F1 Training is Council's Formula for Success

A Council recognised nationally as the most improved local authority in 2007 contacted learndirect to further develop the skills of their staff.

Fenland District Council is improving the services they offer to local residents through investing in the future of their employees.

Change and Development Manager at the Council, Shari Khan takes up the story:

"Last year we were recognised by the audit commission as the most improved local authority which was a huge success but it's important not to become complacent. We want to ensure our staff are equipped with the skills required to provide quality customer service to the people we serve and for help with this we contacted F1 Training in Bury St Edmunds.

"We started out with the ITQ (National Vocational Qualification in Information Technology) offering it to anyone who wanted to participate. We're delivering the NVQ in Customer Service quite differently. We're taking a very focused approach to the training and working through the NVQ team by team. This gives us the very best business benefit in terms of improving and embedding skills.

"Focusing on one team at a time means our staff receive better support from their management and team members.

"The whole of our customer access team (sixty people) are currently going through the customer service NVQ. Our revenue and benefits team (eighty people) are about to start and that's before we roll it out further.

"Our relationship with F1 Training has developed into a partnership so much so we have seconded one of our managers to them. This will allow us to spearhead this initiative even further as we plan to develop the ITQ and courses in other managerial competencies further.

"We've been so impressed and would absolutely recommend learndirect to any local authority looking to improve the service they provide.

"As a result of the investment we have put into our staff there have already been some benefits. Some staff have said that they have greater confidence knowing that they are providing an excellent service measured to an external standard, for others it's been really motivational working towards an NVQ qualification. As an organisation, improved job satisfaction for our staff and further development of customer focus are critical to us."