But are doing well on identifying internal digital leaders, outline strategy, and even re-skilling
In March, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities' Local Digital programme commissioned Socitm, Public and Daintta to undertake an independent evaluation of the impact and value-for-money of the support it offers local government.
Priorities in the evaluation include better understanding the challenges councils are facing in terms of digital and cyber security, as well as measuring the effectiveness and impact of the overall Local Digital programme.
And while this exercise is set to run until May 2025, in a blog update published at the end of last week, it produced what it describes as a “snapshot” of the evaluation’s initial findings, which are so far mainly based on surveys.
What it found: for digital transformation to take hold across a council, it is important that leadership provides clear direction and oversight. So, the team says it was pleased to hear that nearly three-quarters of responding councils (51 out of 71) reported having an identified leader responsible for technology, and that over half (37 out of 70) have a published digital strategy.
In addition, over half of responding councils (39 out of 71) reported having an open culture that values digital ways of working, sharing experiences, collaborating and reusing good practice.
This is great to hear, says the post, as it reflects one of the aims of the Local Digital programme — the promotion of open and collaborative working methods.
On digital up-skilling, councils seem to be generally equipping their staff with the digital and technical skills they need to meet their responsibilities. Most councils (61 out of 71) so far responding, for example, say they’ve equipped their staff with the required skills “to some extent.”
However, only one council so far thinks it’s provided such training in full — and while over 80% of councils (53 out of 64) said staff had been offered training focused on developing their digital skills in the last year, councils estimated that, on average, only a third of their staff have completed such training during that time.
Heritage IT still seems to be holding local authorities back, too. On average, 15% of councils said their digital budget is spent maintaining legacy technology. Says the team, “While this is low, given the expense and potential vulnerabilities of these systems, we aim to see this figure reduced to zero as some councils reportedly have done already.”
Local Digital thinks early findings offer a valuable first look at councils’ digital and cyber posture. They also present a mixture of promising existing conditions and areas for improvement.
