School closure service a success!

Over 50 schools in Lincolnshire were closed on Friday due to bad weather conditions.

But thanks to Lincolnshire County Council, both school staff and parents were kept up-to-date throughout the day via text and e-mail of the latest closures.

The automated service, which was set up in May sent out over 4,312 text messages to parents and staff compared to a typical daily average of around 350. Meaning unnecessary journeys could be avoided.

A run down of all the closure information appeared on the council’s website, the School Closure section alone had over 2,300 visitors on Friday morning, looking at 17,300 pages. Proving the service is both convenient and easy to access.

Local media were also updated via the service, meaning that all channels of communication were kept accurate and current.

To keep abreast of future information about school closures please visit the council’s website at http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schoolclosures

The snow has finally arrived!

As the snow falls, schools across the county are getting ready to close, and Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) is on hand to help.

Back in May LCC launched a service which allows schools to automatically send updates to parents and staff when they are due to close.

Due to the current weather conditions, from early this morning, head teachers from around the county have been logging on to the notification system to advise of school closures or have been sending text details about the closures directly into the system.

Using this easy to use process means closure information can be sent by text to parents and staff as soon as the head teachers decide to close the school, with the hope of avoiding any unnecessary journeys.

Parents and teachers at the schools register with the notification system to directly receive the notification messages on their mobile phones.

Key contacts, including local media and school contractors are also notified by email at the same time. The County Council’s website is also updated automatically, so all channels of communication are kept current.

45 schools so far have been closed due to the bad weather conditions. To find out more about all the latest closures please follow this link
http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schoolclosures

If you want answers on Children’s Services any time, any place then Ask Alex

A new user friendly interface designed to make information more accessible on LCC Connects has been launched.

'Ask Alex' is a new feature which answers questions put to a virtual person on aspects of child care.

The new interface is able to answer your queries, faster than any other means, resulting in an immediate response.

Questions are typed into a question box, after which the system sifts through vast amounts of data on our site looking for possible answers. Once the answer is found it appears on the screen along with links to further information.

It is hoped ‘Ask Alex’ will become the first port of call for people looking for answers. It will provide instant responses and feedback and reduce the need to call the customer Service Centre, therefore providing a faster more responsive service and saving both time and money.

New questions will continue to be added to further improve customer satisfaction. User input is vital, so if a question is not being answered there is a facility which allows the user to submit the question for inclusion.

This new interface has allowed us to optimise our online content, by making the information more customer focused and easier to find, therefore creating a solution to both, online and offline customer service issues.

At the moment this feature is only available on the ‘I am a Parent’ section of our site however, in time, it will be widened out to other areas, to further enhance our service delivery.

Please follow this link to Ask Alex a question http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/section.asp?sectiontype=topic&catid=14783