The Covid crisis became an unexpected catalyst, forcing rapid adoption and proving the platform’s capabilities under pressure. Building on their experience, in 2021, the team turned back to their original mission of systematically replacing legacy infrastructure. They achieved:
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The complete decommissioning of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
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Elimination of Azure Stack hosting costs
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Migration from spreadsheet-based processes to integrated applications
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Decommissioning multiple legacy e-form applications.
The team has since gone on to build a vast and impressive array of applications (on the next tab).
The team has gone on to build a vast and impressive array of applications:
Place applications (Built environment)
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Licensing platform: Including 14 different licence types on a single platform architecture, from skip permits to animal licensing, the system enables businesses to manage licences affecting multiple sites effectively.
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Dropped kerb applications: Driveway permissions with One Network API integration, allowing them to check for conflicting roadworks.
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Street naming and numbering: Allowing developers to apply for new properties.
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Land charges: Solicitor and conveyancer services.
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Healthy Homes: Energy efficiency grants program.
People applications (Human services)
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Disabled person’s freedom passes: The ability to apply for travel passes for London transport.
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Directory of services: Self-maintaining directory which enables third-sector organisations to self-register and includes automated email reminders which prevent their data becoming out of date – shifting the burden of service provision from the council to community organisations.
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Equalities data collection: Council-wide equality monitoring tool where data can be called from any other app or external system, centralising equalities data collection.
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Red file: Staff safety alert system for high-risk properties or individuals, balancing staff safety with data protection.
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School admissions appeals: Key Stage 1 and 2 school allocation appeals, replacing spreadsheet-based workflows with an end-to-end process automation for appeals.
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Foster parent recruitment: Foster carer recruitment and training management.
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Citizenship ceremonies: As well as introducing an online booking process for general and private ceremonies, this app uses AI to extract data from Home Office printed documents and automated communication to contact eligible citizens.
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Shared lives: Enables Croydon to match accommodation for people who wish to provide or are seeking suitable accommodation, helping to provide disability support and companionship for vulnerable residents.
Waste and recycling services
These all integrate via API to Echo, Croydon’s waste services provider’s system
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Bin collection days
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Missed bin reports/crew-related issues
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Assisted bin collections application
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Garden waste service – new subscriptions, renewals, managing your service
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Bulky waste orders – new orders, amending orders, cancelling orders.
Homelessness booking appointments
Croydon’s first foray into the booking system, which has since evolved into work they are doing for the Registrars service (citizenship ceremony booking, birth, death, marriage and civil partnership notice appointments).
Core services
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General enquiries: A comprehensive enquiry application handling 400+ service lines within Croydon’s corporate contact centre.
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Contact the council: A self-service version of general enquiries with a self-service decision tree to identify the correct service.
Payment processing and reconciliation
The following applications now include integrated payment processing, which has unlocked revenue streams:
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Building control applications
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Dropped kerb
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Missed bins
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Bin orders
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Garden waste
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Bulky waste orders
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Licensing
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Land charges
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Citizenship ceremony bookings.
Croydon built a powerful Document Intelligence solution, integrating with AI to streamline their citizenship process. Each month, the Home Office sends a list of individuals eligible to apply for citizenship in Croydon in a printed format. Rather than manually processing this data, the council can scan the documents and extract key data points automatically using AI, saving significant time and ensuring accuracy at scale. The extracted data is fed into a smart engagement platform with a customer-facing portal, enabling two-way interaction.
A priority for the Digital Team is delivering a better experience for users by removing unnecessary barriers. The approach is grounded in Government Digital Service (GDS) principles, emphasising clarity, simplicity and user-focused design.
As such, they do not require residents to register or log in to a customer portal, Croydon services are made available directly through the website in a seamless, low-code environment. Users transition from the website into forms without even noticing a platform change, they just complete tasks quickly and simply. And at the end of each journey, users receive clear guidance on next steps via email.
Submissions are immediately accessible to back-office teams for processing, with full case visibility for contact centre staff to offer responsive support if needed. It’s a service model that meets modern user expectations: Fast and intuitive.
Some standout applications have been developed, including apps supporting fostering recruitment and citizenship ceremonies. Both replaced outdated, spreadsheet-based processes with modern, data-driven systems to improve efficiency and generate revenue.
The fostering enquiry form focuses on the early stages of acquiring foster carers, from marketing and training through to event bookings. It includes a public-facing portal where prospective carers can engage with the council. Each interaction contributes to a scoring mechanism, enabling staff to identify and prioritise the most engaged candidates.
This strategic focus has helped the team streamline outreach and target resources more effectively, resulting in an increase in interested potential fosterers becoming foster families, from 6% to 16%. This is now a key part of Croydon’s fostering efforts.
The Births, Deaths and Notice registrations (marriages and civil partnerships) application is in development and will follow a similar model to the citizenship ceremonies process. It will offer rich booking functionality and integrated payments to improve user experience and operational performance.
Croydon’s eight-person development team represents a successful skills transformation.
It includes three experienced developers, a former system administrator for Microsoft Dynamics, a dedicated lead tester managing quality assurance and a junior developer progressing to form building. All have trained in Liberty Create and most of them were already employed by Croydon Council. They are supported by staff with expertise in other disciplines such as UX design, product ownership, product management and delivery, content design and user research.
The experienced developers have adapted impressively to low-code development, embracing the shift because of the clear benefits in speed and efficiency. Any initial concerns about becoming deskilled in traditional programming languages like C#, were forgotten once they experienced the pace at which solutions could be built, unlocking faster delivery without compromising technical depth.
