Transforming digital services for councils through our Round 6 projects 

We’re pleased to announce the 16 council-led digital projects that will be awarded funding through Round 6 of the Local Digital Fund.

The projects were carefully selected from 50 applications representing 118 councils between 13 October and 24 November 2022. They join the 44 collaborative projects we have already funded since the Local Digital Fund launched in 2018 and bring the total funding we have awarded to over £16 million.

Our ambition for the Round 6 projects

The aim of the Local Digital Fund is to make local government services safer, resilient, and cost effective.

Through Round 6, we are awarding approximately £2 million to council-led agile projects at varying stages of maturity. 

These projects will help us to create the next generation of local public services, where technology is an enabler rather than a barrier to service improvements, and services are user-centred.

How we selected the projects

Once applications had been sifted against the criteria outlined in the Local Digital Fund Prospectus, we invited several projects to attend a virtual panel interview with members of Local Digital and the wider Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) for clarification and discussion. 

After deliberation, the projects were chosen based on their:

Strategic fit - they demonstrated how the project will make local government services safer, more resilient and/or cheaper to run. They detailed how the learnings and products can be reused by others beyond the end of the project. Deliverability - they outlined how the project will be financially resourced and delivered by the team, in line with agile principles. They provided comprehensive plans to mitigate risks and engage effectively with partners and stakeholders. Value for money - they demonstrated the potential level of savings from the project and forecasted a return on investment when the project is scaled nationally and across the collaborative partnership.

The selected projects

Please note, some of the project names may change once work begins.

Round 6 discovery projects

User journeys into adult social care

Led by: London Borough of Redbridge
Funding awarded: £100,000
Aim: This project will identify opportunities to deliver more preventative interventions and effective triaging.

Exploring Automated Health and Social Care Assessments

Led by: Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames
Funding awarded: £100,000
Aim: This project will investigate the automation of the social care triage, assessment and prescription process.

Safeguarding adults who go missing

Led by: Greater Manchester Combined Authority 
Funding awarded: £100,000
Aim: This project will develop processes and patterns for the capturing and sharing of data to alert local authorities and care professionals when vulnerable adults go missing.

Improving Local Authority Building Control Services

Led by: London Borough of Lambeth 
Funding awarded: £100,000
Aim: This project will look into developing and streamlining specialised building control software.

Improving social care hospital discharges

Led by: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Funding awarded: £82,000
Aim: This project will explore how to overcome the blockages to hospital discharges by developing an Adult Social Care Digital Patient Journey Management System.

Improving housing advice services to prevent homelessness

Led by: London Borough of Newham 
Funding awarded: £100,000
Aim: This project will inspect data factors that can better identify people at risk of homelessness.

Digital support for carers

Led by: London Borough of Southwark 
Funding awarded: £99,300
Aim: This project will seek to develop a digital support tool to help carers navigate the complex information and service landscape.

Helping children out of long waits for adoption

Led by: Nottinghamshire County Council 
Funding awarded: £95,000
Aim: This project will develop data science methods to identify the characteristics of parents who are willing to adopt sibling groups, children older than five, are of minority ethnic background or have complex needs.

Exploring barriers to online engagement with council services

Led by: South Ribble Borough Council
Funding awarded: £35,175
Aim: This project will explore the requirements needed for citizens to access council services with the aim of streamlining or removing unnecessary sign-in requirements.

Digital surface flood warning system

Led by: Wakefield Metropolitan Borough Council 
Funding awarded: £97,000  
Aim: This project will develop connected places technology to develop a real time surface water flood warning system.

Digitising bulk waste collections

Led by: North Tyneside Council
Funding awarded: £93,500
Aim: This project will explore the use of machine learning to assess the variables of bulk waste collection.

Sharing planning data across council boundaries

Led by: Epping Forest District Council
Funding awarded: £69,000
Aim: This project will assess how planning consultation data for the proposed Harlow & Gilston Garden Town, which will be developed across five council boundaries, can be shared and used.

Round 6 alpha projects

Rapid identification of vulnerable households in an emergency or crisis

Led by: Cumbria County Council 
Funding awarded: £139,000
Aim: This project will scale a digital tool to be used by regional partners for the rapid identification of vulnerable households by emergency teams during a crisis.

Digital taxi licensing service

Led by: Rushmoor Borough Council
Funding awarded: £138,150 
Aim: This project will test a prototype licensing service, to see if it meets user needs and is scalable.

Round 6 beta projects

Planning an infrastructure mapping platform

Led by: Kent County Council
Funding awarded: £218,200
Aim: This project will develop a data platform to improve strategic planning and provision of infrastructure.

Automating HR Appointment processes

Led by: Southampton City Council
Funding awarded: £350,000
Aim: This project will develop and implement automation tools in councils to improve their starters, movers and leavers processes.

How to follow the projects

We will share regular progress updates on our funded projects via the DLUHC Digital blog and the Local Digital website, as well as our other channels:

Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Read our Sprint Notes Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter Join LocalGov Digital and their Slack community (find our updates on the #dluhc-local-digital-fund channel)