Hart District Council share their experience of participating in the first Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) for local government pilot. Discover how cyber security has become a key focus for their senior leadership team and how this is filtering through to their other services.

Learn more about the pilot in a previous blog post

Overview

For Hart District Council, the CAF for local government prompted a thorough review and documentation of processes, controls and risks associated with their key services. As a small council, the CAF has encouraged them to create a shared repository for these records, improving their resilience in the event of a cyber incident.

Changing mindsets

Undertaking the CAF for local government has shifted the council’s approach towards cyber resilience. Particularly the analysis, which has facilitated better communication and engagement with the senior leadership team, ensuring they understand the critical nature of cyber security. 

The CAF has enabled Hart District Council to concentrate its operational resources on cyber security. Awareness is also being integrated into other council services, with the Elections Service being one of the first areas to benefit. This is particularly crucial during election time when this service is considered mission critical.

Key benefits

Hart District Council is already seeing the benefits of the CAF for local government. These include:

• access to technical and guidance, which is particularly valuable to a small council with limited resources
• a structured framework to focus their attention, efforts and resources
• raised awareness of cyber security across the council, ensuring it remains at the forefront of the Senior Leadership Team’s agenda

Advice for other councils

Hart District Council encourages other English councils to undertake the CAF for local government. As a small council with limited resources, their initial concern was that the pilot would direct resources away from other operational requirements. However, they found this was not the case and the opposite was true. The advantages of the CAF process outweighed any challenges.

Learn more

The initial stages of the CAF for local government are available as part of a phased release, enabling you to start using the tool while we continue to develop it based on feedback.

Learn more on the CAF for local government webpage.

Follow our channels for the latest news:

• connect with us on LinkedIn
• follow us on X
• subscribe to our newsletter
• Subscribe to the MHCLG Digital blog