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Laying the foundations for the local public services of the future

Post-delivery support for projects receiving continuous funding

This page contains information for project leads on:

  • Delivering your final outputs
  • How to contact Local Digital for support
  • How we can support you to promote your work

Prepare your project outputs

1. Business or benefits case

This should explain the cost of the problem and the potential savings your solution could lead to. It should consider all the councils involved and the impact if rolled out nationally.

2. User research report

An updated user research report that justifies why the product or service is designed the way it is.

3. Product or service

An accessible product or service with evidence of iterative user testing that could be used across multiple local authorities (for example, a Github repository of code) or a link to the PowerApp library. 

4. Roadmap

A roadmap of technical features that meet your strategic and user needs. 

5. Guidance

Guidance on how other local authorities could access or implement your product or service. This could take the form of a set of instructions, design pattern, playbook, data standard, open code or solution.

6. Conclusions for a live project

A conclusion proposing what product or service should be developed in a ‘live’ project, including evidence regarding the technical, operational and commercial considerations that support scaling/re-use.

Finally, and where appropriate, an application for additional funding from the Local Digital Fund to progress the project.

Check that your outputs are accessible

We have produced a guide to help you make sure the outputs you produce meet basic digital accessibility requirements. It includes simple steps you can follow, as well as advice on best practice and links to useful resources. Download the guide as a PDF or as a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Submit your outputs

Please provide us with your project outputs in one of the following formats:

  1. A HTML web page is the easiest format for many assistive technologies to read. If you have the ability to host the content on your own platforms then we can link to it from our website.
  2. The next best option is the interoperable Open Document Format (ODF). Find out why government uses the ODF standard. Both Google Workspace and Microsoft Office allow you to export files in Open Document Formats.
  3. PDF files are not responsive and are difficult to open or navigate on mobile devices or using assistive technology. If you must use a PDF, it should be properly formatted and run through a tool to check for and fix any accessibility issues. Find out why content should be published in HTML, not PDF.

Where possible, we encourage you to publish the outputs on your own channels as HTML web pages. If this option is not available to you, we can share the outputs as downloadable files via your project web page on the Local Digital website.

Please email your outputs to fund@localdigital.gov.uk when they are ready.

After you have delivered your outputs

Stay in touch

Although you no longer have a dedicated Collaboration and Engagement Manager, we would like to hear about what’s next for your project so we can continue to promote your achievements. 

To stay in touch or to ask for our help and advice on a wide range of topics, email fund@localdigital.gov.uk.

There will no doubt be other councils interested in speaking to you about what your project team has learned. To support other councils on their journey and encourage the re-use of your hard work, please provide us with an email address that is monitored by your project team where you can be contacted for advice or to explore opportunities for collaboration.

If you have access to Slack, we also encourage you to join the #dluhc-local-digital-fund channel in the LocalGovDigital workspace. Find out how to join LocalGovDigital.

For the latest updates from Local Digital, subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

 

Get help promoting your work

To encourage the re-use of products and to connect you with other interested local authorities, we would like to continue to help you promote your hard work across our channels.

The Local Digital Comms team can help you promote:

  • the progress you have made
  • the outputs you have published
  • events you are hosting that are relevant to the sector
  • blog posts or articles your team has written
  • case studies (written or video)
  • your project website

Learn more about our Comms team and how you can make use of our channels.