Charter Mark
The Wildlife Licensing and Registration Service (WLRS) has held the Cabinet Office Charter Mark Award for public service delivery since 2001. We are re-assessed against the standard at regular intervals and have to show that we have maintained or improved the levels of performance achieved at our last assessment. We achieved re-accreditation in November 2007.
There are 6 criteria against which we are judged:
- We set standards and perform well against them
- We actively engage with customers, partners and staff
- We are fair and accessible to everyone and promote choice
- We continuously develop and improve
- We use our resources effectively and imaginatively
- We contribute to improving opportunities and the quality of life in the communities which we serve
We are proud to be able to include the Charter Mark logo on our letters and official communications, as it is official recognition that customer service is at the heart of what we do.
Examples of good practice:
- We monitor our performance against our published customer service standards, and publish the results on our web pages.
- As well as reviewing how well we think we are performing, we issue an annual customer survey to ask our customers how well they think we are doing, and what we could do better. From this information we draw up an action plan for the year, publish it on our website and in our stakeholder newsletter, the CITES Bulletin, so that our customers are kept informed of improvements we introduce.
- Although we achieve our published target of turning round 90% of applications within 15 working days, we have also introduced a fast track service for export permits for birds of prey already registered with us, and which are covered by a certificate to allow commercial use.
- In 2007 we held a workshop with stakeholder representatives to discuss the impact of Defra’s policy of charging the full cost for services. Our customers were grateful for the opportunity to tell us what they thought of the proposed charges, and provided us with useful information for the impact assessment, which has given us a much better quality of customer insight.
Latest news
The Cabinet Office launched the successor to the Charter Mark standard on 10 March 2008. Customer Service Excellence builds upon the strengths of Charter Mark, but focuses more fully on the key drivers of satisfaction: the development of customer insight, and the rigorous measurement of satisfaction and customer experience. We are hoping to be able to achieve Customer Service Excellence in time for our next assessment, which is due in December.
Page last modified:13 March 2008
Page published:13 March 2008