About Us
What is the Local Directgov application?
The Local Directgov application makes it easy for people using the Directgov website to access services and information provided by their local council. It holds a list of 240 citizen-facing services that are provided by local councils in England. The services are based on the Local Government Service List and the Local Government Interaction List.
All services in the Local Directgov application have the default interaction ‘providing information', and some have additional interactions such as ‘apply for', or ‘pay for'.
Local councils decide which page on their website is the right one to match each service and interaction, where appropriate, and these are added regularly to the Local Directgov database by a designated web portal officer in each council.
The customer's journey
For example, a person looking at the general information on Directgov about Council Tax can find more specific information from their local council by following the link ‘Find out more about Council Tax' where they are prompted to enter their postcode, town, street or local authority and redirected to the page with the relevant information for their area on their local council's website.
The Local Directgov application identifies where a service is provided by a county or district council and returns the link for the appropriate council. It also displays links to related services alongside the results. For example, the results for finding out more about Council Tax for a district council will also list links for paying your Council Tax, finding out about your Council Tax account and applying for a discount on Council Tax for the same council.
The Local Directgov programme
The Local Directgov Programme, launched on 17 January 2006, is a strong example of the effectiveness of joint working, and all English local authorities have been engaged with the programme. It is led by the London Borough of Brent Council and London Connects.
From April 2008, the programme has four elements to it:
- Home and Community franchise
In this project we will work with Directgov and other key stakeholders to deliver the requirements of the government's web rationalisation programme by merging content, tools and transactions from departmental and identified agency websites into the topic areas on Directgov that fall under the ownership of the franchise. We will also be implementing a content maintenance and improvement plan. - Businesslink.gov.uk
In this project we will work with Business Link and other key stakeholders to deliver the requirements of the government's web rationalisation programme by merging content, tools and transactions from departmental and identified agency websites into the topic areas on businesslink.gov.uk that fall under the ownership of Communities and Local Government. - Supporting the Local Directgov application and local authorities in the maintenance of links
We ensure that Local Directgov links are surfaced appropriately within Directgov. We will also work closely with partners to identify other opportunities for the use of the application and on the strategic development of the application. - Marketing and customer insight
This will give support to all other projects to develop and implement a programme-wide marketing strategy and communications plan based on needs of our key stakeholders. Customer Insight research will be carried out in order to ensure that our proposals meet citizen needs as outlined in the Varney review.
Benefits
- The Local Directgov database is a repository of the most accurate link on the websites of local councils in England to over 240 citizen-facing services.
- The links can be reused in different ways
- It simplifies government for the citizen by providing a seamless service and helps to reduce the frustration of dealing with multiple government information sources
- There are potential savings for government if the Local Directgov application is used to provide links to a local authority service, rather than using another linking tool or building a new one
- Directgov, together with local service links on the site, can be used by frontline council staff to find service information for service areas outside the delivery scope of their council
