The Council’s Customer Development team won Silver in the Innovation Award category, which is open to private or third sector organisations as well as the public sector, for their pioneering participation in the Scottish Government’s innovative digital solutions programme, CivTech 2.0.
Customers contact the Council in various ways and at different times of the day or night, communicating directly with a wide-range of staff. Through the CivTech project, the Council worked alongside innovative suppliers to develop the CoDo system, which brings together data from many separate systems into one central hub.
The CoDo system has helped the Council gain a better understanding as to the reasons why customers contact them and meet their needs.
Convenor of the Finance and Economy Committee, Cllr Margaret Brisley, said: “Our participation in CivTech 2.0 has proved an unqualified success and I am proud that the developments made by our service have been highlighted through receiving this award.
“The challenge was to better understand our data in order to improve all aspects of our services. The new CoDo system will help the Council identify and meet key customer needs, while achieving a substantial cost saving.”
The Children and Families team also won Silver in the Intelligent Council category, which acknowledges the efforts made by public sector organisations to improve their local area.
Stirling Council has, in conjunction with partner agencies, reinvented how it delivers services for young people who are either in, or close to needing care, to improve outcomes for some of our most vulnerable children.
The transformation was underpinned by the gathering and analysis of data over a 10-year period which informed the planning of services.
A range of new services were introduced to target gaps to support children to remain with their families or relatives. Where this was not possible, strengthened local fostering resources enabled young people to remain closer to families, maximising the chance of rehabilitation.
Convenor of the Children and Young People Committee at Stirling Council, Cllr Susan McGill, said: “This award is a fantastic recognition for the excellent work done by our Children and Families service. Stirling Council is ambitious for our children and young people and is working more closely with our communities to identify needs as early as possible to give all children and young people the best life opportunities.”
The awards ceremony, held in Church House, Westminster, was sponsored so that no public money was spent on the event and each winner was provided with free places.