Case studies

The team has identified Teams as the suitable portal to deliver online official council meetings. Its versatility allows Cllrs to join meetings either through video or dial in options in a secure setting.

Cyber security managers in local authorities have their hands full trying to ensure their organisation doesn’t become yet another headline-grabbing example of a damaging cyber-attack. It’s an uphill battle and judging from the rapidly growing number of victims, it’s a battle many are not winning. The London Borough of Bexley provides an insight into the cyber security gaps which led them to seek a major change of strategy, and how the team overcame these challenges and significantly raised its level of cyber security.

Screening has a significant role to play in delivering earlier diagnosis of most common cancers. We applied to be part of the LGA Behavioural Insights programme to work alongside national experts and develop an innovation to increase cancer-screening rates in targeted communities.

A mixed method approach was adopted and a pragmatic behavioural insights framework was employed to inform the redesign of the service offer with the aim of making treatment uptake easy, attractive, timely and social (EAST). We explored factors affecting treatment uptake through a behavioural insights survey (Phase 1) collected between September 2018 and January 2019, and qualitative interviews (Phase 2) with HART service users conducted between October 2018 and May 2019. Recommendations were implemented between September and December 2019. We used routinely collected data to compare service uptake rates pre and post service redesign.

In December 2017 Cornwall Council underwent a corporate peer challenge which called for the organisation to embark on a ‘digital revolution’ to transform service delivery to customers.

North Devon is a primarily rural area, peripheral in geography and with an ageing population. The council recognises that a more ambitious and interlinked approach to growth is required to sustain North Devon into the future. This project looked to develop and pursue North Devon Council’s corporate objective to grow North Devon, as part of our Productivity Experts programme.

As part of a transformation project, the council set about exploring ways in which it could operate regulatory activity more effectively and efficiently. This case study forms part of the productivity experts resource.

The Productivity Experts Programme grant funding supported the redesigning of the commissioning of our placement function for Children’s Services and considering future integration with the Adult’s services; as well as developing effective performance management processes and systems, and a quality assurance framework.

Councils are constantly seeking to deliver efficiencies and boost income, which makes revenue collection a logical area of focus. At Brent, Social Engine was appointed as our productivity expert, and their expertise was used to design and deliver a randomised control trial (RCT) to test application of behavioural insights to the rent arrears recovery process.

Led by a bid writing expert, this project reviewed Warwick District Council's approach to how it identifies and applies for external funding. This case study forms part of our productivity experts resource.