Calling helplines in England

Your chance to influence the public sector's forthcoming performance monitoring system for helplines

Is your helpline funded by Whitehall or City Hall? If the helpline that you operate is financially supported, grant-funded or contracted by a government department or agency, a local authority, NHS Trust, PCT or other statutory body, then it will soon fall under the Performance Management Framework (PMF).

The PMF aims to improve services so that they provide a better experience for the citizen, a better deal for the taxpayer and a more satisfying role for staff who deliver the service. The PMF has been in operation since 2007 for public sector contact centres. The Cabinet Office has asked the THA to develop a version more appropriate to helplines.

For those who operate helplines and those who fund or commission them, this will provide a means of benchmarking the performance of the helpline against other helplines of a similar nature.

To give you an opportunity to give your views about this system at its development stage, we are holding a series of workshops.

The workshops are as follows:

• Runcorn (Cheshire) - 26 March

• London - 30 March

• London - 31 March

Each workshop will run from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm. We will introduce the PMF, outline our proposals for how it could be adapted for helplines and collect your feedback.

We would really like to see you at one of these workshops.

• your name

• the name of the helpline you operate

• the name of the body that funds or commissions the helpline

• the date you are interested in (please give only one date)