Sefton Council’s Customer Centric Services division covers all aspects of Customer Services Citizen Transactions and associated support services. These include the collection of Council Tax, Business Rates and other Revenues. Also included are the assessment of Housing Benefits, Council Tax Reductions and other financial awards. Customer Services, include a telephone Contact Centre and One Stop Shops dealing with customer enquiries and interactions, on behalf of a wide range of Council services, via telephone, email, social media and face-to-face.
The division is committed to providing a high-quality of service and to measure our success in achieving this goal, we are publishing a summary of each team’s performance here. This will be updated on a quarterly basis:
- Work volumes - the team has continued to maintain a good work position
- Work volumes - As of 31st March 2026, there were 13,561 documents outstanding, compared to over 11,626 documents at the same point in 2025 and 18,074 documents in 2024. Changes are being processed within two weeks compared to up to 16 weeks at the same time in 2024.
- My account / paperless billing- the team now has 30,906 residents registered for a My Account. Customers are using the online portal to see how much they need to pay in Council Tax and when payments are due. They are also using My Account to apply for discounts and set up Direct Debits and reporting any changes online with over 57% of changes automated. Further improvements have recently been made to the portal to improve security and the look and feel for customers managing their Council tax account online.
- Collected over £211 million in 2025/26 compared to £198 million in 2024/25.
- Several Corporate Complaints escalated to the Local and Social Care Ombudsman found no fault with the Council’s handling of the cases.
- Work volumes – As at 31st March 2026, there were 875 documents outstanding which is an increase from the previous quarter. The increase is wholly due to the team being unable to process a high percentage of work whilst waiting for core system software to be updated following the multiples changes in Business Rates legislation effective from 1st April 2026.
- My account/paperless billing – there are now over 1,175 businesses registered for a My Account and 835 businesses receiving paperless bills. Businesses are using the My Account online portal to see how much they need to pay in Business Rates and when payments are due. They are also using My Account to notify of changes, set up Direct Debits and update personal/contact details online with over 90% of actions being automated.
- Phone calls – Between 1st January and 31st March 2026, the Business Rates Team received 750 phone calls, compared to 816 phone calls in the equivalent period in 2025. It is significant that there was a decrease in the number of calls received despite there being multiple changes in Business Rates legislation announced during the quarter, in addition to 2026 being a Revaluation year. The decrease is largely due to a commitment to channel shift and the Business Rates Team having improved the webpages to make them more clear, concise and user-friendly. Of the 750 phone calls that were received, over 94.5% were answered successfully.
- Analyse Local RV finder – Nearly £600,00 of additional revenue has been identified from the Analyse Local RV finder service.
- Collection – In addition to significant sums for previous years, £73 million in Business Rates was collected for the 2026/26 financial year. This represents 97.63% of the total collectable debit for the year.
- Database review - In September 2025, the Business Rates team started an exercise to review every single one of the circa 8,000 Business Rates accounts to ensure the information they hold is accurate and up to date. By the end of February 2026, 6,140 accounts (79%) had been fully reviewed and 100% of all accounts had been checked for eligibility for the new reliefs and multipliers announced in the Chancellors Autumn Statement and those reliefs announced after the Autumn Statement.
- Annual billing was successfully completed with all residents and businesses receiving their annual bills on schedule and ahead of the new financial year. Online bills issued in the week of 9th March, followed by printing and mailing for paper bills on 13th March.
- There is a new “explaining my bill video” online with various social media communications when bills started to be issued.
- Accounts Receivable- 825 Customers now signed up to Direct Debit for Sundry Debt and £522k collected this quarter
- Accounts Receivable- £20 million in payments received
- Accounts Payable-there was 103k recovered from the duplicate payment system
- Accounts Payable- Supplier Early payment scheme, £30k raised in rebates
- Accounts Payable- 155 million paid to suppliers
- Accounts Payable & Receivable- 1682 phone calls dealt with in quarter
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Assessments Performance QTR 4 (January to March 2025/26) |
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|
Tasks |
Total Assessments Completed/ Awarded |
Average Time Taken |
|
Housing Benefit New Claims |
291 |
14.25 days |
|
Council Tax Reduction New Claims |
857 |
36.25 days |
|
Discretionary Housing Payments |
535 |
28 days |
|
Emergency Limited Assistance Scheme |
1,166 |
2 days |
|
Open Access Household Support Fund |
981 |
14 days |
Between 1st Jan - 31st Mar 2026, 86% of all incoming calls were answered 88% of prioritised calls were answered.
Between 1st Jan - 31st Mar 2026, 65% of all calls answered waited less than 5 minutes. However, during our busiest times of the day 12.00 pm and 2.00 pm, this reduced to 62% of all calls waited less than 5 minutes.
Between 1st Jan - 31st Mar 2026, the average waiting time to see a CSA, across our two One Stop Shop sites, was 11 minutes.
Between 1st Jan - 31st Mar 2026, Customer Services received 6 stage 1 complaints and 0 compliments. All of these, 100%, were answered within 15 days. We received 1 Stage 2 complaint. This complaint, 100%, was answered within 10 days.
In our most recent Customer Service User Experience Survey, in November 2025:
- a very high number of respondents, at both sites, said that their query was fully resolved during their visit (over 97% at both sites)
- 100% of respondents were either ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with their interaction with a Customer Services Advisor
- over 99% of respondents in Bootle, and 95% in Southport, were ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with the whole experience of interacting with Sefton Council via Customer Services during their visit
- 100% of all respondents said they did feel they had been treated fairly
Feedback received from our customers during our Customer Service User Experience Surveys, consistently highlights the difficulties some of our customers experience in trying to access Sefton’s online services.
Throughout the period 1st Jan - 31st Mar 2026 we have continued to ensure that practical support with online applications for financial assistance through the Emergency Limited Assistance Scheme (ELAS) and the new Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) remains readily available across all customer contact points, ensuring that this help remains accessible, inclusive and responsive