Lancashire County Commercial Services is well known for providing a quality School Crossing Patrol Service throughout the county. Customers who use the service are well aware of this, as too are external organisations and this has recently been acknowledged in the School Crossing Service being awarded Charter Mark, the Nationally recognised award for service excellence.

Charter Mark is the Government’s national standard for excellence in customer service. In 2004 these standards were revised, and Charter Mark is now a registered certification mark owned by the Cabinet Office. The award is attained for delivering excellent customer service.

We have set ourselves the following standards:

Operational Standards

1. To achieve 100% cover at all sessions
2. To carry out background checks on all applicants before they commence employment, and do tri-annual re-checks on existing staff.
3. To carry out medical checks on all applicants, and annually on all patrols attaining the age of 70 yrs. during their last 5 years of service.
4. To provide a cost effective service.
5. To carry out risk assessments at all crossing sites annually.
6. To provide a patrol within 2 months of written authorisation from the client.

Customer Service Standards

1. To reply to all written correspondence within 15 working days.

Operational Standards

We achieved during 2007 / 2008 the following:

Operational Standards

1. We provided cover at 94.2% of all crossing sessions, which is a slight increase on last year.
   
2. We achieved a 100% record in background checks – 218 CRB Disclosures.
3. We achieved a 100% record on all those who required medical checks
          -    140 in total.
4. Covering each crossing with a school crossing patrol costs on average £20.31p. per day.   This figure covers the wages of the patrol and supervisors, as well as all uniform and equipment. This compares with Liverpool at £27, Cumbria at £16.69 and Sefton at £22.81.
   
5. Risk assessments were carried out at 90% of the 387 patrol sites.
6. Thirty six sites were authorised with 63.1% having a patrol within two months.  

Customer Service Standards

1. We achieved a 100% record – 96 letters and e-mails