Response Part 2
The title "Customer Focus " is used as a short title to avoid a lengthy description.
It includes services which have direct contact with individual residents such as the Hub, Council tax collection and benefits payments and the Telecare service.
Shared Services covers the function of joint working with other Councils to improve efficiency, with the aim of reducing costs and improving services (and helping keep Council Tax bills down) . This has been succesfully done on a smaller scale for a number of years but with the Government expected to reduce the annual grant on the assumption that such efficiencies are being made, there is a greater need to expand the idea. As this progresses I will report further.
Included in "Customer Focus" is the personnel function.