In 2022, Birmingham City Council were awarded £350,000 in funding through the Local Digital Fund to help develop their Guardian App into a Private Beta.

The aim of this project was to develop a platform that enables their field workers to capture and access data to present casework in a consistent format, and the ability to assign ‘risk markers’ to people or places.

Birmingham has over 3000 staff who can be categorised as field workers. Their duties involve meeting residents and managing council properties and services. Each planned visit requires access to sensitive information held on a variety of databases, such as Northgate Housing. Being able to access this information securely on a mobile device enables an efficient use of staff time.

This project also sought to address another key concern for managers and field workers: risk management. To ensure the risk marking worked effectively, it needed to be contextualised, location specific, up-to-date and accessible in the field, with the ability to update it in real time.