Lewisham Council is undertaking a comprehensive project to enhance its corporate enquiries system, aiming to create a more modern, integrated, and resident-focused service. The initiative, known as the Corporate Enquiries Transformation Project, was discussed at a recent Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, with findings detailed in the Public reports pack.
The project seeks to improve how the council handles a range of enquiries, including complaints, member enquiries, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, and Subject Access Requests (SARs). These enquiries are seen as crucial for understanding resident experiences, monitoring organisational performance, and driving service improvements. The council has seen a rise in corporate enquiries, with a 22% increase in 2024/25 compared to the previous year. Officers also noted that requests are becoming more complex, influenced in part by the increasing use of AI and growing expectations for transparency and responsiveness. Complexity also arises when an inquiry spans multiple directorates, requiring cross-council coordination.
Emerging findings from the project's discovery phase highlight four key strategic themes:
- Evolved Arrangements: Current processes for handling corporate enquiries have developed differently across the council, leading to variations in governance, processes, and system use. For example, different directorates have their own governance arrangements and triaging processes, with varying documented procedures and inconsistent use of the iCasework system.
- Technology Optimisation: There is an opportunity to better utilise the existing iCasework system through improved configuration and functionality. Specific potential optimisations include addressing email reopen behaviour, exploring greater use of existing functionality for document redaction, introducing a searchable disclosure log, reviewing system configuration for Adult Social Care and Children's Services, strengthening automated retention arrangements, and reviewing user permissions.
- Data Utilisation: Information gathered from corporate enquiries can be better leveraged as an organisational asset for service improvement and learning.
- Demand Management: A greater focus is needed on preventing avoidable demand by improving access to information and proactive publication.
Nahela Alavi, Director of Strategy, Transformation, Equalities and Performance, presented the update, noting that the project is in its early stages but has already identified areas for improvement. The challenge is not simply responding to the inquiries and that set our jobs done,
Alavi stated. The challenge really is to make sure that we're providing timely, high quality and consistent responses across all of our inquiry types. But then most importantly, learning from those interactions, learning from those insights and using that learning to then improve our service.
Key priorities for the next phase of the project include developing a more consistent corporate framework, strengthening governance and ways of working, optimising technology, enhancing performance and organisational learning, and developing a demand management approach. The council is also exploring ways to engage more directly with residents who have complained and with other local authorities to learn from best practices. The council is reviewing approaches used by other local authorities, consulting with Leicester City Council for its clear corporate framework, Conwy County Borough Council for system optimisation, and the Greater London Authority (GLA) for proactive publication and searchable disclosure logs. The council's complaints and casework improvement manager also participates in a monthly complaints managers group across London and has engaged with representatives from Brent and others regarding their use of the iCasework system.
The discovery phase is expected to be completed by autumn, leading to a project design with timelines for work streams. The project is anticipated to run for at least another six months, with full culture change expected to take three to four years.
While the project aims to improve the experience of residents, Members and other stakeholders,
provide a more consistent approach to managing corporate enquiries across the Council,
and improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of responses,
specific metrics or KPIs for measuring success are not yet detailed.
Beyond the four strategic themes, wider areas such as Ombudsman cases, wider customer casework, website and disclosure arrangements, and organisational responsiveness have also been identified for further exploration.
The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will continue to monitor the progress of this project as detailed proposals and recommendations are developed. The committee's process for accepting scrutiny items is outlined in the Agenda frontsheet.
