Blog posts about news

Brent Council is working with SocietyWorks to improve the online experience for residents when contacting the authority about two of its most in-demand services: residential waste and street and environment reporting.   

Residents in Brent can now make use of two new digital portals, both powered by SocietyWorks’ citizen-centred technology: one for making waste-related requests, reports and payments online, using WasteWorks; the other for reporting street and environmental problems, using FixMyStreet Pro.

Branded to look exactly like the rest of Brent Council’s online environment and integrated directly with the Council’s existing asset, in-cab and payment systems, both WasteWorks and FixMyStreet Pro have enabled the council to facilitate a smooth transition for residents and staff, with no interruption to delivery. These integrations also permit information to be shared to and from residents, the Council and its contractors to help keep the feedback loop closed and improve resident satisfaction.

Brent Council’s dedicated instance of WasteWorks simplifies access to waste services online by providing one front door for all transactions, such as reporting a missed collection, ordering a new container or paying for a subscription to a green waste collection. Through integration, the portal can provide real-time updates about collections to residents to help Brent close the feedback loop, manage expectations and avoid unnecessary contact.

The portal was designed in collaboration with Bromley Council, and was shortlisted for the Public/Private Partnership award at the LGC Awards 2022. For Brent, we hope to replicate the success Bromley has seen with WasteWorks, with a 40% drop in unnecessary contact within the first few months of launching and a continual rise in subscriptions to waste services.

Meanwhile, through FixMyStreet Pro, residents can report local problems such as potholes, blocked drains and fly-tipping. The solution is designed as a progressive web app, giving residents the option to use it as an app or a website, with no obligation either way. It also has the unique ability to automatically triage reports on a nationwide scale, including to Transport for London, which reduces avoidable contact and eliminates manual intervention.

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “Consistency is key when it comes to improving the digital experience for residents, and with both WasteWorks and FixMyStreet Pro working in tandem for Brent, residents will benefit from using an efficient and intuitive interface across two different but equally in-demand service areas. It is a pleasure to collaborate with a council that takes such a forward-thinking and thorough approach to digital transformation.”

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If you would like to know more about FixMyStreet Pro or WasteWorks, request a free, informal demo here.

Northumberland County Council is the latest local authority to have chosen SocietyWorks’ FixMyStreet Pro as its new reporting solution for street, highway and environmental issues.

Potholes, fly-tipping, broken street lights and other local place-based issues in Northumberland can now be reported to Northumberland County Council using a brand new installation of FixMyStreet Pro. 

Provided by SocietyWorks, the wholly owned subsidiary of civic technology charity mySociety, FixMyStreet Pro is a long-running, map-based solution developed in collaboration with councils, which integrates with existing backend systems to create a seamless reporting experience and close the feedback loop between residents, the council and its contractors. 

For Northumberland, the solution is integrated with the Causeway Alloy asset management system, ensuring reports go to the correct team and enabling updates to be sent back to report-makers. With all reports displayed on the map and the capability to automatically divert reports to other authorities, including to National Highways, FixMyStreet Pro will help Northumberland to increase transparency and reduce unnecessary contact. 

Glen Sanderson, Leader of Northumberland County Council said: “We’re so pleased to be launching this system which should revolutionise the way we deal with issues on our roads and footpaths.

“This new online tool is the most direct way to report anything to us that needs fixing, cleaning or clearing across the county.

“In a short few clicks, people can easily alert the council to an issue and receive an update once it’s been resolved.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “Since launching in 2012, FixMyStreet Pro’s development has been guided by the councils using the solution and their residents’ needs.

“As a not-for-profit organisation passionate about helping local authorities to innovate using integrated, citizen-centred technology, it is great to see another council choose FixMyStreet Pro and join our collaborative network.

“We have really enjoyed working with Northumberland and we look forward to seeing the council use the solution and get involved in its future.”

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Want to know more about FixMyStreet Pro? Request a demo to see how the solution could work for you.

We are delighted to announce that we are now an Associate Member of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG).

LCRIG brings together central and local government, supply chain and the wider highways community to ensure ongoing improvements in the highways sector.

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “Joining LCRIG is an exciting milestone for SocietyWorks, having been working in partnership with councils to support accessible and effective digital citizen engagement in maintaining the UK’s road and highway network since 2007, when our parent charity launched FixMyStreet, its national, map-based reporting service for local street-based issues.

“Fast-forward a few years to the launch of FixMyStreet Pro, a fully integrated version of the national service, designed in collaboration with a handful of forward-thinking councils who saw the vast potential in having a truly synchronised reporting service that is capable of integrating with numerous business systems, automatically triaging reports to the correct authority on behalf of citizens, and closing the feedback loop between report-makers, councils and their external contractors.

“Now, we are proud to be a well-established and trusted provider of several citizen-centred digital solutions to over 35 different councils, highways agencies and other public bodies. Our FixMyStreet Pro solution continues to build on 15 years of experience creating a reporting process for a broad range of localised road and highway issues that’s as smooth and satisfactory as possible for the report-maker, and for council staff.

“We take enormous pride in our collaborative approach to working with councils; it is your needs, along with those of your residents that sit at the heart of what we do. We see that approach mirrored in LCRIG, so it made perfect sense for us to align ourselves with the community and see how we can help each other to further innovate and facilitate effective, manageable and scalable digital transitions.”

For more information about LCRIG, please visit the website. Or if you would like to know more about how we help councils and highways agencies provide more citizen-friendly technology, please get in touch.

Originally launched in 2007 by our parent charity mySociety, FixMyStreet is a national reporting service for local street and environmental problems that sends reports to the correct authority even if the report-maker doesn’t know who that is. 

Citizens can use the website, or they can download an app from the app store if they prefer. Until very recently, that app was a dedicated, ‘traditional’ app that ran on a different codebase to the website, and to each of the FixMyStreet Pro sites built for SocietyWorks’ client councils and other public sector bodies.

Not anymore though.

The FixMyStreet app has now been replaced with a brand new app store progressive web app.

This is very good news for app users, the councils who receive reports from FixMyStreet, and those who use FixMyStreet Pro as their own reporting solution – here’s why.

• Assets on the map

The new app store PWA enables assets like street lights and grit bins that were previously only available on FixMyStreet Pro sites to be displayed on the national site and app, meaning citizens are always able to make reports containing the most accurate information possible, no matter where they make the report.

• One codebase

Having a PWA instead of a website and separate dedicated app means that we don’t need to maintain two different codebases, helping us to keep costs down for our public sector clients without compromising on service delivery.

• Offline reporting

PWAs permit offline capability to websites by downloading a bit of JavaScript (called a service worker) to devices, allowing reports to be started on the website or app without internet connection and finished when back online. This is particularly handy for users in more rural areas where connectivity is poor.

• A consistent user experience

With everything running from the same codebase, this also means that everyone always enjoys the same user experience, with updates made to the website automatically reflected on app store PWAs. It also means accessibility is of the same high standard across the board.

What are progressive web apps?

Progressive web apps (PWAs) are websites that have been designed with ‘app like’ qualities. They look and act like an app and can be downloaded to a mobile’s home screen like an app – either from an app store or by simply saving the website directly to your device.

The main differences between PWAs and ‘normal’ dedicated apps is that they run from the same codebase and users are not obligated to download them in order to use them. Plus, they enable you to provide exactly the same experience to users across the website and “app”, with new features and functionality automatically available.

Is FixMyStreet Pro a PWA too?

Yes, and that’s nothing new! FixMyStreet Pro was already a PWA, giving the councils and other public sector bodies that use the solution the ability to offer their users the choice to use a website, or download their PWA if they prefer. 

Individually branded FixMyStreet Pro PWAs aren’t downloaded from an app store. Instead, users need to load the website from a browser on their chosen device and save it to their home screen – it will then work exactly the same as an app store PWA.

With all FixMyStreet Pro sites connected to the national service, the solution is capable of triaging reports on a nationwide scale, diverting reports meant for other authorities or agencies like National Highways.

Want to know more about FixMyStreet or FixMyStreet Pro? Get in touch with us. 

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Image: William Fortunato

Southwark Council is the latest in a fast-growing number of councils to adopt SocietyWorks’ map-based reporting solution FixMyStreet Pro for taking reports of street cleaning issues from residents.

Residents in the London borough of Southwark can now report street and environmental faults, such as fly-tipping, graffiti and overgrown grass, using a brand new installation of FixMyStreet Pro, built specifically for Southwark Council. 

Provided by SocietyWorks, the wholly owned subsidiary of long-running civic technology charity mySociety, FixMyStreet Pro offers a simple, accessible and intuitive reporting experience and will feed reports directly into Southwark’s asset management system Confirm via integration. 

Crucially, FixMyStreet Pro will help Southwark to close the feedback loop for residents without adding extra workload for staff by automatically pulling updates back out of Confirm for report-makers.

The new system displays all reports publicly on the map and is also capable of automatically diverting reports meant for other authorities, including for Transport for London, which will enable Southwark to increase transparency and improve the reporting user experience for both its residents and its staff.

Cllr Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Parks, Streets & Clean Air, said: “Our new online tool is the most direct way to report anything to us that needs fixing, cleaning or clearing on Southwark’s estates and streets. In a short few clicks, you can easily alert the council to an issue and receive an update once it’s been resolved.

“We chose FixMyStreet Pro because it was the most user friendly street cleaning platform on the market. It takes away the stress of knowing who to contact at the council about issues we know our residents really care about, like fly tipping. We look forward to working with residents through FixMyStreet Pro to keep our streets cleaner, greener and healthier.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “We are delighted to have yet another London borough benefit from FixMyStreet Pro’s ability to simplify the reporting process and connect councils together for the satisfaction of citizens.

“It has been a genuine pleasure to work with the team at Southwark, who have kept their residents’ needs at the front and centre of their rollout of FixMyStreet Pro. We look forward to seeing residents and staff make use of the new system.” 

FixMyStreet Pro for Southwark Council can be found here: https://report.southwark.gov.uk/ 

Camden Council joins over twenty other councils and public sector bodies in using FixMyStreet Pro as its citizen-facing online fault reporting tool for street and environmental issues. 

A new, dedicated version of FixMyStreet Pro has launched for the London Borough of Camden, through which residents can report issues such as potholes, fly-tipping and broken street lights. 

Developed by SocietyWorks, the wholly owned subsidiary of civic technology charity mySociety, FixMyStreet Pro is a user-friendly, map-based online reporting solution, designed to make it easy for residents to accurately report problems on any device.

FixMyStreet Pro will help to reduce report duplication by displaying all reports on the map and close the feedback loop by integrating with Camden’s backend system Symology to facilitate a two-way flow of data from council to report-maker. 

Camden will also benefit from FixMyStreet Pro’s unique ability to automatically divert irrelevant reports to the correct council or authority, including to Transport for London, reducing unnecessary contact and improving processes.

Councillor Adam Harrison, Cabinet member for a sustainable Camden said: “Having the most up to date information about where there are any problems on roads and pavements across Camden can help us to respond to these quicker.

“Reports provided via the new FixMyStreet app and website are vital to this. Issues such as potholes, broken street lighting, damaged road signs, and blocked or flooded drains can now be reported quickly on the go and allow users to provide the exact location and upload a photo.

“This information is then sent directly to our engineers so they can investigate and seek to fix the problem in a more efficient and effective manner. The individual who reported the issue is then updated once the issue reported has been resolved.”

Angela Dixon, Managing Director at SocietyWorks said: “Camden is the tenth London borough council to have chosen FixMyStreet Pro as its fault reporting solution, along with Transport for London.

“This is a really significant step forward, not just for Camden, but for the capital as a whole, with FixMyStreet Pro creating a transparent and unified fault reporting process, capable of cross-borough report triaging, which makes it as easy as possible for London residents to report problems wherever they are.”

FixMyStreet Pro for Camden Council is now live for residents to use: https://fixmystreet.camden.gov.uk/  

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. 

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

There’s an updated call-off contract available for each of SocietyWorks’ products and services for local government and the public sector. 

The contract will be of particular interest to customers wanting to purchase a product directly instead of procuring via a framework, or those wishing to agree longer term contracts than some frameworks, like the Digital Marketplace, allow. 

It should also help customers to access newer products that launch before a framework has been updated, especially in instances where framework updates are delayed. 

For those still wanting to procure via a framework, our products and services continue to be available for procurement via the Digital Marketplace, and various other supplier platforms. 

WasteWorks and ApplyWorks will join FixMyStreet Pro and FOIWorks on G-Cloud 13 when it is launched in November. Until then, the latter two are available via G-Cloud 12.

Meanwhile, our service discovery and consultancy services are available via Digital Outcomes & Specialists 5, and will be listed on the Digital Outcomes 6 framework when it is launched (date still TBC).

Customers wanting to take advantage of the updated call-off contract can contact us here. If you’re an existing customer and would like to purchase via direct award from now on, please speak to your account manager. 

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Image: Carlos Alberto Gómez Iñiguez