Blog posts
Celebrating four years of the Local Digital Declaration
What we learned from the Local Digital Roadshow 2022
Council Spotlight: How the Task Smart App is helping councils to tackle more than 160 common tasks
Tom Lowndes (Local Digital Collaboration Manager) shares an update on the progress of the Task Smart App funded project, led by Colchester Borough Council. This beta project is developing a platform that will enable tasks and requests logged online by customers to route directly to council officers working in the field.
Exciting next steps for Local Digital and Cyber
The Local Digital and Cyber teams are going to be making some exciting changes over the next few months, backed by multi-year funding to the tune of £85 million.
Reflections on my time as the Head of Local Digital
In this blog post, I want to reflect back on the lessons learnt and achievements, such as bringing local authorities together to solve common challenges, and in particular how a group of local authorities and suppliers are cooperating together to deliver an open source solution.
Council Spotlight: Achieving for Children
For this edition of the Council Spotlight, we are highlighting Achieving for Children — a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three councils.
Modernising planning software in collaboration with councils and their suppliers
Our digital planning software work is moving into a new phase of collaboration and delivery with Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) and software providers.
Council Spotlight: East Sussex and Data to Insight
For November’s edition of the Council Spotlight, we invited East Sussex County Council to share the story of Data to Insight, a national children’s services data collaboration. East Sussex County Council hosts Data to Insight as part of the South East Sector Led Improvement Programme.
We’re awarding funding to 9 projects through Round 5 of the Local Digital Fun
Today we’re pleased to announce the 9 council-led digital projects that will be awarded funding through Round 5 of the Local Digital Fund.
Council Spotlight: Croydon Digital
As part of our new council spotlight feature, we invited Croydon Council to share their digital transformation story with us. In this guest blog, Dave Briggs, Head of Digital Operations at Croydon Digital Service, and his colleagues, share their journey to building the Croydon Digital Service and the role of the Local Digital Declaration.
MHCLG launch two beta products in a first step towards digital planning reform
We’re pleased to announce the launch of a private beta of two new council-led digital planning products, funded by MHCLG’s Local Digital Fund. This is an exciting step towards 21st Century digital planning systems that use data and human-centred design to make applying for planning permission significantly simpler, faster and easier to understand.
What our training offer is teaching us about the needs of local government
Earlier this year, we launched a library of online training courses to support our local government colleagues to learn and develop their digital skills while working remotely. We want to share with you what we’ve learned so far and what we plan to do next. You can also find out how we’ve expanded the offer to provide even more training opportunities.
The Cyber Support team’s technical remediation and support activities
During the cyber security discovery last year, we identified five areas of opportunity for MHCLG to support councils in improving their cyber health. One of these areas was technical remediation: providing support to councils identified through the survey on mitigating malware and ransomware.
Creating a more flexible funding model for the Local Digital Fund
The Continuous Funding Model (CFM) is a more flexible way for funding digital projects through the Local Digital Fund. Find out how it’s been developed, how it works and who can apply.
Announcing our new digital skills training offer
We have developed a virtual training offer that will ensure we can still support local authority staff to learn and develop their digital skills, as well as make it easier to find relevant training opportunities.
A look back at Local Digital in 2020
In this blog post we share just some of LDCU’S 2020 highlights and momentous moments, plus a teaser for what’s coming up in 2021.
Key findings and recommendations from the cyber security discovery
The Local Digital Collaboration Unit Cyber team has come to the end of a two-month discovery into cyber security at local authorities.
We’ve funded 11 collaborative projects through the Local Digital COVID-19 Challenge
We are delighted to announce the 11 projects that will be awarded funding through the Local Digital COVID-19 Challenge.
The cyber security pre-discovery: what we’ve learned and what happens now
The Local Digital Collaboration Unit have published their findings from a 40-day pre-discovery into cyber security in local authorities.