Background Our intranet is 5 years old and we’re now building a new one Our original intranet was developed in-house using Drupal7. It was the first user-led project involving a core team of staff determining design and functionality we needed to build. It includes a staff directory powered by nightly extracts from our payroll system. […]
Oxford City Council: Digital Development BlogMy attention was caught by a group of future communications leaders who were learning about best practice and for the life of me I couldn’t help but hear alarm bells ringing. Best practice is something that has worked well in practice. But the thing is, the world is so complex, what may be best practice […]
Dan SleeI was struck by the blowback online and radio from the failed Extinction Rebellion protest at Canning Town this week. Two protestors climbed a DLR train and were pulled off and attacked by commuters. The group have been campaigning for the past 12-months modelled on previous historic civil disobedience campaigns. The internet went into meltdown at […]
Dan SleeWe brought together 45 industry experts to tackle a common problemCitizens Advice hosted our first ever energy hack day in September. Sometimes known as a hackathon, it’s a day when specialists get together to work towards solving a common problem.Why was it needed?We had evidence that some letters energy suppliers send to customers about debt and complaints weren’t […]
We are Citizens Advice - MediumThe Royal Parks Half finally came around yesterday morning and I joined 16,000 other runners for a 13.1 mile jog around Westminster and Hyde Park (nicely timed to avoid the rain). It was a great route and I continue to surprise myself by actually enjoying runs like this. I was delighted to complete the course […]
bytheryeDigital, strategy and architecture Working together to make things right Leadership meeting, October 2019 Every 4-6 weeks, a bunch of us meet up to talk about what’s going well, what our blockers are, and how we could improve things in digital, strategy and architecture. We’ve decided to publish our minutes, so we can be open […]
LGSS DigitalI started a new role in August (moving from a practitioner interventionist role to a strategic interventionist role) and since then its felt like I’ve been on a rollercoaster ride of learning and reflection. I’ve learned to enjoy and love learning although i now know it never gets easier it just gets deeper and more […]
A journey through life – Carl's NotepadHave you ever wondered what piece of advice you’d share with someone starting in public sector comms? Some of the finest minds from Police, fire, central government, NHS, ambulance and local government put their thinking caps on. A thread in the wonderful Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group chipped in with some pearls of wisdom. […]
Dan SleeIt’s the final week before my Royal Parks half marathon run this Sunday. I’m not sure how confident I am that I’ll crack the 2 hour barrier, but I managed a couple of runs into work last week and a decent 20k run on Saturday, so I’m hoping that I’m reasonably well prepared… There’s still […]
bytheryeOur thoughts on how the energy price cap is workingCustomers who shop around for their electricity and gas get a better price than those who don’t. But most don’t, and this means they’re paying more than they should.What is the energy price cap?Following a Competition and Markets Authority investigation that found the energy market was uncompetitive, a cap […]
We are Citizens Advice - Medium3 ways the experience could be improvedAround 4 million people paid for their energy with prepayment meters last year. They pay upfront for the energy they use and can ‘top up’ at a shop or, if they have a smart meter, using an app or by text.Some people prefer to pay this way to help feel more […]
We are Citizens Advice - MediumCrikey, where have the last few days gone? I never manage to wrap up a weeknote on a Friday, but I’m not sure how it’s got to Thursday already… I wondered about making next week’s a fortnight note but am determined not to break my successful run of actual weekly weeknotes, so here we go! […]
bytheryeLGSS Digital Blog Service design for local government Kat Sexton Digital Services Architect Best start in life: designing with families The Best Start in Life programme has been underway for almost a year, and wow, what a year it has been! Following on from previous blog posts about setting up the programme and research we […]
LGSS DigitalLast month I had the chance to attend training from Content Design London. Since reading Sarah Richard’s Content Design book, I’ve been fascinated with the approach taken for content design and wanted to get the training to help us implement more content design processes within the council. Over the course of the training I learnt […]
Bracknell Forest Digital ServicesI'm putting together the outline of a new digital strategy for my organisation. I have a good idea of what should be included, but to help me to refine this and to fill the gaps, I've been reading the following to inform my thinking: My organisation's Council Strategyhttps://info.westberks.gov.uk/strategyandperformanceThe most important of the lot. What the […]
LG/WWWComputer monitor covered with research goals post-itsWe’ve had a couple of sprints since the first post about this project, so I think it’s worth an update here.We wanted to do some qualitative research with parents and guardians of children and the school staff that are involved in the immunisation process, but our timing wasn’t great… the school […]
North East Lincolnshire Service Design - Medium