Public sector innovation recognised at the Smarter Working Live awards

London, United Kingdom. 27 November 2020 – Some of the most innovative and forward-looking public sector projects were recognised last night at the Smarter Working Live awards 2020.

Organised by GovNewsDirect and the Government Property Agency (GPA), the Smarter Working Live Conference and Awards saw hundreds of entries from UK public sector organisations across the 18 award categories. The awards aim to reflect public sector excellence and innovation as UK government moves towards creating a more agile working culture, with modern environments and flexible working standards.

The Department for Education won the Smarter Working Project of the Year award, for a project that saw an organisation with 7,000 staff across 12 sites embrace the practices of smarter working. HM Revenue & Customs was the runner-up in that category, while Education and Skills Funding Agency won the Special Recognition award, with Nottinghamshire County Council the runner-up.

Other winners at the virtual ceremony included Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council in the Unified Communication technology category and London Ambulance Service NHS Trust in the Best Use of a Solution category.

“Smarter Working Live 2020 has been a great achievement for us all,” said Michelle Param, Head of Production, Smarter Working Live. “It has always been important to us to celebrate and champion the work that government and public sector organisations are involved in. This year has been especially challenging so it has been even more pressing to highlight how so many organisations are aligning with the Government’s Smarter Working programme.”

The Smarter Working Live Conference & Awards was a virtual event that took place on 26 November 2020. The conference saw Dominic Brankin, Operations Director at Government Property Agency start proceedings, and be followed by a range of public sector leaders talking to the conference themes of innovation vias places, people, processes and technology.

Entrants to the Smarter Working Live awards submitted their projects to an innovation platform provided by idea management software and services firm Wazoku. Wazoku’s platform is used by businesses (Waitrose, Nissan, Novartis) and public sector organisations (Ministry of Defence, Worcestershire County Council) to capture, evaluate, discuss and implement ideas from all across an ecosystem. It’s a collaborative platform that makes it simple to discuss and develop ideas.

“Smarter working makes an entire organisation more efficient, collaborative and effective, qualities that have never been as important as they have been in 2020,” said Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku. “It has been a year of enormous disruption and seeing how the public sector has addressed this has been impressive and it’s great to see our platform involved with such excellence in innovation.”

Formerly known as The Public Sector Paperless Awards and founded by GovNewsDirect to celebrate outstanding public sector digital transformation, the Smarter Working Live awards were updated for 2020 to reflect smarter working initiatives across UK government.

The complete Smart Working Live Awards 2020 can be found here.

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For further information about Wazoku, please visit https://www.wazoku.com

For further information about Smart Working Live, please visit https://www.smarterworkinglive.com/

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Paul Allen – Rise PR

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