Dorset Council has just celebrated its second birthday. Over the past year, we’ve demonstrated our flexibility and ability to achieve great things in times of enormous challenge. Now there’s a chance to join us as we extend our transformation capability even further by recruiting to 15 new roles. Here’s some of what we’ve been doing.
Convergence
Dorset Council combined six councils into one, bringing employees and processes together, creating a culture based on key behaviours and describing our ambition to make Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. We want to be a modern, 21century council and have developed a Digital Vision to help us achieve that. Our Transformation programme currently has in excess of 35 projects and programmes which are due to save £21M over the next three years.
#DorsetTogether
During the pandemic, we acted fast to adapt to the new situation – and digital has been at the heart of much of that activity. Over 2,500 staff were working at home within days of the start of the pandemic. We also created an internal skills agency to deploy colleagues quickly to support vulnerable and shielding residents through our #DorsetTogether campaign.
We coordinated the provision of food, medicine and support to individuals and families who needed help. The campaign has been an amazing success, showing how we can work with the voluntary and charitable sector in the most challenging of circumstances.
Multi-disciplined team working
Despite Covid, our transformation has continued at speed. One of our bigger challenges was to bring the planning systems of the former six councils onto a single platform. The planning convergence project had already completed its discovery phase when the pandemic hit. An agile, multi-disciplinary project team worked virtually, using user-centred design, to bring three of the former systems together and work continues to complete the transformation.
Innovation
Innovative approaches to explain, involve and encourage our residents to engage in the first Dorset Council Local Plan consultation has been a resounding success. We used a combination of webinars, podcasts, and online surgeries for town and parish councils and interest groups to explain and discuss the plan. It resulted in better engagement than any previous consultation of its kind. We received just under 7,000 responses and over 32,000 comments via our online form, as well as numerous emails and paper copies via the post. Online advertising has ensured a much wider cross section of residents – including younger people – were aware and took part in the process than usual.
Customers
Our transformation programme focusses on improving how we deliver services to residents, optimising our community capacity, ensuring smart use of our assets so that we can demonstrate value for money services. We have a programme to implement a single customer platform enabling a ‘one front door’ approach for residents. This will be supported by community hubs and an improved digital offer for customers so that we really focus on helping people access the services they need.
Your kind of organisation?
A message from our Chief Executive, Matt Prosser https://youtu.be/o8ZYQYSsSoM
If this sounds like the kind of organisation you want to work for there are around 15 fixed term roles that will work with teams that are transforming the council. All these roles can be performed remotely, from anywhere in the country and will be key to producing services that customers want to use.
New roles
Content Designer – You will be responsible for creating, updating, and reviewing content on the council website, basing your decisions on user research, data, and making the user experience simple, accessible and user focused.
Digital Business Partner – We are looking for someone ideally with experience of Adult Social Care to help enable their transformation programme using a digital approach particularly around their online offer, helping to embed a user-centred design/co-production approach to ensure our services are meet the needs of our customers.
Service Designer – You will take a user-centred and iterative approach to designing end-to-end customer journeys, helping users to complete their goal and receive a service as quickly and easily as possible.
Service Improvement Analyst – You will be responsible for running collaborative design activities and building relationships to design and implement future services, applying agile methods to deliver iterations and minimum viable solutions. We believe in a working across services and suppliers as one team.
Agile coach – Your role will be to guide multi-disciplinary teams on how to use agile practices with colleagues across the organisation. This includes acting as a coach and mentor and supporting teams to remove blockers and support stakeholders.
Project Support Officer – You will work across the whole Digital Place team, on a variety of projects that help people get a great broadband connection and learn the skills to get the most out of it. You will be based in the Digital Skills and Adoption Programme team which has many initiatives underway or in planning to help local people understand how being connected can benefit them.
Apprentice Digital Community Manager – We are recruiting and training 1,000 frontline staff to be embedded digital champions who can help residents overcome their digital challenges. You will be managing the online community where our recruits learn the skills to become champions. As an apprentice, you will have one day/week training to learn new skills which will help you in your role, becoming the team’s expert in online community management.
Project Manager x6 – We want to create a modern, customer focused, 21st century council which operates in a thriving digital place. We have six vacancies for experienced agile project managers to work with us on some exciting transformation in Dorset! Our programme spans across all council services – you will be working on projects within our Place, Corporate, Children’s and Adults directorates – so you will work with many different people across lots of services.
Delivery Manager – Your role will be to manage and deliver projects that are part of Dorset Councils transformation plan. Initially you will work on our project to deliver a digital platform for the council that will enable our customer transformation programme, rationalise the software applications we have, and change the way we deliver technical solutions positioning us for the future.
User Adoption Officer – Are you passionate about helping drive adoption of Microsoft 365? Do you ignite that same drive in your colleagues, by showing them how they can work smarter? If that’s you, then we have an exciting opportunity for a user adoption specialist to join our award-winning Digital team.
Records Management Assistant (Dorchester) – You will be part of a small team that look after the storage, retrieval and destruction of paper records, with a particular focus on reducing backlogs and supporting office relocations work. You will maintain and operate the unit’s databases in accordance with agreed practice and procedure.
Records Management Officer (Dorchester)– You will mainly be responsible for the supervision of the paper Records Management Service. This includes a small team that look after the storage and retrieval of paper records.
I have worked in communications for 25 years, first as a journalist and then in public and private sector public relations. From Southampton originally, I have lived in beautiful Dorset for the last two decades. My passion for Dorset has also turned into a passion for landscape photography. My other great loves are my family and Southampton Football Club.