Improving the district council's accessibility and helping reduce poverty in Exmouth and East Devon | Opinion

By Cllr Bruce De Saram (Conservative, Exmouth Littleham)

This month's April article will focus on firstly what is termed 'Digital Transformation' and secondly the Action on Poverty Fund. Both poverty and Digital Transformation affect all our future interactions not just in Littleham but throughout the UK as a whole.

At cabinet on 30 March, it looked at a digital strategy based around six common themes:

1. Customer access and service (See more detailed explanation below)

2. Digital and mobile work force

3. Digital democracy

 4. High-quality, accessible data

5. Digital and Net Zero

6. Responsive, resilient and secure infrastructure and systems

Readers may well think well how does this affect me? Well at its basic level I believe that if organisations are to succeed then the customer or residents in the case of the council must be put at the heart of all that they do which is something we try to do as councillors.

I was pleased to see in the debate that our mayor of Exmouth supported my thoughts around this issue which revolve around how do we as a council go about ensuring that residents are not left behind in their digital experience? As the minutes recorded "During discussions the importance of face to face interactions was highlighted with emphasis on the strategy covering simple processes that could be easily automated through the website and different media channels, therefore residents having access 24/7".

The cabinet was then asked to approve the strategy which was based around some of the following customer experiences as listed at point one above:

All customers can use our online services · Build and maintain an evidence base of user needs and behaviour to inform our decisions (informed by our Equality Impact Assessment) to improve our digital inclusion and not leave anyone behind · Adopt an 'inclusive design' approach based on user research, using functions such as voice-activated technology to access our services

Our website is accessible to all · Ensure that we achieve an Accessibility score of 'Good' for our website · Develop a gateway approach to service design that assesses the needs of those with disabilities and differences

The majority of customers serve themselves using online transactions and information at a time and place, and using the digital technology that they choose · Introduce a "digital resource/team" with skills and roles that puts digital at the core of the council, responds to changing customer needs and behaviour, transaction data, best practice in the private sector and councils, advances in technology, and builds responsive services · Continuously develop our services and products, not leaving technology to stagnate where it gathers risk, but continuously improve each service to ensure it keeps pace and allows us to iterate what we can offer · Review the relevance and effectiveness of the Firmstep platform compared to other technologies · Restrict the use of paper for communication and transactions to exceptional circumstances

Customers can record and track progress with their enquiries and customer service advisors can deal with multiple enquiries · Build a single view of the customer so that customers are able to access all online services via a single entry point and the council can build a holistic view of customer needs · Review of current CRM and roadmap for single view of customer · Expand use of the My Account facility

Face-to-face, telephone and email contact is reserved for high and complex needs · Improve online access making it streamlined and accessible for all · Developing an inclusive approach that encompasses as many customers as possible · Handle the majority of customer enquiries at the first point of contact by professional customer service advisers or an automated service (Webchat/robots) · Reduce the volume of telephone numbers · Reduce the volume of generic email in-boxes and general email contact.

Naturally as you can see this is quite a challenge for any organisation but it's pleasing to see that as of 7 April that EDDC has set up an Action on Poverty Fund for Projects and activities that help reduce poverty in East Devon. The new Action on Poverty Fund can accept applications of between £500 and £5,000 from properly constituted and not-for-private-profit organisations or groups such as:

• Voluntary and community sector groups and organisations
• Parish Councils
• Charities
• Other groups such as Community Interest Companies

Examples of projects that could be funded include "Supporting low-income residents to access the internet and develop digital skills". This is good news because it supports the Council's objectives for a Digital Transformation strategy as discussed and helps tackle poverty hotspots at the same time. Just to say applications can be submitted at any point up until the cut-off date of 30 September 2022. There may be a second closing date on 30 January 2023. However, the amount of available funding is limited, once it runs out the fund will be closed to applications, this may mean the second closing date doesn't happen.

To find out more and to apply click here.

To contact your local councillor please click here.