1st December 2020
Civica steps-up to deliver customised solution to Welsh Council in under 48 hours
Following the Welsh Government’s new £500 self-isolation support payment to help people on low incomes, Swansea Council took rapid action to ensure residents could apply for funds as quickly as possible using its online intelligent application form.
The Council approached technology partner Civica for help to update its electronic document management (EDM) system in order to effectively deal with the hundreds of applications being received. The company quickly scoped, developed and delivered a customised solution using Digital360, its cloud EDM software.
Ben Smith, Chief Finance Officer (S151 Officer) at Swansea Council explained:
We are an established user of Civica’s Digital360 document management system across our Revenues and Benefits Service and wanted to take full advantage of the available functionality when administering the self-isolation payments. Being able to do that, particularly in the amazingly short time in which Civica implemented the functionality for us, has allowed us to start making payments to those in need of financial support as quickly as possible. We greatly appreciate Civica’s support.
Civica Account Manager Austin Durrant added:
We’re delighted to have helped Swansea with its rapid response to support some of its most vulnerable citizens. We created a tailored solution that was deployed in under 48 hours from the scoping session: showing the power and flexibility of our Digital360 platform. Our service design team both met the Council’s needs and enhanced capability of the solution with fraud detection, further supporting the Council and its citizens.
Residents asked to self-isolate by the NHS Wales Test Trace Protect service can now submit a claim for an isolation payment and upload supporting evidence directly from online form available across all platforms. The automated process sends applications straight to the Digital360 system used by Swansea Council’s Revenue and benefits team. With all the information they need to hand, staff can make rapid decisions on claims.
The new fraud avoidance feature ensures the citizen can only make a single application and any duplicates are referred for review. The software indexes claims to the correct citizen, generates emails and pushes an outcome notification back to the resident via the mobile app, all without any manual intervention or effort.