Team Update – October 2021

This is an update from the Welsh Local Government Team for October 2021.

Updates

Working Groups

We started 8 working groups on 27 September – and this blog post covers details about each group and what we’re focusing on. We’re now 6 weeks (halfway) through the process. They’re continuing at a great pace, and some of them have even disbanded to work on specific projects decided on in the groups themselves. The final sessions will be on w/b 13 December, and we’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in them from across the LAs. We’ve had some great feedback on how useful people are finding them, the great amount of collaboration that’s bene happening, and the new skills they’ve learned from the process. The groups are due to report in December 2022.

LMS/LXP

We’re now in the final 2 sprints of the project now and our work in October, focusing on setting up the user research has really allowed us to get to the stage we are now. The blogs on this work are on the website, and if you’re interested in coming to a show and tell, drop me an email. 

Image Library Discovery

We have just completed a discovery on the requirements for a shared image library for all local authorities, and have undertaken user research with communications, marketing, web, and digital teams from across the authorities.

We are currently working through the recommendations to take this project to an Alpha phase and are engaging with the Welsh Government to scope if we work together on this.

Events

We continue to host monthly meet-up events and regular show-and-tell sessions. In October we held an event with Dr Jeremy Evas on Doubling the Daily Use of Welsh and the use of Welsh in technology. We also held a session with the LocalGov Drupal group, a non-profit open-source content management system for local government websites. The group told us about the system, the future developments, and next steps for their work. To view the events we have hosted, or to sign up to any coming up, please visit our Eventbrite page.

Working closely with CDPS

We’re continuing to work closely with CDPS around communications and the needs of local government for their landscape review.

Recruitment and expansion of our team

We’ve interviewed for 3 positions in October (Content Designer, User Researcher, and Interaction Designer) and have hired a User Researcher. We’re now looking to advertise the Delivery Support role and the Content Designer role again to fill these positions.

Merthyr Food Poverty Project

The discovery project is underway and is aiming to firm up the problem to be solved and secure the resources to carry out the necessary research and stakeholder engagement to understand if there are viable, cost-effective, data-led solutions that can be tested in an Alpha Phase. The problem question is: How can a better understanding and use of data help Merthyr Council deliver targeted early intervention that reduces the likelihood of citizens falling into food poverty?

What is on hold

Chief Executive Training

We’re putting training on hold until after the local elections in May 2022.

Coming soon

Panel

We’re still working on bringing this panel together and will give you an update once this is in place.

Service Blueprints

This is a project to review different delivery models for local government services and to share best practice from across Wales.

Life Events

Almost all local authority services are connected through life events. It could be moving to a new area, having a child, having a new disability etc. When these life events happen, often the person or family involved connects with many services across a local authority. This project will explore these connections from a user journey perspective.

Training

We’re booking two NN/g (nngroup.com) training courses for late January/early February 2022. These full-day online courses cover ‘Omnichannel Journeys & Customer Experience,’ and ‘Service Blueprinting’ and have no limit on the number of delegates. A separate ‘User Research Fundamentals’ course has been booked for 12 officers who have been selected due to their engagement in the events, training, and/or working groups. This course will be held over 9 x 2-hour sessions during February and March 2022.

Conference

Our online conference will be held on January 20, 2022. The event will have 4 panel sessions with Q&A (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon). We’ll be sending invitations and more details out during late November/early December.

Digital Maturity Assessment

We’ve scheduled a pilot to kick-off in November into how best to access the digital maturity of a council, working with Blaenau Gwent.

New Working Groups

We’re developing new working groups off the back of the working group sessions we’ve previously held, picking up key themes that need more investigation. We’ll have more information about these in our next update.

If you’d like more information on any of this work, email us at digitalteam@wlga.gov.uk and we’d love to speak to you.