Council apprentices launch new single form for online services
Residents and businesses seeking to ‘report, book or apply’ for council services online can now benefit from a simplified, more user-friendly experience thanks to the efforts of a group of its digital apprentices.
Previously, LDC’s website had more than 200 online forms to select from, depending on the type of service request, which was confusing and created a barrier to the use of digital services as a way to interact with the council.
The digital team was challenged to replace the multiple form system with a single form, to help residents and businesses complete service requests as efficiently as possible and this is now possible at www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/oneform.
Lichfield District Council’s Digital, UX and Robotics manager Joan Tharm said:
“This is a significant development. Our Chief Executive set a challenge for the team to improve and simplify the online journey for our residents and businesses, and make reporting, booking and applying for services easier and quicker.
“Our digital apprentices, Callum Boards, Nathan Lewis, Joe Garfield and Aidan Dhadda were determined to rise to the challenge.
“We asked them to digitise and be innovative. They were coached by our senior developer and came up with something that other councils have not been able to do.
“Already other councils are looking at what we have done and want to emulate it. I applaud our digital apprentices for their skill and tenacity in delivering what is a major improvement for our online services.”
The Leader of Lichfield District Council, Councillor Doug Pullen, said:
“Our digital apprentices have done a fantastic job of making the website easier to use.
“That other local authorities now want to introduce the same function on their websites is a testament to the apprentices’ work.”
Suraj Kika, CEO of Jadu which provides the underlying software that supports Lichfield District Council’s website and CRM systems, said:
“Lichfield District Council’s radical transformation agenda puts customer service at the centre of the authority - behaving more like a business in understanding that Local Government needs to ‘think different’ about how it does business.
“It’s great that the Digital Team has fully embraced LDC’s digital transformation agenda by creating this new process using the Jadu Digital Platform, and by doing so, has enabled better self-service and a simplified user journey.”