Digital Government

Fingal County Council is committed to driving innovation in public services and is continually striving to improve and develop the services we provide to the public.

The vision of this pillar is to transform key public services, focusing on driving efficiencies and accessibility for all and designing digital public services that are inclusive by default.

This pillar focuses on three key objectives:

• Deliver excellent customer service.

• Increase the availability of user-friendly, accessible online services.

• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, innovation and sustainability.

For many years Fingal has been to the fore in promoting digital, in particular digital that improves quality of life for citizens.

From the early use of open data and data driven services, to the redesign of customer facing services and the innovative approach to public consultation and Council meetings, Fingal has a keen focus on delivering innovative, cost-effective, citizen-centred services.

Objective: Deliver excellent customer service

Where we are now

Delivery of customer service is a fundamental role of the Local Authority.

The Atrium at County Hall in Swords is an example of how Fingal is using technology to enhance customer experience; here customers can now easily access resources and services.

The space is supported by a dedicated Customer Service Zone with self-service areas enabled by a suite of interactive technologies.

The space provides a dual purpose to the community, with a new multifunctional event space that caters for civic, community and business events.

What we aim to achieve

The Council aims to digitally transform key public services, focusing on driving efficiencies throughout the organisation and enhancing the customer experience for the citizen.

We will continue to deliver quality customer service through the Customer contact centre, providing customers with a seamless experience both online and offline.

We will use digital technologies to enable the design of services which meet the needs of citizens and businesses, which are easier for citizens and businesses to use, and which are more cost-effective for the Council to deliver.

The redesign of the Council website will incorporate the use of educational videos and images to make services more accessible for the public.

Objective: Increase the availability of user-friendly, accessible online services

Where we are now

Other digital innovations the Council have spearheaded include the development of a consultation portal, live streaming Council meetings and most recently redesigning the Fingal Website to deliver attractive, interactive mobile services to citizens and visitors of Fingal.

Fingal.ie has been completely revamped and designed to give citizens a user-friendly experience interactive experience.

The new ground-breaking website, which has a strong emphasis on easy navigation, stunning imagery and relevant content, revolves around four main pillars called Council, Resident, Business and Visitor with secondary pillars covering News and Events.

The Council pillar is a new-look equivalent of the previous Fingal County Council website while the other three pillars are targeted at specific audiences in order to improve their awareness of what Fingal offers.

What we aim to achieve

Internal digital transformation is fundamental in order to deliver better services, drive efficiencies, resulting in better outcomes.

Fingal is currently undertaking a workplace digital transformation programme, which is examining how we work, communicate and deliver services to the public.

This programme will look to not only deliver better services to the public, it will also enhance the employee experience, attract talent to the organisation and create a more agile workforce.

This programme will effect profound transformational change for the people, processes and assets within the organisation, and the services that we provide to Elected Members and the wider population of Fingal.

It will be underpinned by a vision of achieving an end state which fully leverages the capabilities and opportunities of a mix of digital technologies, to enable secure, consistent and sustainable high-quality methods of working, collaborating and communicating from any device, at any place and at any time.

The digital transformation programme includes multiple streams of work over a five-year period and will contribute to cultural change at a wider level.

Major transformational programmes include:

• Move to Office 365 and cloud technologies to enable secure flexible mobile working and collaboration throughout the organisation.

• Implement a state-of-the-art customer contact centre and enterprise telephony system, ensuring residents can contact and hear from the council reliably and consistently.

• Design and run a mandatory learning and development programme and provide ongoing learning opportunities for all staff to increase digital confidence, instil cybersecurity best practices, improve data literacy, awareness and stewardship, and embed a digital culture including agile methods and working in the open.

The Council will also use digital technologies to enable and transform the delivery of public-facing services. We will seek to innovate in the design of these services based on the needs of citizens and businesses and use digital technologies to enable end-to-end service transformation.

Objective: Promote a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, innovation and sustainability

Where we are now

The Council has been a driver when it comes to adopting a culture of openness, transparency and innovation.

From the development of Ireland’s first open data platform, data.fingal.ie, to facilitating innovations through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Ireland.

SBIR is the national innovation pre-commercial procurement initiative administered by Enterprise Ireland.

Its aim is to drive innovation across all sections of the Irish Public Sector, via robust engagement with technology rich companies and organisations, through competitive challenges.

In 2018, as part of a staff development programme ‘Engage’, the Council focused on the theme of climate change.

Arising from feedback from staff, the Council removed all disposable cups from our workplaces, and introduced a KeepCup for all our 1,400 staff.

This will eliminate the 53,000 disposable cups we send to landfill every year.

In 2019, as part of the Climate Change Action Plan, the Council held a series of workshops and events to gather public opinion and to highlight ways that we can incorporate sustainability in our daily lives.

The Climate Change Action Plan for Fingal highlight a number of objectives to improve sustainability and increase green procurement, such as banning single use plastics in Council Offices and implementing green initiatives at Council events.

In 2019, Fingal County Council was ranked joint first in Transparency International's National Integrity Index of Irish Local Authorities.

What we aim to achieve

To further promote a culture of continued improvement, transparency, innovation and sustainability we will engage with staff through a series of events, campaigns, workshops and training sessions.

We will continue to drive innovative practices through the publishing of open data and by addressing county challenges through SBIR and innovative procurement.

We will promote innovation in the workplace with a series of events and ideation workshops during Public Service Innovation Week, highlighting the importance of innovation in our workplace.

PRIORITY DELIVERABLES

Pillar	Digital Government
Vision	Transform key public services, focusing on driving eﬃciencies and accessibility for all, designing digital public services that are inclusive by default.
Objective	Deliver excellent customer service
Action	Description	Status	KPI
4.1	Continue to deliver quality customer service through the Customer contact centre.	Ongoing	Measure the quality of customer service and customer satisfaction.
4.2	Fingal website redesign will showcase Fingal services and amenities through a new website that focuses on four primary pillars: Council, Visitor, Resident and Business, and two secondary pillars: News and Events.	Ongoing	Improved online service accessibility.
4.3	Develop innovative communications solutions to reach citizens and deliver high-quality services.	2020	Improved out-of-hours communication delivery through website chat bot.
			Access to Live Chat on website with a member of the Customer Services Team during opening hours.
4.4	Develop a Customer Care Unit at Blanchardstown Civic Oﬃces, equipped with a suite of interactive, user-friendly digital technologies to assist citizens in accessing Council services.	2020 -2023	Creation of a Customer Care Unit in Blanchardstown.
Objective	Increase the availability of user-friendly, accessible online services
Action	Description	Status	KPI
4.5	Develop innovative apps to improve workflow processes.	Ongoing	Delivery of transformative apps that improve work processes i.e. Private rental inspection app, playground inspection app.

4.6	Digitalise strategic public services and deliver via multiple channels including in person, by phone and online through Fingal.ie.	Ongoing	Facilitate the digitalisation of strategic public services including the development of an ePlanning portal.
Objective	Promote a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, innovation and sustainability
Action	Description	Status	KPI
4.7	Drive innovation through a series of events and workshops during Public service innovation week.	2020 - 2023	Number of events focused on innovation in the workplace
4.8	Learning and development programme to enable staﬀ to become more agile and increase their digital skills-set.	2020 - 2023	CPD workshops in the areas of IT, Cyber security and digital transformation.
4.9	Support the engagement of innovative procurement through SBIR to address county challenges.	2020 - 2023	Identify county challenges and engage with procurement methods.