Vision and guiding principles
We will transform our service interventions and further enable self-service access to our services through the use of modern digital technology. We will simplify the ways of communicating and doing business with the council.
To ensure we utilise the benefits from new digital capabilities the council will improve processes and make them more efficient, ensure they add value and improve the customer journey for residents and businesses to create a better customer and user experience.
Our guiding principle will be customer usability. Apps and processes will be designed around that – there should be no difference in the quality-of-service customers receive whether they use an online app, phone, an appointment, or switch between any of these channels. This is known as an Omni-Channel solution.
Our challenges
The council faces many challenges over the lifetime of this strategy including:
- an increasing population, increasing demand – 11.6% population increase since 2011 and projected to continue to increase
- an ageing population, increasing demand on our care services – there has been an increase of 19.4% in people aged 65 years and over since 2011
- an ambitious growth agenda that will impact on our existing infrastructure
- a financial challenge following COVID and increased social care demand
- a new national focus on Levelling Up and a review of local government structure / functions
- meeting current service levels with fewer resources
- an expectation of excellence from our customers and members
- increased scrutiny on spending and best value following intervention
- harnessing the improved digital skills and literacy that the pandemic has influenced within our customer base
These challenges mean the council must take advantage of advances in digital technologies to enable it to deliver more efficient services and streamline our processes.
What we aim to achieve
The outcomes of this strategy over the next three years will be:
- an improved customer journey, through a one front door approach and user-centred design principles. These will be designed to get interactions with customers right first time
- an enabled workforce, equipped with the technology they need to do their jobs effectively – a reduction in manual processes, automation of repetitive tasks and improving processes. This will enable services to focus on complex and specialised work, adding additional value
- a better understanding of our customers through the smarter use of joined-up data. We will use data and analytics to gain insights to improve and make informed decisions
- a more sustainable financial model for the council, where we can improve service delivery while maintaining or reducing costs
- a positive impact on our climate commitment through a reduction in the use of paper and changes to our mailroom and processes. Where practical we can use digital technology to support us deliver a more cohesive and joined-up council through the use of digital tools, increasing cross-functional project work, sharing budgets and goals and being more transparent
- a vibrant digital business sector that contributes to the economic growth of the borough and new developments will be designed with the use of digital technology to improve the public realm environment