Assessment Report CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 1 of 19

Assessment Report CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 1 of 19

Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Address: County Hall, New Road, Oxford,, OX1 1ND Standard(s): CSE Accreditation Body(s) Representative: Sue Labbett Site(s) audited: Effective No. of Personnel 700 Date(s) of audit(s): No. of sites: UKAS 25/3/2015 Lead auditor: John Thurgood Additional None team member(s): Type of Assessment: Recertification Certificate Outcome Granted Continued Withheld Suspended Certification Claims are accurate and in accordance with SGS guidance Yes No For all your training needs, please visit the SGS Academy at www.sgs.co.uk/trainingbrochure To subscribe to the SGS newsletter please visit http://www.sgs.co.uk/en-gb/our- Company/E-Subscriptions.aspx SGS United Kingdom Ltd SGS House 217-221 London Road Camberley Surrey GU15 3EY UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 2 of 19

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service profile: Oxfordshire is the most rural county in the South East. It has a population of around 635,500, over half of which live in towns or villages of less than 10,000 people. As part of Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has a very clear mission to become the most integrated Fire and Rescue service in the UK. They plan to deliver this through continuing to challenge the way they operate to make sure they make a positive difference to people s lives and support business in the County. Through 365Alive, their clear vision is for self- reliant safer communities through working independently and in partnership with a range of third parties. They aim to be intelligence led, with locality specific approaches which identify practical preventative measures delivered through internal resources and via community based partnerships, which will address many of the emerging societal risks. The service is organised around three Fire Risk Areas based upon the five District Council areas: West & Cherwell City South & Vale The Community Protection Strategy is the strategy to deliver OFRS purpose. It describes the fire and rescue related risks that Oxfordshire faces which they must deal with in order to deliver their 365Alive targets. The risks are identified in the Operational Risk Register for Oxfordshire. It considers how each of these risks might impact upon the public and fire fighters and explains what is currently done to manage these risks under three headings: Prevention eliminating or reducing the likelihood of the risk occurring Protection reducing the impact of the risk should it occur Response providing a rapid and effective response should an incident happen Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue service has 24 fire stations 6 of them are staffed by wholetime fire fighters and 18 of them are staffed by retained crews who live and work in the communities they serve. They have a front-line fleet of 36 fire engines many of them new vehicles and a number of specialist vehicles, including a hydraulic platform for performing rescues at height, two specialist rescue tenders for attending road traffic collisions and other specialist rescues, an environmental protection unit (provided in partnership with the Environment Agency) and a mobile command unit. There are 700 staff who work for the Fire & Rescue Service. The service has an annual budget of 25 million pounds. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 3 of 19

The service is exceptionally customer focused and uses data well to identify and manage the risks identified whilst providing education support and training to minimise these risks and build safer communities. There is a tangible can do attitude amongst staff who actively look for opportunities to impact positively on the people of Oxfordshire s lives. It is seen by residents as highly professional, effective and efficient and there is a large degree of support for the service from the general public. Many of the activities are innovative and several of them are examples of good practice that could be beneficially adopted wider than the County. There is a comprehensive array of partners including the Environment Agency and joint working was observed during a previous assessment with the aim of reducing flooding risk on tributaries of the Thames which had considerable support from local residents and the media. Following the assessment, Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service were found to have a deep understanding of, and commitment to, Customer Service Excellence. The commitment was displayed from Senior Management levels through to operations and front line staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those people involved in the overall assessment process. It has been a pleasure meeting with your team and having the opportunity to observe your service in action. During the assessment a number of Partial compliances with the standard were identified. Details of these can be found in section 5 of this report. As a result of these findings: Award of the Customer Service Excellence Standard has been recommended Yes No UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 4 of 19

2. METHOD OF ASSESSMENT The assessment was undertaken in two stages; the first was a review of your self assessment pack. This review enabled the assessor to gain an understanding of how the organisation had met the requirements of the Customer Service Excellence standard. The next stage was an on-site assessment. The objective of this part of the assessment was to obtain evidence demonstrating that the applicant was meeting the requirements of the standard, within the area covered by the scope of the application. This evidence was obtained through a documentation review as well as interviews with staff, customers, representatives of partner organisations, and senior management. During the assessment process the criteria are scored on a four-band scale: COMPLIANCE PLUS - Behaviours or practices which exceed the requirements of the standard and are viewed as exceptional or as exemplar to others, either within the applicant's organisation or in the wider public service arena. COMPLIANT - Your organisation has a variety of good quality evidence which demonstrates that you comply fully with this element. The evidence which reflects compliance is consistent throughout and is embedded in the culture of the organisation. PARTIAL COMPLIANCE - Your organisation has some evidence but there are significant gaps. The gaps could include: Parts of the applicant s organisation which are currently not compliant and/or Areas where the quality of the evidence is poor or incomplete and/or Areas which have begun to be addressed and are subject to significant further development and/or Areas where compliance has only been evident for a very short period of time NON COMPLIANT - Your organisation has little or no evidence of compliance or, what evidence you do have refers solely to a small (minor) part of your organisation. The current scheme allows applicants a maximum number of partial compliances, equating to a pass mark of 80% for all criteria. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 5 of 19

3. OPENING MEETING The on-site assessment commenced with an opening meeting. The assessment activity and the partial compliances were discussed. The itinerary, which had been forwarded to Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service in advance, was agreed. The organisation was informed that all information obtained during the assessment would be treated as strictly confidential. The scope of Assessment was confirmed as: Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service 4. ON-SITE ASSESSMENT The Assessor was accompanied throughout the assessment by Sue Labbett and other Personnel within the organisation were involved when assessing activities within their responsibility. The assessment resulted in the raising of two partial compliances. A number of observations are listed in Section 7 of this report. Details of the partial compliance(s) can be found in section 5 for Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service to address as appropriate. Criterion Number of Elements Maximum number of Partial compliance Actual number of non compliance Actual number of partial compliance 1 11 2 0 0 2 11 2 0 0 3 12 2 0 0 4 13 3 0 0 5 10 2 0 2 Yes No Have the partial compliance(s) raised at the last assessment been closed? UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 6 of 19

5. AREAS OF PARTIAL COMPLIANCE CRITERION 1 None CRITERION 2 None CRITERION 3 None CRITERION 4 None CRITERION 5 5.3.1 Performance against some standards for timeliness and quality of customer service are monitored but not all of the promises made in the Performance Pledge are monitored. The Performance Pledge needs further review to ensure that all promises relate to customer needs and are specific and measurable. 5.3.2 Whilst you meet many of the standards for timeliness of response and quality of customer service as some of the promises are not easily monitored you cannot demonstrate empirically you meet them all. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 7 of 19

6. OBSERVATIONS During the site assessment, the following general observations were made. These include: positive areas scored as compliance plus; observations of good practice; opportunities for improvement identified throughout the entire assessment process, as listed below. Areas for Improvement You may wish to consider if setting up a repository for Organisational Memory would assist you in refining services within the reducing resource envelope more effectively so that you demonstrate learning from previous service change. Areas of Good Practice Customers are segmented using both Mosaic software and Plan Web to gain detailed customer insight for both existing and potential customers. The data is annually reviewed and you are currently continuing to further develop the layering potential of the Mosaic software to further inform your insight. The Mosaic data is nationally recognised as reliable. Customer insight is developed from the profiling data and the use of the Risk Reduction Plan along with information shared between the Fire and Rescue Service and Social and Community Services and feedback forms are used to further develop this insight into service plans. Significant efforts are made to identify and reach the hard to reach or disadvantaged and to develop specific services to meet their needs. The Service was awarded the Fire & Rescue Service Equality Award for its leadership work to involve women and ethnic minorities more in the operational elements of services. There is a clear and effective strategy for consulting and engaging with customers using County Council consultation apparatus, feedback forms and local events to identify areas of importance to customers for service delivery. Consultation is used extensively to drive changes to the service and the plans for improvement are published through the web site. You make good use of a variety of engagement methodology that includes focus group direct after incident surveys and the County Council s consultation strategy and methodology that is both reliable and representative. The strategy for consulting and engaging was written in 2008 and covered the period 2008-2011. There has been a review of the strategy and now there is empirical evidence that the results are effective, reliable and representative using a robust consultation methodology led by a dedicated team at County Hall. Reliable and accurate methods are used to measure customer satisfaction using a variety of methods to include surveys, visits and after incident feedback. This is further tested using the Opinion Research benchmarking of 24 other Fire & Rescue services. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 8 of 19

Satisfaction levels are analysed using an external research company and the results publicised using press releases. The feedback from surveys is used to target areas of high risk and to improve services for residents. The details shown in the Operational Plan are a good example of this. Surveys include questions on timeliness, delivery, information, access and quality of customer service as well as specific questions relevant to customer insight and focused around the outcomes of the Risk Reduction Plan. An overall target of 98% satisfaction is set for the service and achieved as evidenced by survey returns and there is a distinct upward trend in levels of satisfaction over time. The customer experience is mapped by the service for several areas of business and improvements made to customer journeys as a result, working these through your Integrated Risk Management Plan. There is a clear corporate commitment to put customers at the heart of service delivery and this is well described in the Closer to Communities strategy. Your stated vision is to deliver a safer Oxfordshire by 2016 using 365Alive as the basis of measurement. You have already exceeded the targets set for the achievement of 365Alive two years before target date and are in the process of revising these to provide further challenge to the brigade. Customer insight is used to inform policy and strategy particularly through service planning meetings and you build this into the Service Support and Service Delivery Business Plans and through these the Fire Protection Policy and the Community Protection Strategy. There is a comprehensive range of policies and procedures at corporate level with appropriate involvement at service level that supports the right of customers to expect excellent service. The Putting Customers First guide is a notable example of this in action as is the new County Policy on fair access to services You test through surveys run by Opinion Research annually and by after incident surveys and local fire safety surveys customer perception of fair treatment and you perform well in this area. Comprehensive data protection policies and procedures including a robust Safeguarding policy are in place to protect customer privacy both in face to face activity and in the storage and transfer of customer information and staff are trained in both Data Protection and Safeguarding. Staff are encouraged to participate in the customer focus of the service through regular team meetings, forums and Watch Manager meetings the minutes of which were provided in evidence. The commitment to deliver customer focused services is included in job descriptions and in the training and development of staff as evidenced by the training plans provided in evidence. You are actively seeking to recruit more female fire fighters and those form minority groups to demonstrate your active diversity strategy. Survey results show staff are both friendly and polite to customers and you provided several examples in evidence of compliments for the helpfulness of your operational staff. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 9 of 19

Customer service is evaluated and rewarded through the appraisal system; those staff scoring an excellent level as measured at appraisal are invited to meet the Council Chief Executive at a reception. Front line staff are encouraged to innovate in respect of service planning and the service received an award for changing the way Drago was delivered. Further evidence of changes made as a result of staff involvement was provided by the evidence of the First Link Group working with disabled customers and led to the development of your Equality and Diversity policy. The contribution made by staff in delivering customer focused services is recognised by the County Council s Star Awards and staff receive thank you letters from the Chief Fire Officer for delivering excellent levels of customer service. The Fire & Rescue Service management team visibly displays customer focus across the organisation. The award for one member of your staff of the British Empire Medal is an example of compliance plus in this element for the impact his suggestion had on the lives of Oxfordshire residents. Full information about the service is provided in face to face verbal messages, in printed materials, posters, cards and through the Council web site and includes how and when to make contact and who is in charge in each of the Service areas. Charges for special services are set out in Locally Determined charges sheet reviewed annually and publicised through the web site although the majority of services are free of charge as this is an emergency service. You deliver information in ways that meet the needs and preferences of customers determining these through the consultation over the Integrated Risk Management Plan. The results of this consultation led to the development of both Twitter and Facebook accessibility primarily for young people. You test that customers have both received and understood the information provided using verbal feedback at incidents and through surveys and feedback forms. Information improvements particularly to the 365 Alive web site and the provision of hearing loops in your conference rooms at headquarters are as a direct result of feedback. The range and content of written, verbal and published information is regularly improved using feedback from customers to ensure it is relevant and meets the needs of customers. There is a clear policy on Information Management in place. Good evidence from customer feedback was provided to demonstrate that information is generally accurate and complete and where this is not the case the customer is advised when full information will be available. If there is inaccurate information provided then you have robust systems in place through audit to identify this and senior managers are empowered to rectify this for the customer. Access is made easily available by telephone, in person at any manned station, by letter or through the web site. You evaluate at least annually how people access your services and have sophisticated technology in your Control Room that identifies the area of origin of an emergency call and enables you to make contact with other emergency services so a co-ordinated response can be provided. You evaluate how customers access services and use this information to map trends in incidents or areas of high risk. The use of Facebook and Twitter were as a direct result of the Integrated Risk Management Plan consultation and targets UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 10 of 19

young people specifically. You are also making use of the Mosaic data to target the vulnerable in high risk areas. Premises are generally clean and comfortable for visitors although some negative feedback has been received about the Headquarters reception area. You are addressing this within available resources and you review the feedback across all premises although you get limited numbers of people through the door at each Station and those who do are generally engaged in a particular activity such as the Safety Education Centre. You have formal partnerships with Inter Agency Referral Services, Trading Standards, Emergency Planning, Fire Protection Enforcement Officers, Secondary and Primary Schools in Oxfordshire, Integrated Youth Service, South Central Ambulance Service for First Response, Social & Community Services, Thames Valley Police and the Red Cross. All of these benefit customers by reducing risks in the community or actively providing appropriate support. Clear lines of accountability for the quality of customer service are set out in the Memoranda of Understanding agreed with each partner and you have a robust approach to discussions about the quality of service in your regular meetings with partners as evidenced by discussions with partners at the assessment. Significant charity work is carried out by each operational station and Oxfordshire raised the largest amount for the Fire Service Charity in 2013. Banbury fire-fighters work with Bishop Loveday School on reading development and this has had an effect on raising Standard Assessment Test scores for the area. Challenging national statutory standards in relation to response times for emergency calls are set by the Department of Communities and Local Government for Fire & Rescue services and you support these with a series of local standards and targets set out in the Community Protection Strategy and the Service Support and Service Delivery Plans. You monitor performance on a monthly basis with a report provided to the operational management team and the Cabinet Member and currently meet all of your statutory and local delivery targets, publicising performance on posters at each operational station and on the web site. You actively consult with and involve customers, citizens partners and staff on the setting, reviewing and raising of local standards using the Integrated Risk Management Plan consultation, Oxfordshire Voice, a citizen panel, and staff questionnaire along with quality management workshops within departments. The views of these parties feed into the Integrated Risk Management Plan that sets out your local standards and you can demonstrate raising of local standards as a result. The corporate plan sets out how the service assists in making Oxfordshire a safer place to live, work or visit and a performance pledge that details the standard of service a customer can expect. This forms an explicit agreement on the service to be delivered for each customer. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 11 of 19

You are able to demonstrate that the service generally delivers the service promised in a cost effective and efficient way supported by the 2009 CAA assessment that rated the service as 2nd highest performing Brigade nationally and the Peer Review 2010 that demonstrates service exceeds most of the indicators and performs well in comparison. Survey results show that outcomes are positive for the majority as evidenced by the positive comments from several customers seen in evidence. The responses to the question asked Did the Fire & Rescue Service deliver the service you needed confirms this. Performance is benchmarked against 24 other Fire & Rescue Service nationally using Opinion Research who ask customers across 24 Fire & Rescue Services using the same agreed questions and through the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) up to 2009 against similar sized Local Authorities. You demonstrate you learn from good practice identified both locally and nationally and publish examples on Oxfordshire County Council toolkits on the intranet. Examples of externally published best practice include National Fire fighter selection test, Promotion Policy and Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service complaints handling processes. Your Business Continuity plans implement the South East region s approach identified as best practice. Dips in performance are identified through Operational Audits and debriefs, Peer Reviews, Mystery Shopper and Station Audits and where necessary explained to individual customers along with details of how the service intends to put things right. Performance is monitored daily; monthly, quarterly and annually so trends are quickly identified and addressed. There is an easy to use corporate complaints procedure supported by a service wide procedure that includes a commitment to deal fully with issues and resolve them within a given time frame. This includes the ability to escalate complaints to elected members and ultimately the Local Government Ombudsman. The corporate training strategy includes the complaints procedure for all staff using amongst other methods an e-learning package. Managers are trained to investigate a complaint objectively at an appropriate level relevant to the seriousness of allegation. Staff are empowered at management level to resolve complaints wherever practical and do this by direct contact including personal visit to complainants. You learn both at service level and corporately from complaints using a regular report to both the Cabinet Member and the service management team and use the information collated to improve services and publicise action through the Oxfordshire County Council web site. There is an annual review of the complaints procedure corporately that consults with customers, complainants and staff. This has in the recent past led to a more corporate approach to complaints handling. There is a robust process in place both corporately and service specific that tests that the outcome of an upheld complaint is satisfactory to the complainant. Reviews of the documented complaints handling evidence support compliance in this area. Clear corporate standards are set for timeliness of response to all forms of contact and publicised on the Council web site. Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service response standards are set out in the Performance Pledge leaflet. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 12 of 19

Corporate standards for quality of customer service are set out in the Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service Customer Service Strategy and Action Plan and are as a result of consultation with customers both corporately through Ask Oxfordshire and the Fire & Rescue Service consultation over the Integrated Risk Management Plan. Standards for both timeliness of response and quality of customer service are set out in the Performance Pledge leaflet and on the County council web site. Guidance notes are in place to ensure staff refer on to an appropriate person who can deal with the reason for contact and your central switchboard directs the call to the appropriate Brigade Officer or operational station. Information is shared appropriately within the strict data protection guidelines with other Council Department and external partners where necessary and is used to reduce unnecessary customer contact across all services and partners making good use of tell us once strategies. Where service is not completed at first point of contact the customer is informed of the next steps and the timescale to achieve the desired outcome. The Fire Protection sheets and the Re-inspection programme are both good examples of this provided in evidence. You respond promptly to initial enquiries and if there are delays you advise the customer and take action to minimise these delays across all forms of contact. Performance against timeliness and quality of customer service standards is benchmarked against 24 other Fire & Rescue services nationally using and external research company Opinion Research and you compare well. Areas of Compliance Plus The use of the Mosaic data to profile customers through the Oxfordshire Observatory is an example of compliance plus because of the robust and comprehensive way in which you use the data to identify at risk areas. This is also an example of compliance plus from the way the Mosaic data is used to actively develop insight and to identify the areas of high risk that you use to prioritise service improvement. The contribution made by staff in delivering customer focused services is recognised by the County Council s Star Awards and staff receive thank you letters from the Chief Fire Officer for delivering excellent levels of customer service. The Fire & Rescue Service management team visibly displays customer focus across the organisation. The award for one member of your staff of the British Empire Medal is an example of compliance plus in this element. Not only are staff friendly and polite to customers but the assessor observed particular care being shown to vulnerable adults and effective multi-agency working during visits with the Community Safety Advisor as part of the Safeguarding procedures. The way that the advisor took account of the individual circumstances of those vulnerable clients is an example of compliance plus. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 13 of 19

7. ACTION PLANNING The achievement of Customer Service Excellence is an on-going activity and it is important that Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service continues to meet the elements of the criteria throughout the three years the Hallmark is awarded for. Efforts must be made by Customer Service Excellence Holders to continually improve their service. Your next steps: Short Term Action Planning You should establish an action plan to ensure you meet the requirement of the standard identified as being partially-compliant in Section 5 of this report. Your assessor will review the actions taken to meet these partial compliances at your next annual visit. On-going review It is a requirement of the Customer Service Excellence scheme that Holders must inform SGS of any major changes in the service provision covered by the scope of the certificate. This includes reorganisation or mergers. In addition, SGS must be informed should the certified service experience a significant increase in customer complaints or critical press coverage. If you are in doubt at any stage, we strongly recommend contacting the Customer Service Team for advice on the significance of any service or organisational change, or issues surrounding customer complaints. SGS will visit within the next 12 months for the Annual Review. SGS recommends that Oxfordshire County Council - Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service retains a copy of this report to aid continuous improvement, and as a reference document for future assessment reviews. UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 14 of 19

8. RECERTIFICATION INFORMATION It is confirmed that all elements of the standard have been assessed at least once over the past 3 years It is confirmed that all partial /non compliances raised over the last 3 years have been reviewed and improvement has been made against these I confirm that certification should be continued I confirm that all sites covered in the certification has been visited at least once over the 3 years period UK.CSE.AR2 Issue 2 Page 15 of 19