Case studies

East Sussex County Council worked with key partners to reduce the manual handling of data and to target families more effectively through its innovative use of digital technology.

In response to the national Troubled Families Programme, North Somerset Council’s Predicting Early Interventions project aimed to create new digital tools that would analyse family-specific data in the local area.

A single view of a child’s record​​​​​​​As part of its strategic plan, Wigan Council aimed to develop a system which would deliver a single view of a child’s record which is shared across multiple agencies.

Earlier this year, Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games handover and homecoming celebrations gave the world a glimpse of to expect from the city when it hosts the event in 2022. Eleri Roberts, Birmingham City Council’s assistant director of communications, explains how with just four weeks’ notice, the council and its partners engaged residents in Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games story and launched the city onto a global, live stage. Birmingham City Council was awarded a bronze award for this work at the 2018 public service communications excellence awards.

Lancashire County Council wanted to look for a creative and effective ways to help them convert adoption interest into action, winning a bronze public service communications excellence award in the process. Anne Woods, Account Executive, Communications Service tells us how she achieved the award.

The 22 May 2018 marked one year on from the devastating Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people and changed countless lives, and the city, forever. Jen Green, director of strategic communications at Manchester City Council, reflects on how Manchester came together to remember those tragic events and honour the city’s powerful community spirit. The Manchester Together memorial programme was awarded a bronze award at the 2018 public service communications excellence awards.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service wanted to challenge the view that firefighting is a male-orientated role and attract more women to apply to the service. Corporate communications manager Alex Mills tells us how they enlisted the help of serving firefighters’ children to create a social media recruitment campaign which delivered results and secured them a 2018 public service communications excellence silver award.

Mental health problems can impact anybody at any stage of their life. Many people are scared to open up about mental health issues but Hertfordshire Council and partner agencies from across the county made it their mission to help change this. They wanted to raise awareness and normalise speaking out about mental health, particularly among boys and young men. Jen Beer, children and young people’s health improvement lead for public health at Hertfordshire County Council, tells us how their campaign to get people to ‘Just Talk’ won a bronze public service communications excellence award.

Over the past decade, Gloucestershire County Council has been on an important journey, successfully managing finances so it could invest in the areas that really matter.

This case study reviews the creation and contrasting evolution of town teams using the experiences of Pembrokeshire County Council’s innovative support programme in six towns.