Photo: Eddie Copeland. Image: LOTI

London councils collaborate on digital innovation for pandemic recovery

15 July 2020

by Sarah Wray

Data collaboration between local governments will be more important than ever in the aftermath of COVID-19, concludes a new report to mark the first anniversary of the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI).

Hosted by cross-party umbrella group London Councils, LOTI was launched in 2019 and brings together the Greater London Authority and a coalition of London boroughs who want to work together on the use of digital tools and data.

The annual report outlines key achievements of LOTI so far as well as areas for improvement.

It details how during the coronavirus pandemic, LOTI has supported boroughs to use data to understand which of their residents may be most in need as well as helping to identify barriers to and solutions for cross-organisational working. This included the production of a guide to holding online council meetings and another on how to use digital methods for public engagement, as well as the compilation of recommendations for improving the government’s scheme for the provision of laptops to vulnerable children.

Collaborative work also focused on helping boroughs share data with each other on children in receipt of Free School Meals to ensure support was well targeted, and working with councils to help them get more timely access to death registrations data.

“Initially, we thought [COVID-19] would entail a complete shift in our work,” said Eddie Copeland, Director, LOTI. “In fact, it’s revealed that our objectives and ways of working are more important than ever.”

Groundwork

LOTI has now agreed with member boroughs to focus collective recovery efforts on tackling vulnerability and promoting inclusion.

“Much remains to be done to understand the changing nature of residents’ needs and design better ways to address them. This will form a substantial part of our work in year two,” the report says.

Theo Blackwell, London’s Chief Digital Officer, commented: “LOTI is making it easier for London and its 33 local authorities to harness the power of tech and data to improve Londoners’ lives.

“By acting as an incubator for the adoption of new ideas and working closely with councils, City Hall and Transport for London, it has been able to tackle complex city-wide problems during the pandemic. I have no doubt that in the years to come LOTI will continue to drive city-wide change with solutions designed to meet Londoners’ needs.”

Several work strands which were ongoing within LOTI underpinned the COVID-19 effort so far and recovery work ahead in London. These include the City Tools report and interactive dashboard released in November with Bloomberg Associates, which maps technologies, contracts and skills across London’s boroughs to help councils see opportunities for procurement collaboration.

An updated platform named Thirty3 is scheduled to launch in September. It will show boroughs’ technology tender opportunities and make them more transparent and accessible to small companies.

Further, LOTI is working to define common data access/API requirements for inclusion in technology tenders, which was highlighted as a procurement priority for boroughs. LOTI also worked with the Information Governance Group for London to develop a standardised 7-step process for Information Governance to help pave the way for boroughs to better collaborate around data.

Learning from failure

As well as achievements, the report also highlights a couple of initiatives which haven’t gone quite as planned.

The Seamless Wi-Fi project, for example, sought to enable public sector staff to get online from wherever in London’s public sector estate they were working. It was intended to reduce wasted time, increase productivity and remove barriers to collaborative and multi-agency working, including in cases of emergency response. The project started in July 2019 but only eight boroughs managed to implement GovWifi and Govroam as standard networks.

“This taught us that we need to ensure that all our members are bought into and able to deliver on the projects we agree together,” the report says. “We also took it as confirmation that every project warrants a discovery phase to ensure the technology solutions we propose are matched with a clear plan for what else needs to be in place to achieve our desired outcome.”

Further, in an effort to generate ideas from a wide range of sources and create a pipeline of projects, LOTI launched an open call for ideas in summer 2019. It received close to 100 submissions but found that “while there were plenty of ideas, they lacked strategic coherence”.

“We remain committed to sourcing the best ideas from wherever they might come from but have learned we need to be more focused in how we ask for ideas,” LOTI’s report said.

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