Case studies

As councils were forced to work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, central government gave councils the ability to host formal council meetings fully remote. This has unlocked a new landscape for councils to engage with citizens and ensure decision making continues unhindered.

Despite the current “stay at home” restrictions which is making face to face meetings impossible, councillors at Rotherham Council has remained available for residents to contact if they require support on community and council issues. In light of the need to reduce face to face contact in order to save lives, all advice surgeries will now be taking place by telephone or online only.

The council is planning to pilot virtual surgeries. The team is looking to develop a toolkit to give Members the option to run ward surgeries online where local councillors feel this would be helpful.

With a series of key meetings due just as lockdown came into place, we moved quickly to prepare for virtual meetings without quite knowing what they would - or should - look like. As the council already uses the Google Suite of products for day-to-day working, we adopted Google Meet as our platform for virtual meetings, offered a Google Chromebook to all councillors and worked with Digital and IT colleagues to livestream our committee meetings via YouTube.

Swindon Borough Council ordinarily held quarterly meetings of their Wider Management Team, which involved approximately 120 Directors, Heads of Service and Senior Managers coming together in face to face round table meetings.  Working within the restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, these meetings were no longer possible. 

Warwick District Council first broadcast a live Committee meeting on 7 May 2020. Having tested various products, we decided to use Microsoft Teams with live broadcast via YouTube.

Wirral Council has been using Public-i to webcast the majority of our public meetings for over two years. When the COVID-19 restrictions came in we decided we wanted to continue broadcasting via Public-i as a lot of residents were already used to finding our webcasts on the Public-I micro-site. We have been running our meetings through Microsoft Teams and broadcasting them through Public-I’s Connect Anywhere system.

In summer 2020, Selby District Council faced the challenge of combining the immediate requirements for reopening Selby town centre as part of COVID 19 recovery planning, with delivering existing long-term priorities for revitalisation.

As in many areas of the country, in summer 2020 East Suffolk Council faced the challenge of helping its town centres trade successfully and safely. This case study summarises the approach adopted through a combination of delivering targeted, practical improvements and continuing to boost the capacity of local town partnerships to deliver long-term town centre revitalisation. 

Holly Garner and Parveen Devi, communications officers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, share their innovative approach to getting people back to the high street, and boosting the local economy, as part of the post-pandemic recovery.