Sprint Notes #60

10 November to 23 November 2022

Welcome to Sprint Notes #60! In this issue, find out what’s next for the Local Digital Fund and Future Councils pilot, share your feedback on Sprint Notes, and read the latest updates from our funded projects.

News from the team

Applications are now closed for the Local Digital Fund Round 6

Thank you to everyone who applied for the Local Digital Fund Round 6. The application window closed on Thursday 24 November 2022 at 5:30pm.

Applicants may be invited to a panel interview on Tuesday 6 or Wednesday 7 December, so please ensure you are available on these dates if you applied.

We will announce the successful projects in early 2023. The projects will be working to make local government services safer, more resilient and cheaper to run. We’ll share regular updates on their progress, and make the project outputs available on the Local Digital website for other councils to adopt and reuse once complete.

Stay updated with the progress of Round 6

To find out how Round 6 and our funded projects progress, and to hear about upcoming funding opportunities, please visit and subscribe to our comms channels — website, Twitter, newsletter, LinkedIn and the DLUHC Digital Blog.

There will also be regular updates available in Sprint Notes so keep an eye out!

Have you seen our latest Council Spotlight?

In our newest edition, find out how Rushmoor Borough Council transformed their recycling and rubbish services to achieve over 90% positive feedback from users and cost savings of around £60,000 a year.

The team also shares their advice for other councils, including tips on building a multidisciplinary project team, procurement and choosing the right technology.

Read the Rushmoor Council Spotlight.

Next steps for our Future Councils pilot

Thank you to all those who applied to take part in our Future Councils pilot. The application window is now closed.

Applicants may be invited to a panel interview on Wednesday 7 or Thursday 8 December, so please ensure you are available on these dates if you applied. We would expect the day-to-day lead and a senior stakeholder, and where possible your Chief Executive, to attend this interview.

We will announce the six councils we will be partnering with in early 2023.

What will happen during the pilot phase?

Taking a whole-council approach, the pilot phase will support these councils with a range of projects, including:

• baselining current digital and cyber maturity, and agree a plan with DLUHC to make and evidence improvements
• start work towards adopting and meeting the Cyber Assessment Framework for Local Government
• identifying at least one key service area to transform through migrating away from legacy technology
• identifying the most significant organisational and cultural barriers to reform and create a plan to fix those
• taking part in training and/or mentoring for a range of council staff

To find out how the pilot progresses and to hear about opportunities beyond the pilot phase, keep an eye on our usual comms channels — website, Twitter, newsletter, LinkedIn, DLUHC Digital Blog — as well as the #dluhc-future-councils Slack channel.

Have your say

We want to hear your feedback on our Sprint Notes publication so we can continue to improve our communications. Share your thoughts on how often you read it, the amount of content and what you like reading about.

Provide your feedback in our Sprint Notes feedback form.

News from our funded projects

Future Work Design (East Riding of Yorkshire Council)

On Wednesday 16 November, the team held a branding session for the new tool. The team discussed and provided feedback on each design. The final design is due to be decided this week.

There was also a demonstration of the tool on Wednesday 23 November. This was a great opportunity for the team to provide insights and first impressions.

Housing Repairs Service (City of Lincoln Council)

The Housing Repairs Service project team held a meeting with NEC on Thursday 17 November to discuss integration with the NEC Housing Management System. Together they agreed actions for the next sprint and hope to make significant progress with the integration.

Low Code Solutions for Housing Management: Beta (Redbridge Council)

The project team has now launched the Beta phase with their supplier TPX Impact. Led by Linda O’Halloran (Partner), they delivered their first series of agile meetings to begin the sprint.

Community Grants Service (Newcastle City Council)

Newcastle’s delivery partners, TPX Impact and Netcall, are currently being contracted. The project team is aiming to start the beta phase of the project in January.

SEND top-up (Bristol City Council)

The team held their final Show and Tell and demonstration of their Beta tool on Tuesday 22 November.

The tool is now going through a public consultation so it can be fully implemented. In the meantime, the tool is being trialled by a selection of SENDCo’s for upcoming rounds of SEND top up funding.

Now this phase of the project is complete, the project team are working on producing their output documents for Local Digital to publish on our website and comms channels.

LocalGov Drupal (Cumbria County Council)

The team are pleased to welcome Colchester Borough Council, who are the 33rd council to join the LocalGov Drupal project.

That’s it for this sprint, thanks for reading! For the daily download on all things #LocalDigital, be sure to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and the DLUHC Digital Blog.