New local government digital standard published

The standard's 15 recommendations include the use of agile methods

A local government digital service standard has been agreed and published after taking into account the views of council staff in a consultation last month.

The standard is a common approach for local authorities to deliver good quality, user centred, value for money digital services - and is a local government version of the original Government Digital Service Standard used across central government.

After input from over 50 councils, at the end of February the Government Digital Service (GDS) asked council staff and other interested parties for their views on a draft version of the standard.

The draft had 18 key recommendations, and these have now been narrowed down to 15 after a steering group of 11 members from different councils met and looked at feedback from the consultation.

The final suggestions in the published draft include creating a service using the agile, iterative and user-centred methods set out in the Government Service Design Manual, using open standards and making source code and service data open and reusable under appropriate licences.

Other points include evaluating tools and systems that will be used to build, host, operate and measure the service, and evaluating what user data will be provided or stored and ensuring that it is secure, and complies with the law.

Missing from the published standard is guidance on the use of open source tools and use of analysis tools to measure the success of the service.

Over the next few months, LocalGov Digital, the organisation that brought together councils to work on the digital standard, will be forming regional peer networks to support councils in adopting the standard, and publishing guidance on how best to implement each of the 15 points it contains. A Digital Service Standard Summit will then be held in September.

Digital transformation is becoming central to organisations of all types, and to celebrate this Computing's sister publication V3 has launched the V3 Digital Technology Leaders Awards. These are free to enter and open for submissions now.