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Local councils in England are in trouble. Many are heading towards a financial crisis due to years of severe underfunding, which – without action – will see significant cuts to vital public services. In fact, reports suggest that one in four English councils could go bankrupt in the next two years, amid an enormous £54bn funding black hole.
Having not long returned from the IRRV Annual Conference 2024, always a firm favourite, it’s true when they say everything happens at once. Settle in there’s a lot to share, including: our highlights from the IRRV, welcoming SIX new customers to the webCAPTURE community, and celebrating our long-standing customers.
As a Year 11 student at Deer Park School, this year is all about preparing for my GCSEs and making important decisions about my future. With so many career options available, I wanted to explore different work environments to see what might inspire me. This led me to Govtech for my work experience, where I was eager to learn all about the different aspects of office work. My week there gave me valuable insights and it helped shape my thoughts about my future career path.
Netcall, a leading provider of AI-powered automation and customer experience solutions, today announces the acquisition of Govtech, a pioneer in Revenues and Benefits automation. This acquisition aims to improve services and achieve cost savings for local government.
Amongst our busy schedules, it was great to get (most of) the team together for our annual summer event at The Corinium Hotel in Cirencester. The sun was on our side (result), as we spent the afternoon sharing team successes, getting to know the newest members of the Govtech family, celebrating work anniversaries, and of course, participating in Alan’s infamous quiz!
We’ve recently returned from the IRRV Spring Conference 2024 in Milton Keynes and the aptly named theme, 'Facing the Future: Planning for Change', created quite a buzz. We shared many conversations about what’s currently happening within the industry and how the need to be digitally inclusive is more important than ever. Workloads are increasing as budgets tighten, and the pressure to do more with what you have is relentless. But what can be done to break this cycle? Well, we were on hand to share how our customers have used automation to create ‘space’ for a reallocation of resources to their collection and intervention priorities.
It seems a while ago but in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget 2024, there was a section focused on public service productivity, with services tasked to become more digitally inclusive, to explore artificial intelligence (AI) and to use automation to improve productivity. Although local authorities were not specifically mentioned in that part of the Budget, Ministers this week wrote to Chief Executives formally asking councils to produce productivity plans. Amidst some understandable groans, it remains the case that every forecaster is predicting continued pressure on council finances so, to many of us, this seems like déjà vu. Whoever forms a government after the next election will be looking to productivity as a means to increase capacity. As experts in Revenues and Benefits automation, we have a good understanding of how it improves productivity and increases capacity.
The digital age that we live in is ever advancing at an incredible rate. With the introduction of automation, productivity is enhanced, and the bottom line is ultimately maximised. But what happens when, for some reason, data has been entered incorrectly by a claimant and the system is then unable to accurately verify it against the database?
Earlier this month we attended the IRRV Annual Conference and Exhibition 2023 in Telford. Although we support many, if not most of the IRRV expos across the UK, this is by far the largest in our industry. And judging by how busy our stand was, it appears that the majority of local authorities across England and Wales attended – we got to meet our Scottish peers at their own Conference last month.
Recently, I completed a week of work experience at Govtech Solutions. I am a student at Pate’s Grammar School going into year 11, and I thought it would be a good idea to do some work experience during the summer. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to do so at Govtech, and it exceeded my expectations.
Automation has been on the local government agenda for several years now and we all have a pretty good understanding of what it is. Or at least we believe we do. But does it have the same meaning to everyone?
I joined Govtech as their project manager almost 10 years ago. I had just completed 24 years of service for a large London Local Authority, and that was me done; I planned to put my work in Local Government firmly in the rear-view mirror. However, there was one company I felt compelled to say a personal goodbye to, and that was Govtech.