Agenda item

To receive the Telford & Wrekin Digital Strategy 2024.

The Cabinet Member: Finance, Governance & Customer Services presented the report of the Interim Director: Finance HR & IDT.

The report sought approval for a new Digital Strategy for the period 2024-2027.  

It set out the way that the Council would maximise the potential of digital technology in how it communicated and interacted with residents, customers and partner organisations by providing the right digital environment within the community.

The vision was to create a better borough through digital innovation providing seamless connectivity for all and encouraging take-up of information and services online.

The Strategy highlighted the initial actions planned, progress on the 2021 to 2023 Digital Strategy and how aims would be delivered through to the end of 2026/27. 

Key accomplishments were set out in the report and included:

·         the launch of the new Leisure website and Leisure system

·         the launch of the new digital assistant “Ask-Tom” available 24/7 to respond to the most frequently asked questions. 

·         An increased number of services could now be accessed through a more prominent home-page location which had led to a 40% increase in customers accessing services.

·         A series of improvements had been implemented to the customer experience of using the My Telford portal

·         In respect of travel assistance and transport requests, a custom system had been created 

·         Our Virtual House was now complete and fully accessible via Live Well Telford: Virtual House tour

·         The creation of an Independent Living Centre (ILC)

·         The implementation of an app to aid mental health professionals and booking doctors

·         The implementation of One Health and Care – a digital health and social care record

·         In late 2023 infrared technology to detect falls and track habits and behaviours pilot was introduced

·         An online referral into Family Connect safeguarding for professional partners to streamline referral processes had been introduced

·         The Care Providers portal had been introduced which linked adult social care and the financial managements systems

·         Working with partners, the new Live Well Telford digital directory had been created and was a one stop shop to help people get online

·         Support given to over 100 young people with a device from the Leader and Cabinet Young Persons Grant Scheme

·         Face-to-face digital inclusion sessions to help people gain confidence online and using the internet, of which 77% of attendees were 65 and over

·         Learn Telford provided a weekly Job Junction at Wellington Library

·         A pilot project had been delivered with Teldoc Primary Care Network to support patients downloading the NHS app

·         Hello Telford, a free B2B tool provided a one-stop-shop digital platform for businesses and helped reduce their carbon footprint

·         Invest Telford was rebranded and a new website effectively promoted the town

·         A new Council fund – Innovate Telford – offered 100 Telford businesses funding to help them transform over a six month period

·         High quality digital infrastructure was being delivered boosting digital inclusion and job opportunities as well as high speed connectivity in both rural and urban areas

·         LoraWAN Gully Sensors were being piloted in high risk road flooding areas

·         Work had taken place with the Housing Investment programme and Nuplace to ensure new building was digitally connected

·         Visit Telford website had been relaunched

·         A new Third Generation Security Firewall had been upgraded

·         A consistent delivery of excellent digital services with average service uptime of 99.88% in 2022 and 2023

·         The Council’s commitment to evidence based decision making had seen many improvements in the use of data and in particularly significant increase in the use of Power BI for interactive reports and dashboards and data modelled processes

The Strategy acknowledged that navigating the digital landscape could be challenging and the Council was dedicated to ensuring that some non-digital channels would be left open for those who required them.  They were committed to a broad option of communication channels providing customers with choice and would deliver a consistent, easy to use reliable customer experience across all sections of the organisation.  By encouraging user friendly and accessible services, customers could interact online which would help the Council to allocate more resource for those customers who needed to rely on using conventional contact methods.

Working alongside partners, the Council would use digital technology to empower and enable people to fulfil their potential, be actively involved in the community, stay safe and live healthy, independent lives for longer.  It would also help to improve productivity and growth in businesses borough wide.  To enhance Gigabit and 5G connectivity, the Council would closely monitor National Government Schemes to improve speed connectivity in remote rural areas.  It would continue to create Telford Connected digital innovation, improving the way that services were delivered through the deployment of smart technology and by providing, enabling and encouraging its partners and customers with secure, reliable, resilient IT infrastructure whilst reducing its carbon footprint.

Cabinet Members welcomed the report and the inclusive digital strategy.  It was key that the Council kept all channels of communication open in order to maintain inclusivity in the way services were delivered.  Although it was quicker and cheaper for people to get online, there were still residents who needed support going forward.  By using available technology, the Council would continue to streamline and generate efficiencies. 

The Leader of the Conservative Group considered that work was being undertaken more effectively as technology was doing the heavy lifting.   MyTelford app was a good example of working better and smarter.  He raised a minor caveat in relation to interacting with AI and felt that people needed to know if they were dealing with AI or a human and he raised concerns about the potential overuse of technology and asked the Council to remain cautious.

The Leader expressed that the Council would grasp every single opportunity that was presented including high speed connectivity and digital skills hub promotion.  The MyTelford app had stood the test of time and it was hoped this could be developed further.

RESOLVED – that the Telford & Wrekin Digital Strategy 2024 be approved.