Digital by design
We will design and develop digital services based on our residents, businesses, elected members, staff and visitor needs.
- Continue to bring service design and product thinking to the council, delivering a user-centred approach to the design and delivery of our digital services
- Design and build a leading, accessible website that is shaped by our users’ needs
- Modernise the customer access experience, embracing self-service and digital opportunities, such as creating an omni-channel (providing users with a seamless unified experience) digital platform for our residents and businesses
- Integrate our digital platforms, where appropriate, with social media and other online platforms that our communities use to provide a more cohesive and personalised experience
- Modernise and refresh our core services (e.g. the online payment system)
- Improve our online services so that requests are completed at the first attempt
- Our residents and businesses will only have to share their information with us once, with an overall improved user experience
- Our residents and businesses will find our digital services easy to use, find and understand. They will be accessible without the need for the customer to know which service or department they require, whilst providing an equitable approach to those who cannot engage digitally – resulting in improved satisfaction with council services
- Our residents and businesses will be able to give direct feedback on our digital services and will be confident that we will improve them as a result of their feedback
- Improved support for long-term customers of major business areas like adult and children’s social care
- Staff will spend less time dealing with routine queries
- Improved staff satisfaction through better experience and use of DDaT
- Happier elected members with fewer resident complaints
- Deliver services that can be completed entirely online with digital assistance if needed
- Take a user-centred design approach across all our existing and new online services, making them safe, easy to use and accessible, learning from the best of government and private sector organisations
- Continue working to remove barriers to digital inclusion, driving open collaboration and user-centred design - furthering our collaboration with organisations such as Cwmpas, Digital Inclusion Alliance Wales, the Welsh Government, Swansea Bay City Deal and any other bodies that will support digital inclusion both in Neath Port Talbot and across the wider Welsh community
- Learn from other public and private sector organisations to further develop our own digital design principles and embed them across the council
- Review and map current customer journeys across the council as a starting point for mapping person centric service design
- Review and design new digital services, focusing on existing poor areas of resident and business experience, high-volume services, and highly manual processes, ensuring a 'One Council' approach
- Develop a single, coherent digital platform that gives residents and businesses a personalised digital front door to council services
- Provide residents and businesses with automated progress updates once they have placed a request, improving their customer experience and reducing failure
- We will embrace new technologies where appropriate, developing a culture of innovation to improve services for our customers
- Provide digital support if residents and businesses need assistance to complete a request
Rapid digital change has increased users expectations of the services provided by the council. We recognise the need for our digital services to meet and exceed these expectations where possible.
While many of our council services are already online, there is significant scope to enhance or simplify these services. We will further our understanding of the changing needs of our users, improve the design, efficiency and effectiveness of our services to deliver a better experience.
Our vision is to provide a seamless and integrated user experience across multiple channels, including online, mobile, social, chat, over the phone or in person. We will create a consistent and convenient experience for our users, regardless of which channel they choose to interact with the council, ensuring it is available when they need to use it. Our NPT Digital Service Standards clearly set out how council teams will develop and deliver the best public services.
Although we believe that digital transformation is key to meeting the challenge of ensuring we continue to deliver council services with fewer resources, the transformation must be people-led and not technology-led, which links to the Digital Organisational Development enabler set out in the Corporate Plan.
Person centric service design doesn’t just involve applying technology on top of our existing council services, it means re-thinking our services so that they are designed based on person centred outcomes rather than the council needs.
As our users continue to increase their interactions with the council through our digital channels, we envisage that digital transformation will ensure many of our council services will become increasingly automated and more importantly designed to meet our user needs.