Welcome to our newsletter, bringing you all the latest from the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government. In this newsletter, we bring you a detailed update on what has been happening across the Digital Partnership throughout the last month and details of upcoming activities.
If you have any queries regarding any of the content within this newsletter, please get in touch.
We have published a report summarising progress made in delivering the commitments set out in the Digital Strategy for Scotland, published in 2021, which was developed alongside Scottish Government's Digital Directorate and COSLA.
The Next Generation of Digital Champions: Insight Request.
As we look to the future, cultivating the next generation of Digital Champions becomes imperative. It requires a concerted effort to nurture talent, creativity, and instil a passion for innovation across the public sector. By investing in education, mentorship programmes, and supportive ecosystems, we can empower aspiring Digital Champions to contribute meaningfully to the constantly evolving digital landscape we are part of.
Let us come together, embrace curiosity, coupled with the fear of the unknown and build resilience through collaborative initiatives to transform public services for the better.
In collaboration with Aaron Slater of Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, we have been exploring the possibilities of cross organisation Digital Champions, aligning with Inclusion Champions.
Before we begin a series of stakeholder discovery workshops around this initiative, we are looking for each council to self-assess the maturity of their existing Digital Champions networks. Please support us by completing the survey below.
If you would like further information or to provide us with suggestions, please get in touch with Verity Hislop.
Maximising our Microsoft investment - National Community for Microsoft Power Platforms.
We're thrilled to finally announce that we’re about to launch our National Community for Microsoft Power Platforms on June 14th, 2024.
In collaboration with Chris Wright, of Perth and Kinross Council and Verity Hislop, this initiative will benefit Scottish local authorities. By coming together, we will share knowledge, resources, and best practices to drive digital transformation and maximise our Microsoft investment across Scotland.
Join us as we harness the power of Microsoft’s Power Platform to enhance services and improve outcomes for our communities. Let's innovate and collaborate to make a real difference!
To get involved and be part of this exciting journey, please register here!
In the meantime, if you would like to sharpen and develop your digital skills via live, instructor led virtual training hours and gain deeper knowledge of Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio, Forms, OneNote, Planner, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Excel and SharePoint Online. Please register for these free courses with Microsoft using the link below.
Engage Process: Let the Collaborations Begin - Process Requests.
Now that we have a dedicated shared space for collectively mapping our processes, we have a favour to ask: For those who have already mapped processes using Engage, we'd love to connect with you to begin uploading and collaborating.
Many of you are sending us enquiries on how to access the shared area, which is within the existing Knowledge Centre on Engage Process, however, to enable us to collectively map processes, we must upload existing processes and identify priorities for ongoing collaborations.
Could you please sign up using the form below to support this initiative and we will be in touch. We're excited to see the collective impact we can achieve across local government!
National M365 Cross-Organisation Collaboration Programme.
Welcome to the monthly update on the National M365 Cross-Organisation Collaboration Programme! Here's a glimpse of our recent progress and upcoming plans:
Phase 1 Progress:
We’re delighted to announce that with Edinburgh Council going live this month, we now have 22 councils fully operational with Phase 1, with an additional 5 currently in progress. Furthermore, we expect to on-board Stirling Council soon!
Collaboration Expansion:
We have successfully on-boarded Public Health Scotland (PHS) and are looking forward to working closely with both PHS and the State Hospital to enhance our collaborative efforts.
Skills Hub Rollout:
Due to the overwhelming interest in the M365 Skills Hub, we have decided to slightly delay the on-boarding process to ensure all prerequisites from the remaining councils are met. To date, we are proud to report that 26 councils are participating in this rollout, and we are currently verifying domains with an additional 5 councils.
Future Initiatives:
Our list of suggested opportunities to foster collaboration between health and care teams has grown significantly over the past month. To explore these ideas further, we have scheduled a workshop with our Programme Board for the 4th of June. This session will allow us to review our learnings, discuss potential opportunities, reassess current objectives, and agree on our future focus.
Get Involved:
Interested in learning more or have any questions? Please don't hesitate to get in touch with Monika Ivanova.
Development of the new Multi-Agency Public Protection System (MAPPS).
The Digital Office, in collaboration with the Scottish Government, local authorities, Police Scotland, the NHS, and the Home Office, is actively involved in developing the new Multi-Agency Public Protection System (MAPPS). This system is set to replace ViSOR, which currently contains details of individuals requiring special monitoring arrangements and for whom local government is a responsible authority.
MAPPS is a large-scale project intended for use across the UK. Although the full implementation date is still some time away, the Digital Office and partners are working diligently on several critical aspects. These include shaping the Data Protection Impact Assessment and other key documents, as well as reviewing the security arrangements. This collaborative effort aims to ensure that, upon delivery, local government will have the necessary assurances regarding the system's security and implementation. If you would like to find out more about this project, please contact info@digitaloffice.scot
BT and Openreach Announce Extended Timeline for the Analogue to Digital Migration
This month, BT and Openreach announced an extended timeline for the analogue to digital migration, whereby the existing analogue PSTN technology, which supports phone and broadband services, will be retired and replaced with a digital network.
As no pause or delay has been announced, the migration work by BT and Openreach will continue through this window. Therefore, it is necessary for Telecare Service Providers to continue their efforts to implement digital telecare services to stay ahead of the migration.
Due to the hard work of the Scottish sector, led by the Digital Office Digital Telecare Programme for the past five years, Scottish telecare is in a much higher state of digital readiness than the rest of the country. With the adoption of the Shared ARC Platform, we expect to see many more Telecare Service Providers fast-track their analogue to digital migration.
Legislative progress continues with Stage 3 amendments subject to vote on the 28th of May.
The Visitor Levy Expert Group has been recruiting stakeholders to ‘test’ the Expert Guidance under preparation for summer publication. As the Improvement Service work with Early Adopters progresses, supporting ‘national’ stakeholder engagement events have been arranged to provide insight across the UK/International Visitor Levy scheme landscape:
Welsh revenue experience: The Visitor Levy team and Revenue Scotland met with representatives from the Welsh Revenue Authority on the 13th of May to discuss the Welsh approach to visitor levy and areas of mutual learning.
Air B+B experience: The Visitor Levy team will meet with Air B+B International tax team on 28 May for a broad ranging discussion on lessons learned by National Accommodation Brokers from visitor levy schemes around the world.
There is still time to sign up to our first Digital Partnership Forum of 2024!
The Digital Office for Scottish Local Government host a Partnership Forum bi-annually, bringing together key colleagues from across the sector who are involved in or responsible for digital transformation in their organisation. This Forum will focus on supporting councils to be digitally and data futureproof.
Date: Wednesday, 5th June Time: 10am - 12:30pm Location: Microsoft Teams
