THE management of Redcar and Cleveland Council's call centre has been taken back into council's control after being run for two years by private "outsourcing" company Liberata.

A joint statement by the council and company said the switch was part of a major reshaping of a ten-year contract, which was signed in July 2003.

It is understood this overall reshuffle has resulted in a large number of staff, who transferred to Liberata in 2004, returning to the council's payroll.

No public announcement has been made about the changes. News filtered out this week, particularly about the call-centre's difficulties. There have been several weeks of "problems" at the Redcar-based operation with callers having difficulties in contacting staff.

A council spokesman said they had been apologising to customers who had experienced problems getting through to the call-centre in recent weeks. He added: "This month the management of the call-centre transferred to the council and a number of posts were vacant and needed to be filled as a matter of urgency.

"To rectify this, and return as quickly as possible to the service our customers deserve and expect, we are activating an immediate recruitment drive and are pleased to report that staffing is gradually returning to the necessary levels for us to satisfy call centre demands.

"We believe the call centre has been a success, able to give quick and accurate information as the public's first point of contact and in our drive to continue to improve its efficiency we have just launched a Public Access promotion campaign.

"This includes bus shelter advertising, with posters underlining our contact services, including library webcams and our mobile one-stop shop, which makes regular half-day stops across East Cleveland."

The spokesman said the call centre was created to improve access to council services by offering a single telephone number, 0845 6126126, for all services.

"It proved extremely popular, increasing the number of calls dealt with from less than 20,000 a month before the opening of the call centre, to a current average of 37,000 calls a month."

The council spokesman would not amplify the statement nor answer questions.

In London, Liberata's strategy director Charlie Bruin released a joint statement signed by both his firm and the council. The statement said the parties had agreed to a "reformed and reshaped contract following a review of the council's long-term objectives.

"The outcome of the review demonstrated that the council now has the capability to deliver the next phase of improvements independently, in certain service areas."

When Liberata won its contract, it was described as a strategic partnership worth £261m over an initial ten-year period. The contract covered what was described as "a wide range of support and customer services, including the establishment of a one-stop citizen contract, a £23m investment in information and communication technology, cost savings, breakthrough innovation and continuous improvement in the council's core services."

The call centre, a comparatively small part of the overall Liberata operation started with 32 staff. Liberata forecast the creation of "at least 1,000 new jobs".

Mike Hill, of Unison, said 500 of the l 800 staff who transferred to Liberata had returned to the council's payroll. Some 300-plus were still with Liberata.

Talks were going on about the "potential for possible job losses" in restructuring.