A short note written during a pause from packing bags ahead of a few days away. Sharing our digital thinking with councillors On Friday the Mayor and I co-delivered a talk and Q&A about Hackney’s digital journey at a ‘digital masterclass’ event for councillors from across the country, organised by the Local Government Association. It […]
bytheryeHow I ended up on this course As the council is a signatory of the Local Digital Declaration we were offered free user research training provided by the GDS. It’s not just the fact that it was free, it’s also something we are very keen to do. We don’t have our own user research team, […]
Bracknell Forest Digital ServicesProtect your heart and your bank accountDoes that online dating profile seem too good to be true? Are they avoiding meeting you in person? Or they won’t talk on the phone?According to UK Finance, between January and June 2019 £7.9m was lost by online dating scam victims and romance scams rose by 64% during the same time […]
We are Citizens Advice - MediumGetting together with peers On Friday, Matthew and I joined a group of great people from several councils to compare notes from our digital journeys, share the challenges we’re grappling with and think about ways we can support one another. The idea for the meet up was sparked by Paul Brewer at Adur & Worthing […]
bytheryeMore people in debt can’t even cover key living costs — here’s what needs to be done to tackle this growing problemWhen it comes to problem debt, it can be easy to jump to the conclusion that it’s a result of overspending, running up big credit card bills, or poor money management.That story doesn’t ring true for advisers […]
We are Citizens Advice - MediumOften when I meet public sector people I’ll ask them how they are faring. ‘Busy,’ often they’ll say. And how are things?, I’ll ask. ‘Challenging,’ they’ll often reply. Language is a wonderful thing. What they really mean is that things are really awful. That’s intrigued me and I asked the question of the Public Sector […]
Dan SleeI’ve lost count of the number of people shooting good video despite the kit work supplies them with. Yet drawing up a business case for the kit to shoot video needn’t be this hard and yet often is. So. I’ve blogged some pointers for you. There isn’t a specific one size fits all business case […]
Dan SleeCroydon joins forces with Adur & Worthing on low codeExciting news: Croydon Council have signed up to use the Create low code platform as part of their ambitious plans for digital. Create is the new name for MatsSoft, the platform Adur & Worthing have been using for several years.Low code platforms allow online services and whole software […]
Stories by Paul Brewer on MediumWe've been developing our understanding of service design practices for over three years now, and there are some great examples of projects elsewhere on this blog. There has been some fantastic work done, and, perhaps as importantly, better relationships formed, tackling challenges in new ways.It's not as if we have a large design team supporting […]
SameRoom.Richard Pope blogged last week about approaches to scaling solutions that are developed by council(s) across the sector. It is based around the product of the collaboration being software councils can use to deliver a service. Whilst that is one product, I think there are more… help me test my thinking! The scale of local […]
Ben CheethamLast week, off the back of a tweet, a group of Local Government Chief Digital Officers met to talk about our work, share our challenges and explore what we might do together to help our organisations, our places and our sector truly harness the potential of digital in the 21st century. People are often bemused […]
Stories by Paul Brewer on MediumDan Doody writes about his experience of volunteering at Citizens AdviceThis week is Student Volunteering Week 2020, and across the Citizens Advice network student volunteers play a vital role. Dan, a volunteer who studies at the Open University tell us about his experience at Citizens Advice and the skills he’s gained.Find out more about volunteering as a […]
We are Citizens Advice - MediumYou may have seen the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue video. In the film, firefighters and staff from across the organisation read critical comments left for them last time they added a rainbow flag to their social media profiles to mark LGBTQ history month. The comments are hurtful and smallminded. But reading them with a […]
Dan SleeLearning more about our support for people at risk of homelessness In last week’s note I wrote about the rough sleeper count that I took part in the previous week. To follow that up, on Wednesday I joined nine other colleagues for a ‘meet the service’ day where we were taken through other areas of […]
bytheryeNice to get a mention, but I can’t take credit for the API being open — that was all down to our mobile app developer @cloud9_tech_uk and their approach to this. We also surface the API through a web app (www.oxford.gov.uk/mybinday) which does mad business all year round!
Stories by Neil Lawrence on MediumI don’t often spend eight hours of my weekend on a train, but this weekend I did just that. Twenty years ago, I cycled 450km around Cuba with 60 amazing people - a core group of us has kept in touch ever since, and we’ve just enjoyed another reunion. Eight hours provides a lot of […]
SameRoom.As part of being more accountable to myself and keeping focused on the goals I’ve set for the year I’m aiming to check in monthly. This post is mainly for my own benefit… Review the goals My professional goals and progress toward them: Letting Go – work has started in the background to re-organise the […]
Sarah LayLGSS Digital Blog Service design for local government Kat Sexton Digital Services Architect Services Week 2020! It’s Services Week next week and LGSS Digital is helping to bring it to Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire! Services Week is a series of cross-government events that looks at how we can work together to deliver end-to-end, user-focused services. From […]
LGSS DigitalCreating a register of actors that have worked on The West Wing and E.R.The medical drama E.R. saw in its 25th anniversary in 1999, so we decided to watch it from Episode 1 through to its finale. Also, this was clearly our best way to qualify as fully trained doctors short of actually seeing patients. Or […]
Stories by Neil Lawrence on MediumMaking sure we understand the impact of our communications efforts should be top of the list for all of us, but when we get to it we can find ourselves wading through swamps of data without a clear picture forming on the contribution our comms made. Did the Likes on our Facebook post join up […]
Sarah LayI find this stuff, so you don’t have to etc etc Keep, Fix, Enhance, Swap, Replace: Five options for public service reform – Eddie Copeland Of course, everyone knows that in the real world, options are limited by time, money and statutory responsibilities. Less obviously, the solutions we choose to implement may be constrained by […]
Dave BriggsGreat to have spent more time in your excellent company, Lizzi. My toy photos all turned out to be a bit blurry but next time……
Stories by Neil Lawrence on Medium