The Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire Citizens' Panels are joint projects run by Dyfed-Powys Police, the county council, Local Health Board and Trust in each respective county. The panels consist of approximately 1,000 members and are created to give a broad representative balance of residents. The main aim of a panel is to provide a platform through which they can listen to and accurately gauge residents' views on local services. If you are interested in becoming a member of either panel, please contact Zoe Coghlan on 01267 226639 or go online to http://www.dyfed">www.dyfed- powys.police.uk and click on the 'Citizens panel' tab. In the latest survey, members of the Pembrokeshire panel were asked for their opinion on contact management at Dyfed-Powys Police. Of those who had made a telephone call to the police in Dyfed-Powys within the last 12 months, 77 per cent had rung only once before getting through. Callers felt that they were answered within the time expected and the majority said they had received a bilingual greeting. Members were also asked questions regarding the person they spoke to, and again the responses were very positive. The majority felt that the person had spoken to them in a polite and professional manner, communicated effectively, and were competent in the handling of their call. Head of force communications, Mr. Ian Reynolds said: "Calls from across the force have been centralised to the Communication Centre 24/7 since December 2005. "The staff are trained to a high level and monitored for the quality of their call handling by supervisors, allowing a consistency in quality that could not be achieved previously. "All members of the public should be heartened that their non-emergency calls are now being managed with the same urgency, and supported by the same technological support and information that has been previously expected and provided in emergency situations." The new communications centre allows the receipt of calls for information and assistance alongside the incident control staff responsible for ensuring that the correct resources are deployed and managed to protect and reassure members of the public. Experience in the centre shows that about four out of 10 calls can be dealt with when first answered, providing a 'one stop shop' to provide better service to the caller. This has the additional benefit of releasing police officers from returning to the station for calls that can be better dealt with elsewhere. This increases the presence of the police officer in the street and in the community, and promotes closer contact with the local police officer rather than creating remoteness. "With the greater public demands for immediate access to all services, especially police services, and the increase in mobile telephony and other public access channels, I am sure that you will agree that it is heartening that more calls are being answered and resolved daily than ever in the past," added Mr. Reynolds. Over 50,000 calls, including emergency calls, are now dealt with per month in the communication centre, with less than 10 per cent not being answered first time despite the peaks in demand that are the nature of police telephony calls. For those who are concerned about a delay, (the national standard for answering is 90 per cent of calls within 40 seconds), Dyfed Powys is currently answering 88 per cent by a 'person' within the timescale.
