We regularly monitor our performance against our service standards. The standards cover nine activities including staff conduct, turnaround times for replying to grant and licence applications, replies to general enquiries and for handling casework. Overall our monitoring shows that we meet our service standards most of the time. It shows that staff conduct, performance of our Enquiry Service and licensing service turnaround times for issued licences continues to be high and that payment of invoices is improving.

A more detailed assessment of our performance against each service standard follows.

General conduct of staff

Managers at all levels in the organisation monitor staff conduct. All staff are assessed on how well they work with customers and partners as part of their yearly performance agreements. We receive few complaints about individual staff conduct.

Enquiry Service

Our Enquiry Service deals with most general enquiries. Queries about local sites and issues are handled by our local offices. Specialist questions tend to be referred to the most appropriate specialist, usually at our main office in Peterborough.

Volume of calls handled by the Enquiry Service

The Enquiry Service regularly asks users about their satisfaction with the speed of service and content of the information given using customer feedback postcards. A summary of the results is shown below.

Percentage of users whose satisfaction with the
speed of response is above average

Percentage of users whose satisfaction with the
content of information is above average

• Very helpful and knowledgeable staff ? best enquiry service I?ve come across!
• Your service has always been excellent over the years ? staff are very courteous and helpful when you ring with a query.
• An invaluable source of freely available information for anyone engaged in nature conservation; tremendous support and inspiration in the battle to get the message across!
• I emailed English Nature on a Monday afternoon and by Tuesday morning all of the information I required was with me by post. Thank you for being so prompt.
• I was kept informed at all times of what was occurring therefore the unavoidable delay in supplying the requested leaflets wasn?t a problem. Good customer relations/service!
• Would have been nice to have had an email confirming response, since the original request was by email.
• Did not receive confirmation email after ordering via website. This led me to order over the phone to be sure.
• Many thanks for your prompt response which is much appreciated. I am grateful for your suggestion that I should try the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England website. Your advice has been most helpful.
• Was beginning to wonder if pack had got lost in post but I have received now ? although slip inside is dated 27/05/05 it was not post marked until 01/06/05.
• Very polite on the telephone. Efficient posting. Excellent brochures. All very helpful.

All teams that deal with casework report that they meet the casework standard. All teams now use the standard corporate system for casework.

We responded to 90 National Consultations this year and report that they all met the standard 100 per cent of the time.

At our main office in Peterborough we have an electronic monitoring system that allows us to monitor how long it takes us to answer the phone. From this we know that when we answer the phone we answer it quickly - usually within five seconds. However, when we found that some teams at our main office were losing calls because the extension being called was engaged we reissued instructions on how to address this by making sure that they use the divert when busy option on their telephones.

Our policy is not to use answer phones during office opening hours unless we really have to. When we do use answer phones the message will:

• say why there is no one available to take your call;
• say when the office will be able to take calls;
• give you the opportunity to leave a message;
• say when your call will be returned;
• give an alternative number that can be contacted in the event of an emergency.

Currently the use of answerphones by English Nature offices is monitored informally. This shows that most of our offices use answerphones rarely and when they do the message complies with the above guidance. All office managers have been reminded of the need to comply with this guidance.

Occasionally local offices may shut down for a day because of training or a special event. When this happens an answerphone will tell telephone callers when the team is next available and an alternative number will be given in case of emergencies.

Our office hours are:

9.00 am - 5.00 pm (Monday - Thursday)
9.00 am - 4.30 pm (Friday).

We run a variety of grant schemes. Some schemes assess grant applications and award grants as and when the applications arrive at English Nature whilst other schemes have an assessment panel that may meet once or twice a year to consider grant applications. Our service standard focuses on fast acknowledgement of an application. This confirms safe receipt of the application and says how and when the application will be assessed and when the applicant can expect to hear whether they have been awarded a grant.

All of our national schemes report that they have met this standard. All local offices report that they have met the standard.

Number of licences issued per year

It is proving difficult to meet the standard relating to more complex licence applications. This is because complex cases are unlikely to be identified until they have been considered by specialists or by local office staff. When it does become clear that we will not be able to meet the 15 day standard we contact the applicant to let them know what is happening and when they are likely to have a decision.

1. We need to remove jargon from our letters

   Work is currently under way to transfer our corporate membership of the Plain English Campaign to Natural England. All our reports and leaflets produced by the publications section are proofed and edited according to plain English principles. The annual plain English training course is used to spread the word alongside a written series of plain English primes in our staff newsletter, The News.

2. We need to improve the way we communicate about why and how land is managed for nature conservation

   We have continued to improve in this area during 2006. We have run two workshops with front line staff to provide them with the necessary skills to deliver a wide range of services across English Nature now and by Natural England in the future. A brief is being prepared on how this learning point will be passed to the appropriate lead team in Natural England.

3. We need to give guidance to teams on how to handle campaign type complaints

   We have continued to improve in this area during 2006. We will take this area of work forward into Natural England.

• We have continued to Crystal Mark our standard letters, this includes the new enforcement policy and our volunteer charter
• We have revised our Project Management Standards to help us manage projects and contracts better ? this will address organisational learning
• We have been awarded Charter Mark accreditation for the fourth time in 2005