Government crest Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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Laying the foundations for better local public services

Measuring the impact of the DLUHC Local Digital programme

We want to better understand the challenges councils are facing in terms of digital and cyber security, and measure the impact of the Local Digital programme so far.

To do this, we’ve commissioned an independent evaluation of the Local Digital programme to make sure it’s as effective as possible.

The evaluation study will be delivered by a consortium of PUBLIC, Daintta and the Society of Innovation, Technology and Modernisation (Socitm), working closely with the Local Digital team, between May 2023 and May 2025.

Why we're doing this

To support councils to deliver a wide and diverse range of public services, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has provided local government with almost £42 million in funding through its Local Digital programme, which includes the Local Digital Fund and, more recently, Future Councils.

The Local Digital programme aims to deliver more user-centred and cost-effective local public services through open, collaborative and reusable work, and improve the cyber security of councils by helping them move away from insecure technology.

We are working with councils to gather feedback on their digital and cyber position, what obstacles they face, and what delivers the best outcomes for local government.

The evaluation study will help to:

  • demonstrate the impact and outcomes of digital and cyber projects within councils
  • provide councils with a snapshot of their digital and cyber maturity
  • measure whether the programme has supported councils towards becoming modern and resilient
  • define how the programme develops future funding opportunities, support and interventions
  • provide evidence to support the scaling up of council initiatives
  • emphasise the critical role digital and cyber play in delivering council services

How we'll measure impact

The evaluation survey will demonstrate what delivers the best outcomes for councils, and will help us to identify opportunities for further support, funding initiatives and interventions to support the sector.

We are working with councils to collect feedback and insight through a variety of methods, including surveys, interviews and workshops.

We’re in touch with councils who have been engaged with our programme to date, as well as those who have not, to best enable comparison.

Importantly, the evaluation is only to assess the effectiveness and impact of the Local Digital programme, it is not to assess the performance of participating or non-participating councils.

Find out more and follow our progress

In September 2023, we published a blog post to share some of the initial findings from the survey, which has been completed by over 70 councils so far.

This was followed by a webinar in October, hosted by PUBLIC, to share some of the initial findings from the survey. This included a discussion of the main digital priorities and challenges faced by councils, as well as benchmarking on topics like cloud adoption, legacy spend, and service area transformation. You can watch a recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel.

For further updates on the evaluation study, subscribe to the Local Digital newsletter or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn. We will also publish key updates on this page.