Kent Sport Leisure and Olympics Service Charter

Customer Charter

The Kent County Council's Sport, Leisure and Olympics Service is part of the Customer and Communities Directorate.

Providing quality

To provide a quality service, we aim to:

keep people informed
ask people what they want
set, monitor and achieve targets
respond to requests from individuals and organisations positively and conscientiously
train staff to respond to the needs of the public

Customer Care

We believe that customer care concerns communication, customer involvement and feedback, and fair response to complaints. The Service considers its ‘customers’ to be it's partners, organisations and individuals external to Kent County Council, and also County Council departments and Units. We pledge the following:

1. Communication

(a) Leaflets and Newsletter

Literature explaining the Service's role is produced and distributed.
The Service will write and circulate regular newsletters to partner organisations to ‘keep them in touch’.

(b) Telephone

Staff will be polite and efficient at all times, greet the caller and identify themselves.
Staff will try at all times to be helpful, and to explore issues with the caller. If the answer to a query is not known, staff will seek to put the caller in touch with others who may be able to help.
Staff will try to make return telephone calls within 2 working days. Please note that staff are often out of the office for lengthy periods.
A voicemail system will be used when the office is not staffed.

Staff will attempt to respond to all letters, facsimiles and e-mails within one working week of their receipt.
Letters sent by staf will, where possible, be written and signed by the same officer the customer has been in contact with.
Staff will seek to avoid writing impersonal correspondence addressed `Dear Sir' or `Dear Madam'; and will attempt to address all its letters to named individuals.

(d) Electronic Communication

The Service will endeavour to keep the information contained on its web site as up to date as possible and seek to develop the site as a method to allow two-way dialogue with partner organisations and individuals.
Note that all newsletters, leaflets and correspondence will be available in alternative formats where requested.

2. Customer Involvement and Feedback

The Service will operate to a detailed annual business plan, which may be inspected by the public or any of the Service's partner organisations.
The Service will seek the views of appropriate organisations including Sport England, Sportscoach UK, the district and unitary councils of Kent and key governing bodies in the setting of objectives within our annual business plan.
Staff will encourage partner organisations to give their views on customer satisfaction, comments will be monitored and the Unit will adapt its service as necessary.
The Service will welcome customers' written contributions for its publications.
Regular meetings with organisations external to the County Council will be used to receive feedback on the Unit's performance and priorities.
The Service's performance will be monitored by the County Council and also by Sport England and external partners involved in specific projects.

3. Complaints

Please let us know if you think we have failed to provide you with a high level of service, and we shall endeavour to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.
Any complaints should be made to the Head of Kent County Council's Sport, Leisure and Olympics Service, in the first instance. If the problem cannot be resolved, the Kent County Council formal complaints procedure will be followed - copies of this can be obtained from the Head of Sport, Leisureand Olympics.

For further information on the Service, contact:

Head of Sport, Leisure and Olympics
Kent County Council
30 Gibson Drive
Kings Hill
West Malling
Kent ME19 4QG
Tel: (01622) 605054 / 605055
e-mail: chris.hespe@kent.gov.uk
web site: www.kentsport.org

Issue date: January 2008, Revision date: September 2009