The Local Digital Collaboration Unit at MHCLG is delighted to announce the projects that will continue into the next phase of development.
We funded a number of exciting projects as part of round 1 and wanted to give those projects the opportunity to apply for additional funding to progress with their work. This will allow us to build on the great work already done, as we look forward to offering local government some useful tools to help with the delivery of common services.
A total of £753,095 from the Local Digital Fund has been awarded in round 2 to the following discovery, alpha and beta projects.
Funded discovery
- Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council will run a discovery to explore income management and e-payment systems to help councils adopt existing cost-effective payment and management systems, to be able to move away from legacy systems and suppliers.
This project was conceived following the previously funded discovery into GOV.UK Pay as an alternative e-payment provider in local government. A total of £80,000 has been awarded to the project, with Allerdale Borough Council, Cherwell District Council, Huntingdon District Council, North East Lincolnshire District Council, Sheffield City Council, South Northamptonshire Council and the Government Digital Service partnering on the project.
Funded alphas
- Buckinghamshire County Council will run an alpha to test a common data standard for community-based services and how the data can be maintained. The information available will help citizens understand the range of support services in their area beyond those provided by the council.This alpha phase builds upon the previously funded discovery into data standards for local community-based services. A total of £50,000 has been awarded to the project, with Adur and Worthing Council, Leeds City Council and the London Borough of Croydon partnering on the alpha.
- The London Borough of Southwark will run an alpha to explore how to make the planning process more efficient and transparent, looking at user-centred digital planning application systems.
This application builds upon the previously funded discovery into how user-centred back office planning systems can unlock transformation. A total of £100,000 has been awarded to the project team, with the London Borough of Hackney, Greater London Authority and Surrey Heath Borough Council partnering on the alpha.
- Worcestershire County Council will run an alpha into providing registrations data to local authority housing services, using 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.
This is the continuation of the previously funded discovery into exploring the benefits of securely sharing data to support various services such as planning provision, safeguarding and fraud prevention. A total of £73,095 has been awarded to the project team, with Redditch and Bromsgrove Council and Suffolk County Council in the alpha phase.
- The London Borough of Southwark will run an alpha to develop a better online housing repairs system, exploring and prototyping common service patterns for reporting and managing repairs.
This is the next phase of the previously funded discovery into defining a common service pattern for housing repairs and understanding barriers to adoption of digital repairs services. A total of £100,000 has been awarded to the project team, with City of Lincoln Council, South Kesteven District and the Royal Borough of Greenwich partnering to deliver the alpha.
Funded beta
- Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council will run a beta to provide social workers with information about family context to support child referrals, generating more efficient processes so that social workers can spend more time working with families.This beta is the next phase of the previously funded alpha on family context in children’s services. A total of £350,000 has been awarded to the project team, with Leeds City Council and Manchester City Council partnering to complete the beta.
Round 3 has now closed
Round 3 of the Local Digital opened in August to new applications for collaborative digital projects across local government. The successful applications will be announced soon. You can read about the previously funded projects and their outputs on our website.
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