Council and democracy

Access to services

The main point of contact for people needing to access Adult Care Services is the customer service centre, which provides a service Monday-Friday from 8am to 8pm and Saturdays from 9am to 4pm, with an out of hours emergency service.

In 2006/7 a new team at the customer service centre, incorporating advisors dedicated to Adult Care Services and Children, Schools and Families was formed.

Over the next three years, our plans for service access improvement include:

• Developing the dedicated Adult Care Services / Children, Schools and Families customer team
• Reviewing and assessing the balance of work undertaken by the customer service centre, client services and referral management teams to support the client pathway from point of contact through to assessment and provision of care
• Incorporating the work of the blue badge service into client services
• Providing a new disability information service for people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities in Hertfordshire
• Further developing online access to Adult Care Services and improving the online referrals service into an online assessment service
• Increasing the use of video shorts and DVDs as a source of information to improve access to services across the different communities of Hertfordshire