Salford City Council has been named Overall DL100 Winner 2023 (Digital Leaders) and won Digital Public Service Innovation of the Year at a prestigious awards ceremony.
The DL100 list celebrates the teams and individuals demonstrating a pioneering and sustainable approach to digital transformation across the public, private and non profit sectors.
The council scooped both awards at an event in Leeds at the Royal Armouries last night during Digital Leaders Week – a celebratory week for sharing digital ideas and initiatives. The Digital Public Service Innovation of the Year category could be for an innovative product or service which delivered measurable impact in the past year. Salford won this category for the innovative way in which it delivered the government’s energy rebate scheme with its digital services team providing added value for customers.
Councillor Jack Youd, Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Industrial Relations said: “I’m extremely proud that Salford has been recognised with such prestigious national awards for its bold ambitions and innovation in the way we’re using digital technology to transform the city and people’s lives.”
“Delivering the rebate provided us with an opportunity to encourage residents to use our digital services to apply, highlighting the benefits of using them in future. We made it as customer friendly as possible, consequently reaching parts of the city that don’t usually digitally transact with us including many who live in the most deprived areas. This means we can now continue to reach out to them with ongoing support through digital channels making it easier for them to transact with us.”
The bespoke application process we created plugged into existing systems which help us understand our customer base better and identify other ways in which we could help residents. For example we can check households are getting council tax discounts they are entitled to, particularly with student households. Also, by supporting those who were struggling to apply online, we gained more insight into who in the city didn’t have digital devices. Through implementing the rebate scheme, almost 1,500 of customers without digital access have been helped with devices, connectivity and digital skills.”
Steven Fry, Director of Customer & Digital Services also commented: “We’re absolutely delighted to win Digital Public Service Innovation of the year as well as Overall DL100 winner for the second time. It is testament to our ambitious vision for the city to create a fairer and more inclusive local economy that ensures digital technologies are available to everyone. We’re proud to be the forefront on digital change, innovation and digital inclusion programmes to the benefit of our residents.”
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- Date published
- Friday 23 June 2023