Complaints 2006-7
We had four complaints in the last year all concerning problems with service delivery.
Best Value performance indicators
The Audit Commission ask us to monitor several statistical performance indicators.
In the year ending 31 March 2007 2,545 75 pupils visited out heritage buildings in school groups. This was slight drop from 2575 last year but over our target of 2,500.
We also monitor the number of house visitors per 1000 population. The figure for 2006-7 was 146.68 which was less than our target of 167. This is probably due to the houses - especially Honeywood becoming increasingly tired and scruffy. The Council has allocated capital money for the refurbishment of all three buildings over the next three years.
We are also asked to measure the number of users of our service. This is includes users of our web pages. We have not been able to do this for several years due to technical problems with the site which is not controlled by the Heritage Service. These have now been resolved and we have enough user data to get some idea of trends. We estimate that the service had about 441 users per 1000 population in 2007-7. This is below the target of 532 which was set several years ago when web use was growing rapidly. The use of our site has levelled off. We a planning a major overhaul of the site in the coming months the improve the most popular areas and add new ones.
The Survey results
We do a user survey alternate years. The 2006 survey in Honeywood and Whitehall produced some familiar patterns. Overall customer satisfaction is good. One of you biggest areas is dissatisfaction is car parking which is unfortunately outside our control. At Honeywood the tearoom needs refurbishment and both houses have problems with lighting. We will attempt to address these issues when we next have some capital money.
Charter Mark Standards 2006-7
These are the monitoring results for each item of the Heritage Service Charter
1. Preserving the historic houses and buildings in our care and providing access to them at the advertised hours.
The houses have been open at advertised hours. We have been allocated capital money to refurbish the buildings over the next three years.
2. Actively promoting Sutton's Heritage to the whole community through a programme of exhibitions and events.
We have maintained our events and exhibitions programme in the houses and also our outside activities such as the opening of Carew Manor and Carshalton House and our local history walks.
3. Making you welcome at Heritage venues and serving you with courtesy, effectiveness, and efficiency. We will treat you fairly and without discrimination.
We do a users survey every two years. The 2006 survey reported above.
4. Providing an educational programme for schools covering Victorians, Tudors and other areas in and beyond the National Curriculum for history.
Our schools programme had another good year with 2,545 pupils visiting Honeywood and Whitehall. Both Honeywood and Whitehall have continued their programmes of talks on local history and related subjects.
5. Providing birthday parties and other activities for children.
Honeywood have hosted 28 birthday parties and Whitehall have had 30 which is a total of 58 the same as last year.
6. Caring for the Borough's museum collection and providing access to it through displays.
The museum collection has been used for a number of displays in both houses. The Friends of the Heritage Centre have paid to frame a number of pictures which will make them easier to displayable and care for. The Friends have also paid built and paid for a major improvement to our picture storage. We have also completed a new museum store which has greatly improved collection care. A preservation audit has been carried out by an external consultant funded by the Museums, Archive and Libraries agency. The report of this is awaited.
7. Providing information on local history through a web site, which will have at least 40 new or significantly revised pages each year.
This target has just been only partially met due to the pressure of other commitments and only 15 pages have had significant revision although other minor amendment have been made. We have now got statistics on the use of the site and the most popular pages and we are planning a major overhaul in the coming year.
8. Supporting and liasing with other heritage related community groups
We have continued to work our two Friends Groups and have also collaborated with the Friends of the Water Tower to open Carshalton House. We have continued to provided publicity for local groups through Heritage Happenings.
9. Respond to your comments and complaints (which can be made in person by telephone, letter, fax or email) within five working days in accordance with the Councils complaints procedure.
We have had four formal complaints in the year three of which were responded to in the target period.
10. Carry out a customer survey at least every three years and maintain at least 90% general satisfaction with our service.
The last survey was carried out in 2006. General satisfaction with the museum displays and information was over 90% at both Honeywood and Whitehall.
The cost of the 2006-7 Heritage Service
Heritage Service expenditure budget for 2006-7 is £356,800 including corporate overheads and capital charges. This will be partly offset by income from admission, shop sales and other sources. The income target is £52,800 so the total cost of the service will be £304,000.
