The 24/7 world we all live in, alongside the cost of living crisis, is putting growing pressure on councils – both in terms of expectation and demand. While people used to accept – often mistakenly – that councils only operated between nine and five, there is no such acceptance anymore.

We expect to be able to download our favourite series on BBC iPlayer or Netflix whenever we want and similar expectations are becoming a reality for councils – just when budget pressures and rising costs of delivery are making this increasingly difficult.

Yet, there is no escaping the requirement for councils to have a well-honed out-of-hours services to make sure residents are safe and properly looked after whenever the need arises.

The participants in this virtual round table, hosted by The MJ and Capita, all hold responsibility for managing customer contact for their authorities and were unanimous in their view that it was a crucial function.

As one participant put it: ‘Councils have a statutory duty to provide some out-of-hours cover. It's not just a nice to have, it's a must-have.'

The circumstances when this service comes into its own in the middle of the night or during bank holidays often revolve around emergency incidents – circumstances that every senior officer prays won't happen. Around the table, participants had dealt with everything from tornados and gas explosions to terrorist attacks and catastrophic fires such as the one at Grenfell.

This diversity of incidents is hardly surprising when out-of-hours support now covers everything from housing repairs, social services, homelessness and noise complaints to highways, street cleaning, parks, cemeteries, parking and dangerous structures. There is even internal out-of-hours cover needed, with IT support expected in an increasingly digitally driven age.

As well as large scale high-profile incidents, there are the individual calls relating to desperately important and sensitive social care cases or potholes that risk causing tragic road accidents if they are not dealt with immediately.

Firstly, every council is obviously primarily concerned with making sure their residents are safe and well looked after.

Secondly, one wrong move on any of these issues and the reputational impact on the council could be catastrophic.

The process is crucial, with one senior officer highlighting the importance of scripts for call handlers and a clear understanding of when a specialist officer within a service is needed and when an email will fit the bill.

Nonetheless, most services now have a rota in place providing 24/7 cover so there is always someone who can be contacted.

Around the table there was a vast range in out-of-hours call volumes. While some could point to several thousand a month, others reported just a few hundred. The single constant was the focus on handling calls correctly. Not easy when the range of issues is so broad.

‘Staff are trained specifically,' said one participant. ‘They go on a six-week training programme and need to deal with all sorts of different scenarios before they can take calls on their own.'

Another added: ‘The people calling are under stress at that point in time, they need to feel they are being listened to. They are desperate. The important thing is to get them to the right person quickly. They don't want to be going through loads of processes. It's about the response.'

With a focus on adapting to changing circumstances and evolving needs, new ways of working following the pandemic have uncovered the improvements councils can make.

For example, remote working has helped councils insulate their out-of-hours cover from previous major headaches such as electrical outages at the office or IT server issues.

‘We moved to home working during Covid and we've stayed with it because it works really well for out-of-hours,' said one participant around the table.

There is a myriad of different ways councils are choosing to face up to the challenge of providing out-of hours-cover. While some have partnered with private companies such as Capita, others have decided to keep it in-house or teamed up with a neighbouring authority.

Inevitably, cost savings have been a huge attraction for the councils choosing to team up or sign deals with private partners.

One participant said the cost of providing the service in-house these days would probably be around £1m a year for an authority like a busy London borough with significant socio-economic challenges.

Through partnership arrangements they had cut this by three-quarters. The money saved has been invested in care technology to support the authority's most vulnerable residents, in turn reducing the pressure on the contact service because these residents no longer needed to get in touch.

But others argued that partnering was not a sensible choice for some authorities. Those in rural areas or neighbouring different types of councils would have to strike numerous deals and call demands may not justify the move.

In addition, some services have out-of-hours covered through third-party suppliers running relevant services, such as highways or housing repairs.

Those sceptical about outsourcing customer contact services worried that remote call handlers may not have the local knowledge to always manage a situation correctly – particularly on issues such as roads.

Yet, those sold on dispensing with an in-house operation were comfortable with technology providing a solution to this risk. In addition, they pointed to the effectiveness of the council team regularly talking to call handlers so both sides could share issues arising or problems on the horizon.

But whatever the arrangement for out-of-hours customer contact services, there was agreement that the management of large-scale emergency incidents should continue to be done by a senior in-house team.

There was broad agreement with the comments of one participant that senior managers in their authority have held on to this responsibility, with the top team sharing an out-of-hours rota.

Another pointed to a longstanding relationship with the police.

‘In terms of emergency planning it's run through our arrangement with the police,' they explained. ‘If there are any emergency situations the calls go into the police and they call out the duty emergency response co-ordination. That's a chief officer who has the authority of the chief executive and with the power to deploy resources as they see fit.'

With constant pressure on budgets, innovation is high up the agenda for senior officers holding out-of-hours responsibilities.

Despite its unpopularity with residents, councils are having to explore digital solutions – everything from artificial intelligence to chatbots. As one participant commented: ‘It's the only way we're going to drive down costs.'

Another agreed: ‘We are pushing as much as we can on to digital channels, things like night noise. But certain things are more difficult to do that with, such as mental health.'

A third pointed out that alongside digitisation their authority was exploring ways of further integrating out-of-hours and daytime operations.

Looking to the biggest challenges ahead, many concurred with the person who said managing customer expectations was of particular importance. They pointed to an increasing attitude that believes ‘we need you to be there whenever we call'. This expectation is especially real with a growing frustration at rising council tax and a reduction of services.

The 24/7 culture may have led to many of the improvements so far in council out-of-hours services, but growing expectations mean this journey still has a long way to go.

What lies ahead is a mixture of innovation, a willingness to consider doing things differently and potentially tough conversations with residents about reasonable expectations.

Comment: Capita

Judith Keech – business development director at Capita

(Judith.keech@capita.com)

The current rise in inflation is a real challenge to citizens and councils alike. Increased cost of delivery and increased demand for services means there will be a clear need to reprioritise, to focus on delivering key services for those who need it most.

But what about those who need support in the middle of the night? For areas of delivery such as out-of-hours services, how can councils cope with the expected increase in demand while balancing the need for additional council staff?

Whether for flooding, a highways incident or urgent homelessness support, when citizens face an emergency situation, communities and citizens need to know they can get help at any time, even when council offices are closed. But this is no easy task for public sector organisations to deliver this service as citizen demand is completely unpredictable – but likely to rise.

One evening can be very quiet, but cue a major flooding incident, fire or gas leak, and the council phone lines light up with calls from residents needing emergency housing or highway services support at 3am in the morning.

To help meet this challenge, the out-of-hours public sector partnership was developed with various councils across the UK including Ealing, Haringey, Enfield, Barking & Dagenham and Barnet.

By using a pool of resources to create one large team of emergency out-of-hours customer service experts, they can ensure they support their communities when they need it – whatever the time of night.

The quality of service is guaranteed no matter how big the demand – without having to commit to delivering an expensive service.

It is a great model, as the more public sector organisations that join, the more cost-effective the partnership becomes without sacrificing service quality. It is making a difference and giving local authorities the security of making sure vulnerable citizens can always reach them in their time of need.

The MJ/Capita round table participants

Michelle Bernard – commercial manager and out of hours partnership lead officer, Ealing LBC

Kate Bond – head of customer and digital services, Aberdeenshire Council

Natasha Edmunds – director of corporate services, Portsmouth City Council

Jaye Gannon – operations manager, Capita

Natalia Monvoisin – head of resident experience, Barking & Dagenham LBC

Julie Pocock – customer services manager, Enfield LBC

Michael Burton – The MJ (chair)