Local Digital Fund
The availability of the Local Digital Fund is more important than ever as the UK looks to steadily modernise public services to catch up to the technological levels present in other aspects of society.
Digitisation is the driver behind local government technology trends at present, with a demand to better handle data management, communication, the transition to cloud-based data storage (rather than huge server racks) and to improve cyber security in the wake of an ever-rising number of attempts to illegally access private information.
The benefits are self-evident, but the cost of digital transformation in local government is a difficult challenge for local authorities – many of whom are fighting to break even each year. We’ve already heard the sad news that Birmingham and Nottingham city councils have, respectively, declared bankruptcy. These won’t be the last councils to struggle with the economic squeeze post-pandemic, so it’s important that financial assistance is given to ensure that key projects such as digitisation aren’t overlooked given how vital they are to the future functionality of government and the potential for cost-savings too.
In this article we will explore the local digital funding available to local authorities in England specifically, as well as where councils can find the funds, how to apply for funding, and some examples of successful development off the back of receiving funding.
Local digital funding
Quite simply, local digital funding for the purpose of these digitisation projects comes from the local digital fund. This is a government project led by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) as part of a broader strategy for innovation in local government funding.
Since its inauguration in 2018, DLUHC has awarded over £16 million to 61 council-led projects. The funding is to support use of technology in local authorities, with a focus on cost-effective or cost-saving improvements that tackle important areas like cyber security or user accessibility.
In the words of DLUHC: “The projects we have funded have addressed common challenges within a broad range of service areas, such as housing, social care and waste management. Many projects have produced outputs that are available for other councils to learn from and reuse, including back office systems, data standards and publishing platforms.”
The last round of funding – Round 6 – took place late in 2022 moving in to early 2023. Applications are not currently being taken as of late 2023, but should open again for Round 7 in 2024-2025.
There is one other notable fund from the Local Government Association (LGA), which is delivered in collaboration with NHS Digital. This local investment programme is for digital innovation in social care, so a specific area within local government rather than the function of local government itself.
Finding local digital funding
The Local Digital Fund can be found on the government’s local digital fund website. This is the government grant for local authorities new technology.
The link provided above takes you directly to the Local Digital page, which in turn links their prospectus. This PDF document is a thoroughly detailed ‘how to’ guide that explains what the local funding is, how to apply for it, and the requirements to even be considered for the award.
Apply for the local digital fund
Applying for local digital funding is done by submitting an expression of interest letter to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). An example letter can be found in the Local Digital Fund prospectus.
The last Local Digital Fund – Round 6 – was ran late 2022. It ran into 2023 and there hasn’t yet (as of the date of publication) been a Round 7, giving you time to prepare for the next bidding opportunity.
Grants for local government technology, like any other bid for funding, require a business proposal to be made. As such, the department has requirements for local authorities to be eligible to attain said funding. The obvious things are specifying which phase (Discovery, Alpha or Beta) your project would be in, as well as proving user priority and organisational benefit. There is also the requirement to explain existing performance and how you will improve or expand this.
The Criteria:
There are two branches of criteria: eligibility and assessment.
- Must be a Local Authority in England (due to devolved funding)
- Must have two or more LA partner collaborations for the proposal
- All partners must be Local Digital Declaration signatories.
Once eligibility has been met, then DLUHC can move on to assessment. This is broken down into 12 scoring points:
Strategy – 5 points
The following points are challenged as part of the strategic proposal made by a local authority.
- Problem statement
- Benefits, outcomes and outputs
- Strategic alignment
- Stakeholder engagement
- Strategic partnerships (desirable)
Deliverability – 6 points
In addition, the local authority must expand on how it plans to enact the strategy, and deliver a successful digital onboarding, in the following areas.
- Financial
- Team
- Plan
- Governance
- Risk
- Monitoring and Evaluation
Multi-year projects will be considered, though this will be qualified against the difficulty of the project rather than a blanket time frame. Agile delivery is still the preferred approach.
Value for money – 1 point
This requirement is simpler: what financial or social benefits are there to be had? This can include things such as reduced failure, better safeguarding, or enhanced integration of software.
Once you are prepared on these points then you’re mostly ready for your bid.
If successful, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will confirm the awarded funding and set out a timescale for delivering upon the proposals made. Examples of this can be found in the prospectus linked.
Examples of local digital funding for councils
With the completion of Round 6 of the Local Digital Fund, £2,016,325 had been awarded to 17 projects in England. The technology grants for local government have a big impact though, so below we’ve shared a few of the published examples where councils have been awarded funding and for what goals.
Please note that, due to the recent nature of these projects, there’s still limited data available to truly qualify the success of these projects. This will likely come in the next few years, at which time we will amend this article accordingly.
1 – Aggregator Research
This example was a big collaborative project led by Blackburn with Darwen Council, with Pennine Lancashire and the wider Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care partnership also involved in the project.
They were granted £50,000 to research the potential benefits of tackling the lack of structure in information storage within the Voluntary, Community, and Faith Sector (VCFS) network in the area. This was a Discovery project, but ultimately generated key intelligence about the wants and needs of a variety of care providers in the area, which will now allow the most appropriate action for onboarding a digital solution such as an aggregator to compile data for shared access by these organisations.
2 – Community Grants Service
Newcastle City Council with Westmorland & Furness Council (previously Cumbria Council), Argyll and Bute Council, and Cheshire East Council were awarded £442,920 in November 2021, with a 17 month window to implement.
Their project was to improve both the user experience and the administrative processing of grant applications, with issues regarding the visibility and accessibility of grants available to the community but also with the assessment process using legacy software that struggles with integration.
3 – Delivering an infrastructure mapping platform
£218,200 was given to the combined application from Kent County Council (lead), in partnership with Ashford Borough Council, Dover District Council, Folkestone and Hythe District Council, and Thanet District Council.
Their proposal was to onboard software to map out key local infrastructure to assist with local planning and regional growth. The funding was given in March 2023 and has already seen the integration of PowerBl business intelligence dashboards and the recruitment of a data coordinator and a data coordinator respectively.
Update: As of January 24, 2024 the UK Government has announced an additional £500 million for social care, to bolster care budgets and help deliver key services. There is no clear caveat for what counts as a key service however, and the argument from many experts is that investing in technology will optimise the overall social care ecosystem so that all key services benefit.
Speaking on LinkedIn, Steve Sawyer - MD of Health, Support and Care - said: "Given the soaring costs and rising pressures on services coupled with staffing challenges and aging populations across the sector, does more still need to be done to help support a long-term, fully funded plan focused on better outcomes for individuals that supports people to stay independent for longer?
"Technology offers the potential to increase efficiencies and improve outcomes and I hope that continued investment in innovation can help to realise these benefits, such as fuelling integration between health and social care, by not just reducing delays in discharge but avoiding hospitalisations in the first place."
This concludes our article on the Local Digital Fund. We hope it has been insightful and given you the support necessary to take action in future. For more information, why not visit our page on local authority software, to see if The Access Group could support your digital transformation.
