The challenge
Newcastle City Council is the local government authority for the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne.
In a bid to make community grants more accessible to its citizens, NCC needed a digital-first case management solution that could bridge multiple technologies, automate processes and deliver accurate reporting for compliance. The ultimate goal: to deliver a streamlined and transparent end-to-end application process for a range of grants including, more recently, its Clear Air Zone (CAZ) grant.
End-to-end application process
Along with handling telephone calls, the council team had to field numerous unstructured emails. This created more manual work for staff who had to re-key customer data, such as bank account details, and rely on manual spreadsheets to process payments. With limited validation capability, the risk of claim fraud, error and audit failure were high.
Plus, in response to a legal directive, NCC needed to reduce legal levels of traffic-related pollution. Owners of specific vehicles, which didn’t meet national CAZ emissions requirements, needed a simple way to check eligibility and apply for grants. This would include complex applications involving a number of vehicles in a fleet.
They turned to Liberty Create, our low-code platform.
“Liberty Create has given us the ability to build new solutions at pace. I’ve never felt so excited and empowered about saying to customers with the local authority that yes, we can do this now!”
Paul Doney
ICT Manager Digital Solutions, Newcastle City Council