NETCALL SUCESS STORY / NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL

Digital grants processing

Streamlining community grants processes by managing multiple application types and procedures with low-code.

Netcall-Newcastle-Council
IMPACT & OUTCOMES

1.

2,100 hours saved

2.

£3.2m savings in license fee

3.

Improved customer experience

Brief

Newcastle City Council (NCC) is the local government authority for the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne.

To make community grants more accessible to its citizens, NCC sought a digital-first case management solution capable of integrating multiple technologies, automating processes, and providing accurate compliance reporting. The ultimate objective was to create a streamlined and transparent end-to-end application process for various grants, including the recently introduced Clear Air Zone (CAZ) grant.

 
About Newcastle City Council
  • Services 293,700 residents
  • A young city where 20.3% of the population are aged 15-24 years old
  • 53rd (out of 326) most deprived local authority area in the country

End-to-end application process

In addition to managing telephone calls, the council team had to handle a large volume of unstructured emails. This resulted in more manual work for staff, who had to re-enter customer data, such as bank account details, and depend on manual spreadsheets to process payments. With limited validation capabilities, the risk of claim fraud, errors, and audit failures was high.

Additionally, due to a legal mandate, NCC had to lower traffic-related pollution to comply with legal standards. Owners of certain vehicles that failed to meet national CAZ emissions criteria required an easy method to verify eligibility and apply for grants. This process would involve intricate applications for multiple vehicles within a fleet.

They turned to Netcall's Citizen Hub and Liberty Create, its low-code platform.

 

Newcastle-City-Council-logo-white180px

“Liberty Create has given us the ability to build new solutions at pace. I’ve never felt so excited and empowered about saying to customers with the local authority that yes, we can do this now!”

Paul Doney

ICT Manager Digital Solutions, Newcastle City Council

Solution

Low-code platform

Netcall's Liberty Create manages various application types and processes, providing a unified solution for automating workflows and effortlessly managing communication and compliance.

Working in low-code, the team can swiftly update to accommodate evolving grant application requirements, efficiently handling complex applications e.g. multiple vehicle grants for a fleet.

Resource efficiency

Automation advancements have elevated the customer experience and boosted accuracy. Staff no longer need to rely on manual workarounds and can swiftly address new grant requirements on their own.

With a reduced necessity to oversee security and fraud across various applications, NCC staff also cut down on software expenses, achieving cost savings by transitioning from paper-based applications.

End-to-end case management

By leveraging Citizen Hub, a full-stack, low-code case management, workflow and process automation solution tailored for councils, NCC was able to swiftly implement end-to-end case management. This platform provides access to valuable apps, designed specifically for local government, enabling NCC to deploy numerous applications rapidly.

With a single form, applicants can effortlessly obtain the necessary information and apply, supported by built-in form validation checks that facilitate back-office processing.

Officers can easily communicate with applicants and initiate bulk emails when required.

Feedback from testing with applicants and officers indicated they were pleased with the user-friendly forms and enhanced processes.

Smooth Clean Air Zone (CAZ) grants

Using the same streamlined grant application process, featuring a custom-branded interface hosted on the Breathe website, users can apply, check car zones, determine eligibility, find local exemptions, and learn how to pay.

Data protection compliance is guaranteed, and complex multi-vehicle grant applications are managed effortlessly. After agents confirm eligibility, they distribute documentation and guide applicants to financial providers.

With built-in rules for exemption dates, this data can be easily exported into downloadable CSVs, which can be integrated with enforcement camera whitelists.

NCC’s next step will be to connect this with an API to directly integrate data from enforcement cameras into Liberty Create.

Results

Telephone-applicants

6,500

less applications via telephone

Hours-saved

>2,100

hours saved

License-fees

£3.2m

savings in license fees

Postage-savings

Postage

savings

Money-savings

£800,000

cashable savings over 5 years

Reduced-pollution

Reduced

traffic pollution levels

Customer-Experience

Improved

customer experience

 

Newcastle-City-Council-logo-white180px

“With Liberty Create, we’ve been able to reduce manual processes related to bank payments and reduce the number of staff dealing with telephone calls. Fraud and audit teams absolutely love this product as everything is dealt with in one application and they can easily use data to detect fraud or any errors.”

Paul Doney

ICT Manager Digital Solutions, Newcastle City Council

A continued journey with low-code

NCC has a schedule of planned replacements as it progresses on its journey with Netcall's Liberty Create.

Some forthcoming projects include ICT, fraud and audit case management, an employee portal, replacing online forms and other substitutions of third-party products which will yield tangible cashable savings — while enabling the rapid development of products and the consolidation of applications.

Enhance your citizens’ experiences