Case studies

Hackney Council’s Windrush Generations programme has transformed the Council’s engagement with elders, and others, from our African-Caribbean communities. The programme directly engaged 3000 Windrush elders and their descendants across 25 activities.

To make it as easy as possible, we have gathered all our coronavirus case studies in one place.

Following work undertaken by the council’s Constitutional Working Group in January, the Democratic Services team at Lambeth had already made a good start on a remote council meeting project even before the COVID-19 situation. This meant they were in an advantageous position when the regulations changed to permit virtual council meetings.

Find below a case study of Oldham Council's work during the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2017, the coastal flooding emergency at Jaywick Sands in Essex highlighted the need for a merging of data sources between the county council and the districts in order to best identify and evacuate vulnerable residents.

Birmingham City Council held an Extraordinary Meeting of the Full Council, with 80 members, on 28 April 2020. The week before that, meetings had been held for Cabinet, Planning Committee and the Health and Wellbeing Board, using Microsoft Teams. Using Microsoft Teams

Swindon Borough Council ordinarily held quarterly meetings of their Wider Management Team, which involved approximately 120 Directors, Heads of Service and Senior Managers coming together in face to face round table meetings.  Working within the restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, these meetings were no longer possible. 

At first, Democratic Services, working with the IT team, tested a number of potential software providers and decided upon Zoom US due to the consistent quality, ease of use and favourable functionality. It also helped that many of our Members were already familiar with this platform in their private lives.

‘Keep calm and carry on’ at first seems at odds with the challenges of lockdown. But there are areas of our work at Harborough where we need to carry on supporting people and prepare for life after lockdown. Making planning decisions is one of those areas, vital to the re-building of the economy. Faced with what is probably the largest planning application that Harborough has dealt with, it was important that our first ever remote faced."

The COVID-19 pandemic has led the Government to take measures to encourage social isolation and slow the spread of the disease.