Four digital apprentices have helped to improve a means for residents and businesses to interact with a local authority.
The apprentices at Lichfield District Council have created a single form to replace a “confusing” multiple form system used by residents and businesses to complete service requests.
Their work has been described as a “significant development” which is now attracting the attention of other local authorities.
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.”
Previously, the council’s website had more than 200 online forms to select from, depending on the type of service request needed.
Council Leader Councillor Doug Pullen added: “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 the 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.”
