The challenge
Medway Council, a unitary authority serving communities in southeast England, faced a digital crisis which had been building for years. The council was operating 44 core IT systems with overlapping customer contact routes – this created a landscape of duplication, siloed workflows and costly inefficiencies.
For residents, simple tasks like booking a household waste visit meant navigating complex, duplicated forms or contacting multiple teams. For staff, declining confidence in systems had led to reliance on manual processing, shared inboxes, spreadsheets and phone calls. Processes desperately needed digitising. A previous transformation programme had prioritised short-term cost savings over sustainable service redesign. It resulted in headcount reductions without enough investment in the digital systems to support them. Frontline staff had fewer resources and struggled under the weight of legacy CRMs and disconnected eForms platforms. Even high-performing digital services generated thousands of follow-up calls because they lacked end-to-end functionality.
Public services reimagined
Rather than pursuing a patchwork of updates to legacy technology, Medway made the bold decision to reset. The council committed to designing a digital-first authority around service design, human needs and scalable platforms. This vision became Medway 2.0, a cross-council change programme to build a council fit for the 21st century.
Medway consolidated its digital service delivery around two core platforms. Utilising one for internal automation and Jadu’s Digital Platform for all customer-facing services, this enabled the council to migrate away from its legacy CRM.
“The biggest win is cultural. The transformation has restored staff confidence and teams now take ownership of their services. We’ve moved from digitising old ways of working to building a new kind of local authority that is inclusive, responsive and driven by citizen needs.”
Digital Team
Medway Council
The solution
The council invested in training an internal team of low-code builders, many of whom had no prior IT experience, to design and deploy services using Jadu’s no-code tools.
Within just four days of hands-on training, the team could build full workflows, allowing rapid transformation at scale.
Over six months, the team rebuilt 29 forms and migrated 72 associated workflows into Jadu Connect. This shift reduced system duplication and delivered an immediate annual cost saving of £55,000 by enabling the retirement of the old CRM.
Every new or migrated service followed a structured service design approach, with common patterns such as reporting, triage, case investigation and automated updates standardised across all areas.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Medway had to re-open its household waste sites safely. Working with Jadu, the team expanded an existing van booking system to accommodate 22 sites across Kent within just five weeks.
The solution handled 15,000 requests in a six-week period with no system downtime, with over 72% of traffic handled digitally.
The redesigned nuisance vehicles process is a perfect example of Medway’s new approach. Before, residents faced multiple confusing entry points. Staff dealt with non-integrated forms, duplicate responses and manual reviews.
Rebuilt on Jadu, the service starts with a single, user-friendly landing page. A boundary map enables users to view previously reported vehicles, preventing duplicates. DVLA checks are automated via an API, dynamic rules reduce unnecessary submissions and automated emails keep residents informed.
The impact: A 75% reduction in manual officer workload, faster response times and fewer invalid reports.
“We knew we couldn’t keep patching the old systems – we needed to reimagine the council from the ground up. Staff morale and confidence in systems are now going from strength to strength.”
Digital Team
Medway Council
The result
-
£55,000+ annual savings from decommissioning the legacy CRM and cutting duplicate systems
-
200+ forms and workflows built in-house using low-code/no-code tools, giving the council the flexibility to adapt quickly
-
6-month migration of 72 workflows and 29 forms to Jadu Connect, with staff learning the tools in just 4 days
-
75% less manual work on nuisance vehicle reports – freeing staff up for complex cases needing human attention
-
15,000+ waste booking requests handled in 6 weeks during COVID-19 with no downtime and 72% digital channel usage.
A user-focused digital platform
Medway went from a tangle of disconnected systems to a modern, user-focused digital platform. By using Jadu’s tools and really committing to service design thinking, they proved that local government transformation doesn’t have to be slow, expensive or dependent on outside consultants. They built something flexible that their own people can run and improve. And critically, they’ve rebuilt staff confidence – teams want to own and improve their services now. Medway is a prime example of councils modernising how they serve their communities.