013/2014 will be a challenging year however plans are in place (and will be

continuously reviewed and evaluated) to ensure targets; are met, expectations

exceeded and real service improvements are made.