THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2009 12:00
What is Casework?
Casework is individual pieces of work that elected representatives are asked to do to help their local community or local area. At its smallest it might involve asking for the Council to prune an overhanging bush, at the other end of the scale a case might involve working with immigration, policing or social services.
In putting ourselves forward as a community representative, people naturally then look to their Councillors for help, advice and support. So casework comes with the role. The amount of casework can vary enormously from area to area. All Councillors will have some levels of casework; through the amounts can vary enormously from area to area. It is essential that we deal with ALL casework we receive.
Lib Dem campaigners will also get involved in casework – hopefully as a forerunner to getting elected as a Councillor. MPs also have a busy casework load and normally employ one or more caseworkers to help them do this.
Why do we do Casework?
One thing that sets us apart from the other parties is that we genuinely believe in empowering people to make a difference to their lives and communities.
In an ideal Lib Dem world, there probably wouldn’t be any casework! Local services would be easily accessible, frontline officers would listen and be responsive; and our education system would give everyone the skills we all need, or support systems would be in place.
Although this is a long time off, we can go some way towards this. Lib Dem run Councils should ensure that customer focus is foremost in their services. Equally, all of us can make available – on Focus, websites, calendars etc – useful contact numbers and websites to help people to sort things out themselves.
So why do we do casework?
- Because, as Liberal Democrats, we believe in helping our local communities and local people
- some local people will need help to solve problems that others might find easy
- Because sometimes local services are unresponsive to local people’s needs and need extra input from elected representatives
And – as a very welcome side effect – it will help us get re-elected. Some Liberal Democrat councillors have built up formidable casework histories that can result in enormous personal votes at local elections. Conversely, if we don’t do it, we will lose votes. (might be worth beefing this bit up – really emphasising that if you ignore or are slow with casework you’ll get a bad reputation)
It is often said:
“If you provide a good service to someone, they will tell FIVE people; if you provide a bad service, they will tell SEVEN”
Don’t let that be you.
Sources of Casework
A – Your own observation
If you are going around your ward and see something that needs fixing – for goodness sake get it fixed! Quick wins like street lights, road name signs, broken drains etc all need sorting out and if you see it – report it and get it sorted.
Even better – take a camera (or a good camera phone) and take a photo! Will look great in Focus and even better on your website or blog.
Tell everyone you’re going to get it done (in a Focus or street letter), then get it done and report back.
B – On the doorstep and in person
When you are out canvassing at elections (voter ID collection), or during the year with survey’s or “knock and drops” you will very often get people raising issues with you.
This will also be the case at local community meetings and events, when you’re out leafleting etc. Depending on the nature of your ward you might be so well known that you get stopped on the street or supermarket!
Always have a pen and small pad with you (or to be very modern your PDA or iPhone…) and always record things and act on them. During election times it is easy to lose casework. Tell people that you’ll deal with it after polling day – but make sure you do!
C – On the phone
People will ring you with casework. Make sure you have a good and friendly answerphone message that lets people know that they have phoned their local Councillors (there’s nothing worse than a standard “BT call minder”, or Vodaphone standard message!
Some people will have separate phone lines for their Council work – or BT can give you a separate number that rings in a different way. Some people have council mobiles. This is fine, its right to separate out your Councillor role and your own family or personal life.
D – Email
Nowadays an increasing amount of casework comes in by email. If you’ve started doing ward email newsletters or similar this will get even higher.
For Councillors this is great as email makes dealing with and responding to casework quick and easy.
E – In the post
We put “grumble sheets” on the bottom of all our Focus leaflets. These, together with actual letters are a great source of casework.
Unlike emails, they’re easily lost, so make sure you have a good system for keeping paper that comes into the house.
F – Street letters and residents surveys.
You’ll be asking for their views on things and this can bring up casework. In addition, if you know there is an issue locally and want some casework on it so you can use it at Council, you can send out a street letter asking for opinions etc. (Making casework work for you!)
Dealing with Caswork
1 – Response Time
All customer service research points to the fact that it is the initial response time that is remembered favourably.
Respond to a local resident quickly, and let them know you are dealing with the issue and that you will get back to them as soon as you have news. By email this is easy and can be done the same day if you can (though please NOT with an annoying auto-responder!); with letters in the post it’s a little harder. Some people have done some simple thank you/acknowledgement postcards for a quick response.
2 – Be realistic about what you can do
You cannot do everything. You are not physically going to install road humps yourself. Its going to take years to get a street adopted by the Council. There are some services that you can have little or no influence over – national agencies, private utility companies etc.
There are some things that you can help with, for example providing advice or showing how to appeal, but ultimately it is not in your power to change something. A good example would be a appeal on school admissions which is up to an independent panel.
It is best to be clear with people from the outset if you cannot help them. It is OK to give people hope that things might get better, but if that is unrealistic then you are just setting them up to be disappointed – and it is you that will be blamed for that disappointment.
3 – Council Officers are there to help you
Don’t try to do everything on your own. There are many Council officers who will be very happy to help you sort out the problems and needs of local residents – in fact its their job to do so!
You need to build up a small list of good contacts at the Council who you know get things done and will get back to you. This probably isn’t a long list – its going to include people who deal with streets and pavements, bins, people at the housing management organization etc.
A good relationship with less senior officers is also useful. If you don’t know exactly which officer you need to work with on a complex issue, the Director’s PA will be able to point you in the right direction.
Your relationship and reputation with officers is crucial. Remember to always be respectful to people who work for the Authority, always say thank you, always be understanding. You need them to help you.
Remember that officers will have their own priorities, set by their management and work planning. - just because you phone, don’t expect it to be done immediately, they are obliged to prioritise their workload, and accept it if they say they can’t get to it this morning etc.
4 – Have a System
Set up a system which will help you deal with casework. If you don’t have any sort of system, then over time things will go wrong, you will miss issues and people will be disappointed.
One size doesn’t fit all, so choose a system that works for you. Things to think about include:
-identify a time that you will deal with casework – perhaps a specific time each week for checking up on issues and getting back to people
-you need to be able to have some way or recording issues – what they are, what you’ve done, and what the conclusion is. That way you will be able to identify what issues are not yet resolved.
Some solutions might include:
- Use a book or a file
Many councillors have a book in which they record casework – perhaps one kept by the phone.
Alternatively, keep a file (which has the advantage that you can “move” completed issues from the front of the file when they’re done. ALDC has produced this Casework Form which might help you.
- Use your email system
Most email systems have folders or categories. Use these cleverly to keep on top of your casework? Perhaps a folder or category for completed casework, and a folder for casework in progress?
Some people have a folder for items to “check each Monday” – put things in there that need following up, but you don’t need to look at every day.
- Casework Manager
Datatrans, the company that makes EARS (the Election Agents Recording System) make an add on system called Casework Manager.
5 Reporting Back
When you have successfully resolved an issue you must report back on it. There is no point doing things if nobody knows!
You must report back to the resident(s) concerned. Often this will be a quick email, letter or phone call (remember email is the quickest!) and very often you’ll have a happy resident at the other end. Remember to report back when it hasn’t worked. Tell them you’ve tried, but something hasn’t been possible for the following reasons.
If the issue relates to a group of houses, or a street think about doing a street letter next time you’re delivering that area. Let the whole street know that you’ve done something.
Unless it’s a confidential issue why not write about it in your blog or website?
Write about some issues in Focus – even if its just a sentence or so on each one in “local action”.
Keep a list of what you’ve done. When it comes to election time there is nothing better than a FULL action file of what you’ve achieved as a Councillor.
6 Collecting Data
Casework is one of the best ways of collecting data which will be of use later on when it comes to winning elections.
There are some issues here about how you use data, in what capacity you aquired data, and the Data Protection Act, which are/will be addressed in a separate document.
Basic Info
You must record the phone numbers, mobile numbers and email addresses.
This will enable us to send email newsletters to people, to phone canvass, in time text message to knock up etc. But if you don’t collect these you will never be able to do this.
Advanced Data
A more advanced approach (in addition to the above) would be to collect data about the issues people are concerned about.
If you collected information over a period of time of people who are concerned about, say, recycling. A year or two later, when you ask a question in Council about recycling – you could write to them to tell them what you have done.
As a starting point, if there is a big local issue (e.g. objection to a major planning issue) you could collect these names and addresses to use later on.
7 Issues to Watch
A Professional Issues
Being a councillor does not make us a professional social worker, mental health worker, housing officer, police officer, or lawyers and there are some things that really are best left to professionals.
Sometimes casework strays into issues of personal care, health or housing issues and there are confidentiality issues to think about.
Also be aware of legal cases. Councillors are not qualified to give legal advice, and if it becomes clear legal advice is needed, then you should point your constituent towards the local solicitors who do free advice hours.
Sometimes people who contact us will have mental health or learning difficulty issues. You need to be aware of this, and if in doubt seek advice or help from officers or council group colleagues.
B Look after yourself
Remember you do have a private life, and it is fine to have days off, take holiday, do your day job, and finish for the evening. Casework is not an emergency service, and there are services in place for emergencies.
Personal safety is also an issue, particularly if you are involved in visiting people at home or doing a surgery on your own. If it doesn’t feel right, or doesn’t feel safe DON’T DO IT – your personal safety, and the safety of people you love is important.
C Working as a Team
If you are a ward councilor in a multi-member ward (with other Lib Dem Councillors) * then you need to have some way of working with your ward colleagues.
There is no point in all three of you doing the same casework, but equally, it will cause anger and annoyance if everything gets left to one person (and it will place the rest of the team at an electoral disadvantage).
Find a way that this works for you – perhaps BCC into emails, a regular ward meeting or chat.
If you are lucky enough to have a Lib Dem MP you will also need systems that work across your constituency about sharing work appropriately between MPs and Councillors.
* In Scotland, we have a system of multi-member wards elected by a fair proportional system which means that you will have colleagues from different parties all the time. It is a learning process but you will probably develop some dialogue between you, and learn how to work without causing issues with each other.
