We have started our first large digital piece of work as Dorset Council looking at the Planning Service. Our immediate challenge is how we converge the six legacy district and county council planning services, who have different processes and systems. We want to use the opportunity to design a future service that meets the needs of our customers, uses modern technology, and underpins the growth and economic regeneration of Dorset.
The kick off session was opened by Councillor Walsh portfolio holder for Planning, with 130 people from Planning and related services in attendance, this included Building Control, Land Charges, Minerals & Waste, Enforcement, Trees, Conservation, and Road Adoptions.
Using a café style approach, tables discussed what does and doesn’t work well, themed around customers, operations, systems and ways of working. The room was buzzing, it was a great way to ensure everyone got to have their say and we gathered lots of insight in a short space of time.
We have started to theme what came out of the session and next we plan to talk to customers. If you have some feedback you would like to share on recent experiences of planning, and are happy for someone to contact you for a conversation, please email: planningtransformation@dorsetcc.gov.uk with your details.
Time will now be spent with staff to dive deeper into the feedback, observe how systems are being used, and look at data such as website analytics & management information, looking at all of this will help us to understand the opportunities for improvement.
There is work taking place in other local authorities that we are keeping an eye on, so we can identify common problems and possible solutions that we could use in Dorset.
Our ambition is to work in the open to enable people to contribute, learn and keep up to date with the planning work.
Sarah Dackham – Digital Business Partner
