Delivering critical services with greater efficiency
The diverse range of responsibilities undertaken by local government organisations to serve their communities are critical to the fabric of society. Social care for children and adults; education and public health; environment, roads and leisure; housing and planning, and financial services, such as council tax and benefits are perhaps some of the most important.
However, the public purse has continued to shrink and local authorities have been left reeling. Macroeconomic events have produced successive financial shocks, prompting central government to slash budgets.
The narrative for councils across the UK is to do more with less. The underlying challenge that this has set councils is to become more efficient.
Here we highlight how forward thinking, innovative councils are putting Whitespace WS to use in imaginative ways to help them to do a better job of delivering public services more efficiently.
Exemplary use cases by councils throughout the UK
The central purpose for which Whitespace software solutions are designed is to enable a more efficient approach to managing the waste and environmental mission. However, the software provides a great deal of flexibility, and helps to inspire creative thinking. Here are some exemplary ways in which UK councils are currently putting solutions built on the Whitespace platform to use, including some that assist in the wider remit of local authorities.
- Reducing contaminated waste – A metropolitan borough council user of Whitespace automatically contacts residents via email or text should collection crews repeatedly report that recycling bins contain contaminated waste. This helps educate residents around how to recycle and reduces contamination rates. Through the use of software automation within Whitespace, council resources are freed up to focus on other tasks.
- Fly-tipping prevention – We enable a district council to generate a heat map in the Whitespace analytics product to identify fly-tipping hotspots. This enables the officers of the environmental enforcement services department to plan preventative measures, such as setting up CCTV cameras to deter fly-tipping across the council’s territory.
- Bin collection reminders – Following the implementation of Whitespace in April 2021, another council implemented large changes to bin rounds in November 2021. After identifying potential efficiencies that could be made, this LA used the Whitespace Resident App to assist with the roll out of the changes. The Resident App sends residents a push notification the night before their collection, and this is excellent for keeping residents up to date with their new collections.
- Vehicle defect maintenance – There is a local authority that has integrated Whitespace into their Fleet Management System to create a more efficient approach to vehicle maintenance. Should a crew identify a defect during their daily checks, the Whitespace solution instantly notifies the workshop via the Fleet Management System, enabling it to prepare to correct the defects. This accelerates the maintenance process and reduces the downtime of both vehicles and resource.
- Intelligent waste collection – A leading environmental services company that operates in partnership with a council uses Whitespace Mobile to take a more intelligent approach to litter bin collection. The bin location and the frequency of collection information was analysed. Whitespace was used to apply a schedule, allowing the delivery partner to streamline and better manage the collection process with increased visibility. This also improves the ability to assist with resident requests.
- Deliveries to vulnerable citizens – During the Covid pandemic, a borough council customer used Whitespace to manage Food & Medicine deliveries to the vulnerable, with over 2,600 deliveries being organised.
Bring your ideas for more efficient public services to life with Whitespace
Should you want to know more about how any of these solutions could be applied to help your local government organisation deliver public services more efficiently, we’ll be only too glad to help. Or, if you have your own idea and want some help to help bring it to life, please get in touch.
To see what Whitespace could do for your local government services, book your free Whitespace demo to see how our software works.