About Future Councils

Our vision for Future Councils is to create the conditions for modern, resilient councils.

Councils involved in the Future Councils pilot will be given £750k each to address the three common challenges Local Digital has identified through its work and conversations with councils across England. These are:

• how to influence the organisation-wide factors (such as internal processes, leadership and governance) that can unblock change
• how to make digital and cyber improvements across the whole organisation, rather than just one team or area
• how to reform services, including the big, critical services, which are riskier and harder to change

Through the pilot, we will work with the 8 councils to make these changes across their organisation, and understand what further support they need to do this. If successful, our goal will be to create replicable pathways that other councils might follow.

Councils that are part of Future Councils will be expected to share learning openly. Any replicable pathways and reusable artefacts will be made freely available to enable other councils in the sector to apply in their own setting.

We are piloting Future Councils with a small cohort of councils to test and iterate our approach. We plan to offer further opportunities for local authorities to join Future Councils later in 2023.

To follow the progress of the pilot and find out about opportunities to partner with us beyond the pilot phase, subscribe to the Local Digital newsletter.