Julia Mulligan publishes 101 update
The document highlights the progress made against the Chief Constable’s action plan to improve the 101 service. This was instigated following the findings of an independent review of the 101 service commissioned by Julia Mulligan.
Julia said: “I welcome this report and am heartened to see progress being made. However, it is clear that unfortunately there are no quick fixes—the solutions are taking time to implement. For example, it takes a number of months to recruit and train call handlers. I am reassured though that the Chief Constable is now taking this issue very seriously and I will continue to monitor the performance via my live-streamed monthly Public Accountability Meetings, until I am satisfied that the public is receiving an acceptable service.
“Looking at the report, it is promising to see call waiting times begin to reduce, albeit slightly, and following the completion of training of additional staff and a number of technical and administration changes at the end of the year, I am hopeful that the public will see a significant improvement in 2018.
“Finally, I would like to thank the staff in the Force Control Room who often work under intense pressure and reassure them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The reduction in administration tasks and hiring of additional staff will go a long way to reducing the pressure on them, and in the meantime, their dedication, professionalism and understanding has been exceptional.”
The report, which has been published on the Commissioner’s website states that:
- Eleven communications officers are expected to be accredited to take all types of call by 22nd December 2017.
- Five dispatchers will be accredited to take 999 calls by 1st December 2017.
- A total of 2970 call backs have been made to customers through the ‘queue buster service’ with the average time to receive a call back from the request has been 7 minutes 29 seconds.
- The average time to answer 101 calls in September reduced to 139 seconds, down from 253 in July.