Local Government Association names digital-transformation funding winners

Thirty-four councils have bagged cash pots of up to £40,000 to develop digital solutions for health and social care integration, welfare reform, and troubled families projects.

Lobby group the Local Government Association said it had whittled down 111 funding bids to 20 winning schemes that would benefit from a share of £560,000 it has earmarked for the creation of IT-based interventions designed to transform service delivery.

The winning projects (full list below), some of which are joint schemes between multiple local-authority areas, are designed to support ongoing work on national transformation programmes, including social-care services for adults with complex needs, homelessness, and public health.

Among them are a Northumberland County Council project to develop a cloud-based public health portal with real time data; a Leeds City Council and Calderdale Council project to define open data standards to underpin the integration of health and social care; and a Kent-wide project to develop and implement an online homeless “triage” process, including an application pre-assessment form. 


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David Simmonds, who chairs the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said councils had already made significant progress in using digital technology to drive efficiencies with local service delivery, and that the projects granted funding would build on that work.

“Councils have championed the use of new technology as it emerges and we have highlighted opportunities for central and local government to share digital platforms for common online transactions, such as payments, as part of joining up how we deliver citizen and business focused public services,” he said.

“We recently launched a blueprint for councils to allow them to maximise the use of IT to transform services for their residents and we will continue to offer to work with government to help co-design solutions that work effectively across the public sector and best respond to local needs.”

The LGA said the funding would be provided from the local government revenue support grant.

Full list of funded projects:

  • Bournemouth Borough Council: integration of data across the council, health and range of partner agencies working together to support troubled families, to improve data quality and provide insight to inform decision making.(£25,000)
  • Wigan Council: develop a single view of a child’s record to support integrated working across partners, reducing duplication and improving outcomes.(£25,000)
  • Northumberland County Council: support the development of a cloud-based public health portal enabling real time data.(£25,000)
  • Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, all Kent districts and Medway Council: develop and implement an online homeless triage process including an online housing application pre-assessment form, and a  redesigned simpler version of the current online application form.(£40,000)
  • Bexley Council: develop a data analytics system to link the existing Employment and Skills Management Information System, housing, and troubled families data to help early intervention work to tackle financial exclusion.(£25,000)
  • Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council: ensure customers have access to consistent information to enable them to resolve their needs, delivering the No Wrong Place programme.(£40,000) 
  • Thurrock Council: integration of various sources of health and social care data in order to maintain a healthy population.(£25,000)
  • East Sussex County Council: data matching and analytical tools for identifying and supporting vulnerable families and children.(£25,000)
  • Blackpool Council: the development of a social care financial assessment app to enable greater levels of self and assisted service.(£25,000)
  • Adur District Council, Worthing Borough Council, and West Sussex County Council: digitalising existing Going Local community referral service for health and wellbeing, creating a suite of digital services and apps.(£39,760)
  • Camden Council: integration of data sets from different partners supporting troubled families to better help multi-agency working.(£25,000)
  • Dorset County Council: a business intelligence digital dashboard to deliver better targeted preventive services based on data to support children.(£25,000)
  • Lewisham Council: app for adult social care to provide access to information and services to support wellbeing and maintain independence.(£25,000)
  • Hounslow Council: multi-agency intelligence tool for identifying the top 20 adults with complex needs and chaotic lives.(£25,000)
  • Cumbria County Council: implement live integration of GP and local authority social care record to provide access (based on consent) to social care and health staff.(£25,000)
  • North Somerset Council: create data analytic tools enabling early identification of those families most likely to benefit from intervention.(£25,000)
  • Leeds City Council and Calderdale Council: define open data standards underpinning integration of health and social care.(£40,000)
  • Worcestershire County Council: creation of information-sharing platform for all the different organisations involved in safeguarding children.(£25,000)
  • Halton Borough Council: app to capture and analyse data from high risk patients with complex needs living at home or in residential care to improve their quality of life.(£25,000)
  • Birmingham City Council: app that will include a selection of web forms and tools to aid workflow and education and health care plan processes.(£25,000) 

Jim Dunton

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