The Chartered Quality Institute

Qualityworld

Hitting the mark

Now in its fifteenth year, the government is making some significant changes to the controversial public sector award. Patricia Curmi finds out what's in store for the Charter Mark

Changes are afoot in the public service sector. A spate of reports have recently been published that have driven significant changes in the way our public services are delivered. Sir David Varney's report on 'Service transformation: a better service for citizens and businesses, a better deal for the taxpayer' recognised the need to engage 'citizens and businesses more fully in the design and delivery of public services'.

This was a theme picked up in the independent review led by Bernard Herdan of one of the longest running initiatives in government - the Charter Mark scheme. The review 'The Customer Voice in Transforming Public Services' made a number of far reaching recommendations, most of which have since been accepted by the government and led to the announcement that a new customer service standard was to be introduced in 2007. This month, as the launch of the new standard approaches, everyone is eager to see the result.

Why the Charter Mark is changing

John Hutton initiated a further review of Charter Mark led by Bernard Herdan in August 2005. Bernard's report 'The customer voice in transforming public services' was published in June 2006. The main recommendation in the report was that a new national standard for customer service be developed.

Key findings:

  • a new customer service standard based on the key drivers of satisfaction should be developed
  • the new standard should support the effective measurement of customer satisfaction
  • the standard should be used as a tool by public services to develop the skills to enable them to be more citizen-centred and responsive
  • the assessment processes for the new standard should remain outsourced from the Cabinet Office
  • that the new standard should be developed in-house by the team in the Cabinet Office
  • recognition should be an important element in the assessment and certification process
  • the dissemination and use of best practice should be integral to the use of the standard

At least the award doesn't have to attempt to convince organisations to get on board, having firmly entrenched itself in the public sector's psyche. It's already a well established brand with approximately 1,600 organisations currently accredited. Local authority services represent the largest sector, although the scheme is open to every part of the public and voluntary sector.

Nearly 400,000 employees work in organisations accredited to the Charter Mark standard and an independent review suggested that Charter Mark was something of 'an unsung success story' while noting that greater focus on customer insight issues in business in general was needed. It recommended major changes aimed at helping organisations to improve customer service skills and develop a customer-focused culture informed by insight.

Development work to the standard has centred around achieving a better understanding of what drives customer satisfaction and the importance of meaningful customer insight. The new scheme will aim to incorporate recent research and the most up-to-date information on how to develop that customer-focused culture.

The new standard will be much more outcome-focused and will concentrate on:

  • the experience of the customer
  • development of a customer-focused culture and
  • measurement of satisfaction levels of service users

But while many current Charter Mark holders are eagerly awaiting sight of the new standard this September, the scheme has its share of detractors.

Occupational psychologist John Seddon is one of the more high-profile critics of an award scheme he calls: 'just another example of bad theory pushed forwards by government.'

'It's nonsense,' Seddon argues, 'that appeals to politicians as it can be reduced to plausible sound-bites - "setting standards" and so on - but every time I look at organisations with the Charter Mark I find proud but ignorant managers and demoralised staff.'

Improving service does not come about through setting standards because, according to the outspoken quality expert, standards are arbitrary and only result in the creation of waste.

Not so, counters the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, David Milliband. He points to responses from nearly 18,000 users of civil and family courts, analysed by the independent research consultancy ORC International, showing that court users were significantly happier with their dealings with courts holding Charter Mark than they were in their contact with those without one.

'We have transformed Charter Mark from a prize for the best into a high standard which all should achieve.The ORC International research shows how valuable national Charter Mark standards are in improving how our public services respond to their customers. When the court service embraced Charter Mark, the improvements were welcomed by those people who used the courts or come into contact with them.'

Charter Mark background

  • When Charter Mark started out in 1992 it was an award for customer service, accessible to a handful of elite public services. Over time it has developed in order to incentivise improvement and encourage change, and the criteria were updated.
  • The changes were consolidated in 2004 when Charter Mark was relaunched as a standard, more closely aligned with the public service reform agenda. The revised content reflected the purpose of the standard as a driver for improvement and the bar was raised for those services seeking to achieve Charter Mark status.
  • New assessment arrangements were introduced to support the new dynamic. In between three-year assessments mandatory review visits were introduced. This ensured that organisations that had achieved Charter Mark could not afford to let their standards slip and had to demonstrate that they were continuously improving. Failure to maintain an 'excellent' level of service may result in an organisation losing their Charter Mark status.
  • In the last year there have been several examples of organisations that have had their certificates suspended at the review stage. If organisations cannot demonstrate their continued compliance with the standard they cannot continue as a Charter Mark holder.
  • Over the last three years the growth area for Charter Mark has been in public service organisations that have chosen to take a corporate approach to the use of the standard.
  • Feedback from organisations such as Tameside Council, the Court Service and West Lothian Council centres upon their perception of Charter Mark as a dynamic continuous improvement tool. Their investment is based upon their experience of the standard as a lever for change which involves front-line staff as well as managers: frequently it is those closest to the customer that are the greatest advocates of Charter Mark as a means of prioritising customer needs and empowering staff to address them.
  • The rigour of the Charter Mark assessment is essential: to safeguard this process the cabinet office stipulated that the Charter Mark certification bodies should be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

History in the making

The Charter Mark scheme was a tool designed in 1992 to help organisations focus on, and improve, their customer service and delivery to users. The criteria shown below make up the Charter Mark standard. By addressing the elements shown against each criterion, the underlying idea was to make organisations focus on their customers, aim to constantly improve and give value for money. By reaching the standard, businesses hoped to show that they put customers first and would go that extra mile. Achievement of the standard is recognised by awarding the right to display the prestigious Charter Mark logo.

The organisation can be a government agency, a museum, a police force, a local authority or a prison. Charter Mark holders include a dog catcher, a canal lock-keeper and the local crematorium. If you are any public sector (or voluntary) organisation serving the public, directly or indirectly, or if you are a subcontractor supplying services on behalf of a public sector organisation, then you can apply.

The criteria required is that an organisation:

  • has clear service and performance standards in consulting with customers
  • meets those standards
  • monitors and reviews performance against standards and publishes the results
  • designs, puts into practice and monitors standards with as little unnecessary paperwork and administration as possible

Charter change

The government is keen to ring in the changes and dispel for good any accusations that Charter Mark represents little more than a certificate on the wall.

They want the new standard to be a significant step forward in helping organisations reach out to customers, putting them at the heart of the design and delivery of their services. It's a concept much touted at the local government level, where the recent white paper on local government emphasised further the central role of citizen engagement. But does the reality match the high-vaulted ideals?

Some of the techniques the new standard will cover regarding understanding customers better are already well known, but specific information for newcomers to the topic is scarce. One of the most important elements of the new standard, therefore, will be a new website and self-assessment tool. This will help organisations to get to grips with some of the concepts; help deliver new skills and under standing to their team and to begin the formal application process. Access to the self-assessment tool will be free to all on the new website.

To be fair, however, the Cabinet Office team taking on the task of transitioning the Charter Mark standard have been battling endless paperwork and potential issues to ensure that the arrangements are as seamless as possible. It is likely that for some time the two schemes will run in parallel as organisations transfer from the old to the new Charter Mark. What's more, initial testing of the new standard suggests early reports from the government, has been very encouraging. Craig Willows from Stockton Borough Council says: 'the new criteria do signal a marked improvement to the quality and range of areas that organisations are required to meet'

Case studies

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary covers the largest geographical police area in England. This area also draws large numbers of visitors during the summer, increasing the population of the region from 1.5 million to 8 million.

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary was one of the first police forces to reach the standard for Charter Mark in 1995.They have successfully reapplied for Charter Mark three times since then, most recently in 2004.They were also the first police force in the country to use the Police Charter Mark Guidance. This was developed by the Cabinet Office with the support and input of the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities.

The constabulary found Charter Mark to be a useful tool in facilitating their work with the community, through its focus on identifying customers' needs and requirements.

The Charter Mark criteria have been updated and revised to reflect the important themes of reform and customer focus, and the constabulary have found the criteria helpful in developing a vision for change. Odette Butson, force corporate planning officer, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary says: 'The Charter Mark criteria complemented our work on police reform to progress the citizen focus agenda and played an important part in the formation of our mission, vision and values for the constabulary.'

(source:The Cabinet Office)

Arts and Venues

Arts and Venues operate two large-scale entertainment venues, a theatre and a music hall.The music hall also houses a box office.

The box office is a computerised central ticketing service. Tickets are sold for the theatre, music hall, arts centre, and exhibition and conference centre. Tickets are also sold on behalf of venues and events throughout the area and can be bought in person at the box office or by telephone from a telesales office located above it. The company applied for Charter Mark and spent one year gathering the evidence.

Both managers and staff felt Charter Mark to be an excessively bureaucratic exercise, resulting in a lot of paperwork. The bulk of the documentation produced for the submission was what this organisation 'should' be doing in the normal running of its affairs.

The organisation gathered data from customers, as expected, and acted on this for improvement and there was evidence that this was the case.

However, while managers and staff could point to specific examples of customer data driving action, eg booster seats for children, it was felt there was scope for further performance improvement by 'designing against demand'.

Interviews held with both managers and staff revealed that no one could simply point to evidence of improve ment, other than anecdotal - those things that staff said: 'We knew anyway'.

Most importantly, there were no measures in place that would be usable for tracking continuous improvement. Improvement in the parts of this system that were investigated would be reducing failure demand and creating cleaner flow in invoicing. Both measures would have a positive impact on customer service and costs.

(Source: Vanguard Consulting - www.lean-service.co.uk)