Access to services is about providing all sections of the community
with easier access to information and services, greater choice of
services and more availability outside of traditional core hours.
Suffolk Coastal's access to services inspection was carried out
by the Audit Commission, the independent watchdog responsible for
auditing local public services, during 2008 and the final report
was published in January 2009.
Access to services inspections cover four broad areas:
- Ease of access to services.
- Using e-government to support access to services.
- Reaching all parts of the community.
- Partnership working.
Suffolk Coastal was assessed as providing a ‘good’, two-star
service that has promising prospects for improvement.
The wide-ranging and in-depth review measured how well the
Council is making its services accessible to all its residents, and
how much it takes account of their needs and wants in the way it
offers them.
The Audit Commission report states that Suffolk Coastal’s
approach is good ‘because it has invested significant resources to
effect improvement in customer services and its website’. It also
says that the Council is ‘generally effective at engaging services
users, the business community and vulnerable groups to inform
service delivery’ and that it has ‘good local intelligence’ to
understand local community needs.
It also states that ‘the Council is working hard to address
issues arising from rural isolation and meeting the needs of both
older and younger residents, particularly in the north of the
district’ and that ‘the Council is aware of where it needs to
improve and has plans in place to address these.’
You can read the Audit Commission report in full by following
the link below: