Mail Services

The request was successful.

Dear West Sussex County Council,

Please can you assist me in providing the following information about the Council:
1. Does the Council manage its own incoming mail or is this service outsourced?
2. If outsourced, who is the current provider, when did the contract start and what is the contract term?
3. Is any of the incoming mail scanned or is it physically transported across the Council?
4. If the service is provided in house how many staff are involved in:
a.     Distributing incoming mail
b.    Collecting outgoing mail
5. What is the volume of outgoing mail sent by the Council?
6. Does the Council have any centralized services for printing and sending mail?
7. Does the Council have any hybrid mail services for sending letters or other correspondence?
8. If yes, who is the hybrid mail provider, when did this contract start and what was the contract term?
9. Does the Council have any software products for sending letters electronically or SMS reminders to its residents?
10.  If so what software products are used, when where these installed and what is the contract term for support?
11. What is the name and title of the person who is responsible for the mail contracts?
12. Who is your Business Transformation Officer or similar?
13.  Does the council have a particular cost saving target over the next few years through back-office process efficiencies? Who is responsible for achieving this target?
14.  Does the Council have a fleet of franking machines? If so how many & what are the costs to run in terms of lease and postage cost 1st and 2nd class.
15.  How much does the Council currently spend on outbound mail annually?
16.  Does the Council support & promote ‘agile workers’?
17.  Does the Council have a project to promote digital or on-line citizen communication

If any information provided can be sent via email or via digital media (file sharing, etc.) in the form of an electronic copy I would be grateful.

Yours faithfully,

R Clark

Freedom of Information Act,

Dear Mr/Ms Clark,

 

Thank you for your enquiry, which has been forwarded to the appropriate
officers for a response. The usual timescale for a response is twenty
working days, that is by or on 7 August 2015.

 

If for any reason the Council needs to extend this timescale you will be
notified in accordance with the relevant legislation.

 

Please note that in 2012 the County Council adopted a position in
principle that FoI and EIR requests to West Sussex County Council and the
Council's responses may be published on the Council's website in a
suitably anonymised form. This is in addition to the individual response
to the requestor, and in line with the Council's commitment to
transparency and open data.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Dave Loveman

Customer Relations Team Manager

 

 

Freedom Of Information |  [1]West Sussex County Council | Location:
County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RQ
E-mail: [2][email address]

 

 

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Act,

Dear Mr/Ms Clark,

 

Unfortunately I have had problems locating the holder of this information.
I should therefore be grateful if you would agree an extension of the
response date by twenty working days to 7 September 2015.

 

I do apologise for any inconvenience caused.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Dave Loveman

 

Freedom Of Information |  [1]West Sussex County Council | Location:
County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RQ
E-mail: [2][email address]

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear R Clark

 

I refer to your request dated 10/07/2015, which has been dealt with under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Your request was for:

 

Please can you assist me in providing the following information about the
Council:

1.  Does the Council manage its own incoming mail or is this service
outsourced?

2.  If outsourced, who is the current provider, when did the contract
start and what is the contract term?

3.  Is any of the incoming mail scanned or is it physically transported
across the Council?

4.  If the service is provided in house how many staff are involved in:

a.     Distributing incoming mail

b.    Collecting outgoing mail

5.  What is the volume of outgoing mail sent by the Council?

6.  Does the Council have any centralized services for printing and
sending mail?

7.  Does the Council have any hybrid mail services for sending letters or
other correspondence?

8.  If yes, who is the hybrid mail provider, when did this contract start
and what was the contract term?

9.  Does the Council have any software products for sending letters
electronically or SMS reminders to its residents?

10.  If so what software products are used, when where these installed and
what is the contract term for support?

11.  What is the name and title of the person who is responsible for the
mail contracts?

12.  Who is your Business Transformation Officer or similar?

13.  Does the council have a particular cost saving target over the next
few years through back-office process efficiencies? Who is responsible for
achieving this target?

14.  Does the Council have a fleet of franking machines? If so how many &
what are the costs to run in terms of lease and postage cost 1st and 2nd
class.

15.  How much does the Council currently spend on outbound mail annually?

16.  Does the Council support & promote ‘agile workers’?

17.  Does the Council have a project to promote digital or on-line citizen
communication

 

We have now completed a search for the information which you requested and
I confirm the Authority holds information relevant to the request.

 

Please see answers below corresponding with the numbers on your request.

 

1. Outsourced.

2. Current provider is Capita. Contract commenced September 2012 and is
for 10 years.

3. Invoices are scanned. All other incoming mail is physically transported
to designated mail points.

4. Not applicable.

5. Last financial year (2014/15) 734,910 items were sent by post.

6. The Council uses ‘OneMail’ in certain areas where post is sent
electronically to Capita’s processing facility.

7. DX Couriers are used for legal correspondence, Court Post, Solicitors
and other Councils.

8. DX Couriers, renewed annually.

9. The Council does not have a dedicated software system for sending
letters electronically, but does send letters electronically to residents
via email.

The Council does not currently use a dedicated software for SMS reminders
to residents.

10. Please see answer to Q9 above.

11. Currently this service is managed under the Support Service
Outsourcing (SSO) Contract. Contract Manager is Charles Hughes.

12. None for the mail service.

13. We are constantly reviewing our costs and always look for innovative
processes to reduce our costs.

14. This service is currently being rationalised into one single contract.
At present there are 8 Franking Machines and costs are £27,000 p.a. 1st
and 2nd class postage costs for 2014/14 year were £307,383.70.

15. In 2014/15 financial year: cost of outbound post was £307,383.70 and
courier costs were £1,312.00

16. The Council has several policies and programmes that support and
promote flexible working (time, location, role, source) for all staff.

17. The Council has a digital-by-default policy and practice and is
currently a current customer experience programme that includes digital
services and on-line customer communications.

 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most
documents supplied by us will be copyright of West Sussex County Council.

 

Information you receive which is not subject to WSCC continues to be
protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the
information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission
before reproducing any third party (non WSCC) information.

 

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may
wish to ask for a review of our decision via the ‘FOI inbox’. 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our internal
review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

 

Yours sincerely

 

BSD Information Liaison Officers

 

 

BSD FoI Liaison Officers, [1]West Sussex County Council 

Location: 2^nd Floor, The Grange, Tower Street, Chichester, West
Sussex, PO19 1QT

Email:- [2][email address]

 

 

This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for
the persons addressed. If it has come to you in error please reply to
advise us but you should not read it, copy it, show it to anyone else nor
make any other use of its content. West Sussex County Council takes steps
to ensure emails and attachments are virus-free but you should carry out
your own checks before opening any attachment.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/__
2. mailto:[email address]