Scottish Local Government Digital Transformation Board wins award for digital engagement

Lorraine McMillan collects the SOCITM Digital Engagement Award from Dr Sue Black - Image credit: East Renfrewshire Council

The Scottish Local Government Digital Transformation Board won the Digital Engagement Award at SOCITM’s annual conference. 

The award recognises the work of the board – which is a partnership between 27 Scottish councils – to develop a digital transformation strategy for local government in Scotland.

A new Local Government Digital Office has now been set up, which aims to become a centre of excellence in data, technology and digital, supporting councils with transformation and ensuring they are creating top class digital services.

Lorraine McMillan, chief executive of East Renfrewshire Council and chair of the Scottish Local Government Digital Transformation Board, said: “I am delighted that we have been honoured with this award which recognises our vision and commitment to transform Scottish council services through harnessing the power of digital technologies.

“There is already a huge amount of positive work being carried out by Scottish councils to use digital technologies to better meet the needs of our customers.

“Now, through the establishment of our digital office, we will be able to take this to the next level, ensure a coordinated approach to our innovative work and make sure we are at the cutting edge of technologies to revolutionise the services we provide for our customers in the future.”

The digital office was established following the recent appointments of a Martyn Wallace as Chief Digital Officer and Colin Birchenall as Chief Technology Officer.

They have been tasked with turning the national local government digital transformation strategy into a set of actions that will set the long-term digital direction for local government in Scotland.

They will work with councils to help build a portfolio of collaborative initiatives and projects that exploit digital technologies to improve outcomes and customer experience while also reducing the cost of services.

The group of 27 councils will fund the digital office for the next three years and the new team will be shared by all the participating councils.