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A pilot training programme for ‘non-digital’ local government senior managers.
The Local Government Association working with Apolitical has launched a first-of-its-kind training programme on digital excellence specifically for local government to pilot with 30 local authority senior managers across England.
The digital age presents both opportunities and challenges for local government. In the context of funding and workforce capacity pressures, the need to navigate uncertainty and complexity, it requires senior managers to think and work differently to harness the full potential of digital technology and drive innovation, to help increase efficiency and improve services.
Digital mindset is about a willingness to embrace new ways of working, and an ability to assess and realise the potential benefits that digital technologies can bring. If we want to be employers of choice, we need to recognise that a strong organisational digital mindset will be increasingly important to the workforce of the future.
Felicity Mercer - Interim Executive Director: Adult Social Care, Housing and Customer Services at Telford & Wrekin Council
The Unlocking Digital Excellence Programme will help to develop the skills and knowledge senior managers in councils need to apply digital principles and lead teams that can deliver according to best practices around data, artificial intelligence (AI), and user-centred design.
The pilot programme is designed for senior managers in non-technical roles and will run from Monday 2 December 2024 to March 2025. Expressions of interest need to be submitted by Wednesday 20 November 2024.
This programme is funded by the UK Government and is free for English council staff.
We expect learners to commit to at least 1 hour of learning per week and participate in evaluation to understand how best to scale an offer of this kind to the sector. You will receive an LGA-branded certificate upon completion of the three courses and attendance of all the online events.
What does the programme include?
- Two online, bite-sized courses with 3–5 hours of learning time each.
- Three 60-minute online events hosted by Apolitical with subject matter experts.
- A private community and discussion questions to enable peer-to-peer learning.
- Online learning hub with additional reading and resources.
- In-person roundtable hosted by Digital Excellence Programme partners, the London School of Economics and EY.
Benefits
For the learner, the programme will help you to:
- develop confidence to lead and contribute to conversations and decision-making around the adoption, application, and use of digital approaches balancing risk and opportunity
- increase your understanding of the role of culture, practices and processes to help you create the conditions for your teams to succeed in a digital working environment
- develop your professional network and community of peers through a supportive community who can work together and respond to common constraints and challenges
- hear from the experts the latest thinking to develop own skills and knowledge
- have lifetime access to the Apolitical platform and community
- work in partnership with Apolitical and LGA to evaluate and share feedback on the pilot programme to understand how we might best scale this offer for local government.
For the organisation:
- externally funded learning and development opportunity
- the training will contribute to increasing and securing the digital readiness of the council
- developing a digital mindset could open the door to new opportunities for the council
- potential to drive improvements to service delivery which makes it more likely that resident expectations will be met in ways that are more inclusive, accessible and secure
About Apolitical
Apolitical is the world’s largest community for government, used by a quarter of a million public servants in 160 countries to find and share best practices and access critical training for successful 21st century governments.
All of Apolitical’s courses are designed with and for public servants.
More about the Digital Excellence Programme
The ‘Unlocking Digital Excellence in Local Government Programme’ is an adaptation of the ‘Digital Excellence Programme’, a best-in-class digital and data upskilling programme for senior civil servants, recognised as a “world-class learning product” in the Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027.
The Digital Excellence Programme (DEP) is part of the Modern Civil Service agenda. It is delivered by Apolitical (a platform for government learning), the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and EY. It is rated as a high-quality and high-impact programme co-designed with UK government departments on the basis of extensive user interviews.
The DEP was designed for central government leaders. Please note, there will be language in this adapted pilot version of the programme which is closely relevant to a central government audience.
The DEP programme has consistently outperformed engagement benchmarks provided by the Civil Service for comparable online programmes delivered to senior civil servants.
Deputy Director in the Home Office’s UK Central Authority, Andy Cooke-Welling, on his experience of the Digital Excellence Programme:
“There’s still nervousness about digital developments like artificial intelligence and big data,” he said.
“So I felt I had a responsibility to get the knowledge I needed to be able to understand the technology, the risks and opportunities in order to reassure and educate our people.
“The programme gave me the confidence and context to explain the benefits and opportunities of digital technologies. So if I were to lead the same projects again, I’d be able to articulate our aims more simply and do a better job of bringing all colleagues - not just the technical ones - on board.”
“The programme is incredibly intuitive, and you certainly don’t have to be a technical expert to do it,” he said.
“For me, it opened my eyes to the strategic opportunities of innovation and balancing risks which enabled me to be confident about how to use data and technologies in a safe way.
“Leaders in central government need to be able to understand the opportunities of digital technologies so they can help demystify them for others. I certainly felt it gave me the context and confidence to lead digital transformation and bring people along with me.”
Indicative Recruitment and Onboarding Timeline
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Recruitment for learners opens |
Monday 28 October |
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Learner Application Deadline |
Wednesday 20 November |
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LGA sift Applications |
Thursday 21 November |
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LGA notifies successful applicants |
Friday 22 November. |
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Apolitical onboards learners to the Programme |
w/c 2 December |
Course learning outcomes
Building a Digital Culture in Government
- Understand how digital technologies can improve outcomes for local people.
- Understand how legacy technology and processes affect service delivery.
- Describe how agile working practices and culture can contribute to excellence in public service delivery.
- Understand how leaders can create the right culture for digital working.
Building a Data Culture in Government
- Articulate the benefits of using data to inform decisions in your context.
- Determine data-sharing possibilities across local government and beyond.
- Compare ways to address data ethics, data privacy and data protection concerns.
- Instil a more data-curious culture in your service.
Building a User-Centred Culture in Government (optional)
- Understand how the concept of user-centred design can be applied to the local government context.
- Understand how user research can create more user-centred policies and services.
- Learn essential accessibility requirements for local government services.
Building AI Confidence in Government (optional)
- Understand how AI works, what it can and can’t do, and why this matters.
- Recognise the main benefits and risks of AI.
- Identify ways generative AI can be harnessed for council staff and the residents they serve.
- Indicate best practices for using generative AI tools responsibly.
Programme FAQ
Any other questions?
Please contract [email protected] with any further questions.