SAVVI at the Local Digital Roadshows

By Mevish Khalid & Tom Hindmarch, Published 30 June 2022

Our funders, the Local Digital Team at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), have been travelling up and down the country meeting people face-face at their regional roadshows. DLUHC’s Local Digital team have been awarded multi-year funding, and they are on the road to meet local authority practitioners and to hear their feedback to inform work for the department for the coming years.

Local Digital are interested in understanding how organisations are using Local Digital Funding, what challenges organisations are facing and how the team can support, provide training or tools to assess cyber risk and meet the ambitions of the

Local Digital Declaration⁠

. July will mark 4 years since the launch of the Local Digital Declaration and will celebrate the achievements so far.

The SAVVI (Scalable Approach to Vulnerability via Interoperability) team were asked to share their experience of Local Digital Funding and provide an update on the SAVVI project at the roadshows in Bristol (South West) and Salford (North West).

SAVVI at the South West Roadshow in Bristol

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On Tuesday 24th May, the Local Digital Team were in Bristol for the roadshow series and held the South West session at Temple Quay House. The session brought together colleagues from the South West to discuss all things related to digital and the primary focus of the morning was around networking and facilitated conversation between colleagues.

Paul Davidson presented the SAVVI Project and explained that SAVVI is bringing forward data standards, data sharing and information governance, within a

SAVVI model process,⁠

that can be applied to ‘find, assess and support’ people and households over a wide range of vulnerabilities. SAVVI aims to achieve early identification and smarter intervention/referrals and Paul explained the SAVVI Playbook. The Playbook covers the SAVVI Process, Standards, Catalogue and the IG Framework and was proposed in phase 1.

In SAVVI phase 2, Paul explained that the project looked to engage with other initiatives, publish two case studies, develop SAVVI standards with the Concept and Logical Model and set up a prototype for the SAVVI Catalogue.

Now in phase 3, SAVVI aims to be self-sustaining and launch the engagement platforms; the SAVVI Catalogue that successfully will share data and common terminology and the SAVVI dashboard which is a landscape of implementation and impact.

The event finished with a discussion looking at the risks and challenges delegates faced in their own organisations in relation to cyber and digital.

SAVVI at the North West Roadshow in Salford

On Wednesday 15th June, the Local Digital Team continued their roadshow series and held the North West session at HOST in Salford Quays. The session brought together public sector colleagues from a range of councils in the North West to discuss opportunities and challenges related to digital and cyber. Attendees discussed four key areas; skills, systems, cyber and the importance of user informed services. The themes covered reflect the main objectives of the local digital which have been formed in close partnership with collaborating councils.

After lunch Shelley Heckman presented an overview of the SAVVI project, explaining the different phases of the project, outlining the proposal for the delivery stage. Shelley highlighted the exciting additions of new team members as well as the collaborative work with GMCA, Wigan and Ministry of Justice on the BOLD Programme. Additionally Shelley reflected on the experience of being a local digital funded project, noting the support from DULCH team.

Following Shelley, Craig Hughes, Head of Data at Stockport Council, discussed their Local Digital funded project, ‘Family Context’. Craig explained that the project is all about bringing all the data of families into one place, helping to inform health and social work. Although the data is available it can be difficult to attain, the project aims to streamline this process to ensure families get the support they need. It was encouraging to hear from Craig, who is a network leader in iNetwork’s TIPS Programme. There are many similarities between the SAVVI and Family Context project, with potential for collaboration and learning from each other in the future.

The event closed with a further focused discussion looking at challenges local digital could address in the future with their £85 million funding pot. Many aspects were mentioned including having public sector approved suppliers, making accessing funding accessible and developing skills especially in cyber.

Upcoming Roadshow Events

The next roadshow series is in Yorkshire and Humber on Thursday 14 July 2022 in Leeds. This is a great opportunity to network with the Local Digital team and peers.

Register for a ticket here.⁠

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