Face to face service at Britwell to continue

A pilot project to provide an appointment and drop-in service for residents to see council officers face to face at The Britwell Centre has proven so successful it is to continue, the council has confirmed. 

SBC at The Britwell Hub opened in January with customer services staff available five days a week and other teams including housing, repairs, leaseholder, debt and welfare and benefits there at least one day each week.

Having council officers regularly in the centre was designed to strengthen the support offered by the Britwell Community Hub that was already running on a Thursday offering activities, food and friendship in the centre.

The project was designed as a pilot to see how residents used the new service and whether it was reaching its aim of solving residents’ complex issues there and then and providing enhanced access to services residents found most difficult to contact or where resolution with just a phone call was unlikely.  

In the six-month period of the pilot, the team from SBC at The Britwell Hub saw 940 residents face to face with 90 percent of residents having queries relating to housing including repairs, the housing register, leaseholder matters and applying for a council home. 

Of those 940 there were:

Councillor Gurcharan Manku, lead member for customer experience and access, said: “The Britwell Centre is truly a community hub with the council’s drop-in service joining the incredible Britwell Hub community group, library and learning spaces, doctors’ surgery, cafe and other community groups which have made the centre their home.

“The face to face service has proven to be extremely popular and I am really pleased to be able to confirm it will be continuing. 

“Indeed, it has been so successful in helping residents sort out their most complex issues – with us now having the data to prove how it has worked – that we are now looking at having similar set ups elsewhere in the town. 

“Being part of communities, helping people right there and then is not only deeply satisfying it also means we can offer help early, prevent small issues becoming major problems, work with partners to help not just with the one council issue but a much wider holistic approach to people’s needs.”