Aberdeen City Council is among 10 finalists for an award recognising projects that responded to the Covid-19 crisis – putting them alongside vaccine researchers and NHS volunteers.
The local authority’s Remote, Secure Collaboration Programme, which allowed its employees to work from home and keep services running during the pandemic, was nominated by the public for a National Project Award.
Now it has been revealed as one of the top 10 nominees, with another public vote being held to decide the overall winner.
Other projects in the final 10 include the AstraZeneca and Oxford University effort that produced a coronavirus vaccine, the NHS Volunteer Responders in England and the charity Refugee Action’s work to help those in the asylum system.
The Eat Out to Help Out and job retention schemes from HMRC are also nominated for the award, which will be presented at a black-tie event in London on March 4.
Aberdeen City Council’s programme was created in partnership with Microsoft Consulting Services, and began in August last year – several months before the start of the pandemic.
It meant that employees were able to start working from home within 40 hours of the first stages of lockdown.
The project also introduced the use of chatbots for the first time at a Scottish local authority.
A similar scheme set up to help NHS workers carry out their jobs at home is also among the finalists for the award, which is run by the Project Management Institute (PMI) UK.
More details about the council’s programme and the other nominees, as well as the link to the public vote, can be found on the PMI UK website here.
The vote will close in February.