Mar 17, 2022
Sprint Notes #45
Covering 3 to 16 March 2022
Welcome back to our Sprint Notes! In this issue, find out how to register for the last day of our training programme in collaboration with AWS, read an update on our regional roadshow plans, and get up to speed with our funded projects.
News from the team
An update on our regional roadshows
This sprint we’ve been busy planning our upcoming regional roadshows, with the first event taking place in Newcastle on Thursday 31 March. It’s not too late to register for the North East Roadshow if you haven’t done so already!
We’ve also made the decision to postpone the North West Roadshow in Manchester until later in Spring. We are really keen for each roadshow to provide a rich networking opportunity and a chance to explore and problem-solve challenges with a range of councils in the region. However, as registration for the North West roadshow was low, we felt that there would be greater value in finding a date when more councils are able to attend. We’ll let you know as soon as we’ve confirmed the rescheduled date and venue.
Keep an eye on our channels over the coming weeks for details of our roadshows in the South and Midlands!
The Executive Education Programme in Digital Transformation for UK Local Government, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
After months of planning, it was great to kick off the first two modules of the ‘Executive Education Programme in Digital Transformation for UK Local Government’ this sprint, with nearly 100 senior local government officers tuning in!
As well as a brilliant line-up of speakers that includes recognised academic, industry, and public sector leaders, we also heard from our very own Paul Maltby and May-N Leow.
There’s still time to register for the last day of the programme on Thursday 24 March from 9:30am to 12:30pm.
Public Sector Insight Week ‘22
A couple of our project teams presented at Public Sector Insight Week (from 7 to 11 March). You can now watch recordings of some of the sessions online:
- SAVVI (Sedgemoor District Council): A look at the prototype SAVVI Catalogue
- Family Context (Stockport Council): Using data and open source tools to improve lives and save social worker time
- Low-code patterns for housing management (London Borough of Redbridge): Service Patterns and Low Code in Social Housing
- Digital Waste Services (Rugby Borough Council): Building Low Code Digital Waste Services
Funded Projects
Don’t forget you can find information on all of our funded projects, including those mentioned below, on our website.
Data Exchange with VCS (Camden and Bedfordshire Councils)
The project has just completed its eighth sprint, during which the team has:
- completed a clickable prototype of the Camden Insights website, with a design that is refocused on the user needs of those who are less data-literate
- conducted user research sessions with six out of the eight participants, to test the new clickable prototype and gather feedback using the user experience (UX) storyboards created
- developed UX storyboards for the Food Mission Data Hub
- continued work on the discussion guide and final project report
They have also invited colleagues and project stakeholders to an upcoming Show and Tell on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 March.
Digital Inclusion Toolkit (Leeds City Council)
After celebrating being awarded £112,500 of additional funding through the Continuous Funding Model (CFM), the team are making contacts with the new councils that are due to get onboard with the project.
The project will use the funding to develop and build a sustainable community of digital practitioners that can help inexperienced councils accelerate their growth towards digital maturity. This funded phase of the project — Phase 3 — is due to start next sprint.
Lastly, they have welcomed a new member to the team, Tim, who will be supporting the project with their comms plan for Phase 3.
Digital Waste Service (Rugby Borough Council)
The project team has just completed their second sprint and presented their achievements during a Show and Tell on Tuesday 1 March. Read more about their progress and watch a recording of the Show and Tell in this blog post.
During the second sprint, the team has focused on:
- business analysis around the three priority service offers (Find my bin day, Request an Assisted Collection/Pullout, Subscribe to Garden Waste Collections)
- completing a review of their user experience and user research and summarising the findings.
Their Technical Architect is leading work to define low-code enhancements and has completed the definition of user stories for the Case Management configuration’s Graphical User Interface (GUI).
On Wednesday 9 March, Mike Connell and Dr Gavin Beckett presented at Public Sector Insight Week. In the session, they gave an overview of how the Beta phase builds on earlier work and is exploring the use of an open-source digital platform — with low code configurable components — to develop user-centred digital waste services.
Future Work Design (East Riding of Yorkshire Council)
The project has been awarded £350,000 of additional funding through the Continuous Funding Model and the team are busy working with their PR team on a press release to promote the news.
The project will use the funding to build on the findings and insights gained through Phases 1 and 2 and deliver a digital risk management tool and supporting resources. This will include an online diagnostic tool for managers to identify members of the workforce who may be subject to unsustainable levels of stress.
The team also met with Charlotte, their LDCU Collaboration Manager, and Philip, LDCU’s Economist, to discuss their impact and evaluation expectations for the next phase of work.
Housing Repairs (City of Lincoln Council)
The project has been awarded £350,000 in follow-on funding through the Continuous Funding Model to support the imminent live launch at Lincoln City, as well as onboard another council to adopt the software.
On Tuesday 1 March, the project team held their Sprint 11 Show and Share session.
The team has made fantastic progress during this project and now have a working Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that integrates with the DRS scheduling system. The MVP is freely available, has utilised common components, and has been built and designed entirely on user feedback.
On Tuesday 8 March, Fraser Trickett presented at Public Sector Insight Week to provide an overview of how the team has progressed from discovery, to alpha and through to beta.
Fraser also outlined how the team has shared their lessons learnt from working with multiple councils and suppliers, and the importance of focusing on user needs.
Local Gov Drupal (Croydon Council)
The Agile Collective, supported by Annertech, has been successfully appointed as the delivery partner for the project’s next phase of work, which will deliver a new microsites module to the LocalGov Drupal platform.
Listen to the recent Talking Drupal video cast to hear members of the team discussing the project — including what it is and who it’s for.
The project team has also just introduced a new fortnightly drop-in session for content designers from LocalGov Drupal member councils, where they can network, share ideas and contribute to the core distribution.
Scalable Approach to Vulnerability Via Interoperability (SAVVI) (Tameside and Sedgemoor Councils)
Paul Davidson from the SAVVI project presented a talk at Public Sector Insight Week on Tuesday 8 March. Watch a recording of the event on YouTube.
The project has been awarded £348,975 in follow-on funding through the Continuous Funding Model, which it will use to implement the new data standard with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Ministry of Justice, as well as to seek formal recognition of the standard from the Government Digital Service, Office of National Statistics and NHS.
The team was really pleased to announce their success at being awarded funding for SAVVI Phase 3. Since then they have published two blogs — the first outlining their plans for SAVVI Phase 3 and the second outlining the partnerships that the team will continue to move forward with in the next phase of work.
Following the announcement, the team has started working with the GMCA and Better Outcomes Linked Data (BOLD) to further plan the implementation of the SAVVI standard in their programmes.
The team is now focussed on mapping the high level deliverables and workstreams needed to deliver Phase 3.
SEND top-up (Bristol City Council)
The team are almost at the end of the first phase of their project and are nearly ready to launch their beta MVP with the SEND Co-ordinators (SENDCos). They have already held some one-to-one user research sessions with the SENDCos.
The team also had a planning session to plan their priorities for Phase 2 sprints, and met to discuss their comms plan going forward. They are writing a blog post about the project, as well as a press release to announce their funding and what the project is aiming to achieve.
That’s it for this sprint, thanks for reading! For the daily download on all things #LocalDigital, be sure to follow us on Twitter.
