Abstracts: February 2nd, 2009

This programme is now available to view on egovtv.tv, the online television channel for public service modernisation. It reviews ‘Worksmart’, a transformational programme developed by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council in partnership with Microsoft. The efficiency of customer services and productivity of staff has substantially improved with resulting financial savings and improvement in customer satisfaction.

The ‘Worksmart’ programme includes flexible and mobile working solutions for over 1000 employees. Processes such as benefits claims can now be completed on a tablet PC at the customer’s side which has halved processing time from 50 to 25 days.

This new way of working has enabled the council to reduce the number of office buildings from 34 to 6, which has released 1.6m pounds in revenue efficiencies and 1m pounds in capital receipts.

GovTV is a dedicated web-cast television channel for governors of public bodies, council members and senior executives across all public sector organisations and is available free to an unlimited audience at anytime, at any location via the internet.

The programme can be viewed at GovTV. www.localgov.tv