Working with our Southern Clients

Working ‘with’ as well as working ‘for’ – in striving to be the best at what we do and continually evolve our digital solutions and support services, we need to listen to, learn from and respond to the needs of our clients. These are the people that work tirelessly within their Local Authorities on behalf of individuals, groups and organisations, to create safe, healthy and supportive communities.

It has been, and continues to be, a difficult time for us all during what we are now experiencing as ‘The Covid Years’. It is a particularly challenging times for our colleagues working in the health and social care sector so, in February, we were delighted to host our very first ‘virtual’ Southern User Group client meeting. This was a very welcomed and well attended gathering of our Local Authority clients across the South. With over twenty attendees and representation from fourteen local councils, this provided an excellent forum and platform for social care colleagues across the region, to discuss and share ideas, solutions and their thoughts about how they are ‘embracing the power of digital’ and developing their digital systems and processes in order to best support their citizens and local communities.

We heard firsthand the benefits of having an on-line Information and Advice portal which resulted in an increase of over 120,000 extra website visits per month – in real terms that’s 120,000 citizens that are getting an instant response to their enquiries – imagine the amount of phone calls and paperwork that has saved?

Delivered in the short time period of just sixteen weeks, we heard about the difference that such a quick turnaround for a brand new, fully functional community website was making in a particular region and, in another region, how a Provider Covid-19 management and reporting tool was being utilised. We also benefited from a West Sussex County Council ‘show and tell’ session with their delivery of a really thought-provoking presentation showcasing their adult social care digital services offering and their recent TV advert promoting the community services to be found on the site.

Building on this success, we are really looking forward to hosting our next Southern Client Group meeting and welcome any suggestions from our clients to ‘show and tell’ their digital services that we here at PPL we are privileged to provide.