Hucknall: Nottinghamshire County Council’s website to become more ‘user friendly’ to better help residents accessing services

Nottinghamshire County Council will develop user-friendly technology for its website that is "set up for the people who use it".

The council has approved a digital strategy, which sets out a number of 'principles' for creating a website and technology easy to use for Nottinghamshire residents.

Documents published by the authority admit its existing technology can cause "great frustration and massive effort" for residents.

The main focus of the strategy is to create systems based on 'user needs'.

It comes after the authority signed a digital 'declaration' which committed the Conservative-led council to a digital-first way of working.

The changes, approved unanimously during the finance committee meeting on Monday (May 9), will see residents and council staff supported as the authority improves on its internal and external technology.

A report published prior to the meeting stated: "The key themes relate to developing systems and services in a way that enables our citizens and staff to have services that work in a way that supports them in their daily life.

"[This is] rather than people having to understand and accommodate the idiosyncrasies of how services and systems are organised."

The strategy was welcomed by members of the committee and council staff as it was approved on Monday.

Councillor Andre Camilleri (Con), who represents Mansfield South, said: "I welcome this report as it's the end-user that matters, but unfortunately they can have a real problem [with council websites].

"We should make our website easy to use for the person who lives on their own, who doesn't use technology, so they can use it easily.

"The trouble is, it's difficult. It's set up by people who are used to technology and it's got to be set up for the people who use it.

"I'm sure going forward we will have the technology to be proud of."

Paul Martin, head of technology on the authority, added: "This is a strategy and a set of principles about how we will develop systems for our services moving forward.

"It's about moving towards an agile way of working. The whole concept is to develop systems in a joined-up way that puts the user at the heart of what we do."

The strategy will mean systems will be developed within the authority that are "easy to use", while also supporting the council's workforce towards 'digital ways of working'.

The council will now look to adopt a series of digital principles and begin to develop the technology systems to improve its website.