The Blue Badge Digital Service has won three awards at the UK Digital Experience Awards 2019

In partnership with Department for Transport, the Blue Badge digital service has won SILVER in both the 'Transport/ Leisure/ and Tourism' and 'Not for Profit & Charity (including public services)' categories and we walked away with GOLD for the 'Best Digital Team' category!

Now in its 5th year, the UKDXA continues to celebrate the ways digital technology is used to enhance customer experience. The awards provide a platform for organisations and individuals to celebrate the partnerships they have formed and be rewarded for their digital innovation and customer-centric culture. The awards finals provide a unique opportunity to share best practice and network with a multitude of cross-sector organisations. 

The awards are judged by an independent panel of business professions through both a written entry and a live presentation on the day of the finals. This year's ceremony were held on Friday 12th July at Park Plaza Riverbank in London. All finalists presented to the judges in the morning, and the winners were announced over a celebratory lunch in the afternoon.

Click here to see the full list of winners and finalists for 2019

The winning service

The Blue Badge Scheme provides 3 million severely disabled people across the UK with a parking permit which allows them to park closer to their destination, usually for free and without a time limit. The DfT is responsible for the central policy and legislation governing the scheme with the devolved administrations responsible for their own guidance. The legal obligation to issue badges to eligible disabled people sits with Local Authorities.

In partnership with Valtech, DfT have replaced the existing service with one built on GOV.UK with one clear goal – to better meet the needs of users who are severely disabled people or organisations who care for disabled people. With 207 Blue Badge issuing councils spread across the UK, this presented a huge design and engagement challenge for the delivery team.

The new service needed to be as simple as possible to use, both for those applying for a Blue Badge and for local authorities with thousands of applications to manage. People expect digital services to be quick and easy, so the primary goal was to make the new Blue Badge service just that whilst establishing a collaborative working community between the Local Authorities.

Hear from Daniel Fyfield, Blue Badge Digital Service Owner, Department for Transport talk about the partnership with Valtech: