Blog posts

We’re inviting English councils to express their interest in taking part in a funded red team exercise to strengthen cyber resilience across the local government sector.

This blog shares what is helping CAF Support councils to make progress and sets out practical steps that your council can take across four high impact areas.

Building a clearer picture of the technology used across local government will help us understand common challenges, identify opportunities and target support more effectively. To do this, we are running a test-and-learn pilot to collect information about the systems your council uses.

We have launched a £6 million CAF Support Fund for 52 councils that have completed a CAF assessment, helping them accelerate improvements in key areas of cyber resilience and strengthen resilience across the sector.

We’re pleased to share an update on the Scalable Approach to Vulnerability via Interoperability (SAVVI) and Open Referral UK (ORUK) data standards. New pilots with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council will test the adoption of these data standards, and identify vulnerability earlier, more consistently, and more effectively.

The Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) Digital and Cyber Playbook is an evolving collection of guidance, council experiences, and templates to support councils navigating the digital, data, technology, and cyber aspects of local government reorganisation.

In October 2024 we launched the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) for local government. Since then, 90 councils have completed a CAF assessment and many more are working on theirs. This blog shares what we have planned for 2026.

Local government reorganisation (LGR) brings significant organisational change and complex technology choices. We’re helping councils make those decisions safely and strategically.

The Open Referral UK (ORUK) team recently presented at LocalGov Drupal Week, demonstrating how councils can achieve interoperability and cost savings by integrating the ORUK API directly into their LocalGov Drupal websites.

We joined the LGA and TechUK supplier event to discuss the challenges and possibilities of LGR and explore how the sector can work together.

To deliver more reliable signposting, particularly for mental health support, BCP Council and NHS Dorset adopted the Open Referral UK standard.

We are developing a playbook of guidance, case studies, and tools to help councils with the digital, data, technology and cyber elements of reorganisation.

MHCLG is making a Cyber Incident Response service available to English councils helping them to respond quickly and effectively to incidents.

To help councils operate as intelligent buyers and support suppliers to meet sector ambitions, we are developing a software market intelligence tool.

In this blog, we share key findings and insights from our research, based on conversations with councils and suppliers.

The Open Referral UK (ORUK) community continues to grow, helping to improve how local service data is shared across the UK.

Get to know the team members supporting councils through their CAF journey and find out how we’ve helped councils build their resilience.

The cyber threat to local government is real, increasing, and evolving. Four years into the Cyber Support programme, we’re sharing insights from our cyber work.

We explore why shared digital approaches are so important, barriers to standardisation, and how councils are making them work.