What we do

This page shows all the projects the Service Transformation team has worked on since it was set up in 2018. We pivoted rapidly with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic; much of the work done reflects the Council’s rapidly changing priorities during the crisis.

Rebuild the ECC website as a user-centered digital product

The new essex.gov.uk website was built by a small multidisciplinary team using agile working methods. The result was a modern, accessible and user-centred website, as well as a new content management system for future updates (which was later used as part of our coronavirus response work - see below).

Set up an online hub for coronavirus information in Essex

As coronavirus hit and the country went into lockdown, it was vital for the council to communicate with residents, and answer their questions clearly and correctly. Content designers from the Service Transformation team worked closely with colleagues from the council’s comms and engagement team to write and publish the first version of the coronavirus information hub in just 4 days. Since then, it’s been through multiple iterations as circumstances changed.

Write and publish a manual for digital service design

Our research showed that the language used by the digital service design community (“discovery”, “alpha”, “sprint”) was confusing to other council colleagues, and that not everyone was using the same words to say the same things. We started work on a manual for service design, a helpful online reference book for colleagues across the council.

Raise awareness about accessibility across ECC

As part of a project focusing on accessibility, a small team worked on testing and training for a wide variety of council-made products and services. The team’s remit included capability-building for the longer term, so it did training with colleagues in other teams (including Technology Services), conducted “accessibility surgery” sessions, and wrote a set of accessibility guidance notes published on the web.

Help clarify the work of Operation Shield

Members of the Service Transformation team worked with colleagues across the council to help roll out emergency deliveries of food and medicine to vulnerable people during the coronavirus crisis, as part of “Operation Shield”. Our role was mostly helping the team find simplicity and clarity about the process, which at times was changing every few hours as new instructions came from central government, or as new information came to light.

Help the Test and Trace team visualise their work

As coronavirus hit harder, central government began issuing instructions to local authorities about testing and tracing of virus cases in council-run domains, such as schools and care homes. We worked closely with colleagues in Environmental Health as they managed the rapid roll-out and iteration of revised testing and tracing, at scale. We helped them visualise complex and rapidly-changing processes, involving thousands of people, in a way that was easier to understand and to communicate to others.

Create an online directory for coronavirus information

As part of the council’s response to coronavirus, we realised that some people contacting the council for help just needed simple answers and links to other sources of information. Working with colleagues from our Children’s Services team, we created an online service that asks a few simple questions and gives users a list of filtered results, based on their answers. The team has direct control of the backend via a simple spreadsheet, which makes it easy for them to maintain and update the service. To build quickly, we re-used code originally created by FutureGov for Buckinghamshire and Camden councils.

Help council leaders think about post-coronavirus recovery

We worked with the ECC Executive Directors and colleagues from Emergency Planning and Resilience and Strategy on work to consider the council’s longer-term response and recovery to coronavirus, and how we might take advantage of the crisis to redesign processes and ways of working. We helped council leaders and politicians find structure and focus for their conversations and decisions. Work on the resulting recovery strategy is ongoing.

Emergency process design for registering and managing deaths

Working with colleagues from the Emergency Planning Team and with stakeholders from the NHS, emergency services, funeral services and crematoria, we helped re-think and re-design processes for registering deaths and preparing for increased excess deaths. After the General Register Office relaxed the rules around death registrations, we helped ECC design a new telephone-based registration service, so that people did not have to visit an office in person.

Process design to free up hospital beds and provide alternative social care during coronavirus

With increased demand for hospital beds during the pandemic, Council social care staff were looking for new ways to care for people who are often in hospital but whose needs are more social than medical. We helped to co-ordinate and map logistics for a new alternative care system, making use of many existing services and “connecting the dots” between them. So far, over 60 patients have been cared for under this new system.

Apply new content design to the ECC contact page

Service Transformation did a rapid content design project to re-arrange the layout and presentation of information on the Contact Us page of the essex.gov.uk website. The chances we made were relatively simple, but had big impact. We added more direct line phone numbers directly on the page, removed the general enquiries email address, and added a link to a contact form. As a result, general enquiries via phone and email have gone down, but those that do still come in are being dealt with faster.