Chair/Project Sponsor - Managing Director of Vale of Glamorgan, Chair of SOLACE
Rob Thomas
The Connecting Wales Vision
The financial challenges facing the public sector have led many Local Authorities to consider collaborative and regional working as a means to drive efficiencies. Therefore, at a time of reducing budgets and staff resources, and as recruitment and retention has become increasingly difficult, councils and other public bodies are looking to new technology to transform and reduce the cost of access to, and delivery of services, across all communications environments.
The Connecting Wales framework has been created to enable any Welsh public sector body to procure the latest communication, collaboration and contact centre capabilities via the cloud to suit their specific and individual needs; sharing costs, resources and technology.
What is
Connecting Wales?
Backed by the Welsh government, Connecting Wales is a framework which enables any Welsh public sector body to procure the latest communication, collaboration and contact centre capabilities via the cloud.
Connecting Wales is a pioneering shared contact centre platform for councils and other public sector organisations across Wales. It provides access to a modern digital platform that’s both affordable and efficient, and hands Welsh citizens more control over the services they receive and access to the information they need. The platform enables collaboration and working between councils and other public sector bodies including Transport for Wales (Trafnidiaeth Cymru), schools, NHS Trusts and GP services, providing a holistic service to citizens.
Connecting Wales Board Members
Connecting Wales evolved from the Customer Focus Wales working group which brings together representatives from all local authority contact centres. Recognising that many of the councils were facing similar challenges of aging technology infrastructure, increasing citizen demands and limited budgets, the vision of a cost effective platform which would share access to the latest communication and contact centre capabilities was created – and Connecting Wales was born.
Chair/Project Sponsor - Managing Director of Vale of Glamorgan, Chair of SOLACE
Rob Thomas
Head of Digital - Local Government, Welsh Government
Sean Williams
Head of Digital - Local Government, Welsh Government
Sean Williams
Chief Executive of Wrexham County Borough Council
Ian Bancroft
Chief Executive of Wrexham County Borough Council
Ian Bancroft
Chief Digital Officer for Wales, Welsh Local Government Association
Sam Hall
Chief Digital Officer for Wales, Welsh Local Government Association
Sam Hall
Head of Information Technology, Cyngor Gwynedd Council
Huw Ynyr
Head of Information Technology, Cyngor Gwynedd Council
Huw Ynyr
ICT Service Manager, Cardiff Council
Phil Bear
ICT Service Manager, Cardiff Council
Phil Bear
Head of PSBA Digital Infrastructure, Welsh Government
Dean Rust
Head of PSBA Digital Infrastructure, Welsh Government
Dean Rust
Director of Leadership & Research, SOCITM
Nadira Hussein
Director of Leadership & Research, SOCITM
Nadira Hussein
Operations Manager Customer Relations, Vale of Glamorgan Council, Chair of CFW
Tony Curliss
Operations Manager Customer Relations, Vale of Glamorgan Council, Chair of CFW
Tony Curliss
Account Director, FourNet
Andy Patrick
Account Director, FourNet
Andy Patrick
“Connecting Wales helps to transform the digital services of local government and the public sector in Wales and we look forward to many more councils and public sector bodies joining us in Connecting Wales.
It also allows the public sector to share resources, which is extremely helpful when staff may be impacted by events like COVID-19 and where demand for services increases sharply.”
Rob Thomas
Managing Director Vale of Glamorgan Council
Communication, Collaboration and Contact Centre Services
Connecting Wales allows Welsh public sector bodies to test out new technology in a less risky manner, with shared costs and collaborative working and greater flexibility to share the burden of new technological and communications developments. Cloud-based capabilities allow for greater remote working and provide greater recruitment opportunities in remote communities, without any adverse impact on services.
Subscribers to Connecting Wales can take all or any of the services available via the platform.
Aligning People, Process and Technology
Connecting Wales aligns people, process and technology behind a common vision. We work with potential members to understand current ways of working and organisational goals. We will share best practice from our current customers and will work with you to build your business case and demonstrate the value for money and ROI from joining Connecting Wales. Our sector leading citizen experience (CX) team can perform a data-led, outcome focused, diagnosis to get to the root cause of any issues your organisation is facing – using our unique best practice benchmarking exercise.
Solutions architects will create the technology roadmap for the integration of your existing systems and the adoption plan for future features and functionality. Our technology partner’s professional services and project management team support the delivery of the project every step of the way. Once the project is fully implemented, we complete a comprehensive service transition to FourNet’s service desk who can then fully manage the service going forward or support your in-house team.
The Connecting Wales framework has been created to enable any Welsh public sector body to procure the latest communication, collaboration and contact centre capabilities via the cloud; sharing costs, resources and technology.
Continuous Improvement and Development
Feb 2023
Press 2 for 111
Connecting Wales delivers a pioneering clinician-led ‘111 press 2’ mental health line provided by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. The ‘111 press 2’ support service routes callers directly to clinicians rather than non-clinical call handlers streamlining citizen access to essential mental health services.
Jan 2023
RCT Goes Live
Rhondda Cynon Taff council’s contact centres join the Connecting Wales platform, providing services to 237,500 citizens across the region. What services are delivered via RCT?
The solution provides 104 named voice agents (68 concurrent) deployed on the council’s own MS Teams platform, with Call Recording for 36 concurrent calls and Quality/Performance Management for 38 named agents. Multi-media licensing is included for 5 agents, with advanced webchat capability, co-browsing, and video capability. There are also 2 Operator licenses included to handle general council enquiries.
· The solution also integrates with the council’s Tunstall PNC services.
· Outbound calls to 01,02,03,07 are included under the framework fair usage policy.
· The service has been deployed utilising the PSBA network.
Dec 2022
Childcare Offer for Wales
Connecting Wales helps deliver the Childcare Offer for Wales, supporting parents back into work with up to 30 hours per week of early education and childcare. In addition, the platform provides a single-number solution for all childcare services departments across all Welsh local authorities with speech recognition and dual language IVR to ensure parents can get through to the proper authority to discuss their requirements.
Sept 2022
Transforming CX
CX (Citizen Experience) Consulting comes to the Connecting Wales framework. Data diagnostics from technology partner FourNet help organisations identify the root cause of problems within the contact centre and the Service Design team, work with the contact centre leads to redesign journeys to improve the Citizen Experience.
Aug 2022
Support for Schools
Connecting Wales launches cost-effective telephony and unified communications solution for schools. The schools’ solution enables local authorities to provide a centrally managed telephony & UC service to schools, saving costs in both procurement and maintenance. To simplify support, the solution can be either fully managed or run from within the council or school.
April 2022
Secure Payment Handling
Connecting Wales helps local authorities simplify the handling of citizen payments over the phone by adding PCI descoping solutions to the framework. Fully integrated with both Civica and Capita’s payment solutions, authorities can now secure incoming payments and reduce the risk of fraud with a dual lPCI-compliantly PCI-compliant solution.
2021
Wrexham Go Live
Wrexham council’s contact centres join the Connecting Wales platform, providing services to 135,000 citizens across the region. The solution provides 48 concurrent contact centre agents, with call recording and Quality/Performance Management. Licensing is included for 12 agents to handle other channels such as email and webchat. Workforce Management allows the council to strategically allocate people and resources, track attendance and achieve their required compliance.
The solution also integrates with the council’s on-premise telephony systems to allow calls to be passed from the back office and vice versa.
Outbound calls to 01,02,03,07 are included under the framework fair usage policy.
The service has been deployed utilising the PSBA network.
Oct 2020
Teams into the contact centre
Connecting Wales takes Teams beyond internal employee collaboration by integrating Teams into the contact centre. Providing citizens access to contact centre agents via their channel of choice; the Microsoft Teams shared workspace then enables agents to effortlessly engage back-office experts to provide the best resolution available for each citizen contact.
Sept 2020
COVID call deflection via chatbot
An AI powered chatbot solution integrates into the Vale of Glamorgan website, enabling citizens to avail themselves of automated service. The initial focus is on providing services for Covid-19 related inquiries. Assistance is provided for citizens who may be self-isolating due to exposure or otherwise need help with services such as shopping, medicine or grocery delivery.
June 2020
CAV 24:7
The platform hosts CAV 24/7 for Cardiff and Vale Health Board which is a pioneering telephone triage service for urgent but non-emergency care. CAV 24/7 levels out peaks and troughs in workload for clinicians and ensures patients are kept safe and only attend A&E or other clinics when they can be treated.
May 2020
Fflecsi Wales
To support COVID -safe, socially distanced public transport by catering to the passenger not a timetable, Fflecsi Wales is added to the Connecting Wales platform. Fflecsi is a new passenger-tailored services being created in Prestatyn, Rhondda, Cardiff North, Denbigh, Newport and Pembrokeshire.
Apr 2020
COVID testing service
Cardiff and Vale Health Board establishes a new team to arrange COVID-19 testing for key workers and patients who were due for surgery and care home staff.
Mar 2020
Coronavirus response
Vale of Glamorgan Council enabled 40 call handlers and 5 supervisory staff to switch seamlessly to work from home. The council can support residents by providing help and advice – while also protecting employees. Employees have the flexibility to cope with their own personal circumstances – such as childcare, care for elderly relatives and reducing risk for vulnerable household members.
Mar 2020
GP triage service
A GP triage service for Cardiff and Vale Health Board became part of Connecting Wales as well as a Shared Regulatory Services partnership offering public protection services for Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff Council and Bridgend Council covering pest control, private sector housing and pollution control.
Jan 2020
Go Live for Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan councils contact centres go live on the connecting Wales Platform, providing services to 700,000 citizens across the region. Three contact centres look after core services, council tax and benefits, and a Cardiff and Vale University Health Board communications Hub, offering primary care services 24/7, including district nurse, GP out-of-hours emergency dental podiatry and palliative care services.
Jan 2020
Go live
Vale of Glamorgan council’s contact centres go live on the Connecting Wales platform, providing services to 700,000 citizens across the region. With three contact centres looking after core services, council tax and benefits, and a Cardiff and Vale University Health Board communications hub offering primary care services 24/7 including district nurse, GP out-of-hours, emergency dental, podiatry and palliative care services.
2019
Welsh government support
Vale of Glamorgan and Wrexham Councils build a business plan seeking support from Welsh government to create a framework and technology platform to deliver cost savings, improved digital capabilities and collaboration for the Welsh public sector
2019
Connecting Wales is born
The Connecting Wales initiative arose from discussions through the Customer Focus Wales network of local authority professionals; aware that much of the communications and contact centre technology being utilised by their respective councils was reaching its technical ‘end of life’
