Developing and evaluating helpline services

Do you want to:

• solve a particular helpline problem?

• improve service performance and make a difference to the bottom line?

• obtain an independent view of one or more aspects of your service?

• help more people?

• benchmark your service against the rest of the sector?

Look no further than THA. Whether you are setting up a helpline from scratch, looking to develop an existing service or funding/commissioning a service, THA's knowledge and experience across the helpline field can help you towards best practice and help you give your users a better experience.

If you are setting up or commissioning a new service, we can help you to take account of all the relevant aspects, including specifcation and service model, people, promotion, technology, evaluation and governance, and we can link you up with equivalent services in the same field.

If you are developing an existing service, we can help you to:

• Improve support and supervision arrangements

• Evaluate the impact of your service and the satisfaction of its users

• Promote services effectively

• Prepare for assessment against the THA Quality Standard

• Assess the service model and its efficiency and effectiveness for you and for your service users

• Review policies and procedures

• Review use of telephone and other technology

• Deal with problem users of the service

• Understand call traffic statistics

• Plan how many staff are needed - and when they are needed - in order to maximise the number of calls you answer

• Make more sense of your monitoring data

• Set up email, forum, SMS/text and webchat services

If you are funding or commissioning an existing service, we can give specialist assistance to you and/or to the provider with any helpline-related issue and are also able to conduct an independent evaluation of the service.

• Macmillan Cancer Support

• Department for Children, Schools and Families

• NCVO

• Action on Elder Abuse

• Wales Domestic Abuse Helpline

• Parents Advice Centre Northern Ireland

• Lothian Centre for Integrated Living

Our team not only have experience of working on and managing helplines. They work on a range of projects and are kept briefed on the changing needs of commissioners, the latest technology and the regulatory situation. But, like any good helpline, they recognise that every client is unique - they won't make assumptions and will start from where you are. That's why we don't have a standardised service.

Our prices start at £580 per day (price for THA members in the voluntary sector, excluding VAT and expenses). We realise that many helplines need just a little support with a particular issue, so you are welcome to use us for a little as half a day. If you're in the voluntary sector, we can also assist or join forces on an application for a grant to cover these fees.

So, if you have a specific challenge and are looking for an outside perspective, join the dozens of members and public sector bodies who have benefited from our support, and contact us on 0845 120 3767 or drop an email to Mark McLean at mark.mclean@helplines.org.uk.

Updated March 2009 by Deirdre Rusling