Five years of low code: our journey at Tewkesbury Borough Council
Posted on: 18 December 2025
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been embracing low code for five years now. Back in April 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, we made the move to Netcall’s Liberty Create platform. To say our first year was challenging would be an understatement – staff were working entirely remotely and many were redeployed to support our response to the pandemic which in turn meant our transformation team didn’t get off the ground until the summer.
When we started reviewing our online services, we knew one thing: this wasn’t going to be a simple “lift and shift.” Our goal was to improve every process, making the most of Liberty Create’s functionality and designing online forms that residents wanted to use.
We moved away from the traditional local government feel and instead took inspiration from the customer experiences offered by larger organisations. By ensuring consistent styling across our website and Liberty Create, we built trust and created a seamless journey for residents.
For staff, the change was just as significant. Gone were the “fire and forget” forms that led to double handling and manual data entry. Today, our online forms integrate directly with back-office systems, cutting down on manual intervention and freeing up officers to support residents who can’t self-serve.
Our approach has always been rooted in collaboration and user-focused service design. We work closely with service areas to map processes, identify opportunities for efficiencies, and give teams ownership of the changes. Liberty Create allows us to deliver change at speed and scale, building bespoke solutions without relying on external providers meaning we have full control over functionality and design.
We don’t see projects as “finished.” Instead, we listen to user feedback, adapt to policy changes, and iterate the systems we’ve launched. This mindset has helped us refine systems like complaints, missed bins, garden waste, and FOI requests. Each review and new build brings new efficiencies and lessons learned, which we feed back into future builds. Our developers make sure they understand new functionality within the Liberty Create platform and new technologies available and feed this into system reviews.
One of the trickiest parts of transformation is measuring impact. While we can track how long a process takes, it’s harder to capture the hidden inefficiencies – like the chase-up emails or follow-up calls that result from missing SLAs or lack of proactive communication. These are exactly the issues we solve with Liberty Create, but they’re not always easy to quantify – something we’re still working on!
With Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) reshaping our roadmap, our focus is on ensuring systems continue to meet user needs and leverage the latest technology. But we are excited about what’s next – like AI-powered web assistants that can help residents raise issues (think missed bins) automatically. But that’s a story for another blog post.
For now, we’re celebrating five years of low code with pride in how far we’ve come – and excitement for what the future holds – you can read the case studies here.
Amy AdamsHead of Customer, Programmes and Performance Tewkesbury Borough Council
