Transforming Citizen Services in Local Government

It’s becoming a common theme that citizens have ‘Amazon-esque’ expectations when dealing with local government. That is, one login to request and progress citizen services and see all the data that a council holds about them. The IEG4 platform has all the components to enable councils to deliver this.

The requirement to understand multiple types of application program interfaces (API) and the complexity of their data structures is one of the most difficult elements of joining-up data about a citizen from multiple legacy applications data silos. To assist councils in achieving this ‘golden record’ – the thread of a citizen’s data through multiple suppliers’ databases – IEG4 has developed an API Framework. This framework connects multiple complex data APIs into a single common easily consumable data layer where business users (as opposed to programmers or technology specialists) can access and surface live data in multiple locations. IEG4 already has the most common local government silos plugged into its API framework, including the most complex, such as revenues and benefits from Capita, Civica and NEC.

Today, citizens are selective in the information services they choose to trust. A council’s website is one of those trusted services. A new component of the IEG4 Platform – WebVu – enables councils to surface data about a citizen to that citizen via a single account login on the council website. This gives the citizen a single view of the data a council holds about them.

WebVu allows citizen data to be placed in the most appropriate place e.g., Council Tax information on the Council’s web page about Council Tax. This would only be available to the citizen concerned and only after them logging in. This prioritises placing citizens first (#CitizensFirst) rather than focusing on departmental website structures.

WebVu components are also deployable within council Drupal (and other) websites, which enables councils to take advantage of open-source shared Drupal work such as those funded by Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (which has led to LocalGov Drupal). With the WebVu components, hyper-personalisation of the website can now be baked in.

This self-service facility reduces human to human contact with the council whether it be via phone (call centre), or face-to-face (office drop-ins) allowing councils to provide the citizen what they want using cheaper web/digital channels. Avoiding unnecessary human contact saves a council money which can then be redeployed to more critical services. It also offers a better, easier to use service for the citizen, and, of course, is available 24×7.