Rochdale’s Covid-19 Response
Accelerating the response to the Corona virus
Like many councils, Rochdale in Greater Manchester had to rapidly rethink its disaster response in the face of Covid-19, and it needed better handling of public requests to do it.
During the covid lockdowns thousands of vulnerable or shielding people called the emergency handling team for support.
People were stuck in their homes, unable to get food deliveries. Medication supplies were interrupted, surgeries cancelled, and mental health services overwhelmed. Family support networks were cut off overnight. People were left with nowhere else to turn but their local authority.
Their data and needs were all accounted for in one giant spreadsheet that quickly became overwhelming. The council needed a different approach.
Calmness out of chaos
Switching their handling to Citizen Space meant they could quickly and easily set up a simple survey that helped people get the support they needed, fast.
Using Citizen Space as a data capture and management tool they collected qualitative and quantitative data that let them report accurately on needs and demographics, unifying data and outcomes on a secure, compliant platform.
Changing emergency response management at Rochdale
673 residents completed the survey and were able to get support with medication, shopping, housing, mental health and more.
It allowed Rochdale, in conjunction with Healthwatch Rochdale, to create a list of recommendations that improved healthcare during the pandemic and beyond, increasing engagement across multiple demographics and enforcing reviews of multiple vulnerable areas like mental health services.
“In an emergency situation, Citizen Space was exactly what we needed – it’s extremely quick to set up, we know it’s GDPR compliant, we know the data’s secure.”
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.