Birth registration crisis - and the Zipporah success story in Milton Keynes
As demand outstrips capacity, registrars are working double-time to avoid being overwhelmed with appointment requests for birth, citizenship and notices of marriage registrations.
As the Covid pandemic gripped the country, death rates began to spike and other registration services were suspended. Now, with months-worth of registration backlogs, local authorities who have failed to adequately prepare are being overrun with requests. Even some authorities with digital appointment systems are unable to cope with the sharp increase in demand – particularly those with older or inflexible solutions.
How are Zipporah clients coping?
In Milton Keynes, Zipporah's new functionality is offering priority appointments. Those who had children born earliest in lockdown are being given the first slots in a staged approach through a system designed by Zipporah, but dictated and adjusted as needed by the authority – empowering registrars to take complete control of their workload. This forward-thinking registration department is maximising the number of appointments successfully completed in a day; by allowing them to generate pre-populated forms, confirming all relevant details ahead of time.
"Zipporah's system allows Milton Keynes council to manipulate the system to suit their changing needs. As demand decreases, the system administrators can ease the priority system, but as it picks back up, they’ll be able to quickly put it back in place to ensure they're always ahead of the curve and able to best serve citizens."
- Anwen Grinter, Milton Keynes Project Manager.
- but it’s not just birth appointments which have been improved and enhanced through Zipporah’s updated registration systems.
Zipporah’s enhanced death appointment functionality allows death bookings to made online. Moreover, instead of asking for MCCD to be emailed, the system will now allow you to upload relevant documents to a portal, along with the informant email address - allowing further ease of processes down the line. To maximise positive outcomes, those with appropriate permissions in Milton Keynes can review all documentation through the portal with the click of a button, allowing checking and completeness (signatures etc.) to take place. Once given the final confirmation, an email is triggered and sent to the informant address with a link to make their appointment, automatically attaching all documents.
If you're interested in finding out what else has been achieved in Milton Keynes, and what other developments have taken place with Zipporah's Post Covid Council Registration service - click here or get in touch for a live demo.
