Author: Sophie Corless

Sefton Council has worked with a cloud-based software provider to help improve its customer service and support people across the borough throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lockdown measures introduced in March this year meant the Council’s customer service Contact Centre had to be moved online to allow staff to continue providing support while working safely from home.

The Council had to act quickly to enable Contact Centre teams to work remotely while maintaining vital services to local people, and it selected a cloud-based platform from communications provider 8×8.

Within ten days, the new ‘cloud contact centre’ was up and running and 40 work-from-home Contact Centre workers began taking and making calls. This enabled vital council services to continue and meant people who were shielding across Sefton could access much-needed support.

James Aldred, Sefton Council Procurement Manager, said: “I remember arriving at 7 am to an email that said we needed to create a virtual contact centre, immediately. Within hours, the project team found the right solution and got a deal together which fully met our needs.”

Mark Quillan, Sefton Council Customer Service Manager, added: “8×8 did all they could to make this a positive experience for us and it took just ten days to set up the cloud contact centre. Moving to this technology meant we could get our team working from home taking calls right away, with chat, email and secure payment capabilities soon to follow.”

Paulette Lappin, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Services, said: “COVID-19 has created huge challenges for the public sector but it has also presented a moment to rethink and transform specific services. The ‘new normal’ calls for extra safety, greater agility and enhanced services for our residents, business and visitors, which we’ve achieved with 8×8.”

Jamie Snaddon, Managing Director, EMEA at 8×8, said: “We are extremely proud to be helping Sefton Council transform

Sefton’s Early Help team are delighted to help an inspirational young person, who struggles with a communication disorder, to make her voice heard and support others through her own website.

Sixteen-year-old Ellen from Crosby has been diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) which is a type of speech, language and communication need that affects the way children understand and use language. It is more common than autism with up to two children in every classroom having the disorder.

Living with DLD has meant that through her life Ellen has struggled to express herself and process complex sentences and to feel heard, preferring to communicate by writing words down or making videos.

Hannah Howard from Sefton’s Early Help team said: “Like many other young people with a similar condition, Ellen feels that she is not heard because she can’t communicate easily, and people’s patience, belief in her and understanding is varied and often limited.

“This has had an effect on her education as well as her social and emotion

al wellbeing, however Ellen has said that having the support from people who have really listened has made a massive difference.”

“I have been absolutely inspired by Ellen. As a professional I have always strived to listen and put every child at the centre of what I do.

“Ellen has reminded me of the importance of us all taking the time to increase our understanding and knowledge around individual needs and that taking extra time to ensure a child has a voice is paramount.”

Ellen’s mum Roisin said: “Ellen has received support from Sefton’s Early Help team who have been there to help stop us getting to crisis point and their support has been immeasurable.

“The way they put Ellen first shines through, and they always come back to ‘what does Ellen want’. They have been Ellen’s voice and she really feels they have enabled her to be heard.

“We have also received amazing support from the Venus Centre in Sefton (which provides counselling), her head teacher at Holy Family Catholic High School and Speech and language therapists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

“They are helping to empower Ellen so she can achieve her full potential by continuing to promote communication and give practical advice and encouragement while     putting Ellen’s voice at the centre of everything they do.”

With her support network on board, Ellen has used her own experiences to help others by developing a website.

‘This is DLD’, not only gives a personal insight into Ellen’s experience of living with the disorder but also gives help and advice to people who have difficulties expressing themselves.

The website contains videos and pictures giving advice to practitioners and teachers on how they can help a child with DLD, such as taking enough time to respond and using pictures sometimes instead of words.

Ellen said: “When you struggle with communication life can be hard for you and your family as you need words for everything.

“Often, I have felt invisible. However, over the last year I have had Alison from Sefton Speech and Language therapy, Paula from Venus and Hannah from Early Help supporting me and my family.

“They listened and followed things through. They believed in me and helped me find my voice and speak out about the things that mattered to me.

“I wanted to help give a voice to all those children and families in the same situation as us. It is important that they too are seen and heard, so with my Uncle’s help I have created a website to try and get the message out to the right people so things can change.

“I want people to understand what it is like growing up in a place without a voice and how they can help make life easier. None of this costs money, only time. Everyone deserves a fair chance.”

Ellen’s ‘This is DLD’ website can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/thisisdld/home