News

We’re delighted to have been awarded a Certificate of Excellence at the iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards in recognition of our recent work with Buckinghamshire Council on helping to unify the fault reporting process between Buckinghamshire and its 171 parish and town councils. 

Transforming fault reporting between authorities and local parish and town councils

This collaborative project involved developing some innovative new functionality for Buckinghamshire’s instance of FixMyStreet Pro, our street and environment fault reporting solution, to enable automatic triaging of reports to town and parish councils and better ways of passing reports between authorities.

The functionality shields Buckinghamshire’s residents from the confusion caused by trying to work out whether the local parish, town or unitary authority is responsible for a problem. It also eliminates the need for council staff to manually triage reports, leading to a more efficient user journey for all involved and reducing costs by cutting down administration and failure demand. 

Crucially, this new development helps parish and town councils benefit from FixMyStreet’s ability to improve the reporting experience and close the feedback loop. Not only can residents now report problems out of hours, but the parish and town councils, who do not usually have their own CRM system, can respond to all reports simply by replying to the emails they receive, updating both the report and the customer. 

Impact so far

In a short time, Buckinghamshire is already seeing benefits such as the elimination of duplicate reports between the unitary council and the parish/town councils and a vast reduction in progress chasing calls (already decreased by nearly 50% compared to last year).

For grass and hedge cutting reports alone, by reducing email administration and progress chasing calls into both the council’s Customer Service Centre and into parish and town councils, Buckinghamshire Council anticipates savings of circa £50,000 per year, not including the savings that will be made by the parish and town councils!

Lloyd Jeffries, Service Director (Business Operations) at Buckinghamshire Council said: “We have a published Customer Service Standard, this new process is part of our Customer Promise and definitely makes reporting issues easier by joining things up for our customer, both inside the council and with our local partners. In addition, we have seen a significant decrease in progress chasing calls from the public, compared to the same period last year. We are using technology to get the report to the right team, as well as managing customer expectations at the first point of contact. This is a game changer!”

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If you’d like to discover more about FixMyStreet Pro, request a demo. 

We’re thrilled to announce we have been shortlisted for the Technology award at the LGC Awards 2023 in recognition of our work in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council to unify the fault reporting process between the unitary authority and its 171 parish and town councils. 

The Technology award celebrates developments that bring about increased efficiency, better use of resources and effective behaviour change – all things that we’re proud to say have been achieved through FixMyStreet Pro, our street and environment fault reporting solution, at Buckinghamshire Council.  

Importantly, the new functionality developed through this project can be used by other authorities using FixMyStreet Pro. It can also be adapted to improve report triaging to other external bodies who take responsibility for certain issues.  

Our work with Buckinghamshire Council

This collaborative project involved developing some innovative new functionality for Buckinghamshire’s instance of FixMyStreet Pro to enable automatic triaging of reports to town and parish councils and better ways of passing reports between authorities.

The functionality makes reporting problems easier for residents by working out on their behalf whether the local parish, town or unitary authority is responsible. 

“We are using technology to get the report to the right team, as well as managing customer expectations at the first point of contact. This is a game changer!”

Lloyd Jeffries – Service Director (Business Operations), Buckinghamshire Council

Meanwhile, for Buckinghamshire Council and the local parish and town councils, FixMyStreet Pro eliminates the need for staff to manually triage reports, creating a much smoother user experience for all involved, and reducing costs by cutting down administration and failure demand.  

Crucially, this new development gives parish and town councils the opportunity to benefit from FixMyStreet’s ability to improve the reporting experience and close the feedback loop. Not only can residents now report problems out of hours, but the parish and town councils, who do not usually have the facility to have their own CRM system, can respond to all reports simply by replying to the emails they receive, which will then update the report and the customer.

Impact so far

In a short time, Buckinghamshire is already seeing benefits such as the elimination of duplicate reports between the unitary council and the parish and town councils, plus a vast reduction in progress chasing calls (already decreased by nearly 50% compared to last year).

For grass and hedge cutting reports alone, by reducing email administration and progress chasing calls into both the council’s Customer Service Centre and into parish and town councils, Buckinghamshire Council anticipates savings of circa £50,000 per year, not including the savings that will be made by the parish and town councils!

Lloyd Jeffries, Service Director (Business Operations) at Buckinghamshire Council said: “We have a published Customer Service Standard, this new process is part of our Customer Promise and definitely makes reporting issues easier by joining things up for our customer, both inside the council and with our local partners. In addition, we have seen a significant decrease in progress chasing calls from the public, compared to the same period last year. We are using technology to get the report to the right team, as well as managing customer expectations at the first point of contact. This is a game changer!”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “Buckinghamshire Council has been a very proactive user of FixMyStreet Pro since 2018, helping to shape the development of the solution for the benefit of residents. We’re so pleased to see this partnership and the technology we have developed together recognised by the LGC alongside some other incredible development projects. Good luck to all the finalists.”

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If you’d like to see FixMyStreet Pro in action and discover how it could work for your authority, request a demo. 

On 25 April we’ll be hosting a webinar for local authorities focused on our digital residential waste management service WasteWorks, and we’d love for you to join us.

During the webinar we’ll demonstrate how the service works for local authorities, show how it integrates with different in-cab and payment systems and discuss the impact it has had so far for councils, their residents and their contractors.

Now available on the recently launched G-Cloud 13 framework, WasteWorks was designed in collaboration with Bromley Council and Veolia to simplify access to waste services online and reduce unnecessary contact to the council. It was also shortlisted for a LGC Award 2022 in the Public/Private Partnership category.

Come along to the webinar to:

• learn about WasteWorks’ features and see how they work;
• understand how different councils are using the software and how it is achieving a 40% drop in unnecessary contact while increasing Direct Debit subscriptions;
• have the chance to ask questions about how the software could work for you.

Get your free ticket for the webinar on Eventbrite.

FixMyStreet Pro equips councils with several features designed to help improve the reporting experience for residents by closing the feedback loop. 

One of the most significant of these features is its response template functionality, which enables council staff with the appropriate permissions to create and edit pre-written responses to be sent to report-makers according to the status of the report. 

Why response templates are important

According to research we carried out with YouGov last year, receiving updates in response to a report is one of the most important things citizens expect from a reporting service. It’s also the thing that would most effectively stop them from chasing updates via other channels, which drives up the cost of reports for councils.

By setting up response templates, you can easily provide detailed information to report-makers to help manage their expectations and avoid failure demand, without needing to manually write up a response for each and every report.

Plus, because all FixMyStreet Pro reports are displayed publicly on the map, the response will be shared with any other interested residents, which helps to deter duplication. It is possible for a slightly different response to be shared with the report-maker than the one displayed to the public (more on that below).

Common template responses deal with statuses such as: Report received; Scheduled for inspection; Not council responsibility; Scheduled for repair; Work underway; Unable to fix; Re-opened; and Resolved.

Automated and manual response templates

Different response templates can be created by you and applied to different categories, so that you can tailor the information provided to the problem at hand. 

This can either be done manually by staff – you choose from a drop-down menu, and if any template(s) is assigned to a state, those will be the ones shown when the update changes the state of the report.

Alternatively, templates can be automatically assigned via integration with backend systems or Open311. This means that when FixMyStreet Pro pulls a state-changing update from your system(s), and there is a matching template set up within the integration, then that template will automatically be applied. 

How to create a response template with FixMyStreet Pro

Within the FixMyStreet Pro administration dashboard, users marked as ‘staff’ who have been assigned permissions to ‘Add/edit response templates’ can access the ‘Templates’ manager.

From here, you can input a title and some text for your template, then set which categories and states it should apply to. You may create different templates for each category/state, or use the same templates across multiple categories.

As mentioned above, it is possible to create two responses for each template: one to be emailed directly to the report-maker, and one to be displayed publicly on the map. This is useful for sharing any extra information that you may not want to display publicly, such as feedback surveys.

There is no limit to the number of template responses you can create, and templates can be edited or deleted whenever necessary by staff, enabling you to quickly address any seasonal or situational changes.

If you have an Open311 connection, you can click ‘auto-response’ so that a template will be applied when the state is updated by the automated Open311 process. In this instance, if your Open311 server returns extra text as part of the update, you may put the placeholder {{description}} in the template here, and that placeholder will be replaced by the text from the Open311 server.

If you don’t have an Open311 connection, or your Open311 connection does not provide an immediate initial update, there is a special case where if a template is assigned to the Open state, and marked as ‘auto-response’, then it will automatically be added as a first update to any new report created that matches the template (ie. in the relevant category if assigned). This lets you give e.g. estimated timescales or other useful information up front.

By entering text in the ‘Text for email alert field’, the template text will update the report on the website and the email text will be sent to the user if they have opted into alerts.

Best practice 

When creating templates, you should consider:

• What are the most common response types that you send back to report-makers? It may be worth examining recent responses to find out.
• How should you word your response template text to make it as easy as possible for the report maker to understand the status of their issue?
• What title should you give the template so that it can be easily identified from a drop-down list when it is being applied by staff users?
• Consider whether you want to include a footer with any additional information (such as customer services information, or your website)

While this functionality can be a time-saver, we advise using it with caution to ensure that the template text is applicable to every situation in which it will be automatically applied. For example, we would recommend not assigning a ‘Resolved’ template to the ‘Unable to fix’ state, because this can cause confusion for residents due to the word ‘resolved’ implying that the issue is fixed. 

For more information on how to use FixMyStreet Pro’s response templates, including how to use HTML tags in templates, please read the Pro Manual. 

Got any questions, feel free to get in touch.

The London Borough of Sutton has become the latest council to adopt SocietyWorks’ digital residential waste management portal, WasteWorks, to more efficiently and transparently manage resident access to waste services online.

SocietyWorks is providing a dedicated version of its integrated online waste management portal, WasteWorks, to the London Borough of Sutton. Through the portal, residents can access the council’s domestic waste services, including checking their collection days and requesting new bins, as well as subscribing to and paying for green waste subscriptions, all from within the same self-service workflow.

WasteWorks was launched in 2021 in collaboration with Bromley Council and Veolia, and was shortlisted for a LGC Award 2022. For Sutton, the portal is integrated with Veolia Echo and Barclaycard to provide a more convenient, seamless and transparent online experience for residents, while streamlining processes for staff and contractors to help reduce avoidable contacts and better manage expectations. 

The introduction of WasteWorks is a joint venture between the London Borough of Sutton and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, whose own dedicated version of the portal launched a few months ago for handling green waste. This comes as part of the ongoing improvements being established by the South London Waste Partnership (SLWP), of which both councils are members.

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “It is always an honour to be trusted by a council to introduce a new service and bring about sought-after improvements for citizens. We’re proud to have the backing of the SLWP in introducing WasteWorks for the boroughs of Sutton and Kingston upon Thames. Together, we can deliver a unified digital experience for residents, connecting multiple suppliers together while simplifying online access to waste services for residents.” 

Paul Brockwell, Interim Head of Waste and Street Cleaning at London Borough of Sutton said: “The London Borough of Sutton recently opted for WasteWorks to provide digital waste solutions for our Waste collection service, having witnessed the great work already achieved at The London Borough of Bromley. The system has enabled Sutton Council to provide a seamless and much improved online experience for Sutton residents. SocietyWorks has been extremely sensitive to our needs as an organisation and worked tirelessly to provide the authority with solutions in a very short timeframe that benefit the borough as a whole.”

Take a look at WasteWorks for the London Borough of Sutton.

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Find out more about WasteWorks.

At SocietyWorks we always design our websites as ‘mobile first’, meaning that they work well on any size of device, automatically resize to fit any screen dimension and facilitate a simple, touch-friendly workflow for completing forms.

But did you know that FixMyStreet Pro, our street, highway and environment fault reporting service, is also a progressive web app (PWA)? 

Loosely speaking, this means that each of our clients’ FixMyStreet Pro sites has been designed with ‘app like’ qualities. They look and act like an app and they can be downloaded to a mobile’s home screen like an app.

How do PWAs benefit you?

According to some research we carried out earlier this year, only 22% of citizens want to use an app they have to download to make reports to their local authority,  while 43% would simply prefer to use a website that works well on mobile devices.

However, we know that some of our public sector clients like to be able to offer citizens an app to download to access their services, in addition to a mobile-friendly website.

PWAs provide the ideal solution. Unlike a dedicated app, PWAs give citizens the ability to choose how they want to use the service – whether that’s like a website or like an app –  with no obligation either way. 

They also enable you to provide exactly the same experience to citizens whichever way they are using the service, with new features and functionality automatically available. Conversely, a dedicated app may require updates to be downloaded after the initial installation, and if auto-updates aren’t available, the app won’t work to its maximum potential.

Another handy thing about PWAs is that they permit the addition of offline capability to your website, by downloading a bit of JavaScript (called a service worker) to your device. If you can’t connect to the website then it falls back to the service worker, which can also save reports when you have no connection and then upload them when you do. 

How to save a PWA as an app

To use FixMyStreet Pro as an app, simply load your cobrand site from your mobile’s browser, and from your settings select “Add to home screen”.

A shortcut to the PWA will then appear in the same way that an app does, except when you click it, a new browser tab will open instead of a dedicated app. 

Here’s a step-by-step example of how it works for Buckinghamshire Council’s version of FixMyStreet Pro. 

1. Load the website on your mobile browser
2. Hit the save/share button
3. Select ‘add to home screen’
4. Select ‘ok’/’add’
5. Use FixMyStreet as if it’s an app!

The PWA’s design makes it feel like you’re using a ‘normal’ app, with its mobile-friendly features, but you’re benefiting from using a web-based service that doesn’t require you to keep updating it. 

As you can see, the favicon for the ‘app’ can be branded to use your own logo.

Please note: if no logo is supplied for the favicon, the FixMyStreet logo will be used by default.

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Please speak to your account manager for more information about the PWA version of your FixMyStreet Pro instance. 

Or if you’re not yet using FixMyStreet Pro but you’d like to know more, please get in touch.

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Image: Lucas Hoang

G-Cloud 13 is live at long last, and we’re really pleased to have our two newest products for local government and the public sector joining our offering on the framework.

Buyers can now procure the following SocietyWorks products on G-Cloud 13, via the Crown Commercial Service’s Public Procurement Gateway:

FixMyStreet Pro

Reliable, integrated, map-based street, highway and environment fault reporting for councils, local government bodies and highways agencies, based on FixMyStreet, the UK’s most popular reporting service for citizens.

WasteWorks

Designed with Bromley Council, WasteWorks is a user-centred, front-end domestic waste service that integrates with in-cab systems. Citizens can check bin days, report missed bins, order containers, pay for green or bulky collections and pay for repeat bin collection subscriptions.

FOIWorks

Our open-source, integrated, user-needs focused front-end solution for taking Freedom of Information requests from citizens, developed with Hackney Council and informed by our years of experience running WhatDoTheyKnow.

ApplyWorks

Easy and secure location based applications and payment services for citizens, businesses and councils. Built to GOV.UK design standards, integrated with all line of business systems and equipped with a comprehensive application management system.

If it’s our service discovery and consultancy services you’re looking for, those are available via Digital Outcomes & Specialists 5, and will be listed on the Digital Outcomes 6 framework when it is launched.

For buyers that would prefer not to procure through a framework, or would like a longer contract than G-Cloud 13 will allow, we have a direct call-off contract available for each of our products and services. Please contact us for more information.

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Image: Poodar Chu

Recently we’ve been working with Buckinghamshire Council on introducing some new functionality to FixMyStreet Pro, our integrated street, highway and environment reporting service, to enable automatic triaging of reports to town and parish councils, and better ways of passing reports between authorities.

Parish and town councils

Parish and town councils cover almost the entirety of England and Wales, except for the main urban areas. There are 10,000 parish or town councils in England (National Association for Local Councils), and over 730 town and community councils in Wales (Welsh Local Government Association).

These councils take responsibility for a variety of things within the community, such as bridleways, bus shelters and litter bins, and they sit within larger principal authorities which may also sometimes be responsible for the same things in certain cases.

For this reason, when there’s a problem that needs reporting, it can be hard for citizens to know which level of authority is responsible for what problem and when.

New functionality for FixMyStreet Pro

FixMyStreet has always been able to automatically divert fault reports to other councils and authorities, based on the location and category of the report – but not at the parish level. Until now.

With the new functionality in place, parish and town councils can be set up as sub-bodies to a principal council within its instance of FixMyStreet Pro, and on the national FixMyStreet site. 

This way, categories can be assigned to more than one body, and asset layers can be placed over the map to enable the service to work out for the report-maker whether the report needs to go to the principal authority or the parish level council.

Case study: Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire Council is a unitary authority, but the county itself is made up entirely of parish and town councils. Residents can report numerous issues via Buckinghamshire’s FixMyStreet Pro site, some of which are the responsibility of the unitary council, others the responsibility of the parishes.

Previously, Buckinghamshire staff were forwarding reports to individual parish councils wherever necessary, but this wasn’t ideal, so they asked us to make it possible for FixMyStreet Pro to work out for the resident where the report needs to go, and to send it there without the need for any manual intervention. 

For example, any reports of fly posting are now diverted straight to the correct parish, based on the geo location information provided within the report.

In more complex cases, such as grass cutting, the recipient of these reports depends on the speed limit of the road. So, at one end of the road a grass cutting report might need to go to the parish, but at the other end of the road the report needs to go to the unitary council. 

Thankfully, the report-maker never needs to worry about this, because Buckinghamshire’s FixMyStreet Pro uses a speed limit asset layer, in addition to the geo-location and category, to work out where to send the report.

Additionally, from Buckinghamshire’s FixMyStreet Pro site, you can now view each individual parish or town council on its own map, along with the reports it has received. 

Wider benefits to councils

While Buckinghamshire and its parishes were the focus when building this new functionality, a few of the features we introduced are beneficial to all users of FixMyStreet Pro.

Updating report statuses via email

Arguably the most important one of these features is the ability to provide updates on reports without integration into a backend system. 

As you can imagine, most small parish or town councils don’t have expensive backend systems from which to manage inbound reports. In the past, whenever there’s been no backend system with which to integrate FixMyStreet Pro to facilitate a two-way flow of data, the only option would have been to email the reports.

In the spirit of keeping the feedback loop closed and being able to publicly display a report’s status (eg ‘fixed’ or ‘in progress’) on the site, we’ve made it possible for parish councils to update reports via email using a special code in the subject line, which will correspond to the new status of the report.

Of course, lots of councils or other authorities receiving reports from FixMyStreet may not have a backend system, so this feature is a really positive step forward in ensuring that feedback can always be provided transparently via the platform.

Private text updates

Another feature that will be of use to more than just parish and town councils and their principal authorities is the ability to specify different text to be displayed on the public report update and the private update sent directly to the report-maker. 

This is useful for sharing any extra information that you may not want to display publicly, such as feedback surveys.

Recategorising reports

Finally, Buckinghamshire wanted to be able to recategorise reports, because citizens sometimes select the wrong category. This could lead to reports being sent to a parish council when they should go to the unitary council, or vice versa. 

Now, council staff have the option to reassign a category if needed, which will ensure the report gets to the right place in the end.

For more information about FixMyStreet Pro, you can contact us here.

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Image: Beth Jnr on Unsplash

User groups are among our favourite events in the calendar year. We love to bring together the organisations that use our products – from councils to highways agencies to housing associations – for a few hours to share experiences, ask questions and learn from one other. 

Last week we hosted another of our FixMyStreet Pro user groups, centred on our street, highway and environment reporting service. 

There’s a recording of the user group available to watch for anyone who wanted to come but couldn’t make it, or you can find a brief summary of what you missed below. 

Recently added features

From scheduled emergency messages to easier displaying of asset IDs on a report page, Senior Developer Chris Mytton gave us a tour of the latest features to be added to or updated for FixMyStreet Pro. Watch Chris’ session here.

Process changes and intended outcomes

Head of Product & Service Design Bekki Leaver ran a session explaining some recent changes we’ve made to our development and delivery processes, and exploring our intended outcomes for the future of the product. Take a look.

Parish councils and FixMyStreet Pro in Buckinghamshire

Matthew Somerville, our Head of Development, gave us a demo of some new functionality we’ve been working on with Buckinghamshire Council, which allows principal authorities to use FixMyStreet Pro to easily and intelligently triage reports to parish councils. Check it out.

Report status mapping

‘Don’t mark reports as fixed unless the problem has actually been fixed’ was the main take-home from developer Moray Jones’ session on making sure your report statuses are mapped correctly on FixMyStreet Pro. More on this here.

Empathy mapping

We handed back over to Bekki who guided small breakout groups through an empathy mapping exercise to answer the question: why should I add a photo to my report? Each group had a different persona and situation to explore. If you’re interested in the work Bekki does, get in touch.

Case study: Peabody housing association and FixMyStreet Pro

Tom Broad, Head of Environmental Services Thamesmead at Peabody, joined us to talk about how the housing association is using FixMyStreet Pro, which involves some complex routing of reports between Peabody and the London boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich. Watch the case study.

Communication top tips

Best practice advice for communicating FixMyStreet Pro to residents from our Marketing & PR Manager Sally Bracegirdle. See what Sally had to say.

Roundtable: problem-solving with FixMyStreet Pro

A group discussion on any shared pain points when it comes to digital street and highway reporting, and how we can look to resolve them with future development of FixMyStreet Pro. This is something we’re interested in all year round – please speak to your account manager whenever you have a suggestion to discuss.

Want to join us next time?

If you’re interested in what we do and how FixMyStreet Pro works, why not come along to our next user group to meet our community and see what the product is all about for yourself. Let us know if you’d like an invite. 

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Image: Benjamin Elliott

We’ll be taking FixMyStreet Pro to Highways UK again this year, an exhibition for those working on the UK’s road infrastructure, taking place in Birmingham on 2 – 3 November.

If you’re heading to the event, stop by stand J7 for a fresh, barista-made coffee and learn all about FixMyStreet Pro, our map-based reporting service for street and highway issues, built on the national FixMyStreet website, launched by our parent charity mySociety in 2007.

Since 2012, FixMyStreet Pro, the fully integrated version of FixMyStreet, has been enabling councils, local government bodies and highways agencies to improve the way they take and manage reports from citizens about problems such as potholes, blocked drains and broken street lights.

Ask us about how FixMyStreet Pro can help you to, among other things:

1. reduce duplication and manual intervention;
2. automatically divert irrelevant reports on a nationwide scale;
3. close the feedback loop and avoid failure demand.

There’ll be a few members of the SocietyWorks team at Highways UK – why not connect with them on the event app and schedule a meeting?

Here’s where to find us on the day:

See you there!