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  4. Delivery Plan Progress - Appendix A

Delivery Plan Progress - Appendix A

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Digital skills and inclusion

  • our 230 workplace digital champions have been developing skills in O365 helping their colleagues and the organisation to become more efficient, exploiting the tools we have and preparing for future change
  • the ’All Together Group’ has been established and working towards ensuring all staff can access Dorset Council systems through the provision of Microsoft licences and ‘Bring Your Own Device’ capabilities
  • working with the NHS to develop digital skills and academy we have experimented and tested leadership for the digital age and data literacy training which we are now embedding in our L&D offer
  • last year we had a 94% completion rate of our cyber security training which every employee should complete. Having changed providers in 2022, 53% of monthly e-learning modules have been completed this year, with plans in place to increase the completion rate given how critical user awareness is for avoiding being caught out by phishing and other social engineering attempts

Data and intelligence

  • the Business intelligence and data strategy has been developed for approval at February 2023 Cabinet
  • we have appointed a data science role
  • established a data warehouse
  • Dorset Care Record – we are now feeding risk data into the record to help our partners decision making
  • created a ‘Cost of Living dashboard’ using external and internal data to model various scenarios to understand the impact on differing communities to enable decision making around our response

Designing future services

  • we have progressed building the foundations of our customer platform replacing Our Dorset council, Our Dorset Social Care, Public Health, and the Xchange websites
  • developed for launch our customer account, replacement newsroom and customer contact management, and agreeing a new approach for directories, positioning us to realise our customer transformation ambition
  • in December it was approved to bring in external help to develop our one council business case for customer transformation and a people first, digital always vision to how we re-design our services to meet customer needs
  • pilot underway for building/desk utilisation monitoring using IoT sensors at County Hall – smart sustainable buildings
  • supported the creation of systems and processes for Ukraine response, including mobile inspections
  • developed of a tool for landlords to understand energy efficiency which has been nominated for two awards
  • procured and implementing an online Financial Assessment tool for social care clients as an alternative to telephone and face to face visits

Technology and infrastructure

  • the Intelligent Council group has been established to oversee the application portfolio and commissioning of new systems. The group is seeking external help to undertake work to understand our existing portfolio and inform a roadmap to rationalise and reduce cost
  • supporting Dorset workplace, we have 4715 users of MS teams, 48 meeting rooms now have hybrid kit, a new room/desk booking system, the use of govnotify and a project to look at an electronic signature capability to help us go paperless
  • through our infrastructure security vulnerability work in the first year, we have reduced our technical vulnerabilities by about 80%. We have implemented Security Incident and Event Monitoring tooling to identify suspect activity and immutable backup solutions to provide an additional layer of data protection from cyber-attack

Leadership and innovation

  • using modern communication methods to speak to our communities – Facebook live sofa sessions
  • we were the first pilot site for the LGA sector led improvement work around cyber security and recently had a Cyber 360 review which has helped us to really understand our culture and leadership and will be focused this year on providing more specialist targeted training alongside stronger cyber and service continuity exercising
  • we have been a partner in national Local Digital Fund/DLUHC PropTech projects, collaborating with other councils to encourage public engagement in the planning service and re-developing our online planning register, income management and development of online low code waste services which a subsequent bid has been submitted to extend this work into commercial waste/ecommerce capability
  • we have been successful securing £1.1M over 3 years to support Adult Social Care Providers to make best use of digital technology to improve the quality and delivery of care. As an ICS we are committed to ensuring that 80% of CQC registered providers are using electronic care planning solutions by March 24 and support 20% of residents who are identified as at high risk of falls in CQC registered care homes

Digital skills and inclusion

  • 800 frontline employees have been trained as embedded digital champions to help people use online public services
  • there are 44 volunteer champions who have helped 1750 people in the community develop digital skills and get online. The digital hotline has received over 1000 calls
  • 96 people have received devices through our Digital Doorway scheme removing barriers to provide digital access for all. Enabled over 100 people to cross the digital divide thanks to device and data giveaways
  • lGA pathfinder funding to explore ways to counter the national shortage of fibre engineers. We are working with network providers who are active in Dorset to understand the specific skills gaps and find cost-effective ways to fill them
  • dorset’s new Digital Skills Partnership has brought together around 20 partners to share their knowledge of existing digital skills support in Dorset to support business workforces
  • we held the first ever Dorset Coding Day Brought schools and tech companies together on Coding Day

Technology and infrastructure

  • mobile connectivity Rootmetrics work completed
  • Wessex Digital Infrastructure Accelerator– awarded £500k funding. Working with industry and government to improve processes for mobile site acquisition through the Wessex Digital Infrastructure Accelerator
  • superfast programme completed
  • fibre connectivity – 14 libraries connected using £200k national funding.
  • fibre connectivity UK gigabit programme – 35 public sites will now be getting full fibre gigabit thanks to £900k government funding
  • fibre connectivity inward investment – Significant expansion of commercial gigabit (full fibre) coverage is anticipated over the medium term.  Gigabit capable coverage in Dorset currently at 19.51% (ThinkBroadband March 2022)
  • voucher activity to maximise utilisation of government funding for new gigabit connections -overseen over 400 properties connected utilising top-up vouchers.
  • significant increase in commercial activity
  • secure connected places work looking at data management implications of smart sensors with a small grant from DCMS

Leadership and innovation

  • trailblazing 5G work, achieved world firsts significant benefits/legacy realised, national profile achieved and Multi award winning. Led to follow-on projects including Wessex DCIA
  • 5G RuralDorset brought in £10m of government and industry investment.  It gives us a great foundation for future innovations with government and industry
  • working effectively with Economic Development service to leverage digital innovation from investment in the Dorset Innovation Park, including the BattleLab
  • mentoring other councils around digital (digital inclusion, skills, 5G)
  • built knowledge and awareness of Dorset's fabulous digital innovation initiatives through Festival of the Future and our Digital Dorset brand via: residents digital e-newsletter which reaches 10,852 people, Twitter 2.9k followers and Facebook 251 followers. In the last year both accounts have reached 115.5k people (up by 56k on the previous year). YouTube channel 10,374 views over the last year