The Role of the Digital Office

In April 2021, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) outlined a crucial mandate for the Digital Office to "Ensure that the infrastructure, support and capabilities are in place to help councils increase the pace of digital transformation and to deliver on the ambitions of the National Digital Strategy for Scotland". The Digital Office achieves this mandate by operating at three distinct levels— National, Sector and Council level—and fulfilling four key roles that are instrumental in shaping the future of digital transformation in Scottish local government. Let’s explore these roles to understand how the Digital Office is driving digital transformation across Scotland's public sector.

Role 1: National Policy and Strategy Development

At a national scale, the Digital Office plays a key role by supporting Scottish Government and COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) on the development of digital and data policies and strategies that shape Scotland's future. This includes the main Digital and Data strategy as well as any elements that need to be considered in other key government policy areas. All of this is achieved through collaboration and co-production. The Digital Office facilitates engagement with a wide range of local government stakeholders to help align national policy and strategy with the needs of councils. This collaboration ensures that the perspectives and needs of local government are integrated into the early stages of policy and strategy development.

By actively participating in discussions, the Digital Office ensures that Scottish local government has a strong voice in decisions that will influence the future of digital services across the country.

Our collaboration ensures that the needs of local government are represented and protected. Paving the way for national approaches and investment in common digital solutions to benefit us all. Promoting a Once for Scotland approach to reduce duplication, encourage better outcomes and realise efficiencies

Examples of the strategies that the Digital Office has supported Scottish Government and COSLA with include Scotland’s Digital Strategy “A Changing Nation: How Scotland Will Thrive in the Digital World”, Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy, and Scotland’s Health and Care Data Strategy.

Role 2: Assurance of National Digital Programmes

At sector level, the Digital Office partners with Council ICT, Digital leaders and Security Officers to provide national digital programmes with independent advice on how solutions should be implemented across and/or integrated with the 32 Councils. This role is essential for:

• Technical Review:  Ensuring that the technical designs for national digital solutions meet the requirements of Councils and adhere to appropriate standards where applicable.
• Risk Identification and Mitigation: Identifying and preventing potential costs and risks before they impact local government.
• Independent Assessment: Providing an unbiased appraisal of options in a complex technical and commercial environment.

By aligning national digital initiatives with local government requirements, the Digital Office aims to help to prevent unnecessary duplication and facilitates the smooth implementation of transformative digital programmes across the public sector.

Role 3: Digital Transformation Programme Management

Digital transformation is a complex process, and the Digital Office plays a crucial role in managing sector-level digital programmes to ensure they deliver value across the sector.

Examples of this include:  the Digital Telecare Programme, the Shared Alarm Receiving Centre design and procurement, Collaboration for Health & Care professionals via Microsoft 365, services for Clinical Health Index (CHI) Matching, Visitor Levy solution and architecture design, Microsoft 365 licences collaborative procurement amongst others.

Role 4: Local Capability Building

Finally, strengthening the digital capabilities of individual councils is the key focus of the Digital Office. This role involves:

• Awareness Raising: Ensuring that council employees and leadership are aware of the latest digital tools, strategies, and the benefits they offer.
• Digital Maturity Assessments: Evaluating the current baseline of digital capabilities within councils to identify strengths and provide tailored supporting improvement plans.
• Skills Development: Providing training and development opportunities to enhance the digital skills of council employees.
• Resource Sharing and Learning: Facilitating the sharing of resources, knowledge, and best practices among councils to develop capabilities as a collective.

By focusing on these areas, the Digital Office helps councils build a solid foundation for digital transformation, ensuring they are well-prepared to embrace and implement new technologies. We work with private and public sector partners to assist in capability building and some of subjects we cover include:

• Leadership & Digital Skills: from awareness level to expert we work in conjunction with society of Personnel and Development Scotland (SPDS) and Scottish Government Digital Academy.
• Service Design: Supporting and embedding the Scottish Approach to Service Design across our local Authorities
• Artificial Intelligence:  readiness and common solution opportunities to aid with operational benefits and efficiencies
• Internet of things (IOT): readiness and common solution opportunities to aid with operational benefits and efficiencies
• Data: enhancing the quality and usage of data to help support AI, IOT and fuel the further evolution of Digital Services for our citizens and efficiencies in our operations.

The Foundation: Collaboration and Partnership

All four roles of the Digital Office are underpinned by a strong commitment to collaboration and partnership. By creating a culture of partnership working between councils and local government partner organisations, the Digital Office ensures that digital transformation efforts are cohesive, comprehensive, and capable of delivering significant benefits across local government.

Conclusion

The Digital Office serves as a pivotal entity in driving digital transformation within Scottish councils. By influencing policy and strategy development where there are digital and data dependencies, assuring the quality of national digital initiatives, managing sector-wide digital programmes and building local capabilities within councils, the Digital Office plays a vital role in advancing the digital agenda for Scottish local government. To learn more about the Digital Office's role and ongoing efforts, check out our Action Plan. 

Read Action Plan