Scotland’s largest city has published its first digital plan since 2018, with a focus on enabling citizens to get the most out of tech, rather than on major reform schemes

Glasgow City Council has announced a major shift in the city’s approach to digital with the release of its first digital strategy since the Covid pandemic.

The six-year strategy is aimed at triggering organisational change to balance the benefits of digital with people’s digital rights.

The council says that, unlike its previous strategy, “it is not a technology strategy, and cannot be delivered by technology alone”.

The previous digital plan hinged on transformation programmes such as the Connected Learning programme, which worked to provide secondary pupils with their own iPad.

Instead, the new strategy is structured to be an “underpinning and enabling strategy” for delivering Glasgow’s Strategic Plan, which aims to boost innovation and ensure equal opportunities for Glasgow residents.

To do so, planned transformation initiatives will remain “key priorities” in the coming years but the new strategy will shift to a mission-driven approach, with three missions respectively focusing on: a fair and empowered digital society; an inclusive digital economy; and sustainable and innovative digital public services.

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The first of these is intended to the “improve digital inclusion and equality… and increase involvement and participation,” according to Glasgow. The digital economy mission is also hoped to improve inclusion, while helping to “develop the pipeline of digital skills” in the city and “improve opportunities for Glasgow’s tech ecosystem”.

The goal of the final mission, meanwhile, is to “improve the efficiency, resilience, and agility of our operations; improve the customer experience for our customers; and increase involvement and participation”.

Glasgow City councillor Paul Leinster said: “The new Digital Glasgow Strategy recognises the increased role that digital technology and services will play in the future, and sets out the key actions to deliver the key priorities of the strategy.  These priorities include not only the delivery of innovative digital public services that bring an improved experience for all those who receive them; but also make our digital economy more inclusive, to increase opportunities and develop skills; and to encourage and enable greater digital inclusion, participation and confidence.”

The strategy, which is available as an interactive online document, will be supported by an accompanying implementation plan, as well as a various governance frameworks through which progress will be measured and reported.

This story originally appeared on PublicTechnology sister publication Holyrood