19 NOVEMBER 2014: PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

The Presidency The Presidency Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationDepartment of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

THE PRESIDENTIAL HOTLINE

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

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THE PRESIDENTIAL HOTLINE: THE MANDATE

•In his State of the Nation address on the 3rd of June 2009, President Zuma stressed the importance of promoting a government that is responsive, interactive and effective. As part of this, the Presidential Hotline (PH) was then officially launched on 6 October 2009, to provide a mechanism for citizens to talk to Government

•The management of the Presidential Hotline was transferred to DPME in October 2011

Role of DPME:

• Manages the Presidential Hotline on behalf of the Presidency• Monitors the responsiveness of government to calls • Supports departments to improve their complaints management and

complaints resolution: use the Hotline to demonstrate good responsiveness, interaction and communication, and effective complaints management

• Analyse the data arising from the Hotline and present reports on the service delivery trends emanating from the Hotline to Cabinet

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

Cases received via email, letters and other sources are received and logged on the case management system by the hotline office located at the Union Buildings

Phone calls are routed to call agents located at SITA (toll-free number for community members, calls are paid for by DPME)

Most calls are referred by the call agents to national and provincial departments, municipalities, and public entities for resolution and response

Each national department and province has access to the case management system and they are able to view their cases and record progress on-line

Departments are expected to have systems and processes in place to analyse these cases, investigate, respond to the citizen, and update progress on the reporting system

A case is resolved when the citizen or complainant is provided with an adequate response to their complaint. This does not necessarily mean that they were, for example, provided with a low-cost house, it could mean that they were informed that they were in the queue and of future plans to build houses in their area

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HOW THE HOTLINE WORKS

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

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WHAT DO PEOPLE CALL ABOUT (FROM RESEARCH CONDUCTED ON 161 000 CALLS)

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

RESOLUTION RATE

5

GroupNo of Open Calls

No of Resolved

CallsTotal Calls

% Resolved 31 August

2014

National Departments and Agencies 3 804 48 842 52 646 92.77%

Presidency (enquiries) 19 95 504 95 523 99.98%

Provinces (2) 6 537 44 372 50 909 87.16%

Total 10 360 188 718 199 078 94.80%

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

The focus for 2011 to 2013 was to (i) improve responsiveness of departments to PH complaints (% complaints resolved) and (ii) to elevate the strategic management of complaints. Achievements: A minimum performance benchmark of 80% was set and reports against this benchmark were submitted to Cabinet, PCC and FOSAD. This has been largely achieved and exceeded.

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IMPROVING THE RESOLUTION RATE

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

Increasing access to the Hotline by citizensAccess: the number of call agents has been increased from 10 per shift to 15 per shift Callers are now encouraged to send complaints via email or letter if they can’t get through on the phone line

Improving the quality of case resolution-Satisfaction surveys started in 2012 – to date 18 495 users of the PH have participated in the surveys-Outcomes of the survey: 29% of users rated the PH service as poor, 21% as fair and 51% as Good.-The lowest ratings from citizens are for “communication” – some citizens complain that there is insufficient communication during the investigation process

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INCREASING ACCESS AND QUALITY

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

Improving the use of PH information as a source of evidence in planning and budgeting for service delivery improvements:

•Little evidence that PH information is regularly analysed by departments, provinces, municipalities and the data is not generally being used to influence planning and implementation

•Starting in 2013, DPME commenced with a special research project into the 160 000 complaints database and to provide analyses to targeted departments regarding the complaints received

•Sector-focussed in-depth research reports were produced for complaints related to 12 sectors (e.g. Education, Health etc.)

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INCREASING UTILISATION OF HOTLINE DATA

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

•Produced a Publication “Four Years of the Presidential Hotline” and a video depicting field stories from a number of citizens who have used the Hotline. Both of these are available on the website of the department. http://www.thepresidency-dpme.gov.za/keyfocusareas/hotlineSite/Pages/HotlinePublications.aspx

•Case study database of stories from citizens: 60 stories presented to Cabinet in March 2014

•It is the intention of the department to subject the PH to an independent evaluation during the 2015/16 financial year

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DOCUMENTING THE EXPERIENCE

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

CHALLENGES

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We recently did research into areas of challenges and opportunities for improvements with the PH. The following key challenges were identified:Capturing errors

Insufficient case descriptions Incomprehensive case record Spelling and grammatical mistakes Duplication of information

Misclassification of cases and citizen locationDifficulties in capturing complex and multi-themed complaintsWeaknesses in the quality of case resolution

Inconsistent escalation of cases Inappropriate resolution by call centre operators Inappropriate and inadequate resolution by officials in departments and

provincesLimited quality assuranceInadequate oversight over quality and speed of responses

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation

IMPROVEMENTS GOING FORWARD

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In order to address these issues, we will be focusing on the following:Restructuring the case classification systemStrengthening case capturing processesAdditional training for call centre operatorsImproving quality assurance processesEnhancing the quality of case resolution

Develop rules and standards on how to investigate and resolve complaints

Monitor adherence to complaints resolution standards by departmentsStrengthening monitoring and oversight

Issuing guidance and support in case capturing and quality assurance at the call centre

Integrate correspondence function to the call centre (long term) to enable DPME Hotline staff to focus on the monitoring function

Publicising the Hotline more

The Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and EvaluationThe Presidency: Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation 12

Thank you

Go to http://www.thepresidency-dpme.gov.za/ for DPME documents