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Katie Edland, senior communications & engagement officer at Croydon Council has been rewarded for her role in delivering engagement at Croydon, with Croydon now shortlisted for an LGC (Local Government Chronicle) award, recognition of the way it effectively connects and engages with its customers on-line. Read on to see what Croydon did.
Early in 2015, Croydon Council took a long hard look at how it was engaging with people who live and work across Croydon. Did they feel as a council they were as successful and effective as they could be at engaging with their customers and those using council services? Were they reaching as many people as they could? Were they involving as many people as they could?
Croydon’s aim was clear: To engage as many people as possible in the decisions it was taking on their behalf and for local people to feel they had more influence over decisions affecting them.
Croydon Council was after an engagement solution that would operate as a seamless link off their main council website so that more people across more communities would see the council’s engagements and be encouraged to take an even greater role and involvement in decisions.
Following an intensive review of all possible solutions, Croydon opted for the Together engagement platform from PMNet to support their ambitious and forward thinking engagement plans.
PMNet worked closely with the IT and Systems team at Croydon and with the council’s senior communications and engagement officer, Katie Edland.
The platform took less than two months to implement. This included two very unique elements to its set up. The first was integration with the council’s single sign on account area ‘My Account’. This integration allows for customers using the ‘My Voice’ area of the platform to use the same password as they use for the other on-line council services. The second development was integration with the council’s main website Croydon.gov.uk. This integration allows for information from the Get Involved platform to be displayed on individual council web pages, making it even easier for residents to find out ways they can have a say and get involved.
With the platform now fully operational, engagement plays an integral role in the way the council takes its decisions and involves its community.
Katie herself has recently been formally recognised by the council for the key role she has played in the successful implementation of the platform and how with her help, engagement is now a fundamental part of life at Croydon.
"Katie delivered the Get Involved system with immense dedication. This new engagement platform will fundamentally change the way that local people will be able to participate in public consultation and other engagement enabling us to reach even more residents and businesses. Katie devised a platform to encourage people to get involved in the political decision making process and to help them understand how the council makes the hard decisions it has to make" - Award sponsors
Katie herself clearly valued the part the PMNet team has played in the integration of a successful engagement solution.
"Thank you to the team at PMNet. If it wasn’t for them, there wouldn’t have been an award." - Katie Edland, Croydon Council
Plans are now in place to go even further with 24 personalised and individualised engagement pages being created for each of the 24 wards across Croydon. This will give counsellors their own space for taking forward their own engagements at a level which means even more people can become involved in those local and community decisions that most affect them.
Further evidence of the success of the Get Involved system is provided by Croydon Council being shortlisted for an award by the Local Government Chronicle for the way it engages with its communities on-line.
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