Accessing Council Services - Service Standards
Read on, or download a copy of our service standards for
Accessing Council Services.
Putting customers at the forefront of everything that we do is
of great importance to us here at West Lancashire District Council.
We pride ourselves in responding to the needs of our customers,
which is one of the many reasons why we were given an 'excellent'
rating in our recent 'Customer Access and Focus' Inspection.
We want to ensure that every customer can access our services,
regardless of whether they have a disability, speak another
language, or are from a different cultural background.
Work has been undertaken to identify the barriers that prevent some
of our customers having full access to all our services.
We can provide alternative means of accessing services for those
customers who need it, simply by contacting Customer Services on
01695 577177.
Removing language barriers
Various methods are in place to ensure that those customers whose
first language is not English can access services:
· Due to the diversity of the population in West Lancashire, we
have introduced Language Line to enable us to remove the barriers
faced by customers whose first language is not English. If anyone
would like to speak to us through an interpreter, they can do so
upon request via Customer Services on 01695 577177.
· Most of our publications are also available in a variety of
languages upon request.
· This website also has a translation facility for the following
languages: French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian,
Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Hearing disabilities
There are a number of ways that people with hearing difficulties
can access our services:
· Loop systems are in place at our Customer Service Points at the
Concourse Shopping Centre, Skelmersdale and at 52 Derby Street in
Ormskirk. They are also available in meeting and interview
rooms.
· You can contact the Council via textphone on 01695
585029.
· British sign language interpreters are available by
appointment.
· Lip speakers are available by appointment.
· We can also accept type talk calls.
Visual disabilities
We can provide most of our leaflets, publications, newsletters and
other written information upon request in the following
formats:
· Clear print
· Large print
And also, where feasible:
· Braille - a method of reading by touch using raised
dots
· Audio tape/CD
Different cultural backgrounds
Information is available relating to cultural centres and places of worship. If you
don't have access to the internet, please contact Customer Services
for advice.
Website accessibility
The website has been designed with accessibility in mind. As far as
is possible, we try to ensure that it works across different
browsers and is accessible to everyone who wants to use it. Here
are a few of the website's accessibility features:
· Page layout is flexible and users can resize text to their preference.
· For people with learning disabilities, the site has been
speech enabled by using a screen reader called Browsealoud.
Browsealoud reads the text on our website if you download the free
software.
· Bobby
accreditation: This means that we have met web accessibility
guidelines and are confident that people with visual impairment
will be able to access our site with audio readers. We test our
pages regularly to make sure all new pages are Bobby
approved.
· The site complies with Level AA of the W3C Web Accessibility
Initiative standards on website accessibility using the Bobby site
checker. Some pages are AAA.
· We've tried to improve the amount of useful information for
disabled users about access by adding access
information to council venues such as sports centres;
encouraging organisations to add access information to their
listings on the A-Z of Clubs and Organisations; adding a page on
the website about web accessibility and how to use the site's
features in the Help
section.
Your views
We constantly strive to improve how customers access our services
and we place great importance on listening to your views. We will
constantly monitor any comments made to ensure that we are getting
it right. If you have a disability and feel that a service is not
listed here which you think we should be providing, please contact
Public Relations on 01695 585011.
Related information
> Access
information
> Contact
us
> Corporate service standards
> Council
priorities