techUK
 Printable version
|
New Local Digital Coalition announced
techUK welcome the new Local Digital Coalition and call on the Coalition to have a clear plan of engagement with the whole of industry.
techUK urges the Local Digital Coalition to engage with the whole of the industry to deliver the transformation we urgently need
A new Local Digital Coalition has been formed to replace the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Local Digital Programme, which closed on 31 March. Coalition partners include Socitm, the Local CIO Council (LCIOC), SOLACE, LocalGov Digital, iNetwork and iStand.
Underpinning the Coalition’s mission is collaborative service design, developing a single-point mechanism for co-ordinating digital transformation on a national scale.
The coalition has also published an Action Plan, outlining the collaborative digital transformation of the English local public sector. Their priorities for the year include:
- Extending GOV.UK Verify to local authorities
- Creating common data standards for local waste
- Developing a DVLA Application Programme Interface (API)
- Integrating care records for health and social care
- Delivering a collaborative approach to the exemplars
- Adopting common data standards and designs for local services and business functions
The vision will be further outlined in their upcoming Local Digital Coalition vision document. Local authorities have been invited to join the Coalition by endorsing the Action Plan.
techUK view
techUK welcomes the establishment of the coalition and in our manifesto ‘Securing our digital future’ we called for the creation of a body with a similar remit to the GDS to act at the regional level to help local authorities collaborate better, and identify the common building blocks of software and processes that can be standardised and commoditised across Local Government to both deliver efficiencies and services that meet user needs.
Commenting on the announcement, Naureen Khan, Associate Director, Public Sector, techUK said:
‘The Coalition is an important step in enabling better coordination across the three hundred plus Local Authorities in the UK. The action plan itself is sound and it’s good to see the work of GDS reflected in the priorities. Crucial to delivering the action plan will be close engagement with the whole of the industry, something which is not clear in the announcement. Government’s vision for transformation will only be achieved through early and meaningful engagement with industry. We look forward to working with the Coalition to deliver services that put users at the heart of public services transformation.’
