To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what information his Department collects and monitors in relation to the telephone contact centres for which his Department is responsible. (166536)

In line with the Government’s response to Sir David Varney’s report on Service Transformation, the Department for Children, Schools and Families collects information against the 26 performance management indicators published by The Citizen and Business Contact Centre Council (CBCCC). The Department submitted its first return on performance against these indicators in October this year. The 26 indicators are published on the Cabinet Office website:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/public_service_reform/contact_council/workplan.aspx

The Department also uses feedback received by the contact centre to inform its policy making process.

In addition to the Department's own contact centre, DCSF also contracts with suppliers to provide telephone helpline services to the public, usually in support of information campaigns. These contracts cover the provision of data by the suppliers to enable the Department to ensure that the supplier is meeting the Key Performance Indicators set out in the contract. Additionally, the Department may run mystery shopping or user survey research to further monitor the performance of the contact centres.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much each telephone contact centre for which his Department is responsible has (a) cost and (b) generated in income in each financial year since their establishment. (166537)

This Department does not operate a telephone contact centre as such; rather, there is a central Public Communications Unit that deals with telephone inquiries, e-mails, written correspondence and public consultations. To extract the cost of telephone handling alone would incur disproportionate cost.

None of the activities of the Public Communications Unit generates income for the Department.

The Department also contracts with suppliers to provide helpline services to the public, usually in support of information campaigns. The cost of all of these in each financial year since they were set up could be given only at disproportionate cost. None of these contact centres generate income for the Department.