S3 #4 – Ed Garcez, Director of Transformation at Central Bedfordshire Council

Series 3 of the One Zero One podcast continues our journey of exploring what tech leaders around the UK have been doing to manage and drive digital change and positive progress throughout a global pandemic. 

Sooraj Shah, a technology-focused journalist (the BBC, The Independent, The Guardian, Business Insider & more) speaks to Ed Garcez, Director of Transformation at Central Bedfordshire Council in this episode to discuss the Digital Transformation journey the Council has been on for the past 10 months due to the COVID-19 global pandemic that has forced organisations to become ‘digital-first’ remote-working environments overnight. In this insightful discussion, Ed explains how Central Bedfordshire Council has significantly changed due to the crisis in terms of remote-working, citizen impact, community support and interestingly, the significant rise in citizen participation in the democratic process now that council meetings are hosted digitally.

Having joined the Council in June of 2020 midway through its response to the pandemic, Ed’s role that was initially focused on supporting the council in their journey of moving from being a new council (under 12 years old) into the next stage of its evolution was immediately transformed into a role fully focused on the Council’s response to the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Central Bedfordshire Council delivers a very wide range of services to approx. 300,000 citizens including everything from critical social care to leisure and refuse collection. The challenge for Central Bedfordshire Council has been continuing to deliver those services to the same standard (or better) as people need many of them more than they usually would, but also how they would support their staff and most vulnerable citizens in such an unprecedented time of difficulty and financial constraints for many people. 

 

Don’t miss this great episode of the One Zero One podcast to get an insight into the how Central Bedfordshire Council transformed digitally and in the process overcame many challenges to continue to support the people who need its services the most during these unpredictable and truly unprecedented times.