Sprint Notes #77
January 2024
Welcome to Sprint Notes #77. In this issue, you can read about the progress of our funded projects in January, and an update on our Local Digital Declaration project.
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News from Local Digital
An update on our Local Digital Declaration project
The Declaration project team have been conducting user research to understand council engagement and to test some of our high level value proposition designs. The focus of the current sprint is synthesising our findings from user research, and highlighting key insights to feed into our designs and strategy.
Share your insights on local and regional recruitment challenges
Share your insights on local and regional recruitment challenges by taking part in a discovery exercise in February. During the session, CHR (our delivery partner) will provide national-level analysis regarding talent pools, pay and reward, and information relating to regions.
We would value your input and in return you will receive a copy of the analysis and suggested approaches to recruiting in this space.
Digital and Agile training for Local Government
26 to 27 February, 9:30am to 4:30pm
Local Digital is delivering virtual training sessions to equip local government officers with an initial understanding of the Agile approach to digital projects.
A few places have become available on this 2-day online course on 26 to 27 February — register your place using this form or to be added to the waiting list for one of the final courses in mid-March.
News from our Round 6 funded projects
Delivering an infrastructure mapping platform (Kent County Council)
The project team is now moving towards the second half of the project with a focus on deliverables and meeting project aims. They have implemented a new set of theoretical costed projects within IMP. Additionally, they have gathered two years of HIA data from Kent analytics for all districts and incorporated transport data including road and rail usage into the platform.
Furthermore, they have included utilities data such as waste processing and energy production/consumption, and expanded the Environment and Ecology section with air quality and climate data. The team has also refreshed data from national datasets such as CQC and ActivePowerPlaces.
A visit from the Local Digital team is scheduled for 27 February, which will cover the project management framework required to conclude the project. Follow-up engagement with East Kent Districts is planned to build on feedback, and the recently expanded access to new users is ongoing.
Investigating a digital support hub for carers (London Borough of Southwark)
For this phase of the project, they have worked with their Discovery partner The PSC to conduct a series of engagements with unpaid carers across South East London.
They’ve exceeded their initial engagement target of 43 carers, through one-to-one interviews and utilised community events to engage with digitally excluded carers.
They’ve shared a survey to carers through voluntary organisations and on the Southwark Consultation Hub to capture additional views. The series of interviews with the leads of voluntary carer organisations and private sector organisations has helped to better understand how unpaid carers use and access existing digital services.
The PSC team showcased their work to date in a Show and Tell held on the 25 January. It was attended by both borough leads and various representatives, as they presented user personas and service maps that summarised the needs and barriers facing unpaid carers when attempting to address their needs through online resources.
Throughout February, they will continue their work with both carers and borough leads to co-design solutions and create comprehensive but achievable recommendations for improving the digital offer in South East London.
They are hosting their second Show and Tell on the 20 February, 10 to 11am. If you are interested in hearing about the Unpaid Carer Discovery project, you can click here to join the unpaid carer discovery Show and Tell 2.
Improving housing advice services to prevent homelessness (London Borough of Newham)
Throughout January, the Newham project team have completed workshops to:
- share the findings from the user research with key stakeholders
- prioritise the findings to focus in on ideas
- generate and expand on ideas to form recommendations for the Alpha phase
The main challenge for the team has been ensuring workshop participants have time to attend and engage in the workshops, especially from partner councils. For those that could not attend, they’ve shared the findings and outputs.
This month they are finalising the recommendations and business case to complete the Discovery phase.
Improving Local Authority Building Control Services (London Borough of Lambeth)
The project team completed their national surveys in January and collaborated with their User Researcher for group analysis sessions involving all partners. They’re currently analysing data, with Lambeth’s Data Analyst identifying key insights for the final report.
The Lambeth Council core team reviewed materials and formed recommendations during a team day. During this session, they also took time to engage with a focus group from Redbridge council’s team. They highlighted the need to engage with builders, prompting targeted surveys and interviews.
Throughout February, they’ll finalise survey analysis, conduct additional interviews, and engage with LABC teams. They aim to present narrowed options to stakeholders and finalise the draft recommendation report by the end of February.
Improving the automation of the starters, movers and leavers process (Southampton City Council)
Since the last update, the project team have completed Sprints 4 and 5 and progressed to Sprint 6. During Sprint 4, they successfully resolved security technical challenges and UAT testing took place.
The testing highlighted a small number of issues, a few of which were ‘showstoppers’. The showstopper issues were resolved in Sprint 5 and the form passed UAT. This meant that on 25 January, they successfully launched version 1 of the Starter and Mover forms live.
They are now focused on developing version 2 of the form, which includes integrating Facilities Management fields and addressing non-showstopper issues. Progress on this front is on track.
Additionally, they are drafting specifications for version 3 of the form, which will integrate the IT form and trigger associated requests in the IT System, ASM.
Scaling a rapid identification tool for vulnerable households in an emergency (Westmorland & Furness Council)
The project team is in a preparatory phase and are not actively progressing at the moment. However, they recently held their first Senior Stakeholders Group meeting for the second phase. During this meeting, the group made some agreements around test data and wider engagement with information asset owners. New senior LRF stakeholders from GMCA, Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire were introduced to VIPER, and they are excited to have them on board to help deliver this project.
Currently, the team is outlining plans for the development of the phase 2 prototype and aims to start development by the end of the month. They will convene the second senior stakeholder group meeting today, 14 February, to further discuss development plans for the phase 2 prototype.
Digitising bulk waste collections (North Tyneside Council)
Over the past month, the project team has formalised a plan to gather user research through various channels, including face-to-face, digital, and written mediums.
They are wrapping up data analysis, which will inform their discovery report. The initial framework for the report has been created along with baseline measures for benefits.
In February, they will be concluding their data analysis and user research, and finalising the discovery report.
Continuous funding model (CFM) projects
Low Code Digital Waste Service (Dorset Council)
Dorset is now preparing for an end of project Show and Share. The recording will be made available on their Local Digital project page.
They are also finalising their closure report and accompanying documentation.
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.
