Here's how one city here implements a single non-emergency number (3-1-1):

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/about/about_311.shtml

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311 is New York City's phone number for government information and non-emergency services. Whether you're a resident, business owner, or a visitor, all the resources of New York City are just a phone call away....    

311's mission is to help customers access City services and information and to help City government provide the highest possible levels of customer service. We provide high levels of customer service and increased access to government. We strive to help agencies improve service delivery by allowing them to focus on their core missions, helping them to manage their workload efficiently, and providing insight into the demands of their customers.

We seek to accurately and consistently measure service delivery Citywide, and provide insight into ways to improve service delivery for New York City government.

311 provides a single point of contact for all non-emergency City services, and is available to residents, City businesses, and visitors. Since going live in March of 2003, 311 has received over 30 million calls. The 311 Call Center is open 24 hours a day/365 days a year, and services are provided in over 170 languages.

"This Citizen Service Initiative will allow City residents to obtain important non-emergency services through one, central, all-purpose phone number quickly and effectively, and it reflects this Administration's commitment of bringing government to the people. I am confident that the new 311 system will vastly improve the way that New York City Government functions."

-Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
January 31, 2002  

Services 311 Provides

The list of services and information 311 provides is constantly expanding, and includes information on hundreds of services, agencies, and events.

People call 311 for:
Recycling schedule and information requests
Missed garbage collection complaints
Alternate Street Parking Rules
Noise complaints
Blocked driveway complaints
CFC/Freon pickup requests
311 Call Taker compliments
Landlord-related complaints
Information about health insurance options for small businesses and individuals
311 now also provides scheduling for Department of Buildings Plan Examinations, and is able to provide you with information relating to recreation centers, public pools, golf courses and other facilities in your area.

Phone Numbers for 311

In any borough of New York City call 311
Outside of New York City call (212) NEW-YORK (212-639-9675)
The TTY Number is 212-504-4115
As always, callers should call 911 for emergencies
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Contrast with the hopeless Ofcom/Home Office 101 - 3-1-1 is free and an alternative geographic number is given for calls originating from outside the five boroughs.

bbb_uk wrote on May 25^th, 2006 at 6:56pm:
The publication of a geographic alternative is very relevant. Let's assume that a NYC resident is visiting, say Los Angeles, and needs to folow up on say, a NYC-government issue. Dialling 311 in LA would be pointless as the LA call center will know nothing about NY issues. The geographic number allows someone outside the area to get through to the appropriate place.

I have not studied the UK SNEN proposals in any detail, but I suspect that if you dial 101 (or whatever it is) in Birmingham, you'll be put through to a Birmingham-area center, which may be useless if you are following-up something that happened in Glasgow.

Over here, the planners of these systems have signifgicantly greater foresight than the UK authorities, who simply bury their heads in the sand and sit back on their fat corporate backsides.

In the North East of England, calls to 101 are initially being shared between the Police Call centre and Newcastle and Sunderland council call centres - with other councils to be rolled in over time.

Calls will route between all three randomnly and where a call hits a council but needs police action it will be transferred as a Warm call - i.e data keyed by the operator will transfer too (personally dont believe the technology is in place for that).

Calls received on 101 by the police that need to be dealt with as a police emergency are to be transferred to the 999 queue - the call could then be re-answered by the same operator! However it was felt that if the police operator handled the 101 call as a 999 call it would cause confusion.