Kingston upon Hull City Council has extended its strategic partnership with Civica, with a new 5-year BPO contract to take on contact centre services, ahead of its year as UK City of Culture 2017.

Civica will deliver contact centre services for Hull City Council, which receives an average of 70,000 calls each month, provide the underlying telephony infrastructure and support the authority in its strategic digital and communication transformation to ensure citizens receive the high level of service they require and to encourage online self-service. The contract, which was awarded following a procurement process, will see approximately 90 employees join Civica via TUPE transfer.

Gary Bell, Executive Director for Outsourcing at Civica said, “local authorities are thinking more creatively about how to respond to increasing demand and expectation during a time of significant financial constraints. We look forward to building on our long-term relationship to support Hull’s wider transformation programme, to provide a cost-efficient foundation and to enhance the way people interact with the council to provide an even better experience.”

The new service, which will begin on 1st December 2016 will continue to be delivered from Hull and will be available 24/7, including an emergency out-of-hours service for core council services. As part of the project, Civica will be supporting the city council in its drive to take account of changing forms of communication and ensure Hull is able to keep up with increasing demand and expectation, especially with a dramatic increase in enquiries expected as the city becomes the UK City of Culture in 2017.

Helena Spencer, Councillor at Hull City Council added, “as UK City of Culture 2017 we want to ensure that we’re not only giving new visitors a warm and helpful welcome, but also providing our residents with the high quality, convenient services they require through the channel of their choice. We’re confident that our partnership with Civica will allow us to deliver exactly that, and the contact centre programme will make a significant contribution to achieving our aspirations for improved customer experience and encouraging them to get online.”