By Ashley Young-
Over £750,000 has been awarded to British councils looking to improve services with digital technology, Local Government Minister Luke Hall MP today announced.
Six joint projects in operation by local authorities across the country have received £753,000 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Digital Fund. The projects are aimed at improving online housing repairs services, making websites for planning applications easier to use, and giving residents smoother methods of online payment.
Minister for Local Government, Luke Hall MP, said:
Councils up and down the country are working together to embrace digital technology and improve public services. They are truly looking ahead and adapting their work to make things better for residents. I’m delighted to invest over £750,000 from our Local Digital Fund into 6 more collaborative projects aimed at improving local services.
Projects funded and the local authorities involved include Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (lead), Leeds City Council, and Manchester City Council , all of which will benefit from a £350,000 share of the overall money.
The funding aims to also provide social workers with better information to cut the time and cost of child referrals. Lots of social workers with better family context information from other local services for their child referrals. An estimated £50,000 is to be devoted to the speeding up children’s social workers’ decision making, improving the experience of families, and saving money. Buckinghamshire County Council (lead), Adur and Worthing Council, London Borough of Croydon and Leeds City Council .
About £100,000 will be devoted to the development of a community-based service directory in local areas to help residents and council officers to be aware of the support services are available locally. This includes both council and third-sector provided support services. London Borough of Southwark (lead), London Borough of Hackney, Greater London Authority . The funding will also be used to examine user-centred digital planning application systems in making the planning system more efficient and transparent. The proposed s £100,000 spending will be used in achieving such an outcome , through four councils in the Uk. They are the City of Lincoln Council, London Borough of Southwark, South Kesteven District and Royal Borough of Greenwich. The councils will use their share of the money to improve the efficiency and transparency of the planning system. About £80,000 will be shared among nine councils.
£800,000 will be devoted to councils that will develop online housing services by exploring and prototype common service patterns for reporting and managing repairs. Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (lead), Allerdale Borough Council, Cherwell District Council, Huntingdon District Council, North East Lincolnshire District Council, Sheffield City Council and South Northamptonshire Council
£73,000 of the funding will help councils overcome blockages to adopting existing cost-effective payment and management systems and move away from legacy systems and suppliers.
Worcestershire County Council (lead), Redditch and Bromsgrove Council and Suffolk County Council – £73,000. The provision of registration data is seen as a good tool to achieving the goal. A project to use death registration data to reconcile the availability of social housing, reduce the wait time for families on local housing lists and prevent lost council tax revenue.
IDEAS
Ideas could range from making people’s lives easier with more efficient, online ways to pay for services or get help, to embracing tech to support vulnerable people or making bin collections, social housing repairs and taxi licensing services more efficient.
For the projects, lead councils across the country partner with at least 2 other councils to share knowledge and ideas. This collaborative approach of the government’s Local Digital Declaration, launched in 2018, to coordinate public bodies seeking digital solutions is believed to be the way forward. The Fund is also being invested in digital skills and digital leadership training for council staff.